Literature
Poetic Genre
Poetic genre refers to the categorization of poetry based on its form, structure, and content. Common poetic genres include sonnets, ballads, epics, and haikus, each with distinct characteristics and conventions. Understanding poetic genres helps readers and writers appreciate the diversity and nuances of poetry, and it provides a framework for analyzing and interpreting different types of poems.
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10 Key excerpts on "Poetic Genre"
eBook - PDFHow to Read Texts
A Student Guide to Critical Approaches and Skills
- Neil McCaw(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Bloomsbury Academic(Publisher)
As we are looking in this chapter at how a reader might draw specifically on genre and literary/cultural history as contexts, the first stage is to consider how to define our subject matter: Genre a kind; sort; style b A particular style or category of works of art; esp. a type of literary work characterized by a particular form, style, or purpose. Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) In these senses genre is either a broad categorization or else the grouping of artworks based on shared characteristics. Either way the implication is that there are common codes and conventions shared by different texts, an idea that has been prevalent in critical writing from as far back as Plato’s division of written texts into poetry, drama and prose. Aristotle subsequently defined tragedy, epic, comedy and parody. In fact, writers from all eras have been interested in looking at categories of artistic form(s): Reading genre and literary/cultural history 87 It is impossible that anyone who inhabits the same age with such writers as those who stand in the foremost ranks of our own, can conscientious-ly assure himself that his language and tone of thought may not have been modified by the study of the productions of those extraordinary intellects. It is true, that, not the spirit of their genius, but the forms in which it has manifested itself [my italics], are due less to the peculiarities of their own minds than to the peculiarity of the moral and intellectual condition of the minds among which they have been produced. 1 For Shelley, by considering the formal/genre context a reader gains a clearer under-standing of the way in which writers work and the process through which their writing takes shape. Just as in the twentieth century critics identified the notion of genre as one of the key ‘structures’ of literary history.
eBook - PDF- Jonathan Culler(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Harvard University Press(Publisher)
Such a step would entail a major theoretical and practical failure, ignoring a vast group of poems that do depend upon a conceptual frame for their effects. In fact, a compelling argument for lyric as a genre is that we have no better alternatives. The broader category, poetry, has a long history but is too broad to be of much use: it immediately demands subdividing. If, then, we were to attempt to eschew lyric as an imposition of modern criticism and focus on the narrower lyric genres, such as the ode, the ballad, the song, the elegy, and genres defined by form such as sonnet, villanelle, and sestina, we would find, first, that there is no established array of lyric genres. In any period, the more developed a quasi-academic poetics, the greater the proliferation of named lyric genres or subgenres, whether by Alexandrian librarians, or late Latin rhetoricians, or offi cials of trouba-dour contests, or scholars who specialize in the Renaissance. And, of course, even the more popular and persistent categories do not remain stable. The complaint about the term lyric —that it means different things in different times and places—can be lodged against elegy, ballad, and even ode, which is rather different in the hands of Pindar, Horace, Ronsard, Collins, Keats, Neruda, and Robert Lowell The historical disparities that appear to motivate the desire to abandon the category lyric reappear in the case of more narrowly defined genres, and do so more insidiously, one might imagine, since while it is blatantly obvious that the lyric changes, it is less obvious that ode might be a slippery, even dubious category. Moreover—this is the second disadvantage of any attempt to focus on nar-rower categories and avoid lyric —there has never been a comprehensive
eBook - PDF- Anne Herrington, Charles Moran, Anne Herrington, Charles Moran(Authors)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Utah State University Press(Publisher)
. . Epic poetry and Tragedy, as also Comedy, Dithyrambic poetry—and flute and lyre-playing—are all . . . modes of imitation” (1954, 1447a). The emphasis in the Poetics is most steadily on its description of the structure of the “species”—which we want to begin to consider genres: the epic, the tragedy, the comedy. True, for Aristotle the study of drama is valuable because of its social use: the function of tragedy, for example, is famously the catharsis, a process by which the performance leaves the audience better than it was through the “proper purgation of the emo- tions.” But the emphasis in the Poetics is upon the formal properties of the performance, an emphasis that has carried into the idea of genre in contemporary literary criticism. Shakespeare’s plays, for example, are most often considered trag- edies, comedies, or history plays. Those plays—such as Much Ado about Nothing—that do not fit these genres have been considered Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” Until the arrival of the postmodern and the (perhaps) attendant move of English toward cultural studies, literature courses were The Idea of Genre in Theory and Practice 3 typically organized around a genre: Nineteenth-Century British Poetry, Elizabethan Drama, The Eighteenth-Century Novel. Literary genres were seen to have origins and trajectories, as in Wellek and Warren’s Theory of Literature (1942, 235) and Ian Watt’s landmark study, The Rise of the Novel (1957). Northrop Frye, in his Anatomy of Criticism, developed a taxonomy of literary genres in terms of both transcendent aesthetic forms and rhet- oric, “the conditions established between the poet and his public” (1957, 247). And, far from dead today, genres survive in MLA job descriptions, where we find advertisements for those qualified to teach these kinds of literature.
eBook - PDFWhat Are the Gospels?
A Comparison with Graeco-Roman Biography
- Richard A. Burridge(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Baylor University Press(Publisher)
99 and 126. 105. Ibid., pp. 121-6. 106. See Jasper Griffin, ‘Genre and Real Life in Latin Poetry’, JRS 71 (1981), pp. 39-49. 107. For further discussion, see Hirsch, The Aims of Interpretation, esp. pp. 114-23, and Fowler, Kinds of Literature, chapter 14. 5. Summary Genre is a system of communication of meaning. Before we can understand the meaning of a text, we must master its genre. Genre will then be our guide to help us re-construct the original meaning, to check our interpretation to see if it is valid and to assist in evaluating the worth of the text and communi-cation. Conclusion Dubrow concludes: ‘Generic categories and principles rarely provide simple answers to problems about literature — but they regularly offer us one of the surest and most suggestive means of seeking those answers.’ 108 This study of genre has demonstrated that it functions as a set of expectations, a kind of contract between author and reader to guide interpretation of the text. The behaviour of genres has been examined at various levels, as well as the models proposed for the development and growth of genres. What has emerged is that genre is a concept absolutely basic to the study of texts and one which in-volves the attempt to set them within the web of literary relationships of their own day. There are several implications of all this for gospel genre. First, the gospels cannot be described as unique in terms of genre. The form-critical view of them as sui generis betrays a fundamental flaw in its un-derstanding of literary theory. As Vivas says, likening genre to a plan followed by artist, critic and reader alike: Let me iterate the point: the plan is not sui generis. No artist, however tal-ented, can make objects each of which is in a class by itself. If he could, his work would be totally idiotic, utterly private, each job would be a monad without windows or pre-established harmony. His work would say noth-ing to anyone but himself, the maker — if it did that much.
No longer available |Learn more- Joseph Black, Leonard Conolly, Kate Flint, Isobel Grundy, Don LePan, Roy Liuzza, Jerome McGann, Anne Lake Prescott, Barry Qualls, Claire Waters(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Broadview Press(Publisher)
POETIC FORMS In poetry, language is intimately related to form, which is the structuring of words within identifiable patterns. In prose we speak of phrases, sentences, and paragraphs; in poetry, we identify structures by lines, stanzas, or complete forms such as the sonnet or the ode (though poetry in complete or blank verse has paragraphs of variable length, not formal stanzas: see below). Rightly handled, the form enhances expression and meaning, just as a frame can define and enhance a painting or photograph. Unlike the photo frame, however, form in poetry is an integral part of the whole work. At one end of the scale, the term “form” may describe the epic, the lengthy narrative governed by such conventions as division into books, a lofty style, and the interplay between human and Reading Poetry 925 supernatural characters. At the other end lies the epigram , a witty and pointed saying whose distinguishing characteristic is its brevity, as in Alexander Pope’s famous couplet, I am his Highness’ dog at Kew; Pray tell me sir, whose dog are you? Between the epic and the epigram lie many other poetic forms, such as the sonnet, the ballad, or the ode. “Form” may also describe stanzaic patterns like couplets and quatrains . “ FIXED FORM ” POEMS The best-known poetic form is probably the sonnet, the fourteen-line poem inherited from Italy (the word itself is from the Italian sonetto , little song or sound). Within those fourteen lines, whether the poet chooses the “Petrarchan” rhyme scheme or the “English” form (see below in the section on “Rhyme”), the challenge is to develop an idea or situation that must find its statement and its resolution within the strict confines of the sonnet frame. Typically, there is an initial idea, description, or statement of feeling, followed by a “turn” in the thought that takes the reader by surprise, or that casts the situation in an unexpected light.
eBook - PDFZephaniah
A Prophetic Drama
- Paul R. House(Author)
- 1988(Publication Date)
- Sheffield Academic Press(Publisher)
Chapter 2 A BRIEF SURVEY OF GENRE CRITICISM Genre criticism has existed since the time of Plato and Aristotle. These fourth-century BCE philosophers identify three basic genres and create areas of discussion about them. Plato locates three types of narrators in literature: one who speaks for himself, one who has one or more characters speak for him, and one who mixes the two (16-17). Heather Dubrow identifies these three as Dithyrambic poetry, which was generally a form of ode in which the poet was accomplished instrumentally, is cited as an example of the first type; tragedy and comedy represent the second; the epic is an instance of the third or mixed form, as the poet intersperses dialogue in his own narration (47). Thus, Plato describes lyric poetry (ode), drama (tragedy and comedy), and epic. Each imitates life in its own way (16-17). While Plato's work is important, Aristotle's Poetics is the most discussed ancient comment on genre. In fact, all generic studies since Aristotle reflect his ideas in some way. Aristotle sets forth his generic methodology when he says: I propose to treat of Poetry in itself and of its various kinds, noting the essential quality of each; to inquire into the number and nature of the parts of which a poem is composed; and similarly into whatever else falls within the same inquiry (31). His emphases on the 'kinds' of poetry, the 'qualities' of poetry, and the 'plot' of poetry are the heart of all genre criticism. Aristotle also offers three kinds of literature for discussion: Lyric, Epic, and Drama (31). He shows how each genre imitates life (32), imitates characters (35, 44), and uses plot (36-44). He further declares Tragedy the highest of the arts (55). Few other aspects of genre could be discussed. It is important to state at this point that Aristotle 24 Zephaniah, A Prophetic Drama understands the fluidity of the generic forms. He sets few boundaries for the genres that cannot be crossed.
eBook - PDFReality and Truth in Literature
From Ancient to Modern European Literary and Critical Discourse
- Irena Avsenik Nabergoj(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- V&R Unipress(Publisher)
It is because literary types and genres are so rich and varied that one searches for criteria by which to classify them. Whereas some attempts have led to an untenable schematic classification according to rubrics, since the 18 th century we have seen, with increasing frequency, instances of a more profound under- standing of genres as living organisms. Such an understanding provides the basic framework for communicating the inner necessity of events, correctness in content and form into an organic whole that reflects truth about the world and the life it bears. Contemporary literary theory determines literary genre from three possible viewpoints: class, type and family. The first, class, seems least apt. Literary genres are much more than “classes”; their role is primarily identifi- cation and the communicating of significance and it is for this reason that criteria of type or typology seem more suitable. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theory of family resemblance allows for an even suppler criterion for differentiating between literary genres. Indeed, literary genres function more like families than classes or genres. Fowler sees great advantage in this theory, and notes: In literature, the basis of resemblance lies in literary tradition. What produces generic resemblances, reflection soon shows, is tradition: a sequence of influence and imitation and inherited codes connecting works in the genre. As kinship makes a family, so literary relations of this sort form a genre. Poems are made in part from older poems: each is the child (to use Keats’ metaphor) of an earlier representative of the genre and may yet be the mother of a subsequent representative. Naturally the genetic make-up alters with slow time, so that we may find the genre’s various historical states to be very different from one another. Both historically and within a single period, the family grouping allows for wide variation in the type.
eBook - PDF- Eric D. Hirsch(Author)
- 1967(Publication Date)
- Yale University Press(Publisher)
26 This is, of course, the hermeneutic circle again, but it is not directly relevant to defining the Seinsweise of a genre. At the level of history there is no real entity such as a genre if by that word we mean a type concept that can ade-quately define and subsume all the individuals that are called by the same generic name, such as ode, sonnet, command, prayer, or epic. Obviously such a broad type concept can validly represent some abstractedly identical traits among all the individuals it subsumes, but it is certainly not a species con-cept which sufficiently defines those individuals. That much Miiller and Victor perceived. What they failed to state is that the reality of these larger genre concepts exists entirely in the function they actually served in history. Don Juan is an epic only because this word represents to us, as it did to Byron, some of the conventions under which he wrote. The term cer-tainly does not define or subsume his poem. But if that is so, why did Byron say, My poem's epic? Putting aside the touch of irony in the statement (Byron really meant what he said), we find here the real mode of existence of the broader genre concepts. These concepts are broad type ideas that serve speakers in the way that pictorial schemata serve painters. Except in very traditional and formulaic utter-ances, they are metaphorical assimilations by which a speaker 26. Ibid., p. 136. 108 D. The Historicity of Genres and his audience can orient themselves to something new. If traditional genres really were species concepts that constrained a speaker and an interpreter, then new types obviously could not arise. It is no more adequately descriptive to call a poem an epic than it is to call a play a tragicomedy. 27 These words may often stand for convention systems within which texts were written, and the term tragicomedy may aptly describe the type idea under which certain dramatists actually wrote.
eBook - PDF- Antonio García-Berrio(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
4 7 6 3. Poetic Universality Closer to our own times, more convincing and, in my opinion, more illustrative, are those other forms of tripartite parallelism which claim to reveal the predominance of certain psychological forms to explain the genetic peculiarities of each of the genres. These theories range from the now antiquated argument R. Hartl proposed, defining the lyric as emotional, the epic as an expression of imaginative activity and the dramatic as mobile, to E. Staiger's (1946) more recent and more well-known hypothesis, indicating sensual, intuitive and conceptual elements as predominating in lyric, epic and drama, respectively. These various stimuli are collected in Hernadi's persua-sive synthesis, with its well-known tripartite division of literature into ecu-menical works , characterized by the intentional totality of their vision, synesthetic works , characterized by the experienced identity of action and vision, and concentrical works (P. Hernadi, 1972, p. 182). If I echo these proposals for parallelism, it is not because I consider them entirely suitable for precisely defining the genres, but, as I have already said, because almost all of them base the anthropological foundations of the ternary dialectic on the fundamental categories and forms of man's representation of the world. In this sense, not even the application of the three regimes of symbolic imagination developed by Durand, whose ideas I have used so extensively in my own discussion of the imaginary definition of the poetic, seems adequate for defining a taxonomy of the genres, at least in the form Durand proposed to accomodate them (G. Durand, 1971). The assimilation of the epic to the diurnal and the nocturnal to the lyric is not convincing, while the location of the novelesque at the moment of transition between the other two regimes is even less so.
eBook - PDF- Paul Goring(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Continuum(Publisher)
Periodicals were also, as I have suggested, closely connected to other genres. Often written or edited by authors also producing plays, poems and fiction, they themselves regularly included poetic and fic-tional content. They were also the main outlet for literary reviewing -a further phenomenon which grew as more and more works poured out from the presses and as readers began to seek guidance through the deluge of new literature, the vast diversity of which I hope will become apparent in what follows. Poetry The cultural importance of poetry For readers of the twenty-first century faced with an eighteenth-century poem it is worth while taking a mental leap and imag-ining a time when poetry really mattered. Poetry, of course, still matters today, but as modern poets will admit -often with frustration -poetry has become the poor relation of literary genres, enjoying nothing like the prevalence or the public importance which the writing and reading of verse once had. In the eighteenth century the use of poetry was commonplace. With its metrical arrangement and with other formal particu-larities, poetry involved manipulations of language which marked it out as an exceptional mode of expression when com-pared with standard prose, but in terms of its applications poetry was a far more normal aspect of daily life than it is today We can elaborate upon its status in the period with some more pointed generalizations: LITERATURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CEN65 64 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE AND CULTURE • There were a great many outlets for verse which brought a wide sector of society into contact with poetry. In the theatres, plays were frequently written in verse, while prose drama was typically framed by a verse prologue and epilogue (playwrights were commonly referred to as poets). Essays were often prefaced by a snippet of verse. Newspapers and periodical magazines would regularly publish poems.
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