Literature and its Types

Literature refers to works that embody essential human qualities such as emotion, imagination, permanence, and artistic value, which have universality.

 The word Literature is derived from the Latin "litteraturae" meaning "writing". "Literature" is commonly used since the eighteenth century to designate fictional and imaginative writings (poetry, prose, fiction, and drama).

Characteristics of literature:-

Artistic- It is an essential quality of all literature. All art is an expression of life in the form of truth and beauty. Which remain unnoticed until brought to our attention by some sensitive human soul.                                    
Suggestive- It's an appeal to our emotions and imagination. For example, when Faustus, in the presence of Helen, asks, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships"? He does not state a fact; rather, he opens a door of our imagination that leads us into a world of love, music, beauty, and heroism.                 

Universality appeals to the widest human interest and simplest human emotions. It is equipped with elementary passions and emotions- love and hate, joy and sorrow, fear and faith-  which are an essential part of human nature.

Style is a purely personal one. In a deeper sense, style is the unconscious expression of the writer's own personality.

Permanence- A good literature has these qualities, and it knows no nation or boundary. It easily transcends time. Because of its permanence, we are still reading and enjoying classical works that were produced a thousand years ago.

Literature is broadly divided into:-                                                      

Prose, an inclusive term for all discourse, spoken or written, which is not patterned into lines either of metric verse or of free verse.

Poetry, a piece of literature that evokes a concentrated imagination, awareness or specific emotional responses through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm.

Further, these Prose and Poetry are divided into different categories according to their content they deal with.

The Prose is divided into -

Drama- It is also called a play, written primarily to be enacted or performed in the theatre in which actors play their own roles, do action, and utter written dialogue.

                                                           

A novel is a work of fiction written in prose. Its magnitudes allow its author to develop a great variety of characters, a great complication of plot, and sufficient development of milieu, etc.

Short story- It is a brief work of prose fiction. Similar to a novel, it organises the action, thought and dialogue of its characters into the artful pattern of a plot directed toward a particular effect on an audience.

Letter- A letter is a written message conveyed from one person or group of persons to another through a medium.

Essay- Any short composition in prose that undertakes to discuss a matter and express a point of view.

Satire- It refers to a literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous, scornful, and indignation.

Poetry is divided into -

Ballad- Originally, it is a dance song. It is a poem in short stanzas narrating a popular story. It has simple diction, and the situations are elementary. It deals with a variety of subjects such as love, both happy and tragic, old-time magic, etc.

Lyrics- It is a short poem uttered by a single speaker who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought and feeling.

Epic- It is a long verse narration on a serious subject, told in a formal and elevated style, and centred on a heroic figure on whose action depends the fate of a tribe, a nation, and the human race. 

Odes- It denotes a long lyrical poem that is serious in subject and treatment, elevated in style, and elaborate in its stanzaic structure.

Sonnet- A poem of a single stanza of fourteen lines, having iambic pentameter.

Elegy- It is a lyrical piece of poetry for the dead.

Drama- It is a story in the form of prose or poetry meant for the stage. The story is told through dialogue, supported by customs, gestures and music.

Satire- It is a kind of didactic poetry which points out the faults of individuals or communities.