Types of Literature

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Types of literature[edit]

Poetry[edit]

A calligram by Guillaume Apollinaire. These are a type of poem in which the written words are arranged in such
a way to produce a visual image.

Poetry has traditionally been distinguished from prose by its greater use of the aesthetic qualities of


language, including musical devices such as assonance, aliteration,rhyme, and rhythm, and by
being set in lines and verses rather than paragraphs, and more recently its use of
other typographical elements.[103][104][105] This distinction is complicated by various hybrid forms such as
the sound poetry, concrete poetry and prose poem,[106] and more generally by the fact that prose
possesses rhythm.[107] Abram Lipsky refers to it as an "open secret" that "prose is not distinguished
from poetry by lack of rhythm".[108]
Prior to the 19th century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines:
"any kind of subject consisting of Rhythm or Verses".[103] Possibly as a result of Aristotle's influence
(his Poetics), "poetry" before the 19th century was usually less a technical designation for verse than
a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art.[clarification needed][109] As a form it may pre-date literacy, with
the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition;[110][111] hence it constitutes
the earliest example of literature.

Prose[edit]
As noted above, prose generally makes far less use of the aesthetic qualities of language than
poetry.[104][105][112] However, developments in modern literature, including free verse and prose
poetry have tended to blur the differences, and American poet T.S. Eliot suggested that while: "the
distinction between verse and prose is clear, the distinction between poetry and prose is obscure".
[113]
 There are verse novels, a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through
the medium of poetry rather than prose. Eugene Onegin (1831) by Alexander Pushkin is the most
famous example.[114]
On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff notes that "[In the case of ancient Greece]
recent scholarship has emphasized the fact that formal prose was a comparatively late development,
an "invention" properly associated with the classical period".[115]
Latin was a major influence on the development of prose in many European countries. Especially
important was the great Roman orator Cicero.[116] It was the lingua franca among literate Europeans
until quite recent times, and the great works of Descartes (1596 – 1650[), Francis Bacon (1561 –
1626), and Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677[) were published in Latin. Among the last important books
written primarily in Latin prose were the works of Swedenborg (d. 1772), Linnaeus (d.
1778), Euler (d. 1783), Gauss (d. 1855), and Isaac Newton (d. 1727).
Novel[edit]

Sculpture in Berlin depicting a stack of books on which are inscribed the names of great German writers.

See also: Genre fiction


A novel is a long fictional prose narrative. In English, the term emerged from the Romance
languages in the late 15th century, with the meaning of "news"; it came to indicate something new,
without a distinction between fact or fiction.[117] The romance is a closely related long prose
narrative. Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns
upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to
the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society".[118] Other European languages
do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo",
[119]
 indicates the proximity of the forms.[120]
Although there are many historical prototypes, so-called "novels before the novel",[121] the modern
novel form emerges late in cultural history—roughly during the eighteenth century.[122] Initially subject
to much criticism, the novel has acquired a dominant position amongst literary forms, both popularly
and critically.[120][123][124]
Novella[edit]
The publisher Melville House classifies the novella as "too short to be a novel, too long to be a short
story".[125] Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novella to be between 17,000
and 40,000 words.[126]
Short story[edit]
A dilemma in defining the "short story" as a literary form is how to, or whether one should,
distinguish it from any short narrative and its contested origin,[127] that include the Bible, and Edgar
Allan Poe.[128]
Graphic novel[edit]
Graphic novels and comic books present stories told in a combination of artwork, dialogue, and text.
Electronic literature[edit]
Electronic literature is a literary genre consisting of digital works
Nonfiction[edit]
Common literary examples of nonfiction include, the essay; travel literature and nature
writing; biography, autobiography and memoir; journalism; letters; journals; history, philosophy,
economics; scientific, and technical writings.[129][130]
Nonfiction can fall within the broad category of literature as "any collection of written work", but some
works fall within the narrower definition "by virtue of the excellence of their writing, their originality
and their general aesthetic and artistic merits".[131]

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