A literary text It is a form of oral or written production that favors aesthetic, poetic and playful forms over the informative or objective content of the message.
In this way, in literary texts the poetic function of language predominates, which is the one that is used to produce an aesthetic effect and in which the way in which what is to be transmitted is said is prioritized.
Literary texts present total creative freedom, since they can have different forms, styles, tones, themes, etc. Most of the time, these texts use literary figures, which serve to give them greater expressiveness. In addition, they usually present various discursive resources, such as narration, dialogue, description, among the most frequent.
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Types of literary texts
Literary texts are classified into three major genres:
- Narrative genre. This genre includes the short story, the novel, the micro-story, the legend, the fable, the literary chronicle and other forms of stories, real or imaginary, of a fantastic or realistic nature, which emphasize the characters, the framework of the action and the figure of the narrator to generate in the reader expectation, tension and other similar emotions.
- Drama. Dramatic writing is one that is created to be represented in a theater by actors. In general, it presents characters and settings, and the situations occur in front of the viewer without being mediated by a narrator. This genre includes comedy, tragedy and drama.
- Lyric. It is the freest of the literary arts, since there is practically no rule that defines what a poem is or is not, except its purpose of capturing feelings, existential perspectives, reflections from the point of view of the lyrical self. The most traditional poems present rhymes and verses that follow a certain metric. However, today it is considered that a poem can take any form or structure, and present its own rhythm and musicality.
Examples of literary text
- “Poetry”, by Eugenio Montejo (poem)
Poetry crosses the earth alone,
support your voice in the pain of the world,
and nothing standing
not even words.
He arrives from afar and without time, he never warns;
He has the key to the door.
Entering always stop to watch us.
Then he opens his hand and gives us
a flower or a pebble, something secret,
but so intense that the heart flutters
too fast. And we woke up.
- “The World”, by Augusto Monterroso (micro-story)
God has not yet created the world; he’s just imagining it, like in a dream. That’s why the world is perfect, but confusing.
- “The Miser” by Moliere (theatrical comedy, fragment)
VALERIO: How, charming Elisa, you feel melancholy after the kind assurances that you have been kind enough to give me about your happiness! I see you sigh, alas!, in the midst of my joy. Is it that you regret, tell me, having made me happy? And do you regret this promise, to which my passion has been able to force you?
ELISA: No, Valerio; I cannot regret everything I do for you. I feel moved to it by a power too sweet, and I have not even the strength to wish that things did not happen like this. But, to tell you the truth, the good end causes me uneasiness, and I am greatly afraid of loving you more than I should.
VALERIO: Hey! What can you fear, Elisa, from the kindnesses you have shown me?
ELISA: Oh! A hundred things at once; the outburst of a father, the reproaches of a family, the censures of the world; but more than anything, Valerio, the change in your heart and that criminal coldness with which those of your sex pay more often than not for the too ardent testimonies of an innocent love.
- “The Celestial Plot”, by Adolfo Bioy Casares (story, fragment)
When Captain Ireneo Morris and Dr. Carlos Alberto Servian, a homeopathic doctor, disappeared from Buenos Aires on December 20, the newspapers hardly commented on the event. It was said that there were people deceived, complicated people and that a commission was investigating; It was also said that the small radius of action of the airplane used by the fugitives made it possible to affirm that they had not gone very far. I received a parcel in those days; contained: three volumes in room (the complete works of the communist Luis Augusto Blanqui); a ring of little value (an aquamarine with the effigy of a horse-headed goddess in the background); a few typewritten pages—The Adventures of Captain Morris—signed CAS I will transcribe those pages.
- lolitaby Vladimir Nabokov (novel, fragment)
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my entrails. My sin, my soul. Lo-li-ta: the tip of the tongue undertakes a journey of three steps from the edge of the palate to rest, in the third, on the edge of the teeth. It. Li. Ta. It was Lo, just Lo, in the morning, five foot four with bare feet. She was Lola with pants. It was Dolly at school. It was Dolores when she signed. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
- “Walking my cigar”, by Gay Talese (literary chronicle, fragment)
Every night after dinner I take my two dogs out to Park Avenue for a walk with my cigar. My cigar is the same color as my two dogs, and my dogs are also drawn to its scent: they jump up my legs when I light it before I start walking, their muzzles flared and their eyes narrowly focused, with that gluttonous look they get. every time I offer them pet biscuits or a tray of spiced canapés left over from one of our cocktail parties.
- “The Myth of Echo” (myth of Greek origin)
Echo was a nymph of the mountain, from whose lips came the most beautiful words. In fact, they were so beautiful that Zeus would start to feel attracted to her. Hera, upon discovering this, cursed Eco, taking her voice from her and making her so that she could only repeat the last words said by the person with whom she was conversing.
After time, and withdrawn in the field, the nymph fell in love with the young Narciso, whom she watched secretly, although she could not speak to him because of his punishment. One day, the young man perceived the nymph, but upon learning her story with the help of different animals, he immediately cruelly rejected her. This caused Eco to hide in a cave forever, where he wasted away until only his voice remained.
- “The Fox and the Grape Bunches” by Aesop (fable)
The fox was hungry when she saw some bunches of grapes hanging from a vine that looked delicious. She reached out and wanted to catch them with her mouth, but she couldn’t reach them, despite having made all her efforts.
Realizing that she could not reach them, she walked away from there in a bad mood and saying:
“I didn’t even want those grapes, they’re so green they sure taste bad!”
Moral: If we are not able to achieve something, we should not despise things or blame other people or circumstances as a consolation.
- El Cid’s poemanonymous (song of the deed, fragment)
Don Rodrigo, in this serious situation, sent notice to his relatives and vassals and, gathering them together, told them how the king ordered him to leave his lands, within nine days, and that he wanted to know who wanted to follow him and who wanted to stay.
“To those who come with me,” he said, “may God give them good pay; but I also want to make those who decide to stay happy.
Then Álvar Fáñez spoke, about Don Rodrigo’s first cousin.
“We will go with you, Cid, through wastelands and through towns, and as long as we are healthy, rest assured that we will not miss you. At your service we will put our mules and horses, and all our money and equipment. As loyal vassals, we will serve you to the end.
- “Ode to the happy day”, by Pablo Neruda (ode, fragment)
this time leave me
be happy,
nothing has happened to anyone
I’m not anywhere
it only happens
that I am happy
For the fourth corners
of the heart, walking,
sleeping or writing
What am I going to do, I’m
Merry.
I am more innumerable
than the grass
in the prairies,
my skin feels like a rough tree
and the water below
the birds above,
the sea like a ring
on my waist,
made of bread and stone the earth
the air sings like a guitar.
- Greek literature and its influence on the western world
In ancient Greece, considered the literary cradle of the West, tragedy (precursor of contemporary theater) was essential in the emotional and civic formation of the citizen, since it transmitted political, religious and moral values considered necessary. At the same time, the epic (precursor of current narrative) was the means of transmission of the great founding myths of the Hellenic civilization, such as those contained in The Iliad Y The Odyssey.
At present, literary texts are considered part of people’s leisure, recreation and training activities, given their broad human content, expressed in references to historical events, popular stories, symbols and archetypes of culture, as well as real experiences transformed or embellished through fiction.
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