Saturday, December 5, 2015
Key features of literary language
The limit that separates literary language from other forms of language
is blurry. Many works of scientists and journalists can be considered true
pieces of literary work.
The extension of the text is not a key feature, since it’s so variable;
it can range from a few verses to a hundred or thousands of pages.
That said, a literary text has very peculiar internal characteristics
that are also very hard to point out. It shares these features with other types
of texts: advertising, slogans, journalism, etc.
1.
Uninterested nature
Explained above.
2.
Interpretations
A literary work can be read under multiple interpretations, as many as
readers and listeners are out there. This does not interfere with
communication; on the contrary, many readers who are interested on a specific
work often do not understand it, or understand it in a very superficial way.
But communication is still satisfactory. This couldn’t happen with ordinary
messages with a practical goal, since it would lead to mistakes.
3.
Meaning
Words acquire new meaning. The reader gives the whole text a meaning that
goes beyond that of isolated words. The literary work is as much direct transmission
of content as it is a suggestion. Some consider that a literary work consists
of two parts: writing, that of the author; and reading, that of the reader. In
this sense, the readers complete the work, and therefore have to know cultural
and linguistic references implied in the work.
4.
Originality
The author always looks for some degree of originality. In order to do
that, one creates a personal language, and observes reality from new
perspectives, trying to express nuances, subtleties, and depths that aren’t
easily accessible to anyone.
5.
Literary devices
According to traditional rhetoric, all expressive sources can be figures
of speech: syntactic, semantic, and phonetic. They are used to decorate and
intensify the language. Many of them are based on repetition and parallelism.
Repetition produces rhythm in both prose and verses. It can light up any type
of prose, but abusing rhythm can risk falling into excessive musicality and
nonsense.
Many hundreds of literary devices have been described.
One of the devices that’s most characteristic of literary writing is
special adjectives, such as epithets. These are ornamental adjectives, not
strictly needed for the comprehension of the message. A good writer always
tries to avoid trivial epithets, and to generally disregard those, which do not
produce any new effects on the reader.
Literary language has a high degree of elaboration.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
STEPS FOR WRITING A LITERARY ANALYSIS
1)
Write a short
bio of the author, and the historical context or literary movement to which he
or she belongs.
2)
Identify
the subject.
3)
Analyze
the title (if it's eponymous, emblematic, or symbolic).
4)
Type of
narrator (omniscient, subjective, or objective).
5)
Space and
time location.
6)
Describe
the characters.
7)
Define the
structure (check if you can divide it, like "A la deriva", in
beginning, middle, and end).
8)
Analyze
the different literary techniques being used (comparisons, images, metaphors,
personifications, etc.).
9)
Draw
conclusions (you can include your personal opinion about the work).
You can alter this order when writing a
literary analysis; you can for example move the exposition of the subject to
the end, as well as the analysis of the title, which might correspond to the
body of the text.
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