MADE BY: ANDREJ OVARY  ENJOY 

What is Literature?
• One way to define literature as ‚everything in print‘.
• another war of defining literature is to limit it to GREAT BOOKS – books which are
notable for literature form as expression.

LITERATURE
• Drama
• Fiction
• Poetry

Literary Scholarship
Is constituted by these three man spheres:
– Literary history
– Literary theory
– Literary criticism

Literary History
• Follows the historical development of literature from the earliest times to the present

Literary theory
• Studies the forms, categories, criteria, techniques, genres, language, style, composition
and other relevant aspects of creative writing

Literary criticism
• Analyses the content an form of creative literature, making use of the knowledge of
literary history and theory

Criteria for Artistic Literature

• True reflection of objective reality and of the society
• It should have some aesthetic value, like the ability to create the feeling of beauty
• Cognitive function – it should enrich ,,inner life,, of the reader

SYMBOL
• In the broadest sense, is anything which signifies something else, in this sense all
words are symbols
• Symbols in literature are those that the author creates – the author suggests that
a person, place, event or object has a larger, more general meaning.

Types of symbols
• Contextual (literary): a unique or original symbol an author creates within the context
of an individual work or an author’s collected works.
• Cultural: A symbol widely or generally accepted as meaning something specific
within an entire culture or social group (cross= Christianity)

LANGUAGE OF LITERATURE
• The basic medium of literature is language
• language is at the same time both the content as well as form of literature
 • The basic unit of literature is a word
• There are two different meanings of a word: denotations and connotations

Denotation – lexical meaning that can be found in dictionaries, primary, leteral meaning
Connotation – secondary meaning – it covers subjective and contextual associations that
particular word has gained through constant use.

The choice of words

• One of tha main problems faced by a writer is the choice of words that would be
appropriate to the aesthetic effect that they want to achieve
• The main criterion for selection of words from the total word-stock is the function that
the words are to perform in achieving the most appropriate aesthetic expression of
one’s theme
• For practical purposes, it is essential to break down the total word stock into several
categories
• One of the possible divisions is that into synonyms, homonyms, antonyms.

Synonyms – two different words or phrases with the same or nearly same meaning
Homonyms – two or more words that are identical in form but different in meaning
Homophones – they are identical but are spelled differently
Homographs – identical spelling but different pronunciation
Antonyms – two words with an exactly opposite meaning

Affective words
• express emotionally coloured approach of their users to certain subject
• the emotional connotations that affective words may produce are of several kind
• we can divide the affective words into these categories:
a) Familiar words – words expressing an emotionally charged positive attitude to
a given subject or person, e.g. daddy instead of father.
b) Pejoratives – words that deliberately present certain object or person as worse
o less dignified – e.g. poetaster instead of poet
c) Diminutives – unlike in Slavonic languages, one-word diminutives formed by
a special suffix are rather rare in English. There are some suffixes in English that
may form a diminutive, e.g.: lamb – lambkin, aunt – auntie, dad – daddy, etc. The
usual English diminutives are formed by an adjective phrase with little(e.g. boy).
d) Augmentatives – words magnifying the primary meaning are in their synthetic
form rather rare. Here, we can rank words prefixed with SUPER-,HYPER-(active)

Periods and Periodization

• The traditional linear way of literary historical periodization divides literary texts and
their authors into Periods, Movements, Eras, Epochs or Streams like Renaissance,
Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, Postmodernism ...

LANGUAGE
• The language that the characters use gives us an idea of their location and social class.
• Formal language – uses elaborate, complex sentences an may include figurative lang.
• Informal language – is consistent with everyday speech. It can sometimes provide
clues to the character’s motivation.

STYLE
 • Style is the way a writer selects an arranges words, sentences and paragraphs
• Style includes word choice, sentence length and structure, etc.

ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE
• Theme, Plot, Point of view, Setting, Symbol, Characters, Style, Tone and language

Theme
• Theme is the message the author delivers to his/her readers
• It is usually something the main character learns about himself or the word.
 Stated theme – sometimes the message is directly stated in a sentence, or in a moral at
the story’ end.
 Implied theme – usually the reader has to decide for her/himself what truths or
conditions of life the author was trying to show in the story. It is never directly stated.

Plot
•The element you will notice first and remember the longest
•It is the pattern of actions, events, and situations, used expressively by the writer to
create suspense, sadness, humor, excitement, etc.
• Can be simple or complex
• Emphasizes the relationships between the characters, events and situations
• contains the conflict
• It goes like this: Exposition/Introduction – rising action – Conflict – Climax –falling
action/denouement – Resolution/Conclusion
➢ Plots provide readers with knowledge. A plot is the sum total of a book’s events and it
is literary construct. It is a particular order in which an author has chosen to arrange
the events of a tale. The events that make up a plot may be grouped according to their
function in the story.

Parts of plot:
1. Exposition – The introduction of the story – The author establishes character, gives
some background information, sets the stage for events to come.
2. Rising action – All events which contribute more tension to the conflict
3. Climax(or crisis point) – A point where the protagonist is forced to deal with a
conflict. The climax usually happens close to the end, although in a novel, there maz
be many small climaxes as the protagonist deals with small conflicts. These all lead
up, as rising action, to the major climax.
4. Falling action – All events happening after the climax. This part of story is usually
quite short. Some short stories end with climax and do not include falling action.
5. Denouement(or conclusion) – An event or events that occur due to the solving of the
conflict.

SETTING
➢ This is the time and the place in the story, the details of which are important to our
understanding of the entire meaning of the of the the stroy. It can be basically defined
as WHEN and WHERE of the story.
➢ Settings are often the most memorable aspects of a novel. They have links with
characters and can bring out the significance of actions. They can also display an
author’s views and jungements.

Setting is a total environment:

  Time – The WHEN of a story – past, present or future, the month, day, and year takes
place, even the time of day.
 Place – The WHERE of the story
 Atmosphere – The CLIMATE of a story.
- Physical conditions: Is it harsh, mild, dry, rainy, hot, snowy ?
- Mood or feeling: Is it tense, humorous, nostalgic, scary?
- Physical atmosphere often helps create the mood.

Setting
• Characters are tied to the world that they live in.
• That world includes: Time, Place and Atmosphere.
• These elements influence the clothes characters’ wear, the social behaviors they have
and the jobs they go to. The elements of setting may also influence the types of
conflict the character faces.

Point of view
• Who is telling the story? Do we have a narrator?
• Questions to ask yourself about the narrator:
1. Is he/she reliable or unreliable? If the narrator is crazy, jealous, self-serving,
mistaken, confused…, then the reader may questions the reliability of the story
he/she is telling.
2. Is the narrator a participating character, or is the narrator telling the story from
an omniscient point of view?
3. Is the narrator naive? The reader can see that the narrator’s background limits
his/her ability to understand a situation.
• Can we see into the mind/s of the character/s?
➢ Who is telling the story is as important as the story itself.
➢ Depending on who is telling the story, the facts and events revealed to the reader may
be different. This is due to point of view.

Point of view: Who is telling the story and how are they telling it?
 1st person point of view – The narrator telling the story is also experiencing the story.
– The entire story is based on this one person’s perception, so the reliability of the
narrator is questionable.
– The reader will only be able to see, hear and experience what the narrator of the story
is seeing, hearing and experiencing.
– The reader will only be able to see the narrator’s thoughts.
 2nd person point of view – The narrator directly addresses the reader as YOU during
the storytelling
– This can be powerful for drawing the reader into the text if used effectively, but is
difficult to use in a longer piece of writing. – It is not often used.
 3rd person (omniscient) point of view – The narrator is like a spirit hovering over the
story, who sees and knows everything, and reports it. Omniscient = all knowing.
– The reader is informed of all the actions, thoughts and feelings of each character as
these elements become important to the story.
– Narrative reliability is greater because the perspective of multiple characters is
revealed.
– It is sometimes difficult for readers to connect with any one character, because each is
being VISITED equally.
– It can mean that there are no surprises or secrets from the reader.
TONE
• Tone is the attitude of the author toward the subject and can be revealed through the
narrator’s attitude and actions.
• The tone of the story can be playful, humorous, ironic, satirical, serious, bitter,
condescending, formal or informal, critical or supportive, just to list a few.

CHARACTER(S)
• A character is a fictional representation of a person. Usually, but not always, it’s a
psychologically realistic depiction.
• Characters are developed in two ways:
1. We can be told about them by the narrator who gives us info about what the
characters are doing or thinking, what they look like, how they are dressed,
what values they hold, etc. Sometimes the narrator will make a judgment about
a character’s behavior or provide an analysis of it.
2. The character’s personality traits and/or motivation(s) may be revealed through
actions, dialogue, or thoughts.
• In 1927 author E.M. Forster coined in his work Aspects of the Novel the terms
ROUND and FLAT to describe character development in a literary work.
I. A ROUND character is well-developed in the story and is closely involved
in and is responsive to the action in the story. This is a main character.
II. A FLAT character is one that is barely developed or is stereotypical. It is
harder for the reader to get involved with this character or to care what
happens to him/he in the course of the story.
• Character can be also classified as either DYNAMIC or STATIC.
I. A DYNAMIC character grows and changes in a significant way throughout
the course of the story as he/she reacts to events and other characters. The
dynamic character may grow an change in relation to self-awareness, to
maturity, to the human condition, or to a number of factors. Dynamic
characters sometimes experience epiphanies.
II. A static character, on the other hand, may face the exact same challenges as
the dynamic character, but will remain unchanged by events or other
characters. If the static character is selfish an arrogant at the beginning of
the story, he/she will be the same way at the end of the story.
Character continued
• There are four ways in which to reveal character. They are:
1. What the narrator says about the character
2. What actions the character does
3. What the character says
4. What others say about the character

FICTION
➢ Long Fiction – the novel
➢ Intermediate fiction – the novelette or the short novel, the short story, the fabliau, the
exemplum, the legend, the idyll, the myth.
➢ Minor fiction – the fable, the parable, the fairytale the anecdote.

Intermediate fiction
• The novelette – characterized by its extent (roughly between 10 000 and 30 000
words) and by a precisely defined composition without any meaningful digression
from the central plot.
• It has three typical characteristics:
 1. The number of characters is limited, usually there are no more than four – five
of them
2. Only one event is rendered
3. Everyday life is depicted with no special claims on extraordinariness
• The short story – consists usually of 10 thousand or fewer words, and in view of its
length, it usually deals with only a limited subject-matter, usually without episodes
and with a limited number of characters in a limited number of relationships. Other
characteristics are simple plot and the employment of descriptive elements.
• The fabliau and the exemplum – they are both specific medieval English prose genres
(both taken over from French literature), which can be regarded as predecessors of the
modern short story. Both fabliaux and exempla had usually a similar subject:
interesting episodes from life of townspeople, peasant, clergymen and women……
• The Legend – Is a folk genre, usually a story handed down by oral tradition and
dealing with allegedly real episodes from the lives of various Christian saints.
Nowadays, the term legend applies in English to any orally transmitted folk tale
dealing not only with the saints, but also with lives of famous folk heroes (e, g, Robin
Hood), of with distant historical events.
• The Idyll – is an embodiment of the longing for rural life. The motifs of lovers’
laments, descriptions of the countryside are the themes of ancient idylls.

Minor fiction
• The Fable – Originally one of the main genres of didactic literature, the fable is a short
narration in verse or prose of a simple allegorical story aiming at some generally valid
moral or practical instruction. AESOP is considered the author of the first collection of
fables.
• The parable – it differs from the fable in that the instruction is not formulated
explicitly but follows from the whole text by way of analogy. The Buddhist, Jewish
and Christian religions rely extensively on the use of parables.
• The anecdote – Is the shortest of all epic genres. It is a short narrative account of an
amusing event which may, but need not, be genuine. Most anecdotes are usually
restricted to a single motif or situation.
• The fairytale – Is another of the folk genres. It is a prose story about imaginary events
vaguely set in a feudal environment (kings, princes…), where some of the human
characters re endowed with supernatural properties.

LONG FICTION – THE NOVEL

• At present the most widespread and popular genre, the novel came into existence in
England in the first half of the 18th century

The novel
• The basic element of a novel is plot. It is arrangement of incidents, or a series of
incidents, into coherent narrative having a beginning, a middle and an end. Often it is
not a straightforward chronological presentation of incidents.
• Plot and characters are two of the three indispensable constituents of the novel. The
remaining one is the setting, the general physical location in which the action occurs.
 • A novel just like any other fictional genre is basically a narration, and all narratives
are told by somebody. The identity of the teller, and the peculiarity of his/her view,
constitute the point of view.
• One of the main features of the novel is its realism in depiction of life, at least in the
depiction of details of life, if not of the whole of life.

Historical classification:

 The picaresque novel – an early form of the novel of adventure, sometimes considered
a parody of the chivalric novel. It is one of the earliest genres of novel.
 The chivalric novel – It is a peculiar form of a novel typical in the which elaborates
the themes of chivalric epic poetry of the Middle Ages
 the gothic novel – It denotes a novel from typical of literature at the end of the 18th
and the beginning of the 19th centuries. Its artistic aim was to evoke in readers strong
emotions ranging from compassion to horror. The element of action dominates here.

Classification according to subject matter:

 The historical novel – is set in the past. The origins of the historical novel may be
looked for as early as in the ancient epic.
 The utopian novel – as a genre of fiction depicting non-existing social conditions in
a non-existing country, utopian novel is in fact a fantastic variation of the historical
novel.
 The novel of adventure – The plot of the novel of adventure is typical for its dramatic
action containing surprising conflicts and collisions
 The detective novel – Generally considered a LOW genre of fiction, detective novel is
one of the most obvious types of popular literature, in which the crime and the search
for the criminal are main objectives. The plot employs the motifs of mystery and its
resolution is given by the principle of the victory of justice of evil.

POETRY
➢ The Greek expression that denoted CREATION – artistic creation as such
➢ The whole field of artistic literature or literary works of art covering epic, lyric and
dramatic works.

Imagery
• Language that appeals to the senses
• “mental pictures“ which are experienced by the reader of a poem
 • “Imagery” (i.e., Images, taken collectively) is used to signify all the objects and
qualities of sense perception referred to in a poem or other work of literature, whether
by literal description or by allusion.
• Images are mental pictures created with words or phrases that may appeal to any of
our senses – sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.
• The use of these sensory images in writing is called IMAGERY. Writers use imagery
to bring life and meaning to their writing.
• Imagery is used, more narrowly, to signify only descriptions of visual objects and
scenes, especially if the description is vivid and particularized.
• Often involves figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, etc.)

Poetic Diction
• The term diction signifies a writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence, structures and
figurative language which combine to help create meaning.

Approaches to understanding poetry:

 Who is speaking to whom?
 What is the situation?
 Where are we in the place and time?
 What can we tell about the speaker’s situation or point of view?
• After answering these questions we should proceed to an understanding of the
sentence structure, the vocabulary, pronouns, etc.

Figurative language
➢ Is a deviation from what speakers of a language apprehend as the ordinary or standard,
significance or sequences or words, in order to achieve some special meaning or
effect. Such fires were described as primarily “ornaments” of language but they are
integral to the functioning of language
➢ In a simile, a comparison between two distinctly different things is indicated by the
words “like” or “as”. (for example: O my love’s like a red red rose)

POETIC LANGUAGE
Metaphor
➢ A metaphor compares two unlike things directly, without using a word of comparison,
e.g. “The ship ploughs the sea.”
Metonymy
➢ A figure of speech in which the name of a thing is substituted fo another thing with
which it is usually associated, e.g. “crown” for king.
Personification
➢ Is a kind of metaphor in the broader sense of the word with the meaning that human
characteristics are given to objects, animals or abstract ideas.
Hyperbole
 ➢ It is bold overstatement, or extravagant exaggeration of fact, used either for serious of
comic effect or for the purpose of emphasis.
Irony
➢ Is such a shift of meaning in which positive statement has pejorative meaning
Sarcasm
➢ It is an extended or gradated variety of irony, and as such it is usually more bitter an
poisonous
Allusion
➢ Is an indirect reference to some political, historical or literary context or personality,
incorporated within the construction of a literary work of art. Indirect reference does
not mean that the name of a person or the title of a literary work is mentioned.
Euphemism
➢ Is the use of refining words or phrases to express some rough or unpleasant statement.
E.g. the verb TO DIE may be expressed as TO PASS AWAY, TO LEAVE, etc.
Paradox
➢ Unites within one statement two mutually exclusive statements or words, the result of
which is seemingly illogical, self-contradictory statement which contains some deep
truth. E.g. “make haste slowly”.

Syntactic figures

Inversion
➢ Is the reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence. It serves to emphasize the
word or group of words replaced from the background into the foreground.
E.g. Happy is the man - instead of – Hi is happy.

Figures of sound
➢ One of the most important in poetry
➢ Most of them are connected with the principle of EUPHONY unlike CACOPHONY

Alliteration
• Is a frequent recurrence of the same letter or sound in the beginning of words in
a verse forming a kind of initial rhyme, It is frequently applied only to consonants.
Onomatopoeia
• Is the formation of words whose sound suggest object or idea it expresses. In the
narrower sense this term refers to an imitation of non-human sounds.
Assonance
• Repetition of vowel sounds at the beginning, middle or end of a word.
Consonance
• Repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within a word.

Composition of poetry
➢ The first outstanding graphic feature of poetry /whether lyric or epic/ as distinct from
prose, is its graphical appearance.
➢ The other outstanding feature of poetry is the absence of other narrators than the poet
himself, and the absence of dialogues.

TRADITIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF POETRY

  Lyric
 Epic
 Dramatic

LYRIC POETRY
• It was intended to be sung and accompanied on the lyre.
• What makes lyric poetry static in comparison with epic and dramatic genres is its
plotlessness. Absence of plot is due to the fact that the lyric genres usually express the
subjective views of the author-poet.

Genres of lyric poetry:

The ode
• originally, in ancient Greece, any lyric poem that was sung. Nowadays, it means
a lyric poem with a noble theme and written in exalted style. In English poetry only
the terms ode and ode or hymn are normally used as titles of various poems of praise
of persons or abstract phenomena.
The Ballad
• May be defined as a tragedy narrated in form of a song.
• It is a narrative poem i a ballad stanza. Most ballads are folk ballads usually dealing
with sad events with a romantic, historical or supernatural background.
The elegy
• It was a song of lamentation over a dead person. Modern interpretation refers to elegy
as a poem dealing with a subject of death. It may commemorate the death of an
individual, or death as it is applied to all mankind.
The Idyll
• Is an idealized story of happy innocence, usually in verse. It usually describes pastoral
(rustic) scenes, and the simple, uncomplicated events that happen in such a pastoral or
otherwise idealized setting.

EPIC POETRY
• Unlike lyric poetry, in epic poetry the author partly speaks in his own person, as
a narrator, and partly makes his characters speak in direct discourse.

The epic
• An extensive poem written in noble tone, and dealing with the heroic deeds of gods,
semi-gods, or of famous warriors or otherwise famous people.
DRAMATICAL POETRY
• Unlike lyric poetry, in which the poet speaks for himself – herself, and epic poetry
where the poet makes a mixed narrative, in dramatic poetry the poet disappears behind
his cast of characters.

POETIC SHAPES

The line
• Is a basic feature of any poem. Unlike prose, poetry is written out in lines of a given
length. Lines give poems shape.

Stanza
 • Is a grouping of lines in a poem, set off by a space in the printed text. Some stanzas
have been used so frequently that they have been given the convenience of a name,
as follows:
 Couplet – two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme. When the lines
are written in IAMBIC PENTAMETER (lines of ten syllables) they are called
HEROIC COUPLETS.
 The stanzas of three verses – these are known as tercets, and when rhyming
together, they are called TRIPLETS.
 The stanzas of four verses – QUARTRAIN. It is popular, being used in ballads
and lyrical verse. The quartrain is economical, arguments, stages in stories or
emotions can be framed neatly and held together by various rhyme pattern.
 The stanza of five verses – a special variety of quintet is the humorous stanza
called LIMERICK. The limericks deal in a comical way with a particular
person. The usual beginning of limerick is: “There was someone…”

Octet/Octave
• 8 lines of a poem

Sonnet
• The form of the sonnet is of Italian origin and came into use in the15th century,
towards the end of which its construction became perfected.
• Sonnets have fourteen lines. They are distinguished by the way their rhymes divide
them up.
• Italian type of sonnet consists of 14 lines, which are divided into two unequal groups
of 8 and 6 lines, the former the OCTAVE, the latter the SESTET.
• The subject matter of poem should consist of one idea or one emotion complete in
itself. The main idea should be expressed in the first quartrain and illustrated and
elaborated in the second. Then follows a pause.
• It can be said that on a more general level, the octet of a sonnet presents a problem or
a conflict which is resolved or commented on in the sestet.

RHYME
• Rhyme may be defined as the chief occurrence entering into the composition of verse
as ornament to its melody. This may be defined as a similarity of sound in the final
syllable or syllables of two or more lines. So it is the repetition of similar sound, but
the sound or the spelling are not always exactly the same.

Perfect Rhyme
➢ Perfect rhymes have an exact agreement in sound in the vowel and the consonants, if
any, that follow. E.g. Hat-cat, Free-bee
Approximate Rhyme / Half Rhyme
➢ Occurs when only the final consonant – sound of the rhyming words are identical.
E.g. soul – oil, mirth –forth
Masculine rhyme
➢ It occurs when final syllables are stressed and are identical in sound after their
differing initial consonant sound, e.g.: dark – mark, support – report
Feminine rhyme
➢ Occurs when stressed rhyming syllables are followed by identical unstressed syllables.
E.g. : revival – survival
➢ This type of Thyme is also known as a DOUBLE RHYME.
Rhyme schemes
• The pattern of rhymes in a series of lines – give stanzas shape. There is standard form
of notation for rhymes.
○ ABAB – is an example of INTERLACED RHYME. Most long stanzas
use it. The effect is to make the poem press forward in anticipation of
the next thyme.

THE NATURE OF DRAMA

DRAMA
• Drama is the literary form designed for the theatre, in which actors take roles of the
characters, perform the indicated action, and utter the written dialogue.
• Drama, like prose fiction, makes use of plot and characters, develops themes, arouses
emotional responses.
• It is written primarily to be performed, not read. It normally presents its action
a) through actors
b) on a stage
c) before an audience
• Each of these conditions has important consequences for the nature of drama.
• Drama is constructed on the plot, however, it is to be performed on a stage. All the
terms applied to fiction – plot, character, setting, exposition, rising action, crisis –
apply well to drama
• The theme of drama is usually a conflict and the plot is performed in front of the
spectator’s eyes.
• A play is divided into acts – the curtain in the theatre goes up and down separating the
acts, divided into scenes. Classical Greek drama usually consisted of five acts, the
19th century brought a change and the dramas with fewer acts were written. At present
we have a one – act play.
• Drama may be written in both verse and prose. Classical drama was typically written
in verse. Modern dramas are almost exclusively written in prose.
• Drama differs from all the others kinds of literature in several aspects. The most
striking of these differences is the means by which the story of a dramatic work is
presented – it is a dramatic dialogue, occasionally also monologue or soliloquy.
• Dialogue is the engagement in words of one character with another. One character
speaks, the other replies.
Soliloquy
• It is the act of talking to oneself, silently or aloud. In drama it denotes a convention by
which a character, alone on the stage utters his thoughts aloud, the playwright used
this device as a convenient way to convey directly to the audience information about a
character’s motives, intentions and state of mind.
Aside
• It is a related stage device, in which a character expresses his thought or intention in a
short speech which, by convention of inaudible to the other characters on the stage.
• The effect of an aside is to establish a bond between audience and character.
Props
• Props are any items that the action of the play requires to be on the stage.
• There are three standard props in Shakespeare’s plays: letters, weapons and blood.

DRAMATIC GENRES
The tragedy
• The composition of classical tragedy is obligatory:
a) exposition – introduction the time and place of action
b) rising action – presenting the event with decisive influence on the course of
future action
c) climax – represented by the conflict between the main characters
d) falling action – an unexpected turn in the development of action
e) catastrophe – i.e. a tragic solution of the conflict
• The essential element of tragedy is the struggle of a strong and brave PROTAGONIST
with evil forces usually embodied in ANTAGONIST.
• In the classical tragedy, as well in other classical genres, there was to be no mixing of
genre principles – thus there could be absolutely no comic elements in tragedy – the
tragedy was pure. This principle of genre purity is also called UNITY OF ACTION.
There were also two other unities – the UNITY OF PLACE, and the UNITY OF
TIME.
• A quite different type of tragedy was the Shakespearean tragedy which completely
ignored the three unities.

The comedy
• Comedy as a dramatic genre can be defined as a play of light and amusing characters,
which views the problems of life in precisely opposite way to tragedy.
• According to whom the humor or satire is de directed against, or according to who or
what makes us laugh, we may speak of:
a) Comedy of intrigue or situation which depends more the plot than on
characterization
b) Comedy of manners (also morals) where the main sources of humor or satire
are the manners, weaknesses or mistaken “ideals” of individual characters
• Most comedies show people and situations in a somewhat exaggerated way. This is
especially true of the two special varieties of comedy – burlesque and farce.
I. Burlesque – is a parodying imitation of a seriously intended literary work,
which deals with its noble subject matter in a trivial way.
II. The farce – is basically a light – minded comedy of situations based on the
most improbable and grotesque situation.