A literary text It is an artistic, original and subjective work, which uses rhetorical resources, has a poetic function and lacks a practical purpose. It is a type of connotative, ambiguous and polysemic text, so its interpretation tends to be open and its audience indefinite.
A text not literary is one who owns a referential function, a specific purpose, is addressed to a specific audience and its nature is objective. This type of text avoids ambiguity and the use of stylistic resources, connecting the audience with a reality external to the text itself.
Literary text
non-literary text
Definition:
An artistic and original work that has a poetic or aesthetic function, with a polysemic character and without practical purpose.
Definition:
Text that fulfills a referential function and makes use of a denotative language. Its objective is to inform about a matter, persuade or direct the behavior of a specific audience.
Language function:
poetics or aesthetics
Language function:
Referential.
Characteristics:
Subjective and connotative (its meaning depends on the interpretation of each person). Ambiguous and polysemic (has more than one meaning). It lacks pragmatic purpose. It is not directed at a specific audience. It is original and fictitious, even when it is based on real events. It presents entire worlds unto itself. Use rhetorical resources to express and provoke emotion.
Characteristics:
Objective and denotative (what is written refers to reality and is not freely interpretable). Its meaning is explicit (does not give rise to double meanings). It has a practical purpose. Aimed at a specific audience. It is referential and its message is more important than any poetic sense. Its content is based on reality. Its objective is to inform, instruct, or direct the behavior of people. Valid within a specific context.
Examples:
Odes, stories, Christmas carols, plays, novels, songs, fables, hors d’oeuvres and sacramental plays, among others.
Examples:
Conferences, journalistic notes, manuals and instructions, legal documents, dissertations, academic articles, philosophical texts, opinion articles and advertising messages, among others.
What is a literary text?
A literary text is a writing that makes use of rhetorical elements to provoke emotions in the reader, fulfills a poetic or aesthetic function and lacks practical purpose.
It has an ambiguous and polysemic character (it has more than one meaning), so it can be interpreted in many ways. It uses resources that express the subjectivity of the author and encourage participation by the reader.
This type of text is characterized by being an original creation, each work is intended to be a unique creation. However, it can be inspired by real events or people, or describe a physical and verifiable reality.
Literary texts sometimes have the figure of the narrator, who is the voice that recounts the events that take place in the story. In most cases, the narrator is separate from the author, but can represent his point of view.
The language used is primarily connotative, it has a personal meaning, both for the author and for the reader, charged with emotion and subjectivity.
These texts do not know the spatio-temporal limits, they have the ability to endure over time and be read by audiences from different places and at different times.
Characteristics of the literary text
The literary text is a original creation and ambiguousSo it can have different interpretations. being polysemic It can take on new meanings with each reading. It does not have a specific objective, although the author may have a intention determined. It is not directed at a specific audience, andthe reader is not defined. His function is aesthetic or poetic, so rhetorical figures are used to provoke feelings or reactions in the recipient. the literary text presents a fictional world, self-referential and full of details. Is a subjective creation of the author, does not pretend to be a true representation of the facts, although it can express certain realities. The vocabulary used in literary texts is not colloquial, it uses a language connotativewhich expresses the point of view of the author.
Function of the literary text
Its main function is poetic or aesthetic. Rhetorical figures are used, such as onomatopoeia, hyperbolic metaphors, similes, alliteration, etc., to provoke a feeling or reaction in the recipient. The literary text does not have a referential function, as happens with non-literary texts.
The world created within the literary text is a whole in itself. This type of text is not subservient to an informative function, even if it communicates something about external reality (as in highly descriptive and detail-laden realistic or naturalistic novels).
Relationship between the sender and the receiver in the literary text
The relationship between author and reader is deferred. The reader is not able to respond to the author directly. For example, during the process of creating the text, the author is distanced from the audience. It is not possible to respond to the message that is transmitted through the text without modifying it (which would create a new work).
The reader is not defined, it is not a specific type of person. The text is open to be read by an audience, perhaps broader than the author intended. This implies that your public is not easily quantifiable or identifiable.
However, the reader participates in a communicative act, accepting the subjectivity of the text and its lack of referentiality.
fictional character of the literary text
The literary text is a fiction, so it does not pretend to be a true representation of the facts. However, different types of texts can be interpreted as literary texts, even if they were not written with that intention.
In any case, both author and reader are generally aware of the fictional nature of the literary text, which is intended to be a complete world in itself. That is to say, what the text offers is nothing more than a subjective creation of the author, it is not a recount of facts from the real world.
Absence of purpose in the literary text
The literary text does not have a specific purpose. There may be an intention behind the production of the text, for example, moral or educational, but it is not one of its defining characteristics.
Types of literary texts
Literary texts can be classified according to the form they take, the function assigned by the author, the symbolic and semantic content, among other characteristics that differentiate them from each other. These texts mainly have an aesthetic or poetic function, however, they can perform other functions depending on their form and content.
In general, they are considered three great literary genres: the lyrical, the narrative and the dramatic.
Lyrical
Narrative
Dramatic Shows the author’s subjectivity and expresses a lot of emotion. Its function is expressive. Subgenres: poetry, ode, elegy, epistle, eclogue, epigram, Christmas carol, song and others. There is a narrator who is in charge of telling the story. His function is referential. Subgenres: short story, novel, epic, fable and others. The characters relate the actions of the story through dialogue. It fulfills an appellative or conative function. Subgenres: tragedy, comedy, drama, tragicomedy, melodrama, interlude, auto sacramental, and others.
Examples of literary texts
lyrical text
Pigeons flew between the sun and their roofs.
Between being and autumn sadness passed.
Your village was alone as in the light of a story,
with bridges, with gypsies and bonfires at night
of silent snow
Gerbasi, V. (1945) My father the immigrant, vv. 23-27.
Narrative text
For almost half an hour I wandered through the intricacies of that labyrinth that smelled of old paper, dust and magic. I let my hand brush the avenues of exposed spines, tempting my choice. I glimpsed, among the titles blurred by time, words in languages that I recognized and dozens of others that I was unable to catalogue.
Ruiz Zafón, C. (2001) The shadow of the wind. Editorial Planet.
dramatic text
La Poncia: Enough. It’s about yours. But if she were the neighbor across the street, what would she be?
Bernarda: You are already beginning to remove the point of the knife.
LA PONCIA: (Always cruelly.) No, Bernarda, something very big is happening here.
I don’t want to blame you, but you have set your daughters free.
Martirio is in love, say what you want.
Why didn’t you let her marry Enrique Humanes?
Why did you send him a message not to come the same day he was going to come to the window?
Bernarda: (Strongly.) And I would do it a thousand times! My blood does not mix with that of Humans as long as I live! Her father was a ganán.
García Lorca, F. (1945) The house of Bernarda Alba.
Also know:
What is a non-literary text?
A non-literary text is one that has a referential or informative functiona specific purpose, objective character and makes use of a denotative language.
This type of texts does not make use of rhetorical resources, which are used in literary texts to express the subjectivity of the author.
You can use literary elements, such as narration or description, to communicate your message, such as when reporting an event in a newspaper.
Non-literary texts are aimed at specific audiences, the sender’s objective is to transmit information or knowledge that the receiver wishes to obtain about something specific. The information they communicate is external to the text itself.
Characteristics of the non-literary text
They have one referential function or informative, that is, the message refers to something external and its transmission is one of the main objectives. Your content not fictional. They depend on a context. They are concrete and explicit writings, which seek the objectivity. They have one specific audience, defined from the moment the text is created. They have one defined purpose, which can be transmitting scientific knowledge, educating, or communicating norms and rules, among others. He message has priority about any aesthetic sense. He language used is denotativerefers to reality and leaves no room for free interpretation.
Function of the non-literary text
It is referential, so in this kind of text the message refers to something external. The sender tries to fulfill an end with his production, while the receiver wants to obtain information or knowledge about something specific.
In the same way, the transmission of the message is one of its most important objectives. What it communicates can be a fact, a process, rules, a description of an object or person, etc. For example, an auto mechanic manual refers to the process of repairing cars.
This implies…