8 Types of Literary Works Along with Definitions and Characteristics

Kapanlagi.com - For some people, literary works are certainly not unfamiliar. Literary works themselves are arts that contain many human elements that have the purpose of the writer's aesthetic. In addition, literary works can have the purpose of expressing personal human experiences, thoughts, feelings, ideas, spirit, beliefs in a form of life depiction in writing.

In general, some widely known types of literary works are novels, short stories (short stories), poetry or rhymes. However, as a whole, types of literary works are grouped into several types. These types of literary works have their own characteristics and cannot be said to be the same. To make it clearer, here is an explanation of the types of literary works complete with definitions and characteristics. Let's directly see the following discussion.

1. Poetry

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The first type of literary work is poetry. Poetry is one type of literary work in which the style of language is greatly determined by rhythm, rhyme, and the arrangement of lines and stanzas. In creating poetry, you also need to pay attention to diction. Meanwhile, in terms of language choice, this literary work mostly uses figurative sentences or has connotative meanings. There are four elements that constitute the essence of poetry, namely: theme, poet's feelings, poetic tone, and message.

2. Prose

Next, the type of literary work that you need to know is prose. Prose is one form of literary work that is different from poetry. However, many people think that they are the same type of literary work. The difference between the two is that prose has more rhythm. In terms of word usage, prose does not have figures of speech or metaphors. In other words, prose is often interpreted as free writing where there are no specific rules in its composition.

3. Pantun

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Pantun is one of the old types of poetry, each verse consists of four lines and has a sampiran (intro) and isi (content). Not only can you find it in Indonesian language lessons, but you can also often find pantun in traditional entertainment events and comedy entertainment programs on television stations.

The characteristics of pantun are that each verse consists of 4 lines, with each line containing 8 to 12 syllables. As for the rhyme, Pantun rhymes a-b-a-b. Pantun itself is divided into several types such as pantun nasihat (advice), pantun jenaka (humorous), pantun agama (religious), pantun teka-teki (riddle), pantun berkasih-kasihan (love), and pantun anak (children's pantun).

4. Novel

Novel is a literary work in the form of a fictional story in the form of a long composition that tells the life of someone who is considered impressive. In addition, the novel will contain a series of stories about the lives of characters and people around them, which are portrayed by highlighting the characteristics and traits of each character in the story. For example, it may tell the story of a child's love for their sick mother. All the characters in the novel are purely fictional. However, the events are made to appear as if they really happened during that time.

5. Short Story

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Unlike novels, which are literary works in the form of long compositions, short stories are a type of literary work in the form of short compositions. Usually, short stories tell about a problem experienced by a character in a concise manner, starting from the introduction to the end of the problem experienced by the character.

In general, a short story only tells about one problem experienced by one character. In addition, a short story consists of no more than 10,000 words. The characteristics of a short story are that it can be read in one sitting, the diction used is not complicated so it is easy to understand, it has a single plot or storyline, and it contains a moral message.

6. Drama

Drama is also a form of literary work that many people are familiar with. Drama itself is one form of literary work that tells about human life through movement and sound. Generally, drama is distinguished based on the genre themes found in the drama, namely comedy, musical, tragic comedy, and tragedy. So, drama is not just a written work but also a performance that can be seen when the actors dialogue according to their characters.

7. Fairy Tales

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Surely you are familiar with fairy tales. Fairy tales are one of the old literary works that contain stories that are more fictional or contain extraordinary imagination. People believe that these fairy tales did not really happen.

Generally, the author of a fairy tale cannot be recognized. Because fairy tales are a form of storytelling passed down from ancestors. Even so, the events in fairy tales seem like real events. In fact, fairy tales are fictional and imaginative stories. Fairy tales that were once popular include 'Si Kancil Mencuri Timun' (The Deer Stealing Cucumbers).

Those are some types of literary works accompanied by explanations. Hopefully, they are useful and increase your knowledge.

(kpl/dtm)