Literature in English · Lesson 1

Literary appreciation: genres, functions and approaches

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: General literary principles (direct imitation in play, versification, narration of people’s experiences, achievement of aesthetic value; relationship between literary terms and principles); literary appreciation of drama, prose and poetry; areas of overlap between genres

WAEC: General knowledge of literature (Paper 1): nature and functions of literature, genres, oral and written literature, literary appreciation

NECO: General knowledge of literature (Paper 1): nature and functions of literature, genres, oral and written literature, literary appreciation

What you will learn

Define literature and state its functions.
Distinguish oral from written literature and name oral forms.
Identify and distinguish the three genres and their overlaps.
Explain literary principles and their relationship to literary terms.
Distinguish subject matter, theme, message, tone and mood.
Apply a step-by-step method of literary appreciation to any extract.

Key points

Literature: imaginative, artistic use of language (oral or written) expressing human experience.
Functions: entertain, instruct, preserve culture, criticise society, express feeling, develop language.
Oral forms: folktale, myth, legend, proverb, riddle, songs (dirge, praise song), incantation.
Genres: prose (narration), drama (imitation for performance), poetry (verse).
JAMB principles: direct imitation in play, versification, narration of experiences, aesthetic value; terms are the tools that serve them.
Appreciation: what is said (subject, theme, message) and how (diction, imagery, sound, structure).
Tone = writer’s attitude; mood = reader’s feeling.
Plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution; conflict external or internal.
Approaches: formal, historical, sociological, moral, feminist, post-colonial, psychological.
Method: literal sense → genre → theme → technique → effect → evaluate and relate.

Start here: What is literature?

Every society tells stories. Long before anyone in Nigeria read a printed novel, grandmothers told tortoise stories by moonlight, praise singers chanted the deeds of kings, and mourners sang dirges at funerals. All of this is literature. In school and in your examinations, however, the word has a narrower and more precise meaning, and you must be able to define it clearly.

Literature is the imaginative and artistic use of language, spoken or written, to express human experience, feelings and ideas in a way that gives pleasure and teaches.

Four key words in that definition are worth remembering, because examiners reward each one:

Imaginative. Literature is created by the mind. Even when a novel is based on real events, the writer selects, arranges and invents details. A newspaper report of a flood tells you what happened; a short story about the flood lets you feel what a mother felt as the water entered her kitchen.
Artistic. The language is chosen with care for beauty, rhythm and effect. Ordinary speech says “It is very late.” A poet might write “The night has drunk the last drop of the lamp.”
Human experience. Literature is about people: love, death, war, ambition, betrayal, faith, poverty, joy. Even a fable about animals is really about human behaviour.
Pleasure and teaching. An old idea, going back to the Roman poet Horace, is that literature should both delight and instruct. A good folktale entertains children and also warns them against greed.

Literature as a mirror

Literature is often called a mirror of society. A play about a corrupt local government chairman shows the audience its own society, and the audience may laugh, feel ashamed, or be moved to change. This is why literature is linked in the JAMB syllabus to “the analysis of social, political and economic events in the society”.

Literature is not the same as any writing

A chemistry textbook, a bank statement and a WAEC timetable are written, but they are not literature in this sense. Their language is informative and literal. Literature uses language that is expressive and often figurative, and it invites more than one interpretation.

Worked example 1.1

Which of these is literature in the strict sense: (a) a recipe for jollof rice, (b) a poem about the smell of jollof rice at a wedding, (c) a newspaper report of rice prices?

(a) gives instructions: informative.
(c) reports facts: informative.
(b) uses imaginative, artistic language to express feeling and experience.

(b) the poem

💡 Exam tip: when asked “What is literature?”, give a definition, then name the three genres and the two functions (to entertain and to instruct). That is four quick marks in an essay or an easy objective question.

Try it yourself. In one sentence, explain why a folktale told at night in a village is literature even though it is never written down.

Show solution

It uses imaginative, artistic language to express human experience and to entertain and teach; literature can be oral as well as written.

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Practice questions

1. The three main genres of literature are

drama, prose and poetry
novel, play and short story
tragedy, comedy and farce
myth, legend and folktale

Show answer

A: drama, prose and poetry
Each genre has its own forms and techniques.

2. Literature that is passed on by word of mouth is

written literature
non-fiction
journalism
oral literature

Show answer

D: oral literature
Folktales, myths, proverbs and praise songs are examples.

3. A story that explains the origin of the world or of natural things is a

riddle
fable
myth
legend

Show answer

C: myth
Legends tell of heroes.

4. A short story in which animals speak and act to teach a moral is a

biography
fable
legend
epic

Show answer

B: fable
Aesop’s fables are well-known examples.

5. The writer’s attitude to the subject is the

tone
mood
theme
setting

Show answer

A: tone
Mood is the feeling created in the reader.

Key words

Literature: The imaginative and artistic use of language to express human experience.
Genre: A category of literature: prose, drama or poetry.
Oral literature: Literature passed on by word of mouth.
Folktale: A traditional story, often with animal characters, told to entertain and teach.
Myth: A traditional story explaining origins of the world, a people or natural features.
Legend: A traditional story about a hero or founder, partly historical.
Dirge: A funeral song in oral tradition.
Literary appreciation: Careful reading, analysis and evaluation of a literary work.
Subject matter: What a work is literally about.
Theme: The central idea underlying a work.
Message: The lesson the writer wants readers to take away.
Tone: The writer’s or speaker’s attitude to the subject.

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