Style and Form in English Literature

A simple overview

The way a writer writes and the technique which an individual author uses in his writing.

This varies from author to author and depends upon syntax, word choice, and tone.

Also described as a voice that readers listen to when they read the work of a writer.

Definition of Style

Four basic literary styles:1. Expository or Argumentative style subject-oriented style. The focus of the writer is to tell the readers about a

specific subject or topic and ends with the authors own opinion about that topic.

2. Descriptive style focuses on describing an event, a character or a place

in detail. Some descriptive writing style is poetic where the

author specifies an event, an object or a thing. Usually the description incorporates sensory details.

Types of Style

3. Persuasive style An effort to give reasons and justification to

make the readers believe a point of view . The persuasive style aims to persuade and

convince the readers.

4. Narrative style the writer narrates a story. This includes short stories, novels, novellas,

biographies and poetry.

Types of Style

Organization, arrangement, or framework of a literary work.

The manner or style of constructing, arranging, and coordinating the parts of a composition for a pleasing or effective result.

Definition Literary Form

Every well-organized, well-written work of literature has a form. The word form comes from Middle English word forme from Old French, and from the Latin forma, meaning beauty.

The ancients considered form to be beautiful in and of itself; it imparted beauty to a work of art.

The term literary form applies to both the notion or idea of literary form and to specific literary

forms.

Understanding Literary Form

A specific literary form is one particular kind of literary framework or structure.

Virtually every literary form identified by literary specialists has a name or label which, by convention, has been accepted by most or all literary experts.

For example:A novel is a composition written in the form of a fictional prose narrative of considerable length and complexity in which the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters serve to unfold the plot.A novella is A fictional account longer than a short story and shorter than a novel; usually between 20,000 and 50,000 words.

The notion of literary form

The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones.

Often this term is used interchangeably with both the literary technique and the larger story itself that contains the smaller ones, which are called pericopes, "framed narratives" or "embedded narratives."

Famous example : Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, in which the overarching frame narrative is the story of a band of pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The band passes the time in a storytelling contest. The framed narratives are the individual stories told by the pilgrims who participate. The 1001 Arabian Nights ia famous Middle Eastern frame narrative. Here, in Bagdad, Scheherazade must delay her execution by beguiling her Caliph with a series of cliffhangers.

Frame Narrative : Form

Style, in literature, is the result of a successful blending of form with content. All the arts reflect one of two stylistic tendencies: the classical or the romantic.

When applied to literature Classical indicates objective presentation, formal structure, and clear language.

Romantic indicates subjective presentation, organic structure, and obscure, effusive, or everyday language.

Summary