Definition of literary text - What it is, Meaning and Concept

A text is a coherent set of sentences that forms a unit of meaning and has a communicative intention (it intends to convey a message).The literary , meanwhile, is linked to literature , which is the set of knowledge to read and write well.

The literary text is one that uses literary language, a type of language that pursues a certain aesthetic purpose to capture the reader's interest.The author of literature searches for the right words to express his ideas in a refined manner and according to a certain style criterion.

Many and varied are the characteristics that identify a literary text.However, among all of them we could highlight the following:

Aesthetic communicative intention.With this, what we mean is that its function is to create a work of art, hence its purpose is artistic and not practical.

Own world.Whether or not the referents used by the writer of literary texts are real, what is clear is that he advocates to create and develop a world in which the reader is fully inserted when he begins to read those.

Originality.Inedito is completely that text born from the mind of an author willing to tell his audience a story.

In addition to all of the above, we cannot ignore the existence of a wide variety of types of literary texts.Thus, the following stand out among them:

Short story, fictional and few characters is that.

Novel.In Antiquity is the origin of this type of text that is one of the most important in Literature and that is divided into a multitude of genres.

Legends, literary texts based on real events and adorned with fantasy.

Poetry.In verse and with rhyme.That is the one that appeals to feelings.

Fabula.Make a moral and make the reader learn a teaching is what basically aims to achieve this type of literary text that is short, fictional and can be done in prose or verse.

The aesthetics of the literary text will depend on the author himself and can be achieved through various linguistic resources and literary techniques.Among these resources we must mention the grammar resources (by adding, deleting or repeating structures ), semantics (from the alteration of the meaning of words, such as metaphor or metonymy) and phonetics (games with the senses of the words ).

For example: "If you drink, do not drive.Take care of your family" is an informational text that conveys a message but without any aesthetic intent.Instead, a text like "Yes a glass of seductive nectar crosses its path, gratefully thanks and rejects the treat, since this substance may have been prepared by the devil himself to put at risk the existence of his loved ones ” is literary: message is comparable to the previous one in terms of content, but the language used is very different.

This example highlights how the type of text depends on the communicative intention .It makes no sense to decorate a text with games of language or far-fetched words if it is intended to reach as clearly as many readers as possible.