Examples of Literary Text

Literary text

A literary text It is a form of oral or written production that privileges aesthetic, poetic and playful forms over the informative or objective content of the message.

Literary texts propose subjective and free approaches of a reflective, experiential or contemplative content of reality, with the aim of generating emotions in the reader.

In fact, one of the main characteristics of any literary text, as well as of other artistic forms, is that it lacks a clear function or a specific objective. In other words, it has no practical use and that is its main difference from non-literary texts.
In ancient Greece, considered the literary cradle of the West, tragedy (the forerunner of contemporary theater) was indispensable in the emotional and civic formation of the citizen, since it transmitted political, religious and moral values ​​considered necessary. At the same time, the epic (precursor of the current narrative) was the means of transmission of the great founding myths of Hellenic civilization, such as those contained in The Iliad Y TheOdyssey.

At present, literary texts are considered part of leisure, recreation and training activities given their broad human content, expressed as references and nods to historical events, folk tales, symbols and archetypes of culture, as well as real experiences transformed or embellished through the fiction.

See also:

Types of literary texts

At present, literary texts are classified according to their specific use of language, in a set of orders called literary genres. These are:

Examples of literary text

1. "La poesía" by Eugenio Montejo (poem)

Poetry crosses the earth alone,
support your voice in the pain of the world
and nothing asks
-not even words.

It comes from afar and without time, it never warns;
He has the key to the door.
Entering always stop to watch us.
Then he opens his hand and gives us
a flower or a pebble, something secret,
but so intense that the heart beats
too fast. And we woke up.

1. Augusto Monterroso's "The World" (micro-story)

God has not yet created the world; he is only imagining it, as between dreams. So the world is perfect, but confusing.

1. Moliére's "The Miser" (dramaturgy)

VALERIO. How, lovely Elisa, you feel melancholy after the kind assurances that you have been kind enough to give me about your happiness! I see you sigh, alas, in the midst of my joy. Is it that you regret, tell me, that you have made me happy? And do you regret this promise, to which my passion has been able to force you?

ELISA. No, Valerio; I can't regret everything I do for you. I am moved to it by too sweet a power, and I don't even have the strength to wish that things didn't happen like this. But, to tell you the truth, the good end causes me uneasiness, and I fear greatly to love you more than I should.

VALERIO. Hey! What can you fear, Elisa, of the kindness you have had with me?

1. "La trama celeste" by Adolfo Bioy Casares (short story, fragment)

When Captain Ireneo Morris and Dr. Carlos Alberto Servian, a homeopathic doctor, disappeared from Buenos Aires on December 20, the newspapers hardly commented on the fact. It was said that there were deceived people, complicated people and that a commission was investigating; It was also said that the small radius of action of the airplane used by the fugitives made it possible to affirm that they had not gone very far. In those days I received an order; It contained: three volumes in quarto (the complete works of the communist Luis Augusto Blanqui); a ring of little value (an aquamarine with the effigy of a horse-headed goddess in the background); a few typewritten pages — The Adventures of Captain Morris — signed C. TO. S. I will transcribe those pages. (…)

1. "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov (novel, fragment)

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my entrails. My sin, my soul. Lo-li-ta: the tip of the tongue undertakes a trip of three steps from the edge of the palate to rest, in the third, on the edge of the teeth. It. Li. Ta. It was Lo, just Lo, in the morning, five foot four in bare feet. She was Lola in pants. It was Dolly at school. It was Dolores when she signed. But in my arms she was always Lolita. (…)

1. "Paseando mi cigarro" by Gay Talese (literary chronicle, excerpt)

Every night after dinner I go out with my two dogs to Park Avenue for a walk with my cigar. My cigar is the same color as my two dogs, and my dogs are also attracted by its aroma: they jump off my legs when I light it before I start walking, their muzzles wide and eyes narrowly focused, with that gluttonous look they get whenever I offer them pet biscuits or a tray of spicy canapes left over from one of our cocktails. (…)

1. "The Labyrinth of Solitude" by Octavio Paz (essay, fragment)

To all of us, at some point, our existence has been revealed to us as something particular, non-transferable and precious. This revelation is almost always in adolescence. The discovery of ourselves manifests itself as knowing ourselves alone; between the world and us an impalpable, transparent wall opens: that of our conscience. It is true that as soon as we are born we feel alone; But children and adults can transcend their loneliness and forget themselves through play or work. On the other hand, the adolescent, vacillating between childhood and youth, is suspended for a moment before the infinite wealth of the world. The teenager is amazed to be. (…)