English Literature: A Comparison Of Literature In English Literature

A. Background of The Study

The study of English Literature concerns with a number of literary works in English language. Traditional literary studies, devided English literature into three genres, they are epic, drama, and poetry (Klarer, 2005: 3). Yet, recent classification of english literature genre prefer the terms fiction, drama, and poetry as the designations of the three major literary genres (Klarer, 2005: 9). According to M.H Abrams fiction is;

“any literary narrative, whether in prose or verse, which was invented instead of being an account of events that actually happened” (1999: 94).

Fiction as one of literary work genre, in the narrow sense, is a term which only leads to a narrative written in prose, such as the novels and short stories, and even sometimes used only as a synonym for the novel. Then, narrative prose in which is based on biography, history, or contemporary facts not merely referred to as “Fiction”, but is often referred to as “fictional biography”, the historical novel, and the non-fiction novel (Abrams, 1999: 94). Abrams (1999: 190) stated that novel is a variety of writings which is an extended version of fiction works written in prose. As an extended narrative, Abrams also explain that novel has a greater variety of characters, the

It reveals a narration based on the writers thought, feeling and their experience of the realities of life, which is also influenced by the author’s social, family, religion, and faith background. Everything in life can be taken by authors as the backgrounds to write their ideas about the problem of life itself in their work. M.H Abrams (1999: 190-196) adds about kind of novels, they are; epistolary novel, realistic novel, prose romance, bildungsroman (novel of education), non-fiction or documentary novel, historical novel, social novel, regional novel, involuted novel, and nouveau novel (new