Literary genres and rhetorical figures
This domain covers the theory of the three genres, Catalan versification and the inventory of rhetorical figures; questions appear as identification items (digues quina figura hi ha en…, analitza la mètrica d'aquest vers) and as part of the commentary.
Narrative
Narrator: heterodiegetic or homodiegetic, omniscient or limited, testimonial. Focalisation: zero, internal, external. Time: analepsi (flashback), prolepsi, el·lipsi, escena, resum. Character: round versus flat, protagonist and antagonist. Space as symbolic construct.
Poetry
Syllable counting applies sinalefa inside a verse and the final-stress rule: oxytone +1, paroxytone 0, proparoxytone −1. Verses: octosíl·lab, decasíl·lab, hendecasíl·lab, alexandrí (12, 6+6 with cesura). Rhyme: consonant or assonant, and rima blanca when there is none. Stanzas: quartet, tercet, sonet (14 verses: two quartets plus two tercets), octava, romanç (octosyllables rhyming in assonance on even lines only).
Drama
Acte, escena, acotació, diàleg, monòleg, apart; tragedy, comedy, drama; the stage direction as the only narrative voice.
Figures
Meaning: metàfora, comparació, metonímia (container for content), sinècdoque (part for whole), personificació, hipèrbole, antítesi, oxímoron, sinestèsia, ironia, al·legoria. Repetition and order: anàfora, epífora, paral·lelisme, quiasme, gradació, derivació. Omission and addition: el·lipsi, asíndeton, polisíndeton, hipèrbaton. Sound: al·literació, paronomàsia, onomatopeia. Address: apòstrofe, interrogació retòrica.
Worked example
El vent udolava entre les pedres i la nit era un pou. Udolava is a personification built on a verb reserved for animals and humans. La nit era un pou is a metaphor (identification, no com), suggesting depth, darkness and fall. Had the text said la nit com un pou, it would be a comparison, and labelling it metaphor would lose the mark. If it had said la ciutat callava, it would be metonymy (inhabitants for place).
Traps
Counting syllables without the final-stress rule; calling every image a metaphor; confusing anàfora (repetition at the start) with epífora (at the end); confusing el·lipsi with asíndeton; forgetting that the romanç rhymes only on even lines.