The chronicle is a textual genre characterized by short texts, of simple language and that portrays the aspects of the everyday life, usually with touches of humor or irony.
Published in newspapers and magazines, the chronicles are a textual genre that is among the style journalistic it's the literary and which takes as its starting point the events of that time and place.
The chronicler seeks inspiration for his texts in recent events or in everyday situations and invites the reader to look at the world as he does.
This literary style began to develop in Brazil in the mid-19th century, along with the birth of the press in the country. Among the first Brazilian chroniclers are Machado de Assis and José de Alencar.
The name chronicle, however, was already used to designate another style of literature since the 15th century. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, chronicles were texts that reported historical facts.
The word "chronic", in Latin, refers to time, chronology. These texts reported chronologically great events, such as territorial conquests and great discoveries.
Chronicle characteristics
The chronicle is a free genre in form and content, but some characteristics are present in most productions. Learn about the main characteristics of this literary style:
The everyday is the starting point
The chronicles start from an everyday event, such as a bank queue, a walk in the park, waiting for a bus at the terminal.
The chronicler does not simply describe the facts, he uses them as a starting point for reflection or for the reader's simple entertainment.
Through the chronicler's lens, everyday life is portrayed with poetry and sensitivity, they can entertain and even criticize, but always with light language.
Proximity to the reader
The chronicle's language is simple and colloquial, the writer approaches the reader and, in some cases, converses with him. By telling how he sees a certain fact, the chronicler allows the reader to see the world through his eyes.
In addition, the chronicler also allows the reader to perceive facts of their own day-to-day in a different way, facts that often go unnoticed.
Use of irony and humor
Humor and irony are very common features in a chronicle. Humor is usually found in subtleties, in those situations that we often face daily and don't pay attention to.
The chronicle's language is unpretentious and light, it does not seek to convince the reader of any point of view, but to entertain him. It is also common for the chronicles to provoke reflection, but in a subtle way.
Also understand what it is humor and irony.
Brevity and ephemerality
Chronicles are brief, that is, they are short texts, with limited time, space and characters. And they are also ephemeral, generally losing their validity in a short time.
This happens because the themes used as a motto for the chroniclers are events from that time, which can make the chronicle meaningless for a reader in another context or time.
It is noteworthy, however, that not all chronicles are lost in time, there are chronicles that were written 50 years ago and that are still current.
See the meaning of ephemeral.
Types of Chronicles
Despite being a free and fluid style, it is customary to divide the chronicles into some types didactically. See some of them:
Argumentative Chronicle
In the argumentative chronicle, the author defends a point of view and uses arguments to justify it, but unlike the opinion article, the author does not try to convince the reader.
Its purpose is just to present your opinion, without having to prove anything. Like the other types of chronicles, it has a light and informal language.
know more about opinion article.
narrative chronicle
The narrative chronicle tells a story that may or may not have happened, with characters, time and space determined. This style of chronicle can be written in 1st or 3rd person singular and can also contain dialogue.
read about narrative and narrative text.
poetic chronicle
A poetic chronicle is a text in prose in which the author imprints a poetic language, with lyricism. As in poetry, it is common to use figures of speech, such as metaphors, anaphoras and antitheses.
When writing a poetic chronicle, the chronicler seeks to portray feelings and thrill the reader.
chronicle example
Below is a chronicle by Marina Colasanti, who was born in Eritrea but made her professional career in Brazil, where she has lived since 1948.
my little island
I saw the photo and fell in love with the island. I didn't fall in love with reality, but with the imaginary island I kept to myself.
Migingo is a turtle island that floats on Lake Victoria.
A tortoiseshell island, because entirely covered by a shell of metal roofs, the roofs of the huts have a single window and door made of corrugated aluminum sheets, plus the roofs of the 15 bars, the pharmacy, the beauty salon, and the numerous brothels. Looks like hotels have the same roof.
As a turtle, Migingo is huge. As an island, it is tiny. There are two thousand square meters and 400 inhabitants.
All I have to do is turn my chair slightly as I write, and I have an entire archipelago in front of me, the Cagarras Islands, which outline the maritime horizon in Ipanema. But islands in the open sea have the vastness at their service and are harder to love, they slip through your fingers, as an island lacustrine is like a pearl in a shell or a matrioska within another matrioska, treasure contained, protected island within another Island. For if the island is, as we learned at school, "a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides", a lake, in turn, is a piece of water surrounded by land on all sides, that is, an island liquid.
Viewed from a satellite, Migingo should look as small as a piece of bread floating in a soup dish. But I see it in the imagination as on an ancient map, surrounded by sea monsters and pirate ships.
The monsters are the huge Nile Perch fish, predators originating in Ethiopia that were clandestinely introduced into Lake Victoria to remedy the lack of lake fauna caused by fishing predatory. They made amends in their own way, reproducing enormously and devouring local species, before becoming cannibals, the strongest eating the weakest. A Nile Perch can measure up to two meters, and weigh from 200 to 250 kilos.
Real pirate ships do not have inflated caravel sails, they are semi-canoes with a stern that arrive at night to steal money, engines from other boats, and fish. dry. It is likely that these pirates without hooks, but armed with mouths of fire, spend in the same brothels where the money they have just stolen would be handed over by the fishermen.
“My friends went to the islands/Isles lose man” wrote Drummond. And he was right. The first two fishermen who, thinking of saving fuel in their fisheries, went to live in Migingo, were lucky. Today they own most of the shacks. But those who followed his example and huddled in the tight space spend the time in bars when they're not on the boats, and spend the money they earn when they're on the boats on the prostitutes.
I am not a man. Women are not mentioned in Carlos' poem. It won't be because of machismo, but because women have a part with the mermaids.
So I, who have Mar in my name, can fall in love with an island without getting lost. I put Migingo in my bag, and take her with me to be my refuge. If Brazilian misery weighs too much, if education is castrated in its most legitimate principles, if culture is transferred to the last places of national interest, if the muzzle of machismo and homophobia is removed, I open the bag and go to lie down on the small, uninhabited island that only belongs to me, feet in the water on one side, hands in the water of the other. And the sky, without threatening clouds, above.
Brazilian chroniclers
Brazil has excellent chroniclers, including:
- Machado de Assis
- Lima Barreto
- Rubem Braga
- João do Rio
- Cecília Meireles
- Nelson Rodrigues
- Clarice Lispector
- Carlos Drummond de Andrade
See too:
- meaning of poetry
- meaning of lyric
- Meaning of Textual Genres
