Text types: Recounts: Different types of recounts

Literary recounts

What are literary recounts?

Literary recounts are used in literature and by creative writers to tell what happened in a way which entertains. These recounts use expressions of attitude and feeling to show the significance of the events. They sometimes include unexpected events or even setbacks, but these events do not become a crisis for the people experiencing them in the way they do, for example, in narratives. Sometimes literary recounts are used to present unusual or imaginary events as if they were familiar, everyday and predictable events.

Literary recounts can be found in stories, poems and songs. Usually the storyteller establishes a mood or atmosphere in which the events take place and reveals to the audience why the events are significant. Writers of literary recounts may break conventions to create an effect and make their writing imaginative and inventive. The way an individual creative writer uses literary language is often described as the writer's style.

For an example of a literary recount see Hong Kong Capers.