What is Literature?

“That is part of the beauty of all

literature. You discover that your

longings are universal longings, that

you're not lonely and isolated from

anyone. You belong.”

― F. Scott Fitzgerald

Definition of Literature

Literature is any form of writing which deals

with the significant human experience -- his society and his experiences -- which is artistically conceived for an effect.

Definition of Literature

• All writings in prose, or verse, especially those of an imaginative or critical characteristics.

• Literature is the enactment of human possibilities, or a vehicle that will help us discover more about ourselves and the meaning we can make of life.

Definition of Literature

It has two major features: Language and Imagination --- that when combined, they produce a fictional world that reflects reality.

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that

dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

Literature vs. Other Academic Branches

Literature vs. Other Branches

LITERATURE

• forward-looking or futuristic

• selective; aims to achieve ultimate beauty

• presents universal or general idea

HISTORY

• backward looking

• detailed and chronologically arranged

• presents the specific and the particular

Literature vs. Other Branches

LITERATURE

• ideas are presented indirectly

• has its own specific subjects

PHILOSOPHY

• presents ideas directly

• deals with issues

Literature vs. Other Branches

LITERATURE

• deals mainly with fiction

• includes every aspect of human experiences

• focus is on the story

SOCIOLOGY

• deals with the facts of life

• includes every aspect of human social conditions

• more research oriented and causal in nature

Literature vs. Other Branches

LITERATURE

• cultivates creative thinking leading to appreciation

• expresses the deepest of human experiences

• emphasizes the cultivation of human emotions and values

PSYCHOLOGY

• scientific study of mental processes and behavior

• explores thoughts, feelings and actions

• focuses on the working of the nervous system

Genres of LiteratureProse Vs. Poetry

PROSE FICTION

Prose is any writing or speech in its normal continuous

form, without the rhythmic or visual line structure of poetry. It is divided into two classifications:

• Fiction / Imaginative Literature

- Literature of Power. Deals with fictitious characters/ persons that presents actual truths.

- Composed of Short Stories, Novels, Novelettes, etc.

• Non-Fiction Literature- Literature of Knowledge. Deals with actual facts, experiences, ideas or events.

- Composed of Essays, Biographies, Diaries, Journals, etc.

PROSE FICTION

Fiction

– came from the Latin word “fictio” or counter-fitting.

- refers to any narrative in prose or in verse that is wholly or in part a production of the imagination.

- Not true but not lies.

- Describe what is not real, but not totally unreal.

- Designed to make us respond “as if”, but not to deceive us.

- Describe none-existing people but produce real emotions, altered behavior and important reflections.

PROSE FICTION

1. Short Story – a prose narrative w/c concentrates on a uniform or single effect and are in which the totality of the effect is the main objective.

2. Novel – fictitious prose narrative or a tale of considerable length in which characters and actins represents the real life wherein the past and present times are portrayed in a plot of none/less complexity.

Elements of Fiction

A. PLOT - it is the skeletal framework of the story wherein the events are arranged in a meaningful sequence.

*the plot should be exciting and should have good structure.

Elements of Fiction

Parts of the Plot:

1. Exposition – refers to the layout of the materials of the story or introduction.

2. Complication – rising action where the major conflict of the story are presented.

3. Climax – the peak of the story or action where the dilemma is faced by the main characters.

4. Resolution – falling action.

5. Denouement – ending/conclusion.

Elements of Fiction

B. SETTING – the time and place of action. It refers to the physical locale, climatic conditions and historical period where the story is taking place.

C. THEME- the generalization about human life or character that a story explicitly or implicitly embodies a philosophical truth. It is the central idea of the story and revolved around the significant human experience.

*it is not the moral message

*it is not always made explicit at some point of the story

*must embody some state of man’s thinking

Elements of Fiction

D. CHARACTER – the set of people embodied within a human experience. The two major characters are the protagonist and antagonist.

Qualities of a good character:

- Plausible

- Motivation

- Vitality

- Sympathy

- Consistency

Elements of Fiction

E. POINT OF VIEW – the narrative voice of the story. It is the vantage point from which the characters, actions and events are seen.

• First Person POV – “I or We” limited to himself.

• Dramatic/ Objective POV – story revealed through the dialogues between the characters and through their actions.

• Omniscient POV – the voice is outside the work which allows the descriptions of the inner thoughts and emotions of any and all he characters in the story.

Elements of Fiction

F. CONFLICT – the dilemma faced by he main character of the story.

Types of Conflicts:• Person Vs. Self

• Person Vs. Person

• Person Vs. Society

• Person Vs. Nature

• Person Vs. Supernatural

• Person Vs. Machine or Technology

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,

the man who never reads lives only one.”

― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

POETRY

Poetry is a disciplined, compact verbal utterance, in

some none/less musical mode, dealing with aspects of internal or external reality on some meaningful way.

POETRY

Poetry relies more o the figures of speech, symbolism ad imagery. It also relies more than pose on the sound and rhythm of speech and how it explains why it often uses rhyme and meter.

Poetic License – the liberty given to poets t do whatever they want to do with the language. It can violate the rules of grammar, insert new words and follow unusual syntactical arrangements to meet the requirement of their poem.

ELEMENTS OF POETRY

a. Theme – the soul of the poem. It the what the poet wants to express through is words which may either be a thought, a feeling, an observation, a story or an experience.

b. Symbolism – the expressions that are not directly stated in the poem to express deep hidden meaning behind the words used by the poet.

c. Meter – it is the basic structure of a poem which is determined by the number of syllables in line.

ELEMENTS OF POETRY

d. Rhythm – this refers to the resonation of words along with the sounds and the music produced when the poem is read aloud and not he rhyming between two words of consecutive lines.

e. Rhyme

f. Simile

g. Metaphor

In a ½ sheet, summarize the story “Waywaya” of F. Sionil Jose by drawing the plot.

Activity