21st Century Literature from the Philippines

and the World

Lesson 1: Nature and Meaning of Literature

What is Literature?
- Literature is our connection with our own human experience of life.
Literature comes from the word “litteratura”, which means “writing formed with letters.” However,
literature is not only composes only enclosed in the meaning. It is anything and everything that
reproduces life experience.

 When other people read literature, they are not just being told of stories; they are being shown
events, conflicts and perspectives, as if being physically present in the literature itself.
 It collects, organizes, and sums up the entirety of humanity.

3 MAIN LITERARY GENRES

 PROSE
 POETRY
 DRAMA

PROSE
- It came from Latin words “prosa oratorio” which means “straightforward
Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

PROSE FORMS MAIN CATEGORIES

Fiction and NonFiction

 Fiction
- Is a prose narrative in which the characters and situations are invented by the writer.
Allows the reader to explore new worlds, share the joys and sorrows of the characters, and
learn from the invented experiences of others.
 Non Fiction
- Biographies, Autobiographies, and Essays deals with real people, places things and
events.
- Writer of non fiction keep the following in mind as they write; a topic or an event to
present, an objective or purpose for presenting the idea, and readers or audience.

POETRY

- It consists of language with a strong musical quality in which the words are highly charged with
meaning.
- They also structural elements such as line length and stanzas.
 Lyric Poems
- Are highly musical verses that express the observations and feelings of a
single speaker.
 Narrative Poems
- Are poems that to tell a story. These often have plot, setting, and
characters.
 Epic Poetry
 - Long narrative poems, written in dignified style, that celebrates the
adventures and achievements of one of heroic figures of legend history, or
religion.
 Ballads
- A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive
from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were
originally "dance songs".
- Are songlike poems that tell a story. Often dealing with adventures and
romance. Free verse in poetry not written regular rhythmical pattern or
meter.
 Sonnet
- A Sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in iambic pentameter,
that has one of several rhyme schemes. The two most common types of
sonnets are ( Petrarchan, or Italian Sonnets and Shakespearean, or English,
Sonnets ). A less common type of sonnet is the Spenserian Sonnet.
 Haiku
- A special type of poetry from Japan, consists of seventeen syllables arranged
in three lines, five syllables in first line, seven in second and five in third.

DRAMA

- Is a story told in dialogue by performance in an audience. It includes

television plays, radio plays and even movies.
In drama, actors make a world come alive before an audience.

Stage plays – drama written to be performed on a stage for a live audience.

Screen Plays – scripts written for films. These will include camera angels and can allow for more scene
changes than a stage play.

DRAMA FORMS

 COMEDY
- Is a type of drama that is humorous and has happy ending.
 TRAGEDY
- Is a drama form in which the main character, often a person of dignified or
heroic stature. Suffers a downfall may result from outside forces or from a
tragic flaw, a weakness within the character.
 MELODRAMA
- Is a drama form that is full of exciting events and in which the characters
and emotions seem to be too exaggerated to be real.
 FARCE
- A funny play for the theatre based on ridiculous and unlikely situations and
events.
 HISTORICAL DRAMA
 - Is a play that takes place in the past and is based on real events. In many of
these plays, the characters are also based on real historical figures. The
dialogue and the action, however, are mostly created by the playwright.

Lesson 2: Elements of Literature

Literature of all kinds could be read and analyzed by looking carefully at its most basic elements.
These are FORM, THEME, CHARACTERIZATION, and STYLE.

FORM

- talks about the general structure of the literary piece. Form is the first
aspect of literature that attempts to connect with the reader.
- Form the title of the literary work, to the way the words or sentences
creates a visual impact, every part of it is literature.
Therefore, it is through form that the literature first communicates its
message.
Any literature always has unifying THEME that holds all of its other elements
in place. It is the subject of which literature revolves around. Literature is
purposive.
- It draws in crowds of readers who have the same reasons and goals. It
unites people who share common life experiences. Literature is created to
share stories, ignite a passion, and thrust readers forward to feel more of
life.
Effective stories, be it a fantasy story or a persuasive essay, are always being
led by effective CHARACTERIZATIONS.
- Characters in literature in could be products of the writer’s imagination, or
they could be the very compelling point-of-view that the writer thinks in.
- Lastly, when we talk about STYLE, we are referring to the specific techniques
and designs that a literary writer employs to prolong his or her grip of the
reader’s interest.
- The play on words and skill in storytelling of the writer comprise of his or
her style.
- It is through the individual efforts of writers to improve and develop their
style that literature continues to live, even in this reality of the modern age.

Types of Literature
Literature is of mainly two types. Fiction Literature talks about imaginary characters, settings
and stories. Nonfiction literature, on the other hand, talks about the reality of things, places
and people, building up on facts.
 - However, gaining its popularity nowadays, Creative Nonfiction Literature
tries to combine these two main types into one ingenious literary
masterpiece.
- Creative Nonfiction follows the structure of Nonfiction Literature, while
employing the use of fiction literature’s style and characteristics.
- Also regarded as modern essay, it is built upon facts, but is crafted
creatively. It has become popular in the form of memoirs and literary
journalism articles.

Among the common forms of literature across types are the following:

Drama
- is created literature to be performed and witnessed by an audience. This literature is intended
for theater and is performed by actors donning costumes and props against a constructed
backdrop for setting.
- A drama is divided into “acts” and “scenes”, forming a text filled with dialogues and stage
directions for the actor’s movements.

Novel
- is an extended story, usually fictional. Novels could present various themes organized in
“chapters” and sometimes “volumes”.

Short story
- is a story narrated in brevity, in comparison with a novel. Short stories, oftentimes, are more
creatively crafted than novels, but lack specific and minute details.

Poetry
- is a form of literature that uses more expressive words, like figures of speech, and creative
structures in conveying its message. Most poems are intended to be read aloud, however, unlike
the drama, poems are usually intended to a specific person, or is only meant to be heard and
generalized.
- is the expression of the writer’s emotions. Poetry stands out from the other literary forms as it
has, most of the time, meter, rhyme and rhythm.
Essay
- is a literary from intended to be read, if not, addressed to a specific audience. Essays are
mostly built upon facts and general knowledge.
- It is one literary form that focuses on analyzing and critiquing issues. Essays are deemed as the
most relatable and tangible among the other literary forms.

Epic
- is on literary form that is slowly becoming extinct, if not, rare. In structure, an epic combines
both styles of a drama and a narrative story.
- It is also has an element of song in it, as most epics were sung in the old times. More than a
factual story, epics showcase personal interpretations of their writers, therefore adding his or
her fantasy and mythology in the literature.

Contemporary Forms of Literature

Besides Creative Nonfiction Literature, there are other contemporary literary forms that came
about because of the developments in technology.

Hyperpoetry – or sometimes called “Cyberpoetry”, presents poems that include verses or line
linked through hyperlink mark-ups. This type of poetry is very visual, as it oftentimes uses
graphics to further convey the meaning.

Cyberpoetry is a type of poetry that utilizes technological terms and concepts, especially related
to computers, programming languages and operating systems.

Blog – from the words “web log” is a website created to contain and manage user-made articles
or posts that are updated regularly. This is a good medium for writers to share their opinions
and experiences to a bigger audience, and at the same is a good channel to read others ideas as
well.

Text Tula – is a poem produces and shared through the use of a mobile phone’s messaging
application.
 Usually, these poems are either in the form of a “tanaga”, a Filipino poem consisting of four
lines with seven syllables each with a rhyme scheme of AABB.
The developed Text Tula freely uses other dual rhyme schemes or freestyle rhyme scheme
forms.

Chick Lit – is a genre of fiction that was made popular on the late 1990s. It generally talks about
women and their different struggles, specially staged in modern times.
Themes in this writing genre are treated humorously and lightly.

Speculative Fiction – is a fiction genre that dwell on issues of alternate imagines scenarios. It
uses the appeal of conspiracy themes, fantasy science fiction and dystopian societies to create
imaginative stories.

Flash Fiction – is a fiction genre that presents one-sitting-long-of-reading texts. The longest text
in the genre of flashy fiction is only said to be 1000 words.

Lesson 3: Literary Devices

Literary Devices are common structures applied in any literary work that writers use to convey
their message to the readers.
- It allows the readers to interpret, understand, and analyze the examined work when the
devices are effectively utilized.

In poetry there is a recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables on regular or nearly

regular pattern. This gives a sense of beat or pattern to poetry.

Rhythm - the recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables in pattern (words or in the line/s
in the poem).

Rhythm can be classified in five types:

Alliteration – the repetition of a consonant sound.

Example:

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”

Black bug bit a big black bear.
Sheep should sleep in a shed.

Assonance – the repetition of lines of verse of the same vowel sound.

Example:
- on a proud round cloud in white high night.
- E. E. Cummings, “If a Cheerfulest Elephantangelchild Should Sit”
- The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
- Sally sells sea shells beside the sea shore

Rhyme – The occurrence of the same sounds in words at the end lines
Example:
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, wee no crime.
We would sit down and think which way,
To walk, and pass our long love’s day.

Figures of Speech

Figures of Speech are the use of more expressive language applying varieties of words to
provide creative and dramatic approach to the meaning being presented.

A SIMILE is a comparison between two unlike things using the words "like" or "as.“
Example:
> She eats like a pig.
> Harold is wise as an owl

My love is like a red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;
My love is like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
Metaphor – directly compares two unlike objects.

Example:

Life is broken-winged bird

That cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Personification – Giving human qualities to non-living things or ideas

Examples:
1. The wind whispers serenely through the silent night.
2. The boat dances when hit by large waves.

Onomatopoeia – the use of sound words.

Example:

Tick-tick-tick – denotes time or clock

Vrooooooom – sound of an engine
Boom! – Explosion

Synecdoche – the use of a part of an object to represent the whole.

Examples:
“His parents bought him a new set of wheels”.
“I would like to have your hand in marriage”.

Hyperbole – express exaggeration.

Example:

I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you

Till China and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
- Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”