MODULE 1 REASONS FOR STUDYING PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

1. To know ourselves, our heritage, and the genius of our race as a

DEFINITIONS OF LITERATURE people distinct from others.
Literature comes from the French phrase “belles-letters” which 2. To identify the Filipino major writers who contributed to the
means beautiful writing. development of the literatures of the Philippines.
The word literature is derived from the Latin term litera which means 3. To read, discuss and interpret selected literary pieces from the
letter. different regions of our country and relate them to our contemporary
life.
STANDARDS OF A GOOD LITERATURE 4. To show awareness of the varied subjects and themes in which the
Artistry - Great skill in creating or performing something, such as in Filipino writers have reflected Philippine life.
writing, music, sport, etc. 5. To discern the moral, philosophical, social, and artistic values of the
literatures written by our own writer.
Intellectual Value - Comprises content such as performances; 6. To cultivate a continuing appreciation of the literatures of our
teaching, training, and coaching; analysis of specific questions applied country and take pride in what is our own.
to specific situations, and personal attention.
MODULE 2
Suggestiveness - It means bringing thoughts, memories or feelings
into the mind. LITERARY THEORIES
Semiotics
Spiritual Value - Literature elevates the spirit by bringing out moral Semiotics theory provides a framework for understanding how
values which makes a better persons humans use signs to make meaning of the world around them.

Permanence - It can be read again and again as each reading gives Structuralist Theory
fresh delight and new insights and opens new worlds of meaning and Structuralism views language as a function of society that doesn't map
experience. to some universal truth. For example, structuralism views a concept
such as freedom as a function of societies that doesn't have any
Universality - A good literature should have passed the test of time. deep reality behind it.
This refers to literary works that have been handed down from one
generation to another but they are still being read and enjoyed. Deconstruction
Deconstructionism argues that logical structures based on binaries, or
Style - Literature presents peculiar way/s on how man sees life as binary pairs, are the bones of society and language. A binary consists
evidenced by the formation of his ideas, forms structures, and of two concepts that are presented as being at odds with each other.
expressions which are marked by their memorable substance. Examples include life/death, mind/body, and masculine/feminine.

Poststructuralist Theory
They think the truth is up for debate: your truth and my truth may
be completely different. To use a simple example: a Hindu and a
Christian have fundamentally different ideas about whose god is real. Feminism
These two people have different ideas about the 'truth'. Feminist political activists campaign in areas such as reproductive
rights, domestic violence, fairness, social justice, and workplace
1. Origins - Nietzsche's famous remark 'There are no facts, only issues such as family medical leave, equal pay, and sexual
interpretations'. harassment and discrimination.

2. Tone and Style - Structuralist writing tends towards abstraction and Queer Theory
generalization. It aims for a detached, 'scientific coolness' of tone. Perhaps the example easiest to understand is trans people, who are
living a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth.
3. Attitude to Language - Likewise, the meanings words have can
never be guaranteed one hundred percent pure. Thus, words are MODULE 3
always 'contaminated' by their opposites - you can't define night
without reference to day, or good without reference to evil. DEFINITION OF POETRY
1. Poetry is a concentrated thought - Poems use few words to express
4. Project - preferring the notion of the 'dissolved' or 'constructed' the emotions, and thoughts of poets. In understanding poetry, one
subject, whereby what we may think of as the individual is really a must know the use of its language.
product of social and linguistic forces 2. Poetry is a kind of word-music - To fully enjoy poetry, one must read
it aloud. In this way, the reader will be able to hear the use of words as
Psychoanalytic Theory it creates music. Also, the use of rhythm in poetry lets its meaning
Examples of psychoanalysis include: A 20-year old, well-built and more comprehensible.
healthy, has a seemingly irrational fear of mice. The fear makes 3.Poetry expresses all the senses - With the use of language, poets
him tremble at the sight of a mouse or rat. He often finds himself in help readers to use their senses. They let readers smell the fragrant
embarrassing situations because of the fear. flower, see the blue skies, hear the singing birds, feel the cold wind
and taste the sweet mangoes.
Marxist Criticism 4. Poetry answers our demand for rhythm - Rhythm in poetry is
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Hunger Games are both essential for readers to fully enjoy. In reading aloud, rhythm makes the
examples of literary works that lend themselves to Marxist criticism. poem more pleasing to the ears.
5. Poetry is observation plus imagination - The moment that the
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, for instance, reader fails to imagine the images in the poem then it will be hard for
presents the relationship of Huckleberry and Jim, a slave. him to understand it.

New Historicism TYPES OF POETRY

A form of literary theory which aims to understand intellectual Lyric Poetry
history through literature and literature through its cultural Originally, this refers to that kind of poetry meant to be sung to the
context, follows the 1950s field of history of ideas and refers to itself accompaniment of a lyre, but now, this applies to any type of poetry
as a form of cultural poetics. that expresses emotions and feelings of the poet. They are usually
short, simple and easy to understand.
Kinds of Lyric Poems B. Metrical Romance - A narrative poem that tells story of
A. Song - A lyric porm in a regular metrical pattern set to music. adventure, love, and chivalry. The typical hero is a knight on a
These have twelve syllables (dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the quest.
accompaniment of a guitar or banduria.
C. Metrical Tale - A narrative poem consisting usually of a single
B. Elegy - This is a lyric poem which expresses feelings of grief and series of connective events that are simple idylls or home tales,
melancholy, and whose theme is death. love tales, tales of the supernatural or tales written for strong moral
purpose in verse form.
C. Sonnet - A lyric poem of fourteen lines, highly arbitrary in form
and following one or another of several set rhyme-schemes. D. Ballad - The simplest type of narrative poetry. It is a short
narrative poem telling a single incident in similar meter and
Rhyme schemes in Sonnets stanzas. It is intended to be sung.
ababcdcdefefgg - Shakesperian sonnet abbaabba
(cde,cde) - Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet (cdc,cdc) (cd,cd,cd) DRAMATIC POETRY

D. Ode - In manner, the ode is an elaborate lyric, expressed in Elements Of Poetry

language dignified, sincere, and imaginative and intellectual in 1. Content/Subject – It is what is being talked about in the poem. Any
tone. subject can be great in a poem depending on the poetic style of the
poet.
E. Psalm - This is a song praising God or the Virgin Mary and 2. Theme - This refers to the message/s of the poem. It is not easy to
containing a philosophy of life find themes in poetry. But, other elements of poetry will assist the
readers to generate the theme of the poem.
F. Hymn - A lyric poem expressing religious emotion and generally 3. Mood - This is the emotional atmosphere that a poet wants the
intended to be sung by a chorus. readers to feel. It helps the readers to fully appreciate the poem.
4. Imagery - It is how the reader pictures the poem in his mind. The
G. Idyll - Pastoral and descriptive elements are usually the first imagination that is evoked from the collection of tangible images
requisites of the idyll, although the pastoral element is usually created by the poet.
presented in a conscious literary manner. 5.Symbols - Once the writer mentioned images like “sun” “flower”
“river” “mountain” “dreams” etc. as a reader you will not accept those
Narrative Poetry images as they are but convert them into a higher level of giving
meaning.
Kinds of Narrative Poems 6. Sound Effect Devices - It gives music to the ears of the readers.
It avoids the poem to be monotonous in approach. This makes the
A. Epic - A long narrative poem of the largest proportions. A tale poem a kind of word-music.
centering about a hero concerning the beginning, continuance, and
the end of events of great significance. a. Rhyme - Rime or rhyme is the similarity of sounds in the lines of
poetry. It is often times found at the end of the lines although there are
also rhymes in the initial or middle part of the lines of poetry. 7. Persona - In every poem, there is always a character. It relies with
the writer’s creativity in constituting images and other literary devices
b. Assonance - It is the repetition of similar accented vowel sound. to visibly introduce the character to the readers.

8. Speaker - The speaker is the point of view in the poem. It is

sometimes referred to as the poet but it is not all the time the poet is
speaking.

9. Shape and Form - This refers to the structure of poems which can
c. Consonance - It is the repetition of similar consonant sound be structured or free verse. The structured verse or metered verse
typically within or at the end of words. pertains to poems that follow conventions of poetry in terms of rhyme
scheme, versification, rhythmic pattern, and others.

10. Figurative Language - Intentional departure from the normal order,

construction, or meaning of words in order to gain strength and
freshness of expression, to create a pictorial effect to describe by
d. Repetition - A rhetorical device reiterating a word or phrase, or analogy, or discover and illustrate similarities in otherwise dissimilar
rewording the same idea, to secure emphasis. things.

Examples
Simile - Consists of comparing two things using the like or as.

e. Onomatopoeia - It is the use of a word or phrase that actually

imitates or suggests the sound of what it suggest

Metaphor - gives an implied, not expressed, comparison to two

unlike objects.
f. Alliteration - You repeat the initial letter or sound in two or more
nearby words.
Personification - Gives human traits to inanimate objects or ideas.

Hyperbole -You exaggerated for emphasis, humorous or serious.

Irony - says the opposite of what is meant.

Synecdoche - You put (a) the part for the whole, (b) the whole for the
part, (c) the species for the genus, (d) the genes for the species, (e)
the material for the object it constitutes.

Allusion - refers to any literary, biblical, historical, mythological,

scientific, character or place.
- is a reference in a work of literature to a character, a place, or a Apostrophe - “a turning away” “you turn away” from your audience to
situation from history, literature, the Bible, mythology, scientific event, address someone new – God, the angels, the dead, or anyone no
character or place. present.
-is a direct address to someone absent, dead, or inanimate.

Oxymoron - “Pointed stupidity” You emphasize your point by the irony

Paradox - uses a phrase or statement that on surface seems of an apparent contradiction or inconsistency.
contradictor, but makes some kind of emotional sense.
Example: living dead, wise fool, cruel kindness, exact estimate,
deafening silence, organized chaos, open secret, seriously funny, little
giant

Metonymy - You substitute an associated item for the thing itself.

-substitutes a word that closely relates to a person or a thing.

11. Stanza - A recurrent grouping of two or more lines of a poem in

terms of length, metrical form and often rhyme-scheme. However,
the division into stanzas is sometimes made according to thought as
well as form.

12.Rhythm - Rhythm is the musical arrangement of the accented

and unaccented syllable in poetry.

13. Foot - Foot is the combination of accented and unaccented

sound or syllables in the lines of poetry

14. Meter - Meter or measure in poetry refers to the regular

recurrence of the accented and unaccented syllables in the lines
of poetry.

A verse is classified as monometer -

monometer - 1 foot combination
dimeter - 2 feet combination
trimeter - 3 feet combination
tetrameter - 4 feet combination
pentameter - 5 feet combination
hexameter - 6 feet combination
heptameter - 7 feet combination
octameter - 8 feet combination
nonameter- 9 feet combination
decameter - 10 feet combination