WORLD LITERATURE

LITERATURE AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS

Definition

Literature is said to be a product of and a commentary on the life process, literature

being life itself. It is an oral or written record of man’s thoughts, feelings and aspirations

which has stood the test of time because of its universal appeal.

Two Broad Categories

Utilitarian Artistic/Aesthetic

“Literature of Knowledge” “Literature of Power”

chief aim is to supply information to arouse human interest

appeals to the mind/intellect appeals to feelings/emotions

factual fanciful

objective subjective

impartial partial, at times

uses direct language uses indirect/figurative language

Examples: news articles, memos Examples: short story, novels,

Encyclopedia, dictionary, textbooks, etc.

poems, myths, etc.

Two Literary Forms

Prose. All forms of written or spoken expression that are consciously organized and that

lack rhythmic patterns; it implies logical order, continuity of thought and individual style.

Poetry. An arrangement of lines in which form and content fuse to suggest meanings

beyond the literal meanings of the words; the language of poetry is more compressed

and also more musical. Poetry has rhyme, meter and rhythm.

➢ Rhyme - Words rhyme when the sound of their accented vowels and all

succeeding sounds are identical

➢ Rhythm - It refers to the cadence of poetic lines or prose passage

➢ Meter - The repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of poetry (iamb,

trochee, anapest, dactyl)

Standards/Merits:

Artistry/Style – has to do with beauty & forcefulness in the weaving of words, with how all

elements are combined to form a creative whole.

Intellectual value – the capacity to stimulate or stir the mind, to make others think

Permanence – the timelessness & the timeliness; its relevance today as when it was

written.

Suggestiveness – the capacity to uplift the emotions; to soothe the cares of man.

Spiritual value – the capacity to inspire lofty thoughts, especially about the

divine/godly/spiritual

Universality –the truth and meaning that transcend time & space, religion, age and creed
THE LITERARY GENRES

POETRY

A. Narrative – tells a story in verse form

Epic - the longest form of narrative poetry; tells about the exploits/adventures and heroic

deeds of a hero or a semilegendary being; it is set in the distance past.

Two types of Epic:

literary epic – has a known author; written by a single author

folk epic/epic of growth – originates from a group of people

Examples:

Literary Folk

“Kantata ni Daragang Magayon” (M.Bobis) “Ibalong”

“Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained” (J. Milton) “Beowulf”

“Divine Comedy” (Dante) “Aeneid”

Metrical Romance – a long rambling story which embodies the ideals of the medieval

times (age of chivalry); talks about the lives and adventures of the nobility, of chivalry and

knighthood.

Example: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Thomas Malory)

Metrical Tale – a long narrative poem which tells of the lives of ordinary people; has

element of realism.

Example: Decameron (Giovanni Boccaccio), The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)

Ballad – a narrative about (1) a heroic deed, (2) love episode/romantic encounter or (3)

a supernatural element, but simpler than the epic, metrical romance and metrical tale.

Ex. Sir Patrick Spens, Lochinvar, Lord Randal.

B. Dramatic Poetry – a stage presentation or production in verse form.

Tragedy – has a sad ending; main character often meets death; has a somber or serious

tone.

Examples: Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), Oedipus the King (Sophocles)

Comedy – light and sprightly in tone; always has a happy ending.

Examples: The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare). The Frogs (Aristophanes)

C. Lyric Poetry – reflects varied moods and emotions of the author.

Ode – a monodrama where the author is the actor himself who shares an unforgettable

experience of his life.

Example: Annabel Lee (Edgar Allan Poe), Ode to the West Wind (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Elegy – a poem about death or mourning expressed in lamentation.

Example: O Captain my captain (Walt Whitman), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

(Thomas Gray)

Sonnet – a poem of fourteen rhymed lines in iambic pentameter

Example: Sonnet 18 (Shakespeare), How do I Love Thee (Elizabeth Barret Browning)

Song/Psalm/hymn – song is a poem intended to be sung; psalm is a religious song;

hymn a song of praise/adoration either sacred or secular.

Modern ballad – based on a narrative which serves as the poet’s inspiration; there is a

story behind.

Idyll – a poem of rural or pastoral feeling; expresses sentiment for his immediate

surroundings.

Example: Trees (Joyce Kilmer)

PROSE

Short story – a narrative told by a known author with characters, setting, plot and theme.

Novel – an extended form of a short story; with several settings and more characters,

minor and major themes, main plot and subplots.

Myth – prose narratives which are considered to be sacred and true in societies where

they are told; embodiment of dogma or religious doctrines; set in the remote past (when

the world was young and not as it is today) Legends – prose narratives considered to be

true in societies where they originated and thrived; situated in the distant past (when the

world was young but much as it is today)

Folktales – definitely fiction; not an embodiment of dogma; told for entertainment.

Parables – stories containing morals or religious lessons; allegories (an extended

metaphor).

Fables – characters are animals; expressed the follies of man without directly attacking

them.

Essay – a literary exposition expressing the author’s views or ideas about a subject;

maybe formal or informal

THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION

Setting – the time, place, atmosphere

Characters – the actors in the literary piece;

(1) highly developed/well-rounded,

(2) flat/character types

➢ Hero - epitome of perfection

➢ Villain – epitome of evil

➢ Protagonist – the lead character; an ordinary person

➢ Antagonist – opposes the lead character

➢ Anti-hero – a hero and a villain in one

Plot – organic or episodic

Point of View –1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person, omniscient, multiple

Conflict – internal/psychological (man vs. himself); social (man vs. man, man vs. society,

society vs. man), man vs. nature

Theme

Language

TRENDS AND MOVEMENTS

Trend – a temporary literary fashion often spearheaded by a philosophical foundation

which is considered to be absolute by its forerunners and followers.

Movement - though quite similar to a trend, develops in a larger scale and for a longer

period than a trend; it is of greater magnitude than the trend because it practically affects

all the other branches in the field of humanities.

Movements

➢ Romanticism (16th century)

➢ First movement in literary history

➢ First proliferated England and Spain

➢ The age of individualism and self-expression (renaissance)

➢ A period of optimism, freedom, uniqueness as a person

➢ Came about because of accomplishment of a major scale

➢ There was unrestrained enjoyment so the maxim was: “let us drink the cup of life

to the lees”

➢ Focuses on a setting that is far, distant, magical, mystical, imaginative and exotic,

past or present but transports the reader into an unfamiliar place

➢ Characters are of heroic proportions, often larger than life; hero usually comes

from the nobility or the ruling class

➢ Has supernatural elements; villains are the exact opposite of the hero

➢ Plot focuses on adventure; displays cosmic struggle between good and evil; there

is also the struggle of an individual against the society, its norms and its laws, but

the individual triumphs because the story has to have a happy ending (if a tragedy,

he dies only after accomplishing his purpose)

➢ Theme embodies poetic justice

➢ Language is usually verbose, flowery, replete with figurative language

Neoclassicism

➢ A reaction against romanticism

➢ Age of reason

➢ Setting is in contemporary Paris during the 17th century; current, new and familiar

characters are never highly individualized/flat or types

➢ Plot did not patronize adventures; revolved around a social problem; there is also

the cosmic struggle between good and evil’ the society. Its norms and its laws

triumphs over the erring individual

➢ Theme is on poetic justice

➢ Language is refined and polished; prefers the expression of truth in a most refined

and pleasant manner

Trends

Romanticism (late 18th century – early 19th)

➢ A revolt against science, authority, materialism and discipline and an affirmation of

individuality and imagination Romantic writers abandoned the witty and measured

couplet and concerned themselves with the primitive, the bizarre, the irregular and

the unique

Realism

➢ Pervading sentiment: “Life goes on. Man may not be perfect but definitely has

redeeming qualities to compensate for his misfortune.”

➢ Setting is now, current, familiar

➢ Characters are real people

 ➢ Plot focuses on the individual

➢ May or may not carry a moral

➢ Language is ordinary, everyday speech

Naturalism

➢ Extreme realism; brought about by advancement in Science

➢ There is heavy pessimism, cynicism

➢ Does not bring man much hope; shows ugliness of life

➢ Man is pictured as a weakling who cannot rise above the forces of fate, heredity

and environment

➢ Man is a loser because he is doomed from the start

Symbolism

➢ Shortest-lived trend because it didn’t have much in terms of tenets; writers used

personalized symbols

➢ A reaction against naturalism

Imagism

➢ Does not necessarily carry a thought/theme, but focuses on hard, vivid images

➢ Lack of theme did not allow it to stand the test of time dadaism

➢ Irrational, devoid of logic; nihilistic, pessimistic and disruptive

➢ Featured brutality in comic form Surrealism grotesque distortion of reality

➢ No sense, no order; can explore the subconscious

Impressionism

➢ Purpose is to know how external qualities affect the person internally

Expressionism

➢ Purpose is to know how internal qualities affect his perception of the reality

Existentialism

➢ It says: man is born into a hostile and purposeless universe and that he must

oppress the cruelty of his environment through the exercise of his freewill. His

choice determines his act and his act determines his essence.

Absurdism

➢ Strives to express the senselessness of the human condition and the inadequacy

of the rational approach by open abandonment of rational devices and discursive

thoughts.

Experimental theatre

Combined everything! Anything and everything goes.

SIGNIFICANT LITERARY PERIODS

1. Ancient Times – 5th century BC Golden Age of Greece

Notable Literary Figures

➢ Homer (Epic – “Iliad”)

➢ Sappho and Pindar (Lyric)

➢ Aesop (Fables)

➢ Demosthenes (Oratory)

➢ Aeschylus (“The Oresteian Trilogy”), Sophocles (“Antigone”) , Euripides (“Medea”)

- tragedy
 ➢ Aristophanes ( “The Frogs,” comedy)

➢ Plato (“The Republic”), Aristotle (“The Poetics”) (Literary criticism)

2. Roman Conquest – 200 BC to 450 AD Notable Literary Figures

➢ Virgil (“Aeneid” - Epic)

➢ Ovid (“Metamorphosis” - Lyric)

➢ Horace, Cicero (Literary Criticism)

➢ Seneca (Tragedy)

➢ Plautus and Terence (comedy)

3. Dark Ages to the Medieval Times

➢ Early middle – epic poetry (“Beowulf”)

➢ Middle middle – ballad (Tales of Robinhood), metrical romance (King Arthur),

mystery plays, miracle plays, morality plays, interludes

➢ Late middle – literary epic (“Divine Comedy” by Dante), Metrical Tales (“The

Decameron,” “The Canterbury Tales”)

4. 16th Century Renaissance (Age of Romanticism)

➢ Spain

➢ Epic (“El Cid”)

➢ Drama (Lope de Vega)

➢ Novel (“Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes)

 ➢ England

➢ Sonnets, Drama (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Shakespeare)

➢ Dramatic Monologue (“Dr. Faustus” by C. Marlowe)

➢ Lyric Poetry (“Heart Exchange” by Philip Sidney, ”The Nymph’s

➢ Reply to the Shepherd” by William Raleigh, “Song to Celia” by Ben Johnson, etc)

5. Late 16th Century to early 17th

➢ Rise of the baroque literature, a trend which was an excess of romanticism; very

unnatural/exaggerated; emphasis was on form

6. 17th Century

➢ In England, the rise of Puritanism (Ex. “Paradise Lost” by John Milton

➢ In Spain, the Age of Reason – revival of the arts of the Greeks and the Romans

(Ex. Tartuffe by Moliere)

7. 18th century, period of neo-classicism in Europe

➢ France (Jean Jacques Rosseau, Voltaire)

➢ England (Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Daniel Defoe, Joseph Addison

8. 18th century, transition from neoclacissism to Romanticism

➢ England, Thomas Gray (“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”),

 ➢ William Wordsworth (“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”), Robert Burns (“A Red, Red

Rose”), Percy Bysshe

➢ Shelley (“Ode to the West Wind”), John Keats (“Ode on a Grecian Urn”), Samuel

Taylor Coleridge (“Kublah”)

➢ Khan”), Mary Shelley (“Frankenstein”), Lord Byron (“She Walks in Beauty”)

➢ France, Victor Hugo (“Les Miserables”, “Phantom of the Opera,” “The Hunchback

of Notre Dame”)

➢ America, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne (“The Scarlet Letter”), Edgar

Allan Poe (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Ralph Waldo Emerson (“Self-Reliance”),

William Cullen Bryant (“Thanatopsis”)

9. 19th Century Victorian Period

➢ England – advent of Labor and capitalism

10. Realism – Henrick Ibsen, John Steinbeck

11. Naturalism – Ernest Hemingway (“For Whom the Bell Tolls”), Flaubert (“Madame

Bovary”), Guy de Mauppasant (“A Piece of String”)

Imagism – Ezra Pound, Ammy Lowel

Symbolism – Rimbaud
20th century – rise of the anti-art crazes

Notable Figures: James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats

IMPORTANT LITERARY TERMS

Alliteration. The repetition of initial consonant sounds as in “sweet spring”

Allusion. Reference to a historical or literary person, place or event with which the reader

is assumed to be familiar.

Analogy. A point-by-point comparison between two dissimilar things.

Aphorism. A brief statement that expresses a general truth about life.

Autobiography. A story of a person’s life written by that person.

Comic relief. A humorous scene, incident or speech included in a serious drama to

provide respite from emotional intensity.

Connotation. The emotional response evoked by a word.

Consonance. The repetition of consonant sounds within and at the ends of words, as in

down and mine.

Couplet. Two consecutive lines of poetry that end with rhyming words.

Drama. Literature that develops plot and characters through dialogues and actions;

literature in play form.

Dramatic monologue. A lyric poem in which the speaker addresses a silent listener in a

moment of deep emotion.

Epigram. A short poem notable for its conciseness, balance, wit and clarity.

Epistle. A formal literary letter addressed to a specific person but intended for a wide

audience.
Fiction. Imaginative works of prose, including the novel and the short story.

Foil. A character who provides a striking contrast to another character.

Foreshadowing. A writer’s use of hints or clues to indicate events that will occur later in

a narrative.

Free verse. Poetry written without regular patterns of rhyme and meter.

Rhyme scheme. Pattern of end rhyme in a poem.

Romance. Any imaginative narrative concerned with noble heroes, gallant love, chivalry

or daring deeds.

Satire. A combination of critical attitude with wit and humor for the purpose of improving

society.

Soliloquy. A speech given by a character while she is alone.

Speaker. The voice that talks to the readers.

Stream of consciousness. The technique of presenting the flow of thoughts, responses

and sensations of one or more character.

Symbol. A person, place or object that represents something beyond itself.

Surprise ending. An unexpected twist at the conclusion of the story.

Tone. The attitude that a writer takes toward his subject matter.

Understatement. Creating emphasis by saying less than is actually or literally true, ex.

not bad to mean pretty good.

GREEK AND ROMAN GODS AND GODDESSES

ZEUS (JUPITER)- the supreme ruler; the Lord of the sky, the rain-god and the cloud-

gatherer; his breastplate was the aegis; his bird was the eagle; the oak was his tree; his

oracle was Dodona, the land of oak trees.

HERA (JUNO) – Zeus’s wife and sister; she was the protector of marriage; the cow and

the peacock were sacred to her; Argos was her city.

POSEIDON (NEPTUNE) – the ruler of the sea; Zeus’s brother and second to him in

eminence; he was commonly called ‘the earth-shaker” and was always shown carrying

his trident, a three-pronged spear.

HADES (PLUTO) – the third brother among the Olympians, who drew for his share the

underworld and the rule over the dead. He was god of wealth, of the precious metals

hidden in the earth.

PALLA ATHENA (MINERVA) – the daughter of Zeus and his favorite child; she was

battle goddess; she was also the embodiment of wisdom, reason and purity. Argos was

her favorite city; the olive was her tree and the owl her bird.

PHOEBUS APOLLO- “the most Greek of all the gods;” the master musician; the God of

Light and Truth; the sun-god; the laurel was his tree.

ARTEMIS (DIANA)- Apollo’s twin sister; one of the three maiden goddesses of Olympus

(Aphrodite, Athena & Artemis); the Lady of the wild things; As Apollo was the sun, she

was the moon.

APHRODITE (VENUS) – the goddess of love and beauty; the laughter-loving goddess;

the myrtle was her tree; the dove her bird, sometimes the sparrow and the swan. She is

the wife of Hephaestus (Vulcan), the lame and ugly god of the forge.

HERMES (MERCURY) –he was Zeus’s messenger; also, the solemn guide of the dead.

ARES (MARS) – THE God of War0; son of Zeus and Hera; his bird was the vulture.

HEPHAESTUS 9VULCAN AND MULCIBER) – the God of fire, the son of Hera; he was

protector of the smiths.

HESTIA (VESTA) - the goddess of the hearth, the symbol of the home.

NOTABLE WORKS BY FILIPINO AUTHORS

“A Child of Sorrow,” first novel in English by Zoilo M. Galang, 1929.

“Life and Success,” first volume of essays in English, Zoilo M. Galang

“Box of Ashes and Other Stories,” first collection of short stories in book form, ZM Galang,

1925

“Sursum Cordia,” by Justo Juliano, first known Filipino poem in English

“The Distance to Andromeda and Other Stories”, by Gregorio Brilliantes, 1960 , portrayed

individual anxieties

“The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick maker,” by Gilda Cordero Fernando, 1962,

centered on the individual

“The Day the Dancers Came,” by Bienvenido Santos, 1907, vividly portrayed a man’s

search for national identity

“The Bamboo Dancers”, by NVM Gonzales 1959, first winner of Republic Cultural

Heritage Award for Literature “Literature and Society” by Salvador P. Lopez; as a writer,

he emphasized literature from the masses, for the masses

“Footnote to Youth” by Jose Garcia Villa; he stressed art for art’s sake

“Three Generations” by Nick Joaquin

“Like the Molave”, a poem by Rafael Zulueta Da Costa, describe the qualities of the

Filipino people

“How my Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife,” by Manuel Arguilla

“The Life of Cardo” by Amador T. Daguio; a short story

“The Small Key” by Paz M. Latorena

IMPORTANT WORKS OF IMPORTANT WRITERS

Works Authors Genre

1. Iliad (Greece/Homer) Folk Epic

2. Odyssey (Greece/Homer) Folk Epic

3.The Oresteian Trilogy Aeschylus Drama

4. Oedipus the King Sophocles Drama

5. Antigone Sophocles Drama

6. Medea Euripides Drama

7. The Republic Plato Criticism

8. The Poetics Aristotle Criticism

9. Aeneid Virgil Literary Epic

10. Beowulf (England) Folk Epic

11. El Cid (spain) Folk Epic

12. The Song of Roland (France) Folk Epic

13. Paradise lost and Paradise John Milton Literary Epic

Regained

14. Le Morte D’Arthur Thomas Malory Metrical Romance

15. Idyll’s of the King Alfred Tennyson Metrical Romance

16. Faerie Queene Edmund Spencer Metrical Romance

17. Canterbury Tales Geofrey Chaucer Metrical Tale

18.The Rime of the Ancient Samuel Coleridge Metrical Tale

Mariner

19. Lochinvar Sir Walter Scott Literary Ballad

20. Ode to the West Wind Percey Bysshe Shelley Ode

21.Elegy Written in a Country Thomas Gray Elegy

Churchyard

22. Macbeth Shakespeare Tragedy

23. Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare Tragedy

24. Othello Shakespeare Tragedy

25. Hamlet Shakespeare Tragedy

26. A Midsummer Night’s Shakespeare Comedy

Dream

27. The Taming of the Shrew Shakespeare Comedy

28. As You Like It Shakespeare Comedy

29. The Les Miserables Victor Hugo Novel

 30. The Hunchback of NotreVictor hugo Novel

Dame

31. Rip Van Winkle Washington Irving Short Story

31. 32. The Legend of the SleepyWashington Irving Short Story

Hollow

32. 33. The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne Novel

33. 34. Rappaccini’s Daughter Nathaniel Hawthorne Short Story

34. 35. Thanatopsis William Cullen Bryant Poem