EL 57 Survey of Philippine Literature in English

Topic 2: Characteristics of Good Literature

Learning Objectives

At the end of this topic, you will be able to:

1. Determine whether a literary selection is good or not considering the literary standards;
and
2. Describe the characteristics of a literary piece using the literary standards.

Presentation of Contents

The Seven Literary Standards

Literature is generally considered to be anything that is written. Literally, this makes all our
written outputs such as our notes, excuse letters or friendly notes, lecture note, announcements or
simple instructions and more.

However, these and other written outputs that we make don’t end up in publications nor simply
attract people’s attention and give them entertainment or pleasure. Well, this is because not all
that is written is literature and not all that people consider literature are appreciated and
remembered for the rest of the lives of readers.

What then is good literature? Below is a presentation of the 7 literary standards taken from The
Ugly Writers (2013) which we can consider in determining whether a literary piece possesses
distinct qualities that separate it from other forms of writing and that will finally tell us whether
it is a good literature or not. These include:

1. Artistry – Literature has an aesthetic appeal and thus possesses a sense of beauty.

2. Suggestiveness – Literature unravels and conjures man’s emotional power to define

symbolisms, nuances, implied meanings, images and messages, giving and evoking visions
above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and experience.

3. Intellectual Value – Literature stimulates critical thinking that enriches mental processes of
abstract and reasoning, making man realize the fundamental truths of life and its nature.

4. Spiritual Value – Literature elevates the spirit and the soul and this has the power to motivate
and inspire, drawn from the suggested morals or lessons of the different literary genres.

5. Universality – Literature appeals to everyone, regardless of culture, race, gender, and time
which all are considered significant.

6. Permanence – Literature endures across time and draws out the time factor: timeliness,
occurring at a particular time, and timelessness, remaining invariable throughout time.
 EL 57 Survey of Philippine Literature in English

7. Style – Literature presents peculiar way/s on how man sees life as evidenced by the formation
of his ideas, forms, structures, and expressions which are marked by their memorable substances.