INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS
DR. SOETOMO UNIVERSITY
SEPTEMBER 2021
 INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. DEFINITION OF LITERATURE
3. IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
4. KINDS OF LITERATURE
5. ELEMENTS OF THE STORY (FICTION)
6. ELEMENTS OF THE PLAY (DRAMA)
7. ELEMENTS OF THE POEM (POETRY)
 INTRODUCTION

The study or appreciation of literature is very

interesting and helpful to learners for many
reasons.
• Literature in English involves the reading and
analysis of written materials of different kinds
including fiction and non-fiction written works in
English.
• All learners of Literature in English should be
ready to analyze whatever they read critically by
the end of the course.
 DEFINITION OF LITERATURE

It is very difficult to offer a precise definition of

Literature, but we shall give a working definition of it
in line with what we shall be studying.
• Literature can be defined as ‘pieces
of writing that are valued as works of
art, especially novels, plays and
poems’.
• (Oxford Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary).
 DEFINITION OF LITERATURE

• “the body of written works produced

in a particular language, country, or
age, or the body of writings on a
particular subject (scientific, art, etc.)”
(Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus).
 DEFINITION OF LITERATURE
• Looking at the previous Dictionary definitions of
Literature, we may define Literature generally as
any body of written works that is written and
produced in any country, language or age for a
specific purpose such as information, education or
entertainment to the reader, which can be fictional
or non-fictional in nature.
• However, in Literature in English as a subject,
our main concern is on the first definition
above.
 IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
Reading and studying Literature in very important for
various reasons as outlined below:
• Literature improves your command of language
• It teaches you about the life, cultures and
experiences
of people in other parts of the world.
• It gives you information about other parts of the
world which you may never be able to visit in
your lifetime.
(Shimmer Chinodya, 1992:36)
 IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
• It entertains you and provides useful occupation in your free time.
• It makes you a wiser and more experienced person by forcing you
to judge, sympathize with, or criticize the characters you read
about.
• It helps you compare your own experiences with the experiences
of other people.
• It gives information which may be useful in other subjects, for
example,
in Geography, Science, History, Social Studies, and so on.
(Shimmer Chinodya, 1992:36)
 IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE

Literature in general is very important to all readers although

you may not take Literature in English as an examinable
subject at school. Reading is in fact very much part of
language
learning. This will, among other things, improve your
command of the English Language if you read widely.
Teachers of the English language should encourage their
students to read widely by using their community
libraries if their schools have none. Where this facility is
not available, make use of your class library or exchange
books with your classmates.
 KINDS OF LITERATURE

• Generally, Literature is divided into two (2) kinds,

namely, Fictional and Non-Fictional Literature.
• Fictional Literature is imaginary composed writing or work of
art that is meant to provide information, education and
entertainment to the reader. In other words, fictional literature
is
based on the writer’s imagination rather than reality.
• Non – fictional Literature is factual writing or written work
that is gives facts that can be proved as it provides real places,
events, characters, times or reality rather than imaginary
things.
 KINDS OF LITERATURE
(CONT’D)
• Examples of Fictional Literature include plays, poems, short
stories, novels, oral literature, and songs
• Examples of Non-Fictional Literature include
autobiographies, biographies, essays, diaries and journals,
magazines, newspapers, subject text books such as in
Geography, History and Civic Education.
• In our study of Literature in English, however, we shall
concentrate on Fictional Literature as exemplified above.
Generally, its main concern is with Drama (Plays), Fiction
(stories), and Poetry (Poems).
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(THE STORY)
• Generally, fiction is any form of literature that tells about
imaginary (invented, made up or unreal) people, places, or
events. Short stories, novels, and folk tales are kinds of fiction.
• A short story is a short fictional prose narrative built on a plot
that includes the basic situation, complications, climax, and
resolution.
• In contrast, a Novel is a long fictional story that uses all the
elements of storytelling, namely, plot, character, setting, theme,
and point of view.
• Oral or traditional literature has some form of stories often
told by word of mouth from generation to generation such as
folk tales, legends, and myths which have now been written
down as stories for us to read.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
• The Story, whether it is a short story, novel or fork tale, has the
following general elements that are used to analyze any written story:
Author
Setting
plot
Themes
Characters
Style
Language
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(AUTHOR)
Author: This is the writer of any written work of art or fiction. It
is very important to not only know the name of the author, but
you should also understand and appreciate his or her
background.
This will help you the reader to understand what, how and why
the
author writes any story or novel.
For example, authors have different writing styles in their works,
and they are motivated variously in their writing the story.
Once
you appreciate these things about the author, it most likely that
you
shall understand and enjoy the story you are reading and
analyzing.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(SETTING)
Setting:
• This is the place and time in which the story unfolds or takes
place.
• Setting is important in understanding the background and impact
of the story or incidents in the story. If a story is well told, we
will recall the setting later, long after we have put the story aside.
Where the setting threatens the characters, it creates the conflict
which is
as important in fiction writing or literature.
• So, in interpreting or reviewing a setting of a story, you may
have to ask and answer such questions as: How does the setting
or atmosphere influence the work? Where do the events of story
take place? When do they occur? What was the mood when the
incident took place?
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(PLOT)
• This is a series or chain of related events that tells us ‘what
happens’ in a story. When a plot is well mapped out, it ‘hooks’
us, that is, it catches our curiosity (interest) about what will
happen next. A good plot draws us along after the narrator, just
as a fish
is hooked and played and reeled in by an expert fisherman.
The first thing to recognize about plot is the nature of that
hook which pulls us along and keeps us reading. What the
hook grabs is our own curiosity, making us wonder about the
outcome of a conflict. When a story is strong, you can be
reasonably sure its conflict is strong.
 ELEMENTS OF PLOT
• Let us explore this idea of conflict further because
it is a core or basic element of plot in the story. It
is conflict or struggle that gives any story its
energy.
• This conflict can be between one person or animal
and another, one person or animal and a group of
persons or a whole society, one person or animal
and nature, or one person or animal with something
in
the person or animal such as fear, shyness,
homesickness, or just an inability to make a
decision.
 ELEMENTS OF PLOT
CONFLICT

• A conflict can be external, as when a person

struggles with another person, or with an angry
warthog or with a hurricane. On the other hand, a
conflict can be internal, that is, it can take place
inside a person’s mind or heart. This might
happen when a character has to make a hard
decision, or struggle against fear, or resist an
urge to poke his nose into everyone’s business.
 ELEMENTS OF PLOT

• More conflicts in a story result into complications that develop

as you read the story that require resolutions. In most cases,
these complications are full of suspense that builds up as you
anticipate what happens next in the story. This leads to a climax
in the story, that is, the most emotional moment or the tensest
mood of the story (breath-taking). Lastly, every story with
conflicts should come
to a resolution or an end. Sometimes the story may end in
suspense, leaving you to guess what happens at the end of the
story.
However, most stories especially short stories will often have
a resolution or conclusive end. In other words, your questions
are answered at the end of the story whether for good or bad.
 ELEMENTS OF PLOT

• Therefore, in interpreting or reviewing a

plot for the story, you may have to ask and
answer such questions as: What is the
central conflict of the story? Why does the
conflict occur? What larger meaning or
picture is suggested by the way the conflict
is resolved?
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(THEME)
• Theme: This refers to the controlling, main idea or central
insight in the novel or short story. Theme answers the
question
‘What does it mean?’ a story’s theme is often hard to state,
but it is what the author means or what the reader perceives
to mean by the whole story.
• A theme is usually stated in a sentence or statement. This is
so because a theme has to say something about the subject
rather than just stated as a subject phrase!
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(THEMES)
• Mostly, questions are framed in such a way as to let
you show that you have learnt one or so lessons from
the novel that bear on human interests. These are
usually challenging questions because they require
you to have a
good overview of the text with regard to a wide
spectrum of issues raised in the novel or short story.
Such questions may be asked and answered as: What
central idea or
insight into life does the work convey? How do
other elements help illustrate or reveal this idea or
insight?
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(CHARACTERS
)
• Characters: These are persons or animals involved in a story in
order to show entertain and show us some truth about human
experience and ourselves. A good character should be ‘alive’ to
help us appreciate the story well. In a story, we can recognize a
character by his/her/its appearance, actions and thoughts,
reactions of others (what other characters say or do in relation to
the character), and direct statement of the author (comments
made by the writer of the story as the narrator).
• However, the best story is one in which the narrator doesn’t tell
much directly about what the character is like. Instead, you learn
about the character indirectly by how the character acts and how
others act toward him/her, and by noticing what he/she thinks
and says.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
• Characterization refers to the kinds of characters the novel
or short story has depending on the level of their
development
and involvement in the story of the book. For example, are
the
characters flat or round, protagonists or antagonists, major
or
minor, stars or backers?
• So, in most cases, questions come in such a way that you
need to compare and contrast, describe, discuss pros and
cons of one or more characters with regard to the
development of the story or show appreciation of the
characters generally. In other words, you can ask and answer
such questions as: Why do characters act as they do? What
are their motives? Do the characters change? How do they
change?
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• This refers to the way the novel or short story is written
in order to have a desired effect on the reader or
audience.
• It also refers to the techniques used by the writer of
a literary work such as point of view, humor,
fantasy, flashbacks, tone, and so on.
• Style of writing if understood and appreciated well, can
help you to analyze the story very well.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• On rare occasions, questions are asked to test your
knowledge and skills in these literary devices or
techniques based on a novel or story that you have
read. The questions that may help you interpret or
review a work of literature include: What stylistic
devices does the author use? What effects do they
have? How does the tone, or author’s attitude,
affect the work of art?
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• Point of View: This refers to the style the writer of a
story uses to narrate the story. In other words, writers
usually chose who should tell the story or who should
be the mouth piece in the story. So, you can tell the
story from various angles by using points of view.
There are three basic points of view often used in
narratives: omniscient, third-person limited, and
first-person.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• The omniscient (unlimited) point of view is the
point of view of a god-like (all-knowing) being
who has created a fictional world and who can
tell us everything that is going on in the minds
of all the characters. The omniscient narrator is
outside the story; he or she is not part of the
action at all.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• The third-person (limited) point of view is where
the writer has decided to tell the story from the
limited point of view of a single person (participant)
in the story. This kind of story reads as if a camera is
zooming in on just one character. The writer uses the
third person singular (he or she, or the actual name)
of the character. This is very close to the omniscient
point of view in that the writer still takes a
prominent role.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• And in the first-person (limited) point of view, the narrator
speaks as ‘I’, as a character in the story. This character can
tell us only what he or she sees and hears and thinks about
what is going on. In other words, the narrator is a participant
in the story. The writer chooses to tell the story in the name
of another fictitious person and uses the first person pronoun
‘I’ as witness and participant in the events that unfold in the
story. In this case, the point of view is also limited in that the
narrator can only tell what he or she sees or experiences
rather
than what others do.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(STYLE
)
• In order to review the points of view of any story,
you may need to ask and answer such questions as:
• What is the point of view used in the story?
• Is it consistently used?
• How does it affect your understanding of the work?
• Why did the author choose that point of view?
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(LANGUAGE)
• Language is part of style but it stands out to be the
most important element of any fiction writing.
• Literary language is often used in fiction writing to ‘relish’
the story so that it is more clear, educative, informative, and
indeed interesting or entertaining.
• Some of these language devices include figures of speech
and symbolism such as images, symbols, irony, metaphors,
similes, satire, and so on.
 ELEMENTS OF FICTION
(LANGUAGE)
• The questions that may help you interpret or review a work
of literature include: What figures of speech have been
used? What symbols or images does the work include?
What do they mean? What do they suggest about the
meaning of the work
as a whole?
• You shall learn more about literary language later when we
deal with poetry.