Lesson 1: Nature and Elements of Literature

What is reading?
 Reading is a process that involves recognizing words, leading to the development of comprehension.
 Reading is defined as a cognitive process that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning.
 Reading is an active process of constructing meanings of words.

Why do we read?
 Requirement
 Entertainment/Amusement
 Curiosity
 Habit
 Understanding

What is literature?
From World History Encyclopedia
Literature (from the Latin "Littera" meaning 'letters' and referring to an acquaintance with the written word) is
the written work of a specific culture, sub-culture, religion, philosophy or the study of such written work which
may appear in poetry or in prose.

From Merriam Webster’s Dictionary

 writings in prose or verse
 the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age.
-French literature
-Renaissance literature

What are the elements of literature?

Literature is a form of human expression. But not everything expressed in words—even when organized and written
down—is counted as literature. Those writings that are primarily informative—technical, scholarly, journalistic—
would be excluded from the rank of literature by most, though not all, critics. Certain forms of writing, however, are
universally regarded as belonging to literature as an art. Individual attempts within these forms are said to succeed if
they possess something called artistic merit and to fail if they do not. The nature of artistic merit is less easy to
define than to recognize. The writer need not even pursue it to attain it. On the contrary, a scientific exposition
might be of great literary value and a pedestrian poem of none at all.

Prose vs. Poetry

 Definition
Prose

Prose is a straight forward form of Poetry

literature, wherein the author expresses
his thoughts and feelings in a lucid way. Poetry is that form of literature in which
the poet uses a unique style and rhythm,
to express intense experience.

Prose Poetry

Straight Forward Expressive or Decorated

 Language

 Nature

 Essence

 Essence
Poetry
Prose
To delight or amuse
To provide information or
convey a message

Prose Poetry

 Ideas Ideas can be found in sentences, Ideas can be found in lines, which
which are arranged in paragraph. are arranged in stanzas.

 Paraphrasing Possible Exact paraphrasing is not possible

Elements of Literature
Point of View
Point of view in literature refers to the perspective through which you experience the
events of the story.

 First Person
The key to recognizing this point of view lies in the use of pronouns such as I, me, my,
we, us, our, etc. There are several different variations of the first-person narrative, but
they all have a single person narrating the events of the story either as it unfolds, or in
the past tense.

 First Person Periphery

In this case, we see the story unfold, not from the main character’s POV, but from the
perspective of a secondary character who has limited participation in the story itself.