PALAWAN STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION

Department of Secondary Education

Module in EL 13:
Contemporary, Popular,
and Emergent Literature
MODULE 5: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGENT LITERATURE

MODULE 5
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
IN
EMERGENT LITERATURE

1. Aesthetic Movement
2. Feminism
3. Science Fiction
4. Digital or Cyber
Literature
5. Existentialism
6. Realist Movement
7. Use of Vernacular and
Colloquial Language
8. Marxist Movement
9. Modernism

OVERVIEW

In your previous lesson, you have learned about what Emergent Literature is, and its
characteristics and types. You have learned that Emergent Literature are contemporary
body of texts that is gaining momentum in the global literary landscape. It breaks the
traditional way of writing and uses unconventional techniques (pictures/ images, comic
book format).
In this lesson, you will use those previous learnings as your foundation as we discuss
about the issues and challenges in Emergent Literature. Remember that you will not fully
understand these things if you did not take note of the important points in your previous
learning.

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MODULE 5: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGENT LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Identify the issues and challenges in emergent literature.

2. Elaborate ideas on the issues and challenges in emergent literature.
3. Demonstrate understanding on the issues and challenges in emergent literature.

LET US EXPLORE

Activity 1: Let’s Review!

Directions: Based on what you have learned from your previous lesson about the
types of Emergent Literature, choose one that you are most familiar with; define and give
example/s.

Type of Emergent
Your definition Example/s
Literature

Now that you are able to answer our first activity, let us now see its relevance to our
lesson in this module. Did you know that before a literature comes out to the masses, it deals
with different issues and challenges first? No literature was instantly loved by people, there
had always been issues and criticisms before a literature’s success.

LESSON: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGENT LITERATURE

1.Literature consumption is not the same as it was before.

People no longer read books in the same way that they read them before. Because of
the changes in lifestyle, the availability of many sources of entertainment, the advent of
technology, and many more factors, many of the younger generation are becoming less of a
reader or a lover of literature.
2. Rise of Digital or Cyber literature
Digital or Cyber literature is the latest trend in which works of creation are exclusively
on and for digital devices. In this trend of literature, the writer relies on cyber medium like

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MODULE 5: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGENT LITERATURE

website, blogs or social media pages. Though this becomes an opportunity to many aspiring
writers who themselves can publish their own works through blogging websites, this also
creates a wide range of competition between experienced writers and beginning ones.
3.Too many “writers”.
Just like what was mentioned above, due to many free online blogging apps and
websites nowadays, there are also more opportunities for new writers to showcase their skills
in writing; thus, creating much competitions. The chance to be able to create such a very
unique masterpiece makes it harder. Thing is that technology has disrupted everything in
such a way that there are no longer strict rules of entry into the literary world. It now doesn’t
really matter if you have a real talent or not, anyone can easily call themselves a writer and
point to a self-published book. In fact, it doesn’t even matter that those self-published works
are far from true works of literature in its best sense.
3.Too Much Reused and Copied Ideas.
Talking about the fullness of information in the internet, it is truly difficult to come up to
a new masterpiece that one can surely say “new” and “unique”. If 100 years ago the authors
had great scope for creativity and imagination, today one can argue that we’ve already
covered everything and published books on all possible topics and genres. Each idea any
writer might consider has arguably already been written, transcribed, adapted, translated and
chewed hundreds of thousands of times.
4.Some types of emergent literature are dismissed as “inferior literature”.
Some types of literature are argued as “not really literature” because it does not fall on
the standard of “proper reading”. Examples of this are graphic literature like graphic novels,
comics, manga, and etc.
5. Too Many Critics
One of the greatest challenges of emergent literature is the unwilling acceptance of
the mass audience to some of it. Other trending literary pieces are criticized due to observing
‘standard literary criteria’. One definite example for this is Manga. Moreover, another reason
of criticism is the contrasting expectation of the people to a literary piece when it is adapted
into another form (e.g., novel to movie)

6. Too Many Ways to Promote

Given the richness of technology and social media, writers are taking advantage of the
said platforms to introduce, and at the same time, market their works. Since oftentimes
require funds and popularity to do so, many underrated works and authors were abandoned.

7. Focuses on younger audience

Emergent literature mostly attracts younger generation to the point that elderly can no
longer relate with it. A clear border of isolation between teens and adults is evident with up-
to-date literary pieces.

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MODULE 5: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGENT LITERATURE

8. People are becoming more educated about races, sexual-orientation, political-

sensitivity, and etc.
There are already a number of people who are becoming sensitive and entitled to
disregard authors and works due to their wide range of knowledge and awareness about
races, sexual-orientation, politics, and such.

9. Usage of vernacular and colloquial words

Some emergent literatures are being criticized for using vernaculars and colloquial
words-- informal or conversational language. Everyday spoken language gives your writing a
casual, relaxed effect. Colloquial language is not necessarily “wrong,” but it is used when a writer
is trying to achieve informality.

Activity 2 Applying What You Learned!

Directions: Give one literary piece from the Emergent Literature, and research about its
background. Identify and discuss the issues and challenges it went through before it was
accepted by the people. Use the table below for your answer.

Title of the Literary Issues and

Discussion
Piece Challenges

Let’s Wrap-Up

I know that Emergent Literature ___________________________________. I also know

that the issues and challenges in emergent Literature are _________________________,
_________________________________________, _____________________________,
__________________________________, ____________________________________,
_____________________________________, _________________________________,
and __________________________________.

In this, I can say that ______________________________. Addition to that, I also

observed _____________________________.

Now that I know these things, I will use these in ____________________________

because ____________________________.

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MODULE 5: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGENT LITERATURE

REFERENCES

https://www.studocu.com/ph/document/batangas-state-university/professional-
education/eed323-module-in-contemporary-popular-and-emergent-literature/15982911
https://webwriterspotlight.com/issues-affecting-21st-century-writers
https://beautyruthy.tumblr.com/post/650244220271149056/issues-and-challenges-of-
emergent-literature
https://beautyruthy.tumblr.com/post/650244220271149056/issues-and-challenges-of-
emergent-literature

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