Writing a Close Analysis and Critical Interpretation of Literary Texts Applying a Reading

Approach

Reading Approach
● planned and explicit actions that help readers translate print to meaning
● methods used by readers to understand and analyze written texts

4 Reading Approach
1. Skimming
2. Scanning
3. Intensive
4. Extensive

Skimming
● Main idea of a text is quickly identified
● A reading technique in which a reader reads through the text quickly to see what it is
about
● Objective: Find the general idea or theme of the text
● Purpose: Decide whether to read completely or not
● Method: Read the introduction, conclusion, heading or subheadings
● Examples:
○ Reading the first line of each paragraph to grasp the overall message
○ Going directly through the concluding section to gain a broad understanding of
the subject
○ To see what the blog is all about
○ Quick preview of a book for the main points to determine whether it is worth
reading
Scanning
● Selective reading to search for a specific text
● A reading technique in which a reader scans the page with their eyes in order to find
specific information
● Objective: Search for a specific information within a text
● Purpose: Help you find a particular information that you want
● Method: Look over the whole text to find certain word, meaning, or text
● Examples:
○ Looking for a phone number in a directory
○ Checking the food in the menu of a restaurant
○ Examining the weight content of a product
○ Seaching for your horoscope in a newspaper
Extensive Reading
● Casual reading performed for pleasure or gaining general understanding on a topic
● Approach to language learning in which long text and a large amount of material are
read by the students for general understanding.
● Free Voluntary Reading
● Examples:
○ Reading magazines or stories from wattpad for entertainment
○ Encouraging someone to read not just for academic purpose but for fun.
○ A student selecting his choice of material to read in the library

Intensive
● It requires intimate study of a text with the objective of getting its literary or linguistic
meaning.
● Reading method wherein learners are supposed to read the short text carefully and
deeply so as to gain maximum understanding.
● Purposeful Reading
● Examples:
○ Teacher asking students to read a particular topic on a book.
○ In-depth reading of a literary text
Guides in Reading (V,L,R)
● Vary your reading rate.
● Lookout for essential words
● Read voraciously

LITERARY ANALYSIS
● examining and evaluating a literary work to better understand it

Tips in Literary Analysis

1. Annotating the text
2. Compare and contrast personalities/character, situations they are in, and decisions
they make.
3. Identifying the author's purpose and style, context in which the work was written.
4. Use a specific literary approach or theory.
5. Analyze patterns we see.
6. Include pieces of evidence to prove your points.

CONTEXT AND TEXTS MEANING

Imagery
● It is a literary device that creates a picture in the reader's mind by using words that
appeal to the senses.

Types of Imagery
● Visual Imagery
○ It is produced by the use of words that appeal to the sense of sight.
○ It is an experience of mentally visualizing the appearance of something.
○ This imagery plays a great role in literature.
● Auditory Imagery
○ It is produced by the use of words that appeal to the sense of hearing.
○ It describes what we hear from noise, music, and even pure silence.
● Olfactory Imagery
○ It is produced by the use of words that appeal to the sense of smell.
○ The ability to experience the sensation of a smell when the appropriate
stimulus is absent.
● Gustatory Imagery
○ It draws the attention of the sense of taste.
○ It deals with the use of specific words that trigger the taste buds, sending the
reader down a sensory highway associated with food craving
● Tactile Imagery
○ It is used to describe something by focusing on aspects that can be felt or
touched
● Kinesthetic Imagery
 ○ It is a type of imagery that describes the actions and movements of people or
objects.
○ This type also extends beyond the five senses.
○ It also includes:
■ Actions that lead to touch (e.g., running fingers on soft, silk fabric)
■ Physical movement (e.g., fiddling with his car keys)
■ Temperature (e.g., the warm sunlight kissed her face)
● Organic Imagery
○ It is subjective and it deals with directly creating specific emotions or feelings
within the reader.
○ It entails the use of words and phrases that make the reader feel elated,
nostalgic, fearful, sad, hungry, tired, thirsty, and more.
○ This imagery the most difficult and complex form of imagery
○ Organic Imagery includes:
■ Personal experiences of a character’s body
■ Internal sensations and emotions

● Imagery does not occur on the writer's page; it occurs in the reader's mind.

LITERARY TECHNIQUES
● methods the author or writer of a literary piece used to convey what they want to
impart to the reader
● Examples:
○ Flashback
○ Figures of speech
○ Symbolism
○ Cliffhanger
○ Foreshadowing

CONTEXT
● background or circumstances that form the setting of events.
● information that helps readers understand the meaning of a text.
Types of Context for Literary Works
1. Biographical / Writer’s context
● knowing about the writer's life, values, assumptions, gender,race, sexual
orientation,and the political and economic issues related to the author.
● it can directly or indirectly influence the literary work of authors with their:
(S,E,P)
○ educational background
○ professional background
○ socio-economic background
2. Linguistic Context
● focuses on the language used in the literary text and how it is used to convey
meaning
● Three levels of comprehension:
○ Literal comprehension
○ Inferential comprehension
○ Evaluative comprehension

3. Sociocultural Context
● understanding the social, economic, political and cultural forces affecting
the literary work
● how the work was received by the readers during the time it was written.
● purpose of the writer in writing sociocultural context is to make us examine the
role of the readers in shaping literature

APPROACHES TO LITERARY CRITICISMS

Literary Theory
● school of thought or style of literary analysis that gives readers a means to critique
the ideas and principles of literature.

Literary Criticism
● the practice of studying, evaluating, and interpreting works of literature
● Purpose: creates space for readers to better understand the beauty and complexity
of the world through literature by drawing on a critical analysis of texts.

1. Reader-response
● Focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or her experience of a literary
work
● Believes that a reader's reaction or interpretation of a text is a valuable
source of critical study as the text itself
2. Feminist Criticism
● Focuses on female representation in literature, paying attention to female
points of view, concerns, and values
● Looks into how the female character may be empowered or discriminated
3. Marxist Theory
● Focuses on how literary works are products of the economic and ideological
determinants specific to that era
● Examines literature along the lines of class relations and socialist ideals
4. Queer Theory
● Interrogates gender roles in literary studies, particularly through the lens of
sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual desires
5. Psychoanalytic criticism
● Psychological states of characters in literature to interpret a text's meaning
(unconscious thoughts, personality)
● Emphasis on phallic symbols, wombs, breasts, etc. (desires)
6. New Criticism
● Examines the formal and structural elements of literature, as opposed to the
emotional or moral elements
● Detailed consideration of the work itself (language and technical skills)
7. New Historical criticism
● Focuses not only on the history when the literary text is written, but also how the
history happened.
● Historical and cultural conditions of its production, and its later critical
interpretations
8. Deconstruction
● Examine the conflicting forces or meanings within the text in order to show
that the text has an indefinite array of possible readings/significations
9. Post-structuralism
● Abandons ideas of formal and structural cohesion, questioning any assumed
“ Universal truths” on social structure
● Having different interpretations based on how the words or phrases were
used in the text
10. Critical race theory
● Examines how laws, criminal justice, cultural texts, social and political
movements, and media are shaped by, social conceptions of race and
ethnicity

CHINESE LITERATURE
● Chinese Literature was composed using a formal written language that is called
Classical Chinese.
● Literary works include prose, poetry, philosophical and religious works, fiction, and
scientific writings.

1. Hsia Dynasty (Xia)

● the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography
● recorded in ancient Chinese writings such as the Classic of History and the
Records of the Grand Historian.
● Legendary dynasty found by Yu the Great
 2. Shang Dynasty
● Mandate of Heaven (Divine Right Theory) - belief that the Chinese emperor
had a divine right to rule given by the god or divine force known as Heaven
● The first dynasty for which there is historical record and archaeological evidence
of oracle bones and bronze wares.
● Development of Chinese writing

3. Zhou Dynasty (Chou)

● Longest dynasty
● great literary works of philosophy and religion that became the basis for
Chinese religious and social belief stem, education, and innovation.
● Prose prevailed
● Writings were expressions of true feelings
● There was flexibility of formats and patterns.
● “One Hundred Schools of Thought”
● KUNG FU TZE (Confucianism)
○ Filial piety
○ Analects
○ Golden Rule (FAG)
● LAO TZU (Taoism- The Way)
○ Harmony with nature/environment
○ Wu Wei- doing nothing
● MENCIUS
○ All human beings share an innate goodness
● HSUN TZU (Xunzi)
○ Characterizes human nature as bad
○ Art of War (presents a philosophy of war for managing conflicts and
winning battles)
● MOZI (Mohism)
○ Everyone is equal in the eyes of heaven

Four Books (Sishu)

● The Analects of Confucius
○ pithy sayings attributed to Confucius and recorded by his disciples
● The Works of Mencius
○ collection of political dialogues with extensive prose
● The Doctrine of the Mean
○ demonstrate the usefulness of a golden way to gain perfect virtue
● The Great Book of Learning
○ about education, self-cultivation and the Dao

Five Classics
● The Classics of Poetry
 ○ A collection of 305 poems divided into 160 folk songs, 105 festal songs sung at
court ceremonies, and 40 hymns and eulogies sung at sacrifices to heroes and
ancestral spirits of the royal house
● The Classics of History (Book of Documents)
○ A collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China.
○ It is possibly the oldest Chinese narrative.
● The Classics of Rites (Book of Rites)
○ Ancient rites, social forms and court ceremonies.
● The I-Ching (Book of Changes)
○ A book of oracles containing the whole of human experience.
○ It is used for divination or method of exploring the unconscious.
● The Spring and Autumn Annals
○ An ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics
since ancient times.

4. Qin Dynasty (Chin)

● The Great Wall of China was built and was credited to their first emperor Shi
Huangdi
● The emperor wanted to reduce the school of thought, so he ordered the “Book
Burning and Burial of Scholars” all over the empire
● LEGALISM - philosophy of rule that regards the state as being more important
than the citizen or individual
● Standardized the written Classical Language to help control the society and to
communicate more clearly.
● Li Si introduced a writing system that later developed into modern Chinese
writing.

5. Han Dynasty
● Regarded as the Golden Age or the Greatest dynasty due to the development
of Chinese culture and its contribution on historical texts and scientific works.
● Cai Lun of the imperial court is said to be the first person in the world to
create writing paper, and this was important for written communication at the
end of the empire.
● Sima Qian wrote Historical Records, which is considered to be the most
important history of China.
● At the beginning of the era, Confucianism was revived.
● Confucian texts were rewritten and republished.
● “Silk Road”
● Prose was further developed. Essays combining prose writings and rhymes
became popular.
● New format "Fu" emerged and developed in mainstream format of literature.
● Paper Money

6. Tang Dynasty
 ● “Golden Age of Literature”
● Diamond Sutra - a Buddhist text which is known as the oldest surviving
printed book in the world
● Poetry in this era has conciseness, magnificent words and phrasing,
rhythms and rhymes that expresses one's thoughts and emotions.
● Li Bai - “Poet Immortal”
○ one of the greatest romantic poets of ancient China
○ He wrote at least a thousand poems on a variety of subjects from
political matters to natural scenery.
○ Example: Quiet Night thoughts
● Du Fu- “Poet Saint”
○ one of the greatest realist poets of China
○ His poems reflect the hard realities of war, dying people living next to
rich rulers, and primitive rural life.
○ Known for his works of lüshi, which has eight lines, each of which has
five or seven syllables following a strict tonal pattern.

7. Song Dynasty
● Chinese classic texts, The Four Books and Five Classics, illustrates the core
value and belief systems in Confucianism.
● It is also made the core of the official curriculum for the civil service
examinations.
● Travel literature became famous, in which authors wrote about their trips and
about various destinations
● Known for its great achievements in terms of combining poetry, painting, and
calligraphy, called the three perfections, into a shared art form, or as
complementary activities
● Poetry evolved into a genre called "Ci", song poems composed for banquets
and such events.
● There were strict rules on number of sentences and words and on intonation
of each word.
● Song Ci is considered as kind of music literature whose musicality has high
aesthetic value.
● Composed of two schools: "Bold and Unconstrained", and "Graceful and
Restrained"

8. Yuan Dynasty
● First Mongol Dynasty wherein their leader was Kublai Khan
● Dramatic operatic theaters with human actors speaking in vernacular language
was a favorite form of entertainment and some of China’s best dramatic scripts
were written then.
● Dramas and plays were rich in subjects and characters, and are flexible and
diverse in creation.
● Shadow puppet plays were also known during that time.
 ● The Yuan “Zaju” style of opera was similar to their shadow plays.
○ There were exciting plots, elaborate costumes, refined music and singing,
action, and dance that the Mongols enjoyed.
● Guan Hanqing is regarded as one of the best playwrights of the times.
○ He wrote Midsummer Snow, a tragedy about an unjustly accused
woman who received justice after her death.
● The Romance of the Western Chamber
○ written by Wang Shifu
○ considered one of the best romantic dramas ever written in China.
● Novels were another outstanding achievement of the Yuan era.
○ Two novels are still widely read now and are generally considered of the
four greatest novels in Chinese literature. These are Water Margin
and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

9. Ming Dynasty
● Novels were the main contribution of this era that focuses on descriptions of
characters and reflects social life through a complete storyline and
environmental description.
● Journey to the west
○ Based on the historical journey of a Buddhist to India during the Tang
era to learn Buddhist teachings and bring back scriptures and information.
○ The characters in the book are well known to Chinese children, and they
often appear in martial arts movies and cartoons.

10. Qing Dynasty (Manchu)

● Cao Zhan’s Hongloumeng (Dream of the Red Chamber)
○ Novel of a love triangle and the fall of a great family.
○ Known as the first outstanding piece of Chinese fiction with a tragic
ending.
● Foreign literature and the West became better known; and near the end of the
era, modernistic literature developed.

11. Modern Era

● Sun Yat-sen led a revolution that marked the end of Chinese dynasties in
which a clan rules an empire. There was a big change in chinese society that
happened with the change of government that led to change in the literature
● Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" was published that contains his speeches and
writings.
● There was a lot of politically oriented literature printed
● Scholars had an access to foreign literature, and many students studied abroad
● Under the national government, there was some freedom of expression, and
lots of views and styles of literature were popular.
 JAPANESE LITERATURE
Tanka
- began to emerge which consists of 31 syllables
Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters)
- relates to the creation of the worlds, anthology of myths, legends and other stories
Nihon Shoki (chronicle of japan)
- chronological history of Japan in poetry
Man'yōshū (Collection of Myriad Leaves)
- most important literary piece and oldest collection of Japanese poetry

Kakinomoto Hitomaro
- Japan's first great literary figure
- Wrote in two Japanese poetic forms:
- CHOKA (long poems)
- TANKA or Mijikauta (short poems)

1. Heian Period
● Golden era of art and literature.
● Literature became centered on a cultural elite of nobility and monks.
● Poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical
style.
● The Tale of Genji
○ World's first novels an absorbing introduction to the culture of
aristocracy, manner of dressing, daily life, and moral code
● Murasaki Shikibu
○ a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in
the Heian period.
● The Tale of Bamboo Cutter (Tale of Princess Kaguya)
○ oldest surviving piece of Japanese Fiction
○ With beings from other planets, it’s a story of beauty, exile, belonging and
love.
● The Tale of Heike
○ An epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the
Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th
century in the Genpei War
○ The Heike is considered one of the great classics of Medieval
Japanese literature.
○ It is also a samurai epic focusing on warrior culture – an ideology that
ultimately laid the groundwork for bushido.
● Chikamatsu Monzaemon
○ considered the Japanese “Shakespeare” for his assortment of plays
staged by puppets in the early era of bunraku stage plays.
○ Jōruri - the form of puppet theater that later came; to be known as
bunraku
 ○ Kabuki - the live-actor drama
● Matsuo Bashō
○ greatest Japanese Haiku writer
○ The Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Old Pond
● Haiku
○ poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and
5 syllables respectively.
2. Meiji Period
● Introduction of European literature brought free verse into the poetic
repertoire.
● Themes such as Romanticism, Naturalism , Political and Post-war literature
emerged.
3. Modern Literature
● Rise of Manga (comics)
● Emergence of Cell Phone Novels

INDIAN LITERATURE
● One of the world's oldest and richest literature.
● It started with oral traditions.
● Literature was influenced by their dominant religion HINDUISM.
● It was also influenced by their religious concept of Karma, myths, and legends.

Sanskrit Literature
● Sanskrit is the classical language of India.
● It is considered as a sacred language and the most used language in their literature.
● KAVYA was the major form of classical literature in Sanskrit.

VEDAS
● “Book of knowledge”
● considered as their SACRED HYMNS
● Thee four vedas:
○ RIG-VEDA (oldest)
○ SAMA-VEDA
○ YAJUR-VEDA
○ ATHARVA-VEDA

Sacred texts
● oldest philosophical treatises and form the foundation of major schools of Hindu
philosophy
● BRAHMANAS
● ARANYAKAS
● UPANISHADS
● TIPITAKA
Heroic Texts
● Mahabharata
○ longest epic poem in the world
○ Written by VYASA, who also collected the VEDAS and PURANAS.
● Ramayana
○ “The way of Rama”
○ an ancient Sanskrit epic which follows Prince Rama's quest to rescue his
beloved wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana with the help of an army of
monkeys.

Sanskrit Drama
● Panchatantra
○ an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and
prose, arranged within a frame story
● Puranas
○ It is a genre of mythological narratives.
○ a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about
legends and other traditional lore.

Kalidasa
● "Indian's Shakespeare"
● ancient India's greatest poet and playwright
● SHAKUNTALA
○ poetic drama, tells the story of a love affair between a king and a woodland
maiden Shakuntala
● Raghuvamsa
○ Epic poem
● Meghaduta
○ Lyric poem about separated lovers

Rabindranath Tagore
● " Indian national poet"
● The first non-European winner of the Nobel Prize award for literature
● Gitanjali
○ Song offerings
○ Most famous work of Tagore.

AFRICAN LITERATURE
● Africa possesses both written and unwritten traditions.
● ORATURE
○ coined by Pio Zirimu
○ an African Oral Literature in the form of prose, verse, and proverb
● CALL & RESPONSE
 ○ verbal & non-verbal interaction
● TRICKSTER STORY
○ African folktale
● Prose, poetry, music and dance

Prominent Writers and their Works

1. CHINUA ACHEBE
● "Father of African Literature"
● “Things Fall Apart”
○ most widely studied, translated, and read African novel
2. WOLE SOYINKA
● First African to win a NOBEL PRIZE for LITERATURE
3. NADINE GRODIMER
● Second African to win a NOBEL PRIZE for LITERATURE
4. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
● East Africa's leading novelist
● also known as James Ngugi
● “Weep not, child”
○ first major novel in English by an East African

NORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE

● Native American cultures have a rich history of oral literature.
● Mayan books from as far back as the 5th century are known, and it is believed that the
Maya started writing things down centuries before that.
● This history of American literature begins with the arrival of English-speaking
Europeans in what would become the United States.

EARLY WRITINGS
1. John Smith
➔ A True Relation of Virginia which discussed the advantages of colonial rule
to both the colonies and the colonist audiences.
2. Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine
➔ Their political writings contributed in building the nation that is today.
3. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, and Thomas Jefferson
➔ Their political writings influenced their constitution.

LITERARY STYLES
1. Realism
● represents reality by portraying mundane, everyday experiences as they are in
real life.
● PROPONENTS:
➔ Mark Twain - real name (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
➢ Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
➢ Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
 ➔ Henry James
➢ The Art of Fiction (1884)

2. Romanticism
● emphasizes more on imagination, emotions and also the quality of being
impractical and unrealistic and it also deals with variation from a normal life.
● PROPONENTS:
➔ Nathaniel Hawthorne
➢ The Scarlet Letter (1850)
➢ The House of the Seven Gables (1851).
➔ Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Naturalism
● stories are based on the idea that environment determines and governs
human character
● PROPONENTS:
➔ Stephen Crane
➢ The Red Badge of Courage
➔ Frank Norris
➢ McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

PROMINENT WRITERS
1. Emily Dickinson
● considered as one of the leading 19th-century American poets.
2. Walt Whitman
● one of the influential poets in the American canon
● often called the Father of free verse
3. William Cullen Bryant
● Thanatopsis - argues that death is a natural part of life.
4. Washington Irving
● The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
5. Herman Melville
● Moby Dick
6. Edgar Allan Poe
● The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, The Falls of the House of Usher
● known as the "Father of horror short stories and modern detective story"
7. Harriet Beecher Stowe
● Uncle Tom's Cabin
8. Edward Estlin Cummings
● known as E.E. Cummings
● known for his unconventional punctuation and phrasing.
9. Robert Frost
● The Road Not Taken, The Gift Outright
● wrote poems with traditional stanzas and a blank verse
 10. F. Scott Fitzgerald
● The Great Gatsby

21ST CENTURY
● Modern day American writing is completely separated from the earlier tradition because
of its diverse nature and the breadth of its production
● A new generation of playwrights continues the American tradition of exploring
current social issues on stage.

LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE

● marked by oral traditions of Mesoamerican civilization
● used CODICES to document daily life, society, culture and history.
● wars emerged but they eventually gained independence; different styles of literature
were produced.

Magical Realism
● Literary movement that includes fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic
fiction.
● Its purpose is to understand reality better and bring out deep and often uncomfortable
truths about the world.
● Gabriel Garciá Márquez "GABO"
➔ One of the most significant authors of the 20th century, was awarded the
1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in
Literature.
➔ Work: One Hundred Years of Solitude
➢ This novel was a perfect harmony between magic and reality.
➢ One of the most translated work and most read in Spanish.

Avant-Garde
● widely known as Spanish VANGUARDIA or VANGUARDISMO
● movement that instituted a radical search for new, daring, confrontational, and
shocking novel forms.

Modernismo
● Emphasized the perfection and beauty of language, culture, and poetry characterized
by stylistic and rhythmic expression and strong patriotic rhetoric.
● Félix Rubén García Sarmiento "Rubén Darío"
➔ The Father of the Modernismo Literary Movement

Boom Period
● Modernists novels
● Its features were different or absent from the works of regionalists writers.
● Mario Vargas Llosa
➔ most influential writer in Latin American Boom
 ➔ won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature
● Julio Cortázar
➔ one of the Boom’s biggest names
➔ recognized as one of the greatest Latin American authors of the 20th
century
● Rayuela "Hopscotch"
➔ First Hypertext novel
➢ It is a novel that can be read in different ways
● Jorge Luis Borges
➔ Godfather of Latin American authors
● Gabriela Mistral
➔ first Latin American author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

EUROPEAN LITERATURE
● Largest body of literature in the world
● also called Western Literature

FAMOUS AUTHORS AND THEIR WORKS

1. Latin
● Cicero
➔ greatest Roman Orator
● Virgil
➔ famous for AENEID
➔ The Romans regarded the Aeneid as their great national epic

2. Greek
● Homer
➔ The Iliad, and The Odyssey
● Sophocles
➔ Oedipus the King, Antigone

3. Italian
● Giovanni Boccaccio
➔ Decameron
● Dante Alighieri
➔ Divine Comedy
➢ one of the greatest world literature poem

4. Spanish
● Miguel De Cervantes
➔ Don Quixote
● El Cid Campeador
➔ National Hero of Spain
 5. French
● Gustave Flaubert
➔ Madame Bovary
● Victor Hugo
➔ Les Miserables
● Guy De Maupassant
➔ The Necklace
➔ greatest French short story writer

6. Russian
● Leo Tolstoy
➔ War And Peace, Anna Karenina
● Boris Paternak
➔ Doctor Zhivago

English
1. William Shakespeare
● "Bard of Avon"
● greatest English writer
● Works:
➔ Romeo and Juliet - star-crossed lovers
➔ Macbeth - man's downfall/ greediness
➔ Hamlet - indecision (to be or not to be)
➔ Merchant of Venice - mercy is spontaneous and freely given

2. Geoffrey Chaucer
● "Morning Star"
● Father of English Literature
● Canterbury Tales
● Work:
➔ Beowulf- most important work of Old English Literature

MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS

1. Bible
2. Qur'an/ Koran
3. Song Of Roland
● oldest surviving major work of French literature
4. Book Of The Dead
5. 1001 Nights/ Arabian Nights
6. Epic Of Gilgamesh
● earliest surviving notable literature in Mesopotamia
● second oldest religious text
 TEST
GUAN HANQING
● wrote the Midsummer Snow, wherein a woman was unjustly accused then received
justice after death
TANG DYNASTY
● This dynasty is known as the "Golden Age of Literature".
CI
● Poetry in China evolved into a genre of song poems composed for banquets and other
events.
LI BAI
● This poet is one of the greatest romantic poets of ancient China.
● Also known as "Poet Immortal"
SHI HUANGDI
● the emperor during Qin Dynasty that ordered the "Book Burning and Burial of
Scholars"
HAN DYNASTY
● This dynasty is regarded as the greatest dynasty because of its contribution on
historical texts and scientific works.
The Analects of Confucius,The Works of Mencius,The Doctrine of the Mean,The Great
Book of Learning
● four Books that illustrates the core value and belief system of the Chinese and was
made the core curriculum of civil service examinations
LEGALISM
● Philosophy of rule that regards the state as being more important than the citizen or
individual.
Journey to the West
● In Ming Dynasty, you can find one of the four greatest novels in Chinese literature that
talks about the historical journey of a Buddhist to India.
MAO ZEDONG
● He was known as the father of Communism in China.
● His book "Little Red Book" was published that contains his speeches and writings.
NOVEL
● type of literature emerged and became popular in Yuan dynasty, Ming dynasty and
Qing dynasty
SHANG DYNASTY
● This dynasty helped in the development of Chinese writing and was known because
of its historical record and evidence of oracle bones and bronze wares.
MANYOSHU
● The most important literary piece and oldest collection ofJapanese poetry.
THE-TALE OF GENJI
● It is one of the world's first novel which is written by Murasaki Shikibu.
Chikamatsu Monzaemon
● He is considered as the Japanese "Shakespeare" for his assortment of plays staged by
puppets in the early era of bunraku stage plays.
TALE OF BAMBOO CUTTER
● It is the oldest surviving piece of japanese fiction that talks about a girl from the moon
which exhibits heatsty.
Matsuo Basho
● He is the preatest Japanese Haiku writer who wrote "The Narrow Road to the Deep
North" and "The Old Pond"
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
● considered as a sacred language and most used language in Indian literature
MAHABHARATA
● It is the longest epic poem in the world, written by Vyasa
PANCHATANTRA
● An ancient indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and
prose, arranged within a frame story.
RIG-VEDA
● Vedas are India's sacred hymns; the oldest among the Vedas is
RAMAYANA
● An ancient Sanskrit epic which follows Prize Rama's quest to rescue his beloved
wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana with the help of an army of monkeys.
KALIDASA
● The first non-European winner of the Nobel Prize award for literature and was known as
"Indian national poet".
CHINUA ACHEBE
● He is the "Father of African Literature".
WEEP NOT, CHILD
● It is the first major novel in English by an East African.
PIO ZIRIMU
● coined the word Orature, which is an African Oral Literature in the form of prose, verse,
and proverb
ORATURE
● one of the popular forms of traditional African folktale
THINGS FALL APART
● most widely studied, translated, and read African novel by Chinua Achebe.
KALIDASA
● India's greatest poet and playwright or also known as "Indian's Shakespeare".
GITANJALI
● most famous work of Tagore which consists of song offerings.

Oral traditions
● almost all literature started through this, whether it's the Philippines or any other
country.
Edward Estlin Cummings
● author from North America was known for his unconventional punctuation and
phrasing.
Mark Twain
 ● Samuel Langhorne Clemens is known for his work, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,
what was his pen name
Naturalism
● A literary style in North American Literature that talks about the relationship of humans
to its environment.
Thanatopsis
● William Cullen Bryant became popular because of this literary piece which argues that
death is part of life.
Walt Whitman
● One of the influential poets in the American canon often called the Father of free verse.
Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine
● The following contributed their political writings in building the nation of the North
Americans
Edgar Allan Poe
● He is the father of horror short stories and modern detective story.
John Smith
● He wrote the "A True Relation of Virginia" which discussed the advantages of
colonial rule to both the colonies and the colonist audiences.
Magical Realism
● Literary movement that includes fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic
fiction.
Rayuela or Hopscotch
● It is known as the first Hypertext novel that was written by Julio Cortazar that can be
read in different ways.
Jorge Luis Borges
● He is the Godfather of Latin American authors.
Ruben Dario
● The Father of the Modernismo Literary Movement is
Vanguardia
● literary movement that instituted a radical search for new, daring, confrontational, and
shocking novel forms.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
● title of the book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez which won him a noble prize and was the
most translated and most read in Spanish
Aeneid
● This literary work by Virgil was regarded by the Romans as their great national epic.
William Shakespeare
● He is the greatest English writer and often called as the "Bard of Avon".
Book of the Dead
● One of the influential books that is a funerary text believed to help the deceased find
their way to the after-life.
Boris Paternak
 ● His work Doctor Zhivago won the Nobel Prize but he was forced to refuse it due to its
controversy with regards to the Soviet Union.
Merchant of Venice
● This literary piece of Shakespeare talks about how mercy is not constrained but
rather is given to those who deserve it or not.
Geoffrey Chaucer
● He is known as the "Morning Star" and the "Father of English Literature" who wrote
the Canterbury Tales.
Guy de Maupassant
● He is the greatest French short story writer who wrote "The Necklace"
Song of Roland
● One of the influential books that is known as the oldest surviving major work of
French literature.
Divine Comedy
● Dante Alighieri wrote this poem that talk about his journey to Hell, Purgatory and
Paradise. It is also considered as one of the greatest world literature poem.
Leo Tolstoy
● One of the greatest writers of all time known for his longest works such as War and
Peace, and Anna Karenina.
Epic Of Gilgamesh
● earliest surviving notable literature in Mesopotamia
Robert Frost
● The Road Not Taken, The Gift Outright
● wrote poems with traditional stanzas and a blank verse
El Cid Campeador
● National Hero of Spain

21ST LITERARY GENRES

ILLUSTRATED NOVEL
● Story through text and illustrated images
● 50% of the narrative is presented without words or no text at all.
● The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
● Draw the Line by Laurent Linn

DIGI-FICTION
● Triple Media Literature
● Combines three media: book, movie/video and internet website

GRAPHIC NOVEL
● Narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using a comic form.
● It is longer than a comics and read from left to right.
● Pictures are sequenced in image panels and dialogues are written in speech bubbles.
● It allows readers to imagine and experience the events in the story.
MANGA
● It is a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels originally published in Japan.
● It is considered as an artistic and storytelling style read from right to left.
● SHONEN
● KODOMO
● SHOJO
● SEINEN
● JOSEI

DOODLE FICTION
● Literary presentation where the author incorporates doodle writing, drawings and
handwritten graphics in place of the traditional font.
● The Diary of Wimpy Kid
● The Search for The Slimy Space Slugs by Mike Lowery

TEXT-TALK NOVEL
● Stories told almost entirely in dialogue simulating social network exchanges.
● Narratives are usually presented in blogs, email and instant messaging format.

CHICK LITERATURE
● a genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and
lightheartedly.

FLASH FICTION
● An imaginative literature of extreme brevity, it can range from a word to a thousand.
● Also known as micro stories, postcard fiction, nanotales and short shorts.

SIX-WORD FLASH FICTION

● An entire story told in six words

CREATIVE NON-FICTION
● A genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate
narratives.
● Also known as literary non-fiction or narrative non-fiction

SCIENCE FICTION
● A genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic
science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, a parallel
universe and extra-terrestrial life.
● Also known as literature of ideas

BLOG
● A weblog, a website containing short articles called posts that are changed regularly.
● It contains opinions, interests and experiences of people.
HYPER POETRY
● also called cyber-poetry that refers to works of verse which could not be presented
without a computer since it contains links to sub-poems or footnotes, poetry
“generators,” poetry with movement or images.
Creative Adaptation Using Multimedia and ICT Skills

Multimedia
● computer-controlled integration of text, graphics, drawings, still and moving images
(video), animation, audio, and any other media where every type of information can be
represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally.
BLOG "weblog”
● website containing informational articles about a person’s own opinions, interests and
experiences. These are usually changed regularly.
MIND MAPPING
● a graphical technique to visualize connections of ideas and pieces of information. This
tool structures information to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and
generate new ideas.
DIGITAL STORYTELLING
● uses multimedia tools to bring narratives to life. Digital Stories can be used to explain a
concept, to reflect on a personal experience, to retell a historical event, or to make an
argument
TAG CLOUD
● a visual, stylized arrangement of words or tags within a textual content such as websites,
articles, speeches and databases
SLIDESHOW PRESENTATION
● a series of pictures or pages of information (slides), often displayed on a large screen
using a projector or television.
VIDEO PRESENTATION
● It shows real life objects through moving pictures and displays moving visual media.
TEXT
● consists of alphanumeric characters, which are used to create information
IMAGES
● a visual representation of something such as pictures, drawings and paintings
ANIMATION
● method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images
VIDEOS
● moving picture, accompanied by sound such as a picture in television
AUDIO
● the audible part of a transmitted signal through recording/ reproduction of acoustic
signals
Information and Communication Technology or ICT
● technology used to handle telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building
management systems, audiovisual processing and transmission systems, and
networkbased control and monitoring functions

ICT Skills
● abilities that help you understand and operate a wide range of technology software and
applications
● any direct interaction with technology
Literary Adaptation
● It converts or translates a literary work from one form to another or new genre, which
elements can be altered or modified, depending on the purpose of the material.

Guides in Making a Literary Adaptation

● Identifying the target audience of the creative adaptation
● Knowing the purpose of creating the material
● Determining the key content or the message you wish to convey
● Examining the medium or the format and style to be used.

Assessment
● a wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and
document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational
needs of students
Self-assessment
● a process where students are taught to assess their performance against predetermined
standard criteria and it involves the students in goal setting and more informal, dynamic
self-regulation and self-reflection.
Peer-assessment
● The assessment of students' work by other students of the same status
● It gives students the opportunity to encounter diversity in different ways, critique and
judge and be responsible for their own learning.

criteria or rubric - to rationally judge or assess a certain performance or work.

ANECDOTE
 ● a short entertaining or interesting story about a real incident or person
Purpose
1. To Bring Cheer
2. To Reminisce
3. To Caution
4. To Persuade or Inspire

Allegory
● a story, poem or work of art that has a hidden meaning or message, usually a moral
lesson
● uses characters and events to convey a meaning rather than stating the message