Grade

11

21st CENTURY LITERATURE

FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND
THE WORLD
.
QUARTER 4 – MODULE 1

REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS AND AUTHORS FROM ASIA, NORTH

AMERICA, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, AND AFRICA
 LESSON REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS AND AUTHORS
FROM ASIA, NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE,
1
LATIN AMERICA, AND AFRICA

Learning Competency: Identify representative texts and authors from Asia,

North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa, EN12Lit-IIa-22 (4 hours).

What I Need to Know

This learning material contains concepts and activities that will help the
learner understand and appreciate literary genres, traditions and forms from different
national literature and cultures, namely, Asian, Anglo-American, European, Latin
American, and African. For the understanding and appreciation of national literatures
and cultures, a learner must first and foremost identify representative texts and
authors from the different regions of the world.
The learners are expected to demonstrate understanding the nature of world
literature enumerate representative texts and authors from Asia, North America,
Europe Latin America and Africa, and show appreciation of the contribution of
these authors and texts to world literature.

What I Know
Recall what you learned about the literature of the world.
A. Where do these continental countries belong? Write Asia, North America,
Europe, Latin America, and Europe on the space provided.

1.Japan ____________ 7. Egypt ____________

2.Korea ____________ 8. Kenya ____________
3.Colombia ____________ 9. Tanzania ____________
4.Greece ____________ 10. China ____________
5.Spain ____________ 11. Mexico ____________
6.Portugal ____________ 12. USA ____________

B. Try your hand on the crossword puzzle. Which ones do you

know about Chinese literature?

Across
1. Confucius is a famous ____ in ancient
Chinese history.
2. The mystic philosophy inspired by
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu
3. oldest collection of Chinese poetry
5. Chinese literature has very _____beginnings.
6. It is a series of rulers from the same family
9. The poet who centers his works on war and
bitter experience.
Down
2. The great poets Li Po and Tu Fu became
popular during this dynasty.
4. He is Kung Fu Tzu, and he founded
Confucianism.
7. Who was the first writer in Chinese to win Nobel
Prize for literature?
8. Who is commonly considered the greatest
Chinese writer of the 20th century?

What’s In
It’s time for a ‘Brainergizer’! Before you get to know some awesome authors from
the different parts of the world, let’s first test your knowledge through this true or false
trivia game. Write T if the statement is true and F if it is false. You can write your
answers in your notebook. Be sure to not ask Mr. Google while doing this activity.
1. The language of the Rom, or Gypsy, people comes from India.
2. English is related to German.
3. The poet W. B. Yeats was from England.
4. Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o always writes in English.
5. The Sound and the Fury is a sonnet by William Shakespeare.
6. No South African has won a Nobel Prize in literature.
7. The words chortle and galumph were both invented by Lewis Carroll.
8. The Brothers Grimm, authors of fairy tales such as “Hansel and Gretel,” were
from Germany.
9. Jeppe Aakjær was a noted Danish explorer.
10. Agatha Christie wrote only novels. How

well did you do in this trivia game?

What’s New
Configuration
Direction: Guess the hidden words that are associated with reading through
configuration.
1. done at a speed three to four times faster than normal reading
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

2. quickly reading a text to get the summary of it

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

3. an approach that takes a large amount of reading

 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

4. an action or skill or reading written or printed matter silently or aloud

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

5. a way of dealing with something

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

What Is It

What is World Literature?

World literature is the totality of all national literatures. The formation of

literature in different countries happened not at the same time, which is connected
with the emergence of writing and artistic creativity. Each nation`s literature has its
own artistic and national features. World literature is very important for studying, the
literature of one country develops together with other national literatures. They
enrich each by borrowing certain literary elements. There are a lot of scientific works
on world literature, which explain the peculiarities of this phenomenon. As a concept,
world literature emerged only in the 19th century when the literary connections of
different countries had spread and strengthened. The term “world literature” was
introduced by Jogann Wolfgang von Goethe. He used the word “Weltliteratur” in
1827. Goethe studied the characteristic features and interrelationships of different
national literatures, the tendencies of their development and their achievements. He
studied the works of famous writers which presented different literary phenomena of
different historic periods.
World literature is the cultural heritage of all humanity. It is essential to study
world literature as it helps us understand the life of different people from all over the
world, forms our world-outlook and acquaints us with the masterpieces of literature.

In your notebook, explain in three (3) sentences what the statement ‘World
literature is the cultural heritage of all humanity’ means to you.

Now let us get to know some representative authors from different regions
in the world and their works.

21st CENTURY ASIAN LITERATURE

1. Scheherazade (short story) by Haruki Murakami (Japan)
2. Their Last Visitor (sudden fiction) by Kim Young Ha (South Korea) translated by
Dafna Zur
3. Battle translated by Arthur Waley ( Singapore)
4. On the Threshing Floor, I Chase Chickens Away translated by Ming Di (China)
6. The Wheel by Vinda Karandikar (India)

SOME WRITERS IN ASIA

HARUKI MURAKAMI (January 12, 1949) is a Japanese writer. His books

and stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with
his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies
outside his native country. His work has received numerous awards,
including the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International
Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize.

YOUNG-HA KIM (November 11, 1968) was born in Hwacheon. He moved

from place to place as a child, since his father was in the military. As a
child, he suffered from gas poisoning from coal gas and lost memory
before ten. He was educated at Yonsei University in Seoul, majoring
business administration, but he didn't show much interest in it. Instead
he focused on writing stories. Kim, after graduating from Yonsei
University in 1993, began his military service as an assistant detective at
the military police 51st Infantry Division near Suwon. His career as a
professional writer started in 1995 right after discharge.
CATHERINE LIM (March 21, 1942) is a Singaporean fiction author known
for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese
culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published
nine collections of short stories, five novels, two poetry collections, and
numerous political commentaries to date. Her social commentary in
1994, titled The PAP and the people - A Great Affective Divide and
published in The Straits Times, criticised the ruling political party's
agendas.

Ming Di is a Chinese poet and translator, and the author of six collections of
poetry published in China. She went to Boston for graduate studies and
currently lives in California. She has translated four books of poetry from
English to Chinese, including Dancing in Odessa—Poems and Essays by Ilya
Kaminsky (Shanghai Arts and Literature Publishing House, 2013).

Arthur Waley (August 19, 1889 ) was an English orientalist and

sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his
translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were
the CBE in 1952, the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1953, and he was
invested as a Companion of Honour in 1956.

GOVIND VINAYAK KARANDIKAR (August 23, 1918 – March 14, 2010)

known as Vindā Karandikar, was a well-known Marathi writer. In 2003,
he was presented with the Jnanpith Award, which is India's one of the
most prestigious literary awards. He has also received for his literary
work some other awards, including Keshavasut Prize, Soviet Land Nehru
Literary Award, Kabir Samman, and India's highest literary award, for
lifetime achievement, the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1996.
21st CENTURY NORTH-AMERICAN LITERATURE
1. A History of Everything, Including You (sudden fiction) by Jenny Hollowell (United States)
2. A Gentleman's C (microfiction) by Padgett Powell (United States)
3. One Today (poem) by Richard Blanco (United States)
4. We Ate the Children Last (science fiction) by Yann Martel (Canada)
5. The Right Sort (twitter story) by David Stephen Mitchell (United Kingdom)
7.One Night (elegy) by Ann Gray (United Kingdom)

NORTH AMERICA

JENNY HOLLOWELL is an American novelist and short fiction writer, and

a partner and executive producer of music house and record label Ring
The Alarm. Her debut novel Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe was
published in 2010, leading her to be named one of the "best new
writers" by The Daily Beast. Hollowell received a BFA from Virginia
Commonwealth University, where she studied film and photography,
and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia, where
she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction and recipient of the Balch Short
Story Award. Her short fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train,
Scheherezade, and the anthology New Sudden Fiction, and was named a
distinguished story by The Best American Short Stories.

PADGETT POWELL (April 25, 1952) Padgett Powell is an American novelist

in the Southern literary tradition. His debut novel, Edisto (1984), was
nominated for the American Book Award and was excerpted in The New
Yorker. Powell has written five more novels including A Woman Named
Drown (1987), Edisto Revisited (1996), a sequel to his debut, Mrs.
Hollingsworth's Men (2000), The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? (2009), and
You & Me (2012), his most recent and three collections of short stories. In
addition to The New Yorker, Powell's work has appeared in The Paris
Review, Harper's, Grand Street, Oxford American, The New York Times
Book Review, and other publications.

RICHARD BLANCO (February 15, 1968) was born in Madrid and immigrated
to the United States as an infant with his Cuban-exile family. He was raised
in Miami and earned a BS in civil engineering and MFA in creative writing
from Florida International University. Blanco has been a practicing engineer,
writer, and poet since 1991. His collections of poetry include City of a
Hundred Fires (1998), which won the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize; Directions
to the Beach of the Dead (2005), winner of the PEN/American Beyond
Margins Award; Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), winner of the Thom
Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award, and the
 Paterson Prize; One Today (2013); Boston Strong (2013); and How to
Love a Country (forthcoming 2019).

YANN MARTEL (June 25, 1963) is a Spanish-born Canadian author best

known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, a number 1
international bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It has sold
more than 12 million copies worldwide and spent more than a year on the
Bestseller Lists of the New York Times and The Globe and Mail, among
many other best-selling lists. It was adapted to the screen and directed by
Ang Lee, garnering four Oscars (the most for the event) including Best
Director and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

DAVID STEPHEN MITCHELL (January 12, 1969) is an English author, he is

known for such bestselling novels as number9dream and Cloud Atlas. The
latter work was made into a major motion picture. After completing his
education, he taught English in Japan for eight years and used his savings to
finance his early writing career. Both his early novel, Ghostwritten, and his
later work, Cloud Atlas, consist of separate but interrelated stories.

ANN GRAY (May 4, 1946)is the author of a number of collections

including Painting Skin (Fatchance Press, 1995) and The Man I Was
Promised (Headland, 2004), Ann was commended for the National
Poetry Competition 2010 and won the Ballymaloe Poetry Prize in 2014.
Her studies for an MA in Creative writing from the University of
Plymouth led to her collection of poems about the sudden loss of her
partner, At The Gate (Headland, 2008). ‘My Blue Hen’ is one of many
written since that publication, which, she says, “prove” she was not
finished with those poems.

21st CENTURY CONTINENTAL EUROPEAN LITERATURE

1. Hazaran (short story) by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio
(France), translated by Patricia E. Frederick
2. Kiss (blog fiction) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain)
3. The Red Fox Fur Coat (sudden fiction) by Teolinda Gersao
(Portugal)
4. Blood of a Mole (sudden fiction) by Zdravka Evtimova (Bulgaria)
 EUROPE

JEAN-MARIE GUSTAVE LE CLEZIO (April 13, 1940) J, usually identified

as J. M. G. Le Clézio, is a French writer and professor. The author of
over 40 works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel
Le Procès-Verbal and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature for his life's
work, as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual
ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning
civilization".

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN (September 25, 1964) Ruiz Zafón was born in the
City of Barcelona. Growing up in Spain, he began his working life by
making money in advertising. His grandparents had worked in a factory
and his father sold insurance. In the 1990s Ruiz Zafón moved to Los
Angeles where he worked briefly in screen writing. He is fluent in English.
Ruiz Zafón's first novel, El Príncipe de la Niebla (The Prince of Mist,
1993), earned the Edebé literary prize fosr young adult fiction. He is also
the author of three additional young adult novels, El palacio de la
medianoche (1994), Las luces de septiembre (1995) and Marina (1999).
The English version of El Príncipe de la Niebla was published in 2010.

TEOLINDA GERSAO (January 30, 1940) is a Portuguese writer. Born in

Coimbra, she studied at the Universities of Coimbra, Tübingen and
Berlin. She also taught at the Technical University of Berlin, Lisbon
University, and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, among others. A full-
time writer since the mid1990s, Gersao is the author of more than a
dozen books. She has won several literary prizes for her work. Her novel
The Word Tree set in colonial Mozambique, was translated into English
by Margaret Jull Costa.

ZDRAVKA EVTIMOVA (July 24,1959) (born in Pernik, Bulgaria) is a

contemporary Bulgarian writer. She has four short story collections and
four novels published in Bulgarian. Her short stories have appeared in
many international literary journals. Some of her short story collections
were translated into other languages. As well as being an author,
Zdravka works as a literary translator from English, French and German.
Zdravka Evtimova has translated more than 25 novels by English,
American and Canadian authors into Bulgarian language. She translates
the work of Bulgarian writers.
21st CENTURY LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE
1. Like Hercules (microstory) by Ana Maria Shua (Argentina)
translated by Steven J. Stewart
2. Honey (flash fiction) by Antonio Utgar (Columbia) translated by
Katherine Silver
3. Essential Things (sudden fiction) by Jorge Luis Arzola (Cuba)
4. You Didn't Know (poem) by Idea Vilarino (Uruguay) translated
by Jesse Lee Kercheval
5. The Desert of Atacama V (poem) by Raul Zurita (Chile)
translated by Anna Deeny 6. To Those Who Have Lost Everything
(poem) by Francisco X. Alarcon (Mexico)

LATIN AMERICA

ANA MARIA SHUA (April 22, 1951) (born in Buenos Aires) is an

Argentine writer who has published over eighty books in numerous
genres including: novels, short stories, micro fiction, poetry, drama,
children's literature, books of humor and Jewish folklore, anthologies,
film scripts, journalistic articles, and essays. Her writing has been
translated into many languages, including English, French, German,
Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Bulgarian, and
Serbian. Her stories appear in anthologies throughout the world. She
has received numerous national and international awards, including a
Guggenheim Fellowship, and is one of Argentina’s premier living writers.
She is particularly known in the Spanish-speaking world on both sides of
the Atlantic as “the Queen of the Microstory.

ANTONIO UTGAR (1974) is (born in Bogotá, Colombia) a globetrotter, he

has lived in Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and is currently based
in Palestine-Israel. He devotes part of his time to writing non-fiction about
his home country, Colombia, as well as the Middle East, and was granted
the Colombian National Journalism Award in 2005. He has published two
short story collections, Trece circos comunes (Thirteen Ordinary Circuses,
1999) and De ciertos animals tristes (Of Certain Sad Animals, 2000), as well
as other stories which have appeared in international literary magazines
and more than twenty-five anthologies. Ungar has also tried his hand at
longer narrative forms: his novel Zanahorias voladoras (Flying Carrots) was
published in 2004, followed by Tres ataúdes blancos (Three White Coffins),
which won the Herralde Prize in 2010 and was shortlisted for the Rómulo
Gallegos Award in 2011.
 JORGE LUIS ARZOLA (1966) was born in Jatibonico, Cuba. Unlike those
authors who have up to now shaped the image of Cuban literature,
Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Miguel Barnet, Jesús Díaz and Reinaldo
Arenas, Arzola belongs to a new generation of writers, the so-called
“novísimos“. This generation is on the one hand influenced more than
the preceeding one by the new awareness of national identity which has
resulted following the Cuban revolution, and on the other hand,
following the political and economic crisis facing the country after the
fall of the Iron Curtain, it questions these ideals.

RAÚL ZURITA (January 10, 1950) is a Chilean poet. He won the Chilean
National Prize for Literature in 2000. Zurita spent four years earning
his living as a computer salesman during a period of financial hardship.
At the same time he was a guest reader at the Faculty of Philosophy at
the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, where he met writers and
intellectuals such as Nicanor Parra, Ronald Kay, Christian Hunneus and
Enrique Lihn. The first of his poems to be published appeared in 1975
in "Manuscritos", the Philosophy Faculty's publication. Four years later
"Purgatorio" was published, the first part of a poetic trilogy which
Zurita would not conclude for another fourteen years. The book
became a huge success.

FRANCISCO XAVIER ALARCÓN (February 21, 1954 – January 15, 2016) was
a Chicano poet and educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to
have "gained recognition while writing mostly in Spanish" within the
United States. His poems have been also translated into Irish and Swedish.
He made many guest appearances at public schools so that he could help
inspire and influence young people to write their own poetry especially
because he felt that children are "natural poet.“ Alarcón wrote poetry in
English, Spanish and Nahuatl, often presented to the reader in a bilingual
format. His poetry is considered minimalist in style.

21st CENTURY AFRICAN LITERATURE

1. As a Woman Grows Older by J.M Coetzee (South Africa)
2. Honey (flash fiction) by Antonio Utgar (Columbia) translated by Katherine Silver
3. Poison (science fiction) by Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa)
4. Hyde Park (creative non fiction) by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)
5. You Didn't Know (poem) by Idea Vilarino (Uruguay) translated by Jesse Lee Kercheval
6. The First Circle (poem) by Kofi Awoonor (Ghana)
7. Tonight (poem) by Ladan Osman (Somalia)
AFRICA

J. M. COETZEE (February 9, 1940) is a South African-born novelist,

essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in
Literature. He has also won the Booker Prize twice, the Jerusalem Prize,
CNA Prize (thrice), the Prix Femina étranger, The Irish Times
International Fiction Prize as well as other awards and honors, holds a
number of honorary doctorates and is one of the most acclaimed and
decorated authors in the English language. He relocated to Australia in
2002 and lives in Adelaide. He became an Australian citizen in 2006.

HENRIETTA ROSE-INNES (September 14, 1971) is a South African

novelist and short-story writer. She was the 2008 winner of the Caine
Prize for African Writing for her speculative-fiction story "Poison". Her
novel Nineveh was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Prize for
Fiction and the M-Net Literary Awards. In September of that year her
story "Sanctuary" was awarded second place in the 2012 BBC
(Inter)national Short Story Award.

PETINA GAPPAH (1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes

in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. She is
currently based in Berlin, where she has a DAAD Artist-inResidence
fellowship. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year
by Brittle Paper. Gappah's first book, An Elegy for Easterly, a story
collection that she says is "about what it has meant to be a Zimbabwean
in recent times", was published by Faber and Faber in April 2009 in the
United Kingdom and in June 2009 in the United States.
IDEA VILARIÑO (August 18, 1920 – April 28, 2009) was a Uruguayan poet,
essayist and literary critic. She belonged to the group of intellectuals known
as "Generación del 45." In this generation, there are several writers such as
Juan Carlos Onetti, Mario Benedetti, Sarandy Cabrera, Carlos Martínez
Moreno, Ángel Rama, Carlos Real de Azúa, Carlos Maggi, Alfredo Gravina,
Mario Arregui, Amanda Berenguer, Humberto Megget, Emir Rodríguez
Monegal, Gladys Castelvecchi and José Pedro Díaz among others. She also
worked as a translator, composer and lecturer.

KOFI AWOONOR (1935 – September 21, 2013) was a Ghanaian poet and
author whose work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe
people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa
during decolonization. He started writing under the name George
Awoonor-Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He
taught African literature at the University of Ghana. Professor Awoonor
was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at
Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at
the Storymoja Hay Festival.

LADAN OSMAN is a Somali-American poet and teacher. Her poetry is

centered on her Somali and Muslim heritage, and has been published in a
number of prominent literary magazines. In February 2014, Osman was
named the winner of the annual Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets
for her collection The Kitchen Dweller's Testimony. The $1000 award was
accompanied by the publication of her poetry anthology by the University
of Nebraska Press in conjunction with Amalion Press.
 What’s More
Read another poem written by a modern Chinese poet, Yu Xiuhua, who became
well known in 2014 with her online poem “Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You.”
Explore one of her poems.

On the Threshing Floor, I Chase Chickens Away

Yu Xiuhua
translated by Ming Di

And I see sparrows fly over. They look around

as if it’s inappropriate to stop for just any grain of rice.
They have clear eyes, with light from inside.
Starlings also fly over, in flocks, bewildered.
They flutter and make a sound that seems to flash.
When they’re gone, the sky gets lower, in dark blue.
In this village deep in the central plain
the sky is always low, forcing us to look at its blue,
the way our ancestors make us look inside ourselves,
narrow and empty, so we look out again at the full
September –
we’re comforted by its insignificance but hurt by its smallness.
Living our life this way, we feel secure.
So much rice. Where does it come from?
So much gold color. Where does it come from?
Year after year I’ve been blessed, and then deserted.
When happiness and sadness come in the same color code,
I’m happy
to be forgotten. But who am I separated from?
I don’t know. I stay close to my own hours.
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2018/july/two-poems-yu-xiuhua

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pirosmani._Threshing-
floor._1916,_Oil_on_cardboard,_72X100.jpg
 Read one of Arthur Waley’s works. Arthur Waley was a 20th century scholar who translated
numerous Chinese and Japanese classics.

Battle
Chu’ü Yüan
translated by Arthur Waley

“We grasp our battle-spears: we don our breast-plates of hide.

The axles of our chariots touch: our short swords meet.
Standards obscure the sun: the foe roll up like clouds.
Arrows fall thick: the warriors press forward.
They menace our ranks: they break our line.
The left-hand trace-horse is dead: the one on the right is smitten.
The fallen horses block our wheels: they impede the yoke-horses!”

They grasp their jade drum-sticks: they beat the sounding drums.
Heaven decrees their fall: the dread Powers are angry.

The warriors are all dead: they lie on the moor-field.

They issued but shall not enter: they went but shall not return.
The plains are flat and wide: the way home is long.

Their swords lie beside them: their blacks bows, in their hand.
Though their limbs were torn, their hearts could not be repressed.
They were more than brave: they were inspired with the spirit of “Wu.”
Steadfast to the end, they could not be daunted.
Their bodies were stricken, but their souls have taken Immortality – Captains
among the ghosts, heroes among the dead. https://doina-
touchingheartsblogspot.com/2019/01/battle-by-chu-yuan-332-295-bc-from.html

Source: https://mongolempirewhap.weebly.com/conquest.html
 Compare the work of Chu’ü Yüan with the work of Yu Xiuhua. Consider the similarities
and differences in subject matter, imagery, and style in your comparison. Copy the
diagram in your LITERATURE ACTIVITY NOTEBOOK. Then, Fill in the Venn Diagram
with the similarities and differences of the two poems.

Battle On the Threshing

Chu’ü Yüan
Floor, I Chase
Chickens Away
Similarities Yu Xiuhua
Subject
matter: Battle Battle

Imagery:

Style:

What I Have Learned

Answer the following questions. Write your answers in your LITERATURE ACTIVITY
NOTEBOOK.

1. What emotions do you feel after reading the poem? Why did you feel that way?
___________________________________________________________________

2. How would you compare the two poems? Which elements do they share, and
what differences do they have?
______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

3. What message does each poem convey?

______________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________

What I Can Do
You are a freelance blogger in an online literary magazine. You need to write
a 500-word feature article on a contemporary (21st century) author from outside
your country. Do an online search on a noteworthy writer and his or her contribution
to the society relative to his/her work. You may choose someone from the list of
authors in the table above, but you are not limited to that list. It may also be nice to
write about an author who has a little online presence, but have made significant
impact to the lives of his/her readers. Make sure that your feature provides the
following information: background of the author, a short overview of the authors
literary works (books, online or print publications, etc.), a short sampling of the
authors work/s together with your commentary. End the article by highlighting what
are the author’s contribution to contemporary literature where you can include
his/her causes or advocacies based on the common themes found in his/her work.
(Note: Write this activity in your notebook. You may also publish this online.)
RUBRIC FOR WRITING COMPOSITION
Performance Very Good Good Needs
Areas 10-8 7-5 Improvement
4-1
Article has specific Central idea is Unable to find
central idea that is vague; non- specific supporting
clearly stated in the supportive to the details
Content
opening paragraph, topic; lacks focus
appropriate,
concrete details.
Article is logically Writing somewhat Central point and
organized and well- digresses from the flow of article is
Organization structured central idea lost; lacks
organization and
continuity
 Cited research Some research of the Did little or no
information, topic was done but gathering of
introduced personal was inconclusive to information on the
Research
ideas to enhance support topic; cited topic, did not cite
article information was information
cohesiveness vague
Writing is smooth, Sentences are varied Lacks creativity and
coherent and and inconsistent with focus. Unrelated
Style
consistent central idea word choice to
central idea
Written work has Written work is Written article has
no errors in word relatively free of several errors in
selection and use errors in word word selection and
sentence structure, selection and use, use.
Mechanics
spelling, sentence structure,
punctuation, and spelling, punctuation
capitalization and capitalization
(some have errors)
 Assessment

Instruction: Match the descriptions in Column A with the corresponding author

in Column B. Write the letter with the correct answer on your answer sheet.

Column A Colum B

1. Ghanaian poet and author whose work

combined the poetic traditions of his
native Ewe people and contemporary
and religious symbolism to depict
Africa during decolonization.

2. Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She

writes in English, though she also
draws on Shona, her first language. a. YAN MARTEL
b. LADAN OSMAN
3. Somali-American poet and teacher. c. PETINA GAPPAH
Her poetry is centered on her Somali d. KOFI AWOONOR
and Muslim heritage, and has been e. HARUKI MURAKAMI
published in a number of prominent f. CATHERINE LIM
literary magazines.
g. FRANCISCO XAVIER ALARCÓN
h. JEAN-MARIE GUSTAVE LE CLEZIO
4. It was adapted to the screen and
i. ELAINE MAGARRELL
directed by Ang Lee, garnering four
Oscars (the most for the event)
j. JENNY HOLLOWELL
including Best Director and won the
Golden Globe Award for Best Original
Score.

5. Japanese writer. His books and stories

have been bestsellers in Japan as well
as internationally, with his work being
translated into 50 languages and selling
millions of copies outside his native
country.

6. Singapore writers has published nine

collections of short stories, five novels,
two poetry collections, and numerous
political commentaries to date. Her
social commentary in 1994, titled The
 PAP and the people

7. Her short fiction has appeared in

Glimmer Train, Scheherezade, and the
anthology New Sudden Fiction, and
was named a distinguished story by
The Best American Short Stories.

8. The story introduces such devices as a

"chicken angel" to interrogate the
value of religious faith and to raise
ethical concerns about eating meat. It
exploits the fine line between
probable opposites - such as laughter
and sadness, absurdity and profundity.

9. The author of over 40 works, he was

awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot for his
novel Le Procès-Verbal and the 2008
Nobel Prize in Literature for his life's
work, as an "author of new departures,
poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy,
explorer of a humanity beyond and
below the reigning civilization".

10. He was one of the few Chicano poets

to have "gained recognition while
writing mostly in Spanish" within the
United States.

Additional Activities
The Boy Named Crow (an excerpt from Kafka on the Shore)
by Haruki Murakami

“So you’re all set for money, then?” the boy named Crow asks in his typical
sluggish voice. The kind of voice like when you’ve just woken up and your mouth still
feels heavy and dull. But he’s just pretending. He’s totally awake. As always.
I nod.
“How much?”
 I review the numbers in my head. “Close to thirty-five hundred in cash, plus some
money I can get from an ATM. I know it’s not a lot, but it should be enough. For the time
being.”
“Not bad,” the boy named Crow says. “For the time
being.” I give him another nod.
“I’m guessing this isn’t Christmas money from Santa
Claus.” “Yeah, you’re right,” I reply.
Crow smirks and looks around. “I imagine you’ve started by rifling drawers, am I
right?”
I don’t say anything. He knows whose money we’re talking about, so there’s no
need for any long-winded interrogations. He’s just giving me a hard time.
“No matter,” Crow says. “You really need this money and you’re going to get it –
beg, borrow, or steal. It’s your father’s money, so who cares, right? Get your hands on
that much and you should be able to make it. For the time being. But what’s the plan
after it’s all gone? Money isn’t like mushrooms in a forest – it doesn’t just pop up on its
own, you know. You’ll need to eat, a place to sleep. One day you’re going to run out.”

“I’ll think about that when the time comes,” I say.

“When the time comes,” Crow repeats, as if weighing these words in his hand.
I nod.
“Like by getting a job or something?”
“Maybe,” I say.
Crow shakes his head. “You know you’ve got a lot to learn about the world. Listen
– what kind of job could a 15-year old kid get in some far-off place he’s never been to
before? You haven’t even finished junior high. Who do you think’s going to hire you?”
I blush a little. It doesn’t take much to make me blush.
“Forget it,” he says. “You’re just starting out and I shouldn’t lay all this depressing
stuff on you. You’ve already decided what you’re going to do, and all that’s left is to set
the wheels in motion. I mean, it’s your life. Basically, you have to go with what you think
is right.”
That’s right. When all is said and done, it is my life.
“I’ll tell you one thing, though. You’re going to have to get a lot tougher if you
want to make it.”
“I’m trying my best,” I say.
“I’m sure you are,” Crow says. “These last few years you’ve grown a whole lot
stronger. I’ve got to hand it to you.”
I nod again.
“But let’s face it – you’re only 15,” Crow goes on. “Your life’s just begun and there’s
a ton of things out in the world you’ve never laid eyes on. Things you never could
imagine.”
As always, we’re sitting beside each other on the old sofa in my father’s study.
Crow loves the study and all the little objects scattered around there. Now he’s toying
with a bee-shaped glass paperweight. If my father was at home, you can bet Crow
would never go anywhere near it.
“But I have to get out of here,” I tell him. “No two ways about it.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He places the paperweight back on the table and
links his hands behind his head. “Not that running away’s going to solve everything. I
don’t want to rain on your parade or anything, but I wouldn’t count on escaping this
place if I were you. No matter how far you run. Distance might not solve anything.”
The boy named Crow lets out a sigh, then rests a fingertip on each of his closed
eyelids and speaks to me from the darkness within.
“How about we play our game?” he says.
“All right,” I say. I close my eyes and quietly take a breath.
“OK, picture a terrible sandstorm,” he says. “Get everything else out of your head.”
I do as he says, get everything else out of my head. I forget who I am, even. I’m
a total blank. Then things begin to surface. Things that – as we sit here on the old
leather sofa in my father’s study – both of us can see.

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction,” Crow
says.
Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing direction.
You change direction, but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the
storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with
death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in
from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you.
Something inside you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm,
closing your eyes and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no
moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky
like pulverised bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.
And that’s exactly what I do. I imagine a white funnel stretching vertically up like
a thick rope. My eyes are closed tight, hands cupped over my ears, so those fine grains
of sand can’t blow inside me. The sandstorm draws steadily closer. I can feel the air
pressing on my skin. It really is going to swallow me up.
The boy called Crow rests a hand softly on my shoulder, and with that the storm
vanishes.
“From now on – no matter what – you’ve got to be the world’s toughest 15-year-
old. That’s the only way you’re going to survive. and in order to do that, you’ve got to
figure out what it means to be tough. You following me?”
I keep my eyes closed and don’t reply. I just want to sink off into sleep like this, his
hand on my shoulder. I hear the faint flutter of wings.
“You’re going to be the world’s toughest 15-year old,” Crow whispers as I try to
fall asleep. As if he were carving the words in a deep blue tattoo on my heart.
And you really have to make it through that violent, metaphysical storm. No
matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will
cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you
will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own
blood and the blood of others.
And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through,
how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm
is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t
be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
On my fifteenth birthday I’ll run away from home, journey to a far-off town and
live in a corner of a small library. It’d take a week to go into the whole thing, all the
details. So I’ll just give the main point. On my fifteenth birthday I’ll run away from
home, journey to a far-off town, and live in a corner of a small library.
It sounds a little like fairytale. But it’s no fairy tale, believe me. No matter what
sort of spin you put on it. (Marikit Tara A. Uychoco, Rex Bookstore 2016), 152-155

source: p113/nick-ian/art/The-Boy-Named-Crow-456862974

Answer the following questions. Write your answers on your answer sheet.

1. What does the boy feel toward Crow? Give textual evidence to prove your
point.

2. How would you describe the boy named Crow?

3. What does the sandstorm represent? Give textual evidence to prove this.

4. Why does the boy in the story have to be the toughest 15-year-old in the
world?

5. Could you relate to the main character of the story? Why or why not?

References
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