21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World – Grade 11

21st Century Literature from the

Philippines and the World

Quarter 2

Representative Texts
and
Authors from Europe

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EXPECTATIONS
This is your self-instructional module in 21st Century Literature from the
Philippines and the World. All the activities provided in this lesson will help you
identify representative texts and authors from Europe.
Specifically, you will learn about the following:

1. identify representative texts and authors from Europe;

2. develop appreciation of literary texts and authors from Europe; and
3. present a well answer to varied activities given.

PRETEST
Identify the author being referred to by the given statement. Choose and write the
letter of the best answer from the word box to the space before the
number.
A. Neil Richard Gaiman
B. Stephen Edwin King
C. Joanne (J.K.)Rowling

D. George R.R. Martin

__________1. The author of the best-selling book series in history and the basis of a
popular Harry Potter film series.
__________2. He is known for his international bestselling series of epic fantasy
novels, A Song of Ice and Fire.

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__________3. A British authorwhose work crosses genres and reaches audiences of
all ages.
__________4. He was described as the King of Horror.
__________5. An American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and television
producer.

RECAP
In your previous lesson, you have learned and identified representative texts
and authors from North America. To know how well you remember the past lesson,
identify at least 3 Authors, a one sentence description of each and example title of
written text.
Authors (1) Title of Written text Description of Author/s
1.
2.
3.

LESSON

European literature

European literature refers to literature of Europe that includes literature in many

languages; among the most important of the modern written works
are those in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, German,
Italian, Modern Greek, Czech, and Russian and works by the
Scandinavians and Irish. Important classical and medieval traditions
are those in Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Norse, Medieval French and
the Italian Tuscan dialect of the renaissance.

European Literature in colloquial speech is used as a synonym for Western

Literature, a literature written in the context of Western culture in the language of
Europe. European literature is diverse as they are, like Indo-European languages
they are parts of a common heritage belonging to a race of proud nations which
boast the likes of Homer in his Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil in his Aeneid, Dante in
his Divine Comedy, and Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales, these and other literary
masterpieces form part of the so called Western Canon

European Literature has been known for its significant contribution to world
literature. It is from Europe developed the standards and techniques in writing
literature where the rest of the world are using or innovating and following to make
writing good. Their innovation and creativity have influenced generations after
generations of writers. It was the outpouring of poems that makes European
literature in the forefront during the 14th century to Middle Century, where writers
such as Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain, and ultimately Geoffrey Chaucer came about
to change the literary world.

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Here are some of the 21st Century Representative Texts and Authors from
Europe

Joanne Rowling (31, July 1965) born in Yate, Gloucestershire, a British writer and
philanthropist. She is best known as the author of Harry Potter fantasy series and
with her pen name J.K. Rowling.Harry Potter becomes her best-selling book series
in history and the basis of a popular Harry Potter film series: Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the
Deathly Hollows over which J.K Rowling had approval on the scripts. Her idea
about Harry Potter conceived when she was on a delayed train from Manchester to
London in 1990. She also writes crime fiction like Cormoran Strike series: The
Cuckoos Calling 2013, The Silkworm (2014), Career of Evil 2015, Lethal White
(2018), and Troubled Blood (2020); The Casual Vacancyin 2012 the books for adult
readers; and The Ickabogin 2020)for children as the latest, these are under the pen
name Robert Galibraith. Rowling was being named as the world’s first billionaire
author according to Forbes and she has lived as a “rags to riches” life. In her UK
sales total more than£238 million, makes her the best-selling living author in
Britain but reported also by Forbes that she lost her billionaire status after giving
away much of her earnings to charity. Rowling supported multiple charities and
she even launched her own charity. She was also named a runner-up by Time
Magazine in its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political
inspiration she has given her fans. She was also appointed as a Member of the
Order of the Companions of Honour at the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to
Literature and philanthropy. And in October 2020, she was named as the “Most
Influential Woman in Britain.”

Stephen Edwin King (21September 1947) born in Portland, Maine. He is an

American writer of various genre such as horror, supernatural fiction, suspense,
science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Many of his books have been adopted into films,
televisions, miniseries, and comic books. He also has a pen name of Richard
Bachmanin which he wrote:Rage (9177), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981),
and The Running Man (1982), and Thinner (1984); beingJohn Swithen: in the short
story “The Fifth Quarter”, and Beryl Evans: “the childrens book’ Charlie the
ChooChoo: From the World of The Dark Tower (2016). He has been described as the
‘King of Horror”, a play on his surname and a reference to his high standing
inpopculture. King graduated with a degree in English in 1970 but had no luck for
teaching position at first and took a job in laundry and continued his writing of
short stories in his spare time. He became an English educator at Hampden
Academy in late 1971 and married fellow writer Tabitha Spruce also that year. And
for the digital era, King published an online serialized horror novel “The Plant”
(2000) he also wrote the digital novella “Riding Bullet’ of the same year.In August
2003, he also began writing a column appearing in Entertainment Weekly called
The Pop King which was attributed to Michael Jackson as ‘The King of Pop”; The Cell
(2006); Duma Key (2008) and a collection Just After Sunset (2008); Ur (2009);
Throttle a novella co-written with his son Joe Hill; a collection of four novellas
called The dark, NO Stars (2010); next was the novel entitled 11/22/63 and
published on November 8,2011 and was nominated for the 2012 World Fantasy

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Award Best Novel; Mr. Mercedes was an inspired by a true event about a woman
driving her car into a McDonald’s restaurant (2013); Finders Keepers second book
(2015); End of Watch (2016); The Outsider (2018); The Institute (2019). According to
King his formula for learning to write is “Read and write four to six hours a. If you
cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.” He was
once asked why he writes and King answered - “there was nothing else I was made
to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories.”

Neil Richard Mackinnon Gaiman(10 November1960) born in Portchester,

Hampshire, England as Neil Richard Gaiman, (Mackinnon was taken from her wife
Amanda Palmer’s middle name;2011-2020). Neil Gaiman’sgrandfather changed
their original family name from Chaiman to Gaiman. As early as age of four,
Gaiman was able to read and said that he was a reader and he loved reading. His
writing career began in England as journalist. He is a British writer who earned
critical praise and popular success with richly imagined fantasy tales that
frequently features a darkly humorous tone. Neil Gaiman is credited with being one
of the creators of modern comics, as well as an author whose work crosses genres
and reaches audiences of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary
Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and is a prolific creator
of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. Duran
Duranbiography was his first book, and second was the biography of Douglas
Adams, Don’t Panic: The Official Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion. The
graphic novel Violent Cases (1987)in which he collaborated with artist Dave
McKean and resulted to come up with Black Orchid (1988) followed by the
groundbreaking series The Sandman (1989) that captured an enviable list of
awards and was DC Comics’ top selling title; became the first comic ever to receive
a literary award, the 1991 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. Gaiman’s
topped best-seller lists with his novels Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett, 1990),
Neverwhere (1996), Stardust (1999; became film in 2007), and American Gods
(2001), His children’s book Coraline (2002; film (2009), InterWorld (2007; with
Michael Reaves) and the two sequels, The Silver Dream, (2013) and Eternity’s
Wheel(2015) were Gaiman’s and Reaves concept and written by Reaves and his
daughter Mallory. Gaiman also received the Newbery Medal for his distinguished
contribution to literature fro children for The Graveyard Book (2008), then an adult
novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013). Gaiman was an active user of the
social netwroking site Twitterwith over 2.7 million followers with the username
@neilhimself.

George Raymond Richard Martin (born on 20, September 1948; as George

Raymond Martin) also known as GRRM and George R.R. Martin. He is an
American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and television producer. He is
known for his international bestselling series of epic fantasy novels, A Song of Ice
and Fire and later adapted into the Home Box Office (HBO) dramatic series of Game
of Thrones (2011). In 1970, Martin graduated with a B.S. in Journalism summa cum
laude from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston,
Illinois, and went on to complete his M.S. in Journalism the next year also from
Medill. He began selling his science fiction short stories in 1970 at the age of 21,
his first sale was “The Hero”, Sold to Galaxy magazine and published in its
February 1971 issue. His first story “With morning Comes Mistfall” was his
firststory to be nominated for the Hugo Awards and Nebula Awards. “Dying of the
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Light” was his first novel that completed in 1976 and published in 1977.
“Sandkings” (1979) the only short story of Martin that have won both the Hugo
Award and Nebula Award as the Best Novellete and the Locus Award for best
novellete;another was the novella “Nightflyers” (1980); a vampire novel Fevre Dream
(1982); followed by a horror novel The Armagedon Rag (1983) which was essentially
destroyed his career due to unexpected commercial failure, this was considered as
his “lost year”. In 1991, Martin returned to writing novels, admiring the works of
J.R.R. Tolkien in his childhood and wanted write an epic fantasy, came his epic
fantasy series, A Song of Fire and said to be inspired by the Wars of the Roses, The
Accursed Kings and Ivanhoe. He originally conceptualized it as three volumes but
came up with seven volumes. The First, A Game of Thrones (1996); A Clash of Kings
(1998); A Storm of Sword (2000); A Feast of Crows (2005) became the New York
Times No. 1Bestseller ; A Dance with Dragons (2011)became the international
bestseller and achieved No. 1 spot in New York Times Bestseller List; and the two
more novels planned in the series: The Winds of Winter and the final volume A
Dream of Spring; then Martin’s new book Fire Blood was announced to be released
on November 20, 2018. Literary critic Jeff VanderMeer described Martin’s work as
having a “complex storylines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing”
and for Dana Jennings of New York Times his work is like a “fantasy for grownups”.

Read and analyze the example text written by Neil Gaiman.

Coraline is a dark fantasy children’s novella written by Neil
Gaiman, published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Hraper
Collins. The Guardianranked Coraline #82 in its list of 100
Best Books of the 21st Century, it was also awardedthe 2003
Hugo Award for Best Novella and the 2003 Nebula Award for
Best Novella and 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for
Young Redaers. Coraline has been adapted into a 2009 stop-
motion film and drected by Henry Selick and received a critical
acclaim.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Coraline.jpg

Plot
Coraline Jones and her loving parents move into an old house that has been
divided into flats. The other tenants include Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two
elderly women retired from the stage and Mr. Bobo, initially referred to as "the
crazy old man upstairs," who claims to be training a mouse circus. The flat beside
Coraline's is unoccupied, and a small door that links them is revealed to be bricked
up when opened.
Coraline goes to visit her new neighbors. Mr. Bobo relays to her a message
from his mice: "Don't go through the door." Coraline also has tea with Miss Spink
and Miss Forcible, and Miss Spink spies danger in Coraline's future after reading
her tea leaves.

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 Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door when she is
home by herself. This time, she finds the brick wall behind the door is gone. In its
place is a long hallway that leads to a flat identical to her own, except inhabited by
the "Other Mother" and "Other Father," who have black buttons for eyes. The Other
Mother is notably taller and thinner than her real mother. Her black hair seems to
move by itself, her skin is paper-white, and her nails are long and red. Coraline
finds the "Other World" more interesting than her own; the Other Mother cooks
food that she actually enjoys, both of her Other Parents pay more attention to her,
her toy box is filled with animate toys that can move and fly, the Other Miss Spink
and Miss Forcible perform a never-ending act in their flat, and the Other Mr. Bobo
performs a mouse circus. She even finds that the feral black cat that wanders
around the house in the real world can talk. The cat identifies itself as the same cat
that lives in the real world and possesses the ability to travel through the gaps
between the two worlds. Although intentionally rude and unhelpful for the greater
part of the conversation, it briefly praises her for bringing "protection," then
vanishes.
After Coraline returns to the copy of her flat, the Other Mother offers
Coraline the opportunity to stay in the Other World forever, but in order to do so,
Coraline must allow buttons to be sewn into her eyes. Coraline is horrified and
returns through the door to her home. Upon return to her apartment, Coraline
finds that her real parents are missing. They do not return the next day, and the
black cat wakes her and takes her to a mirror in her hallway, through which she
can see her trapped parents. They signal to her by writing "Help Us" on the glass,
from which Coraline deduces the Other Mother has kidnapped them. She first calls
the police, but they do not believe her. So Coraline, though frightened of returning,
goes back to the Other World to confront the Other Mother and rescue her parents.
In the garden, Coraline is prompted by the cat to challenge the Other Mother, as
"her kind of thing loves games and challenges." The Other Mother tries to convince
Coraline to stay, but Coraline refuses and is locked within a small space behind a
mirror as punishment.
In the small dark closet space, she meets three ghost children. Each had in
the past let the Other Mother, whom they archaically refer to as the "beldam", sew
buttons over their eyes. They tell Coraline how the Other Mother eventually grew
bored with them, leaving them to die and cast them aside, but they are trapped
there because she has kept their souls. If their souls can be rescued from the Other
Mother, then the ghosts can pass on. The ghost children implore Coraline to escape
and avoid their fate.
After the Other Mother releases Coraline from the mirror, Coraline proposes
a game: if she can find the ghost children's souls and her parents, then she, her
parents, and the ghost children may go free. If she loses, then Coraline will let the
Other Mother sew the buttons into her eyes and become a loving daughter to her.
The Other Mother agrees and swears on her mother's grave. Coraline demands that
the Other Mother swears on something else and she swears on her right hand.
Coraline searches through the Other World and overcomes the Other
Mother's obstacles by using her wits and Miss Spink's lucky stone (the protection
the cat referred to) to find the marble-like souls of the ghost children. She also
deduces that her parents are imprisoned in a snow globe on the mantelpiece. The
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ghost children warn her that even if Coraline wins, the Other Mother will not let her
go, so Coraline tricks the Other Mother by announcing that she knows where her
parents are hidden: in the passageway between the worlds. The Other Mother
cannot resist gloating by opening the door to show Coraline that her parents are
not there. When the Other Mother opens the door Coraline throws the cat at the
Other Mother, grabs the snow globe, and escapes to the real world with the key,
and the cat quickly follows. While escaping, Coraline forces the door shut on the
Other Mother's hand. Back in her home, Coraline falls asleep on a chair. She is
awoken by her parents who have no memory of the events.
That night, Coraline has a dream in which she meets the three children at a
picnic. The children are dressed in clothes from different periods and one seems to
have wings. They warn her that her task is still not done: the Other Mother will
attempt to get her back and will try to get the key to open the door between the
worlds. Coraline goes to the old well in the woods to dispose of the key. She
pretends to have a picnic, with the picnic blanket laid over the entrance to the well.
The Other Mother's severed hand attempts to seize the key, but steps on the
blanket and falls into the well. Coraline returns to the house, greeting her
neighbors (who finally get her name right), and gets ready for school the next day.

ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Using the graphic organizer, list down the title of works below to its
corresponding authors in each column.
Stephen George R. R.
Neil Gaiman J.K. Rowling
Edwin King Martin

A. Sandkings G. The Sandman

B. Coraline H. The Silkworm
C. Finders Keepers I. A song of Ice and Fire
D. The Hero J. The Plant
E. The Ickabog K. 11/22/63 novel
F. Harry Potter Series L. American Gods

Activity 2: Appreciation of the sample text:Answer the comprehension question

about the text “Coraline”

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 1. Who is the protagonist in the story? Describer her.
2. How do you describe the other mother? Why do you feel that way?
3. Why does the other mother have significant differences in appearance from
her real mother?
4. What is the conflict in the story? How does the protagonist resolve the
problem?
5. How do you find the story? Is it interesting/entertaining? Explain your
thoughts and feelings after reading the story.

Activity 3: Appreciation of the sample text: “Coraline”

Draw an object/scene/character transpired from the selection that has the most
impact on you, then explain.

https://pixy.org/1005522 /

WRAP-UP
To wrap up everything about the lesson, differentiate the four representative
authors from Europe that we discussed based on their genre and attitude towards
writing.

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VALUING
Family is defined as a social group made up of parents and their
children (www.merriam-webster.com/dictionnary).

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 Write a short message to your parents expressing how you feel about them,
what you wish to say, and how sometimes it can be hard to say.

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