Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

MODULE 7-8: 21st CENTURY LITERATURE FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

OBJECTIVES

1. Compare and contrast literary pieces from across the globe.

2. Produce a creative representation of a literary text by applying multimedia and ICT skills.
3. Share how literary pieces reflects the author’s life experiences and the place they represent.
Student’s Weekly Learning Goals Estimated
Time
1. Write a one’s existing knowledge about the genres given. 15 mins.
2. Read the lesson content. 60 mins.
3. Analyze and answer questions under Comprehension Check Up. 15 mins.
4. Read the summary of the lesson under Generalization. 10 mins.
5. Analyze and answer the questions under Class Discussion. 15 mins.

LEARNING TASK
Starting-Up
1. Read and reflect on the verse of the week attached or found in the official Facebook page.
2. What do you think these literary genres are about? Write your answer on the space provided.
Genre
Modernism
Postmodernism
Marxism
Postcolonialism
Romanticism

Read the Lesson Content

21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

Southeast Asian Countries

The area where the Philippines belong to, Southeast Asia (SEA), is rich with its own unique culture and
history. It consists of 11 countries, and because of its expansive geography, the countries within SEA may be
archipelagos, islands, or land masses.
One of the most interesting things about Southeast Asia is its cultural diversity. There are at least a thousand
spoken languages in SEA alone. More than that, it is a melting pot of culture. Southeast Asians have adapted well
with whatever changes that have come upon them- whether they may be geographic, climate, or culture-wise.
When the colonizers came, Southeast Asian were open to the new practices they offered. They have oftentimes
integrated in their own local cultures. Southeast Asia is not only rich in culture and heritage but also in literature. It
is fitting to look at Southeast Asian literature with the idea of formalism.

Formalism
One way to look at a literary selection is through the lenses of formalism, or Russian formalism, as it was also
called back in the early 20th century. Formalism is partly based on Ferdinand de Suassure’s idea of semiotics and
how signs and symbols may bring about a new meaning in literary text. Formalism aims to look at the medium in
which literature is written. More than that, it aims to look at how literature, most especially poetry, artistically alter
or “renew” the everyday common language in which everyone speaks so that they come up with a “defamiliarize”
work of art that is new to the senses. The term “defamiliarization” and the concept behind it were introduced in
1917 by Viktor Shklovsky in his essay 'Art as Technique.' To explain his thinking behind defamiliarization,
Shklovsky claimed that the technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar'… Art is a way of experiencing the
artfulness of an object: the object is not important…' Let's take an object we all know and try to defamiliarize it to
see if we can find its 'artfulness.' The idea is to focus on the form and technique used in literature rather than its
content, so that literature becomes an autonomous form of art which may stand on its own- without its content.
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Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

A CHECKLIST OF FORMALIST CRITICAL QUESTIONS

A way  toHow
counteract howstructured
is the work the colonized have held
or organized? Howonto
doestheir colonizers
it begin? Whereisdoes
through
it go the
next?term
Howdecolonization.
does it end?
Decolonization is the intellectual process of returning to the former
What is the work’s plot? How is its plot related to its structure? independence that colonies have enjoyed
before the
 colonizers
What is thecame. Here, the
relationship ofpervading ideas,
each part of cultural
the work practices,
to the work asand beliefs How
a whole? that were integrated
are the and taught
parts related to
by the colonizers may
one another? be deconstructed from the minds of the natives. It is an expensive and exhausted process of
change,of eliminating the tethers
Who is narrating that what
or telling bind the colonies
happens with
in the theirHow
work? colonizers and regaining
is the narrator, theorpower
speaker, that was lost
character
upon colonization.
revealed to the readers? How do we come to know and understand this figure?
 Who are the major and minor characters, what do they represent, and how do they relate to one another?
Born inwhat is now
What North
are the timeKorea in 1928,
and places Chon
of the Pong-gon
work- fled south
it’s setting? Howinis 1946 and joined
the setting thetosouthern
related what wearmy
knowatofthe
the
outbreak of characters
war in 1950.
andHe wasactions?
their woundedToinwhat
1951extent
and discharged as symbolic?
is the setting a result. He began his career as a poet in 1950
and aftertheWhat
war was
kindone of the leaders
of language in the
does the attempt
author use to
to integrate
describe, the experience
narrate, explain,ofor
theotherwise
war yearscreate
into poetry.
the world of
the literary work? More specifically, what images, similes, metaphors, symbols appear in the work?
What is their function? What meanings do they convey?
If you come to a stony place
Below is a poem by Latiff Mohidin, a poet and painter who was born in Seremban, Negri Sembilan, Malaysia.
by Chon Ponggon
He has been known as a “Boy Wonder” since he was 11 because of the artistry of his work. He has attended schools
under various scholarships in Berlin, Germany; Paris, France; and New York, USA. He is considered to be one of
Malaysia’s most treasured living artists.
If you come to a stony place If you come to a stony place
you can see the river. then alone can you meet the river.
If you come to a stony place If you come to a stony place
In theyou
Midst of Hardship
can see the wind. then alone can you meet the wind.
by Latiff Mohidin
If you come to a stony place If you come to a stony place
you can see waterbirds. then alone canamidst
you meet the waterbirds.
At dawn they returned homeplace They were born hardship
If you come to a stony
their you
soaky clothes torn andIfgrew
you come to a stony
up without a sighplace
or a complaint
can see clouds. then alone can you meet the clouds.
and approached now they are in the kitchen, making
If you comethe to stove
a stony place If you come to a stony place
their you
limbscanmarked by scratches jokes while rolling their cigarette leaves.
see sunshine. then alone can you meet the sunshine.
their legs full of wounds
but on their brows
If you come to a stony place
there was not a sign of despair
I can bend my knees on the stony place.
The whole day and night just passed
If you come to a stony place
they had to brave the horrendous flood
I can gladly bend my knees on the stony place.
in the water all the time
Yes, indeed. If you come to the stony place
between bloated carcasses
deep in the South Han River,
and tiny chips of tree barks
truly happy, to the point of tears,
desperately looking for their son’s
I can bend both knees on the stony place.
albino buffalo that was never found

Postcolonial Literature
Western and Southwest Asia
The extensive history of colonialism in Asia cannot be denied. Almost all Asian countries have been colonized in
Western
some way or Asia or Southwest
another. Asiatoisthis
In response alsolong
called the Middle
history East and and
of colonization is home to three great
the aftermath of it, monotheistic
literature has religions:
begun to
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
tackle these prevailing issues in society. Literary criticism has also responded to this, with an intellectual discourse
Countries
called in South and
postcolonialism or Western (Southwest)
postcolonial studies.Asia has cultures rich in history and natural resources, which make
their literature as meaningful
Postcolonialism is an era orastheory
their experiences. Some after
that is developed of theamost war-torn
certain colonycountries are in Western
gains independence fromAsia.
its mother
country. Postcolonialism looks at these colonial countries and sees how being colonized has affected their political,
The founder
economical andofsocial
Marxism,
climate.Karl Marx, wanted to understand how the capitalist society works (for whom does it
truly work better and
Postcolonialism worsethese
analyzes for) and where texts
particular it would likely lead.
by reading For Marx,
the text he sawand
in a specific the critical
struggleway.of the two classes in
Postcolonialism
society:
asks (1) the
readers capitalists
to analyze and or ownerson
expound ofthe
theeffects
resource-producing
of colonizationcompanies and (2)on
and imperialism thethe
workers of proletariat,
characters. who
Further, it also
work to produce and, thus, survive. This is where Marxism comes from: it is the analysis
seeks look at the way the powers of the colonizers are extended beyond their colonial era and into the future of of the relationship
between
the thesecountry.
colonized two classes and their struggles with each other.

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Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

One of the key terms in Marxism is the concept alienation. Alienation is looking at the way workers are living and
how this specifically their overall well-being. This is because the workers in a capitalist society do not own the
materials with which they produce and, thus, are owned by the capitalists who force the workers to sell their “labor
power”, or their ability to work, for money or wages.
Looking at the literature of South and Western Asia with Marxism is a way to analyze the kinds of “alienation”
present in their literature and culture. This is because alienation is present as a result of the class struggle of the
capitalist and the worker in society, or the dominant class/gender and the submissive one. It is all too common for
these kinds of situation in South and Western Asia, one that Filipinos may learn to avoid or to improve.

Partaw Naderi is an African poet who was born in Badakhshan back in 195. He is considered as one of the
foremost modernist poets of Afghanistan. He has argued before that it is his vast knowledge of Persian literature
that makes him confident enough to break the rules of poetry when he writes.
I Still Have Time
By Partaw Naderi

It's well past midnight Perhaps tomorrow

I should get up to pray the poisonous arrows aimed at me
The mirrors of my honesty will hunt down my eyes
have long been filmed with dust two speckled birds startled into
flight
I should get up
I still have time Perhaps tomorrow
My hands can yet discern my children
a jug of water from a jug of wine will grow old
awaiting my return
as time's wheeled chariot
hurtles down the slope of my life Peshawar City
European Literature
A lot of the standing and techniques that the rest of the world are using or innovating right now first started or
developed in Europe. Arguably, what put Europe literature in the forefront was the outpouring of poems during the
late 14th century and toward the Middle Century, where writers such as Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain, and ultimately
Geoffrey Chaucer came about to change the literary world.

Romanticism as a literary critical concept first gain ground in the 1800s, and lasted only half a century before it
was quickly replaced by modernism. Romanticism emphasis the emotions and imagination within the human being.
It was a movement that responded against the disillusionment of the Enlightenment values of reason after the
French Revolution of 1789.

Romanticism presents human as free entities. In life, you are free to explore you own self. This freedom allows
you to better respond to the world around you.

Latin American Literature

Despite being shrouded by political instability and turmoil for much of the 20 th century, Latin America has
prevailed as an influential area for culture, history, and creativity. Their experiences have also shown in their
literature. Their literature is characterized by mysticism, magic, uniqueness, raw creativity, and wonder.

The idea of postmodernism first originated in architecture. Postmodernism simply rejected the modernist way of
doing things- trying to make things new or avant-garde. Modernism has always been about rejecting tradition and
trying to explore other ways of doing things to see “where no man has ever gone before”. Modernism explored
possibilities and individuality. Postmodernism is a skeptical interpretation of culture, art, history, architecture, and
literature. To be skeptical means that there is always an air of critique and emphasis on a certain work of art.

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 Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

THE MYTHICAL FOUNDING OF BUENOS AIRES

by Jorge Luis Borges
And was it along this torpid muddy river
that the prows came to found my native city?
The little painted boats must have suffered the steep surf
among the root-clumps of the horse-brown current.
Pondering well, let us suppose that the river
was blue then like an extension of the sky,
with a small red star inset to mark the spot
where Juan Díaz fasted and the Indians dined.
But for sure a thousand men and other thousands
arrived across a sea that was five moons wide,
still infested with mermaids and sea serpents
and magnetic boulders which sent the compass wild.
On the coast they put up a few ramshackle huts
and slept uneasily. This, they claim, in the Riachuelo,
but that is a story dreamed up in the Boca.
It was really a city block in my district—Palermo.

A whole square block, but set down in open country,

attended by dawns and rains and hard southeasters,
identical to that block which still stands in my
neighborhood:
Guatemala—Serrano—Paraguay—Gurruchaga.

A general store pink as the back of a playing card

shone bright; in the back there was poker talk.
The comer bar flowered into life as a local bully,
already cock of his walk, resentful, tough.

The first barrel organ teetered over the horizon

with its clumsy progress, its habaneras, its wop.
The cart-shed wall was unanimous for Yrigoyen.
Some piano was banging out tangos by Saborido.

A cigar store perfumed the desert like a rose.

The afternoon had established its yesterdays,
and men took on together an illusory past.
Only one thing was missing—the street had no other
side.

Hard to believe Buenos Aires had any beginning.

I feel it to be as eternal as air and water.

Africa and its People

The African continent has undergone so many changes due to its climate. Interestingly, Africans coped with
whatever challenge the climate would give them and they survived. Progress followed soon after that. Writing was
said to have been invented in Northeast Africa during the Bronze Age- specifically, in Egypt. The Egyptians,

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 Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

because of their rich resources, were able to make tools and weapons out of bronze. They were also advanced in
culture and government, because they had laws and punishments. Eventually, climate change overtook the continent
once again and changed the landscape of Africa. The deserts also hampered transportation via the sea.
In the 20th century, more and more Africans were becoming educated, and as such, they clamored for
independence. This movement became unstoppable. By the 1950s- 1960s, almost all of the African countries that
were held by Portugal- Mozambique and Angola- had finally gained independence.
Now Africa is on the rise. The African countries’ economies are on the rise, thanks to tourism and investment. The
developments are looking positive, and it seems that Africa will become the great continent it was intended to be in
the beginning.
Many great people are Africans. Nelson Mandela or “Mandiba” was a citizen who fiercely fought for Africa’s
independence and eventually became the first black and democratically elected president of South Africa. He is
known to be the “Father of the Nation”. Another one is Desmond Tutu who was a fierce opponent of the apartheid
in Africa. He was the first black South African bishop of Cape Town and because of his exhaustive efforts to
promote peace, he has won several awards, which include the Nobel Peace Prize and the Gandhi Peace Prize.
The Philippines was also challenged the same way that Africa had been as a continent. As a citizen of a country
that has been colonized extensively before, it is normal that you still experience the stirrings of the kind of history
that your country has gone through. The turbulent yet challenging history of Africa in also mirrored not only by
these aforementioned people, but also by their literary writers.
Akinwande Oluwole “Wole” Babantunde Soyinka, better known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian poet and
playwright. He is the first African to be honored the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. He studied in both in Nigeria
and London. He has also been a staunch political activist, which led to his arrest during the Nigerian Civil War and
solitary confinement for two years.
You stood still
For both eternities, and oh I heard the lesson
Of your traing sessions, cautioning -
Scorch earth behind you, do not leave
A dubious neutral to the rear. Reiteration
Of my civilian quandary, burrowing earth

From the lead festival of your more eager friends

Civilian and Soldier
by Wole Soyinka
My apparition rose from the fall of lead,
Declared, 'I am a civilian.' It only served
To aggravate your fright. For how could I
Have risen, a being of this world, in that hour
Of impartial death! And I thought also: nor is
Your quarrel of this world.
Worked the worse on your confusion, and when
You brought the gun to bear on me, and death
Twitched me gently in the eye, your plight
And all of you came clear to me.
I hope some day
Intent upon my trade of living, to be checked
In stride by your apparition in a trench,
Signalling, I am a soldier. No hesitation then
But I shall shoot you clean and fair
With meat and bread, a gourd of wine
A bunch of breasts from either arm, and that
Lone question - do you friend, even now, know
What it is all about?

COMPREHENSION CHECK UP
Analyze and answer the following in a separate sheet paper and check your answers on page 6.
1. Who are the representative authors presented?
2. What are their works?

GENERALIZATION
Read the summary of the lesson.
 It is fitting to look at Southeast Asian 5literature with the idea of formalism.
 Formalism aims to look at the medium in which literature is written. More than that, it
Subject: 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

REFERENCES

Garcia, Rina C., “21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World”, DIWA Learning
Systems Inc., 2016

CLASS DISCUSSION

How do literary pieces reflect the author’s life experiences?