LITERATURE

- Latin term litera means letter

- faithful reproduction of man’s manifold experiences
blended into one harmonious expression
- combination of realities in life and the creativity of the
people and its depiction of man’s life.
-deals with man’s ideas, thoughts, emotions, loves, grief,
dreams, aspirations, etc.
-a group of work of art made up of words. Most are written,
but some are passed on by word of mouth

FUNCTIONS
• Entertainment • Social and Political
• Ideological • Moral
• Linguistic • Cultural
• Educational • Historical
• To instruct (for Plato and Horace)
• To delight (for Aristotle and Horace)
• To transport (for Longinus)

“ The aim of a great work of art TO TRANSPORT the

reader out of himself. It has to move the reader to divine joy.
This is the quality of sublime.”

LITERARY GENRES
• Fiction: novel, short story
• Nonfiction: essay, editorial, news story, feature story,
biographies, autobiographies
• Poetry : verse, narrative poetry, epic poetry, free verse
• Drama : classical, tragedy, comedy

Fiction- created from the imagination, not presented as fact,

though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of
literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story,
and novella. The word is from the Latin fictiō, “the act of
making, fashioning, or molding.

Non-fiction- comprising works of narrative prose dealing

with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and
reality, including biography, history, and the essay (opposed
to fiction and distinguished from poetry and drama).

Poetry- based on the interplay of words and rhythm. It often

employs rhyme and meter. Words are strung together to
form sounds, images, and ideas that might be too complex
or abstract to describe directly.

Drama- portrayal of fictional or non-fictional events through

the performance of written dialog (either prose or poetry).
Can be performed on stage, on film, or the radio. Are
typically called plays, and their creators are known as
“playwrights” or “dramatists.”