Critical

Content and
Literature
Victor Rey Fumar
Grade 10 National Training of
Trainers for the Luzon Cluster
Teachers Camp, Baguio City
April 25, 2015

Critical Content and

Literature
HOW AND TO WHAT EXTENT
literary

pieces are used to teach

English
the lessons develop
communicative competence
the reading selections help the
learners achieve literary
competence

Literary Competence
Jonathan Culler defines literary
competence as the ability to
internalize the grammar of
literature which would permit a
reader to convert linguistic
sequences into literary
structures and meaning.

The Teaching of
Literature
The

writers and their milieu

The genre

The

cultural implications

Intertextuality

Daedalus and Icarus

Mythic history of Athens and Crete

Aegean Sea - Aegeus

The Labors of Theseus
Minoan civilization

Knossos excavations Sir Arthur

Evans
Atlantis the lost continent

Daedalus and Icarus

Forbidden themes
Abduction and rape Zeus and Europa
Bestiality Pasiphae and the bull
Cruelty the Minotaur eating humans
Suicide Aegeus
Envy and murder Daedalus killing his
nephew

Daedalus and Icarus

Intertextuality

Peiter Brueghels painting, The

Fall of Icarus
W.H. Audens poem Musee Des
Beaux Arts
William Carlos Williams poem,
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
the movie, I, for Icarus

MUSEE DES BEAUX ARTS

by W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a
window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently,
passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must
be
Children who did not specially want it to
happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom
must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their
doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a
tree.

In Brueghel'sIcarus, for instance: how

everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the
plowman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important
failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs
disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship
that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of
the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed
calmly on.

LANDSCAPE
WITH THE FALL OF ICARUS
by William Carlos Williams
According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring
a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea

concerned
with itself
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite unnoticed
it was
Icarus drowning.

The Gorgons Head

The

Oracle at Delphi

Death, disaster, and destiny

The

Rule of three
3 Gorgons: Stheno, Euryale,
Medusa
3 Gray Ones
3 magical objects

The Gorgons Head

Situational

irony
-Bronze chamber prison
-Death by discuss throw

Forbidden

themes

- Incest
- Irreverence
- Rape

The Gorgons Head

Intertextuality

-Percy Jackson series

-Valentina
-Perseus and Andromeda
constellations
-Pegasus

Orpheus
The

Hero Myth
a man who had a god or goddess as a parent
or who lived when such people existed

Characteristics
1.

2.

of the heroic view of life

The hero knows that he has superior
qualities, and he uses them to win the
praise of others.
The hero makes the most of his
extraordinary talents in order to surpass
other men.

Orpheus
3. The hero seeks dangerous tasks because
by accomplishing them he shows his superior
qualities.
4. A personal sense of honor is most
important for the hero.
5. Fame and good reputation are the rewards
of honor and are avidly sought by the hero.
6. The hero is conscious of his own mortality;
he is keenly aware that death removes all
opportunity for obtaining greater fame.

Orpheus
Orphism

A philosophic-religious cult whose

devotees believed in reincarnation. After
death, ones spirit drank of the River
Lethe, forgot its previous existence, and
entered life again, until, after three
successive lives of virtue, one gained
Elysium, a place of perfect happiness. An
evil life resulted in prolonging the cycle
of human existence and in delaying
entrance into Elysium.

Orpheus
Intertextuality
The

Hero with a Thousand

Faces (Joseph Campbell)
The Myth of Sisyphus (Albert
Camus)
Equus, a play

Arachne
Athena
Goddess of Wisdom cleverness
and cunning which she admired.
Combined with courage.
She would often assist heroes in
their tasks when she found that they
possessed such qualities: Perseus,
Bellerophon, Heracles, Cadmus, and
Jason.

Arachne
Word
God

Etymology

versus mortals

Woman

versus woman

How Odin Lost His Eye

A

Way of Seeing the World

- Sense and sense impressions

The

Power of the Gaze

- Stargazers, seers
- Perspectives and predictions
- Media

How Odin Lost His Eye

Intertextuality

- Thor, movie sequels

- The Bluest Eye (Toni
Morisson)
- The Cyclops
- Oedipus Rex

The Koran
The

Islamic holy book, the Koran,

contains the revelations that came
to Mohammed during his life as a
prophet. Islam emerged as a
world religion in 622 known as the
Hegira. The chapters in the Koran
are short lyric defining the power
of Allah and demanding the
obedience of mortals. The Koran
gradually widened in scope and
included the duty of the faithful.

The Koran
Holy

epithets
- Similar to stock epithets: the
Compassionate, the Merciful

Poetic

devices
- Anaphora
- Refrains

The Analects
The

Analects are bits of

wisdom, epigrams, and talks
by Confucius.

The

Analects instructs on
moderation in all things
through moral education.

The Analects
Intertextuality

- Tao Te Ching
- The Dhamaphada
- Urbana at Feliza

Inferno Canto II
The

graphic representations of
-Purgatory, Hell, Heaven

The

elaborate symbols and

meanings
- Birth, death, and resurrection
- Sin, penance, salvation
- Mortals, spirits, divine

The Song of Roland

Feudalism

and the
Medieval Period
-The Rise of the Moors
-The Crusades
-The Age of Chivalry

The Song of Roland

Intertextuality

El Cid
The metrical tales
Arthurian legends
First Knight, the movie

Francesco Petrarcha
Humanism
Petrarchan

and the Renaissance Period

Sonnet
- rhyme scheme
- meter
- structure
Formal Verses
- English sonnets
- Villanelle

Francesco Petrarcha
Intertextuality

Sonnets from the Portuguese

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
- Florante at Laura
- Holy Sonnets (John Donne)
-

The Decameron
The

Bubonic Plaque or Black

Death

Falconry
Literary

and the Aristocracy

devices
- Irony of situation
- Dramatic irony
- The frame story

The Hunchback of Notre

Dame
Cruelty and torture through
the ages
Discrimination of PWDs
Injustice and the death
penalty
Class antagonisms
Love against all odds

The Hunchback of Notre

Dame
Intertextuality

-The Universal Declaration of

Human Rights
-Human rights violations in the
Philippines
-The Flor Contemplacion case

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers

Intertextuality

Fraternities and sororities

Gangs and syndicates
The military establishment

The Three Musketeers

Adaptations

TheYoung Bladestelevision series is a

sequel to the novels, centered on the son
of d'Artagnan; similarly,
Albert the Fifth Musketeeris an animated
sequel.Three Musketeersis ananime
series adaption, while
The Three Musketeerswas an animated
adaption that aired as part of HannaBarbera'sThe Banana SplitsComedyAdventure Hour&The Banana Splits &
Friendsshow.

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeerswas adapted as a
serial by the BBC in 1954 and 1966.
The Musketeers, a 2014 series by
Adrian Hodges, is another BBC
adaptation.
Publisher Albert Lewis Kanter (1897
1973), createdClassic Comicsfor
Elliot Publishing Companyin 1941 with its
debut issues beingThe Three
Musketeers.The Three Mouseketeerswas
the title of two separate series produced
byDC Comics;the first serieswas a loose
parody ofThe Three Musketeers.

The Three Musketeers

In 1939, American authorTiffany Thayer
published a book entitledThree
Musketeers(Thayer, 1939). This is a retelling of the story in Thayer's words, true
to the original plot but told in a different
order and with different points of view and
emphasis from the original. The
Khaavren RomancesbySteven Brustare
fantasy (or science-fiction) novels heavily
influenced byThe Three Musketeersand
its sequels; the characters and social
background are closer to Dumas's than the
plots.

The Three Musketeers

In 2010,Anuman Interactive
launchedThe Three Musketeers, a
hidden object gameon PC and MAC.
Players follow d'Artagnan in his
quest to become a king's musketeer.

The Plague
Symbols

and their meanings

The

absurdity and
meaninglessness of human
existence

Hope

over despair

Existentialism

The Plague
Intertextuality

- Tragedies and disasters

- Natural calamities
- Yolanda aftermath

A Day in the Country

by Anton Chechov
H He received a medical degree at the University of Moscow in
His
numerous
stories his
and
1884,
but he soon neglected
medical practice in order to
write. His numerous stories and plays gave him a commanding
plays
himHe gave
a a poignant illumination to
position in gave
literary Russia.
such human experiences as loneliness, grief, hunger, and misery.
commanding
position
inUniversity of Moscow in 1884,
e received a medical
degree at the
but he soon neglected his medical practice in order to write. His
literary
Russia.
gave
numerous
stories andHe
plays
gave a
him a commanding position in
literary Russia. He gave a poignant illumination to such human
poignant
illumination
to
experiences as
loneliness, grief, hunger,
and misery. Among
Hrecei a medical degree at the University of Moscow in 1884, but
such
human
he soon
neglected experiences
his medical practice in order to write. His
numerous stories and plays gave him a commanding position in
asliterary
loneliness,
Russia. He
grief,
gave a
hunger,
poignant illumination to such human
experiences as loneliness, grief, hunger, and misery. Among

and misery.

Song of Autumn
Sound

devices

-alliteration
-onomatopoeia
-assonance
Imagery

-sense impressions

15 Songs about
Autumn
1. Wake Me Up When September Ends
Green Day
2.Gone Till November Wyclef Jean
3.Girl from the North Country Bob Dylan
& Johnny Cash
4.October Broken Bells
5.California Dreamin' The Mamas & The
Papas
6.Harvest Moon Neil Young
7.Autumn In New YorkBille Holiday
8.Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground The
White Stripes

15 Songs about
Autumn
9.Autumn Bombay Bicycle Club
10.Country Song Jake Bugg
11.Autumn Almanac The Kinks
12.
Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy
Fall Out Boy
13.Autumn Leaves(ft. Kendrick Lamar)
Chris Brown
14.Blood On The Leaves Kanye West
15.November Rain Guns N' Roses

A Grain as Big as a Hens

Egg
Regarded as the greatest 19th
century Russian writer, he is
remembered most for his novels
War and Peace and Anna
Karenina and for his short
stories

that

probed

human

nature and its strengths and

weaknesses.

The Little Prince

The Little Prince

1.Do what makes you happy because
your heart knows best.
2.Never lose that childish ability to
see whats really important in life.
3.All you need is to truly love one
thing to be filled with love for
everything.
4.The grass always seems greener
elsewhere, so remember thats just
an illusion and be happy where you
are.

The Little Prince

5.Youll travel the most by going
off the beaten path and taking
twists and turns.
6.Stay humble.
7.Before you criticize others,
reflect upon your own actions.
8.Break out of endless selfdestructive cycles.
9.While youre building your career,
dont forget to enjoy life.

The Little Prince

10.Dont just be a geographer;
be an explorer.
11.Take the time out to get to
know people and then work to
maintain those relationships.
12.Youre never really alone
when you feel alone because
everyone feels the same way.

The Little Prince

13.You are always obligated to
the people who you have
allowed to love you.
14.Sometimes, a silent look or
a hug is enough.
15.There are so many
wonderful things out there in
your future. You cant see them
yet, but theyre there.

Kaffir Boy
Education
will open doors
where none
seem to exist.

Kaffir Boy
Kaffir Boyhas been banned in a
number of schools, one of these
beingCedar Crest High School,
where the ban made headlines.The
bans are due to a controversial
scene involving child prostitution
and sodomy, which some have
referred to as pornography,
sparking another headline defending
the scene.

Kaffir Boy
While Mathabane wrote an article for the
Washington Post stating that he would
prefer it to be banned completely to
being revised or censored,Mathabane
has since authorized a revised version
for use in such schools.The unrevised
book is still used as high school reading
material regardless of the controversial
scenes.

Kaffir Boy
The bookKaffir Boyhas won the
prestigiousChristopher Awardfor
inspiring hope. The book reached
number one on theWashington Post
Bestsellers List and number three on
theNew York TimesBestsellers List. It
has also been chosen by the
American Library Associationfor
inclusion on the list of Outstanding
Books for the College-Bound and LifeLong Learners.

Kaffir Boy
Intertextuality

- The Long Walk to Freedom

by Nelson Mandela
- Cry the Beloved, Allan Paton
-Censorship

The United Fruit

Company
Anti-imperialist

stance

of the poet
Latin
His

American history

controversial death

The United Fruit

Company
He drew the inspiration for some of his
best poems from objects that others
hardly notice. Much of Nerudas later
work expresses political sentiments. In
1971 he received the Nobel Prize for
Literature.

The United Fruit

Company
Intertextuality
The

poems of Gabriela Mistral

The House of the Spirits, Isabel
Allende
One Hundred Years of Solitude,
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The end of the US embargo against
Cuba

Rethinking the Goals of

Teaching Literature
1.
2.

3.

Develop and/or extend

literary competence.
Develop and/or enhance
learners imagination and
creativity.
Develop students character
and emotional maturity.

Rethinking the Goals of

Teaching Literature
4. Develop creative thinking.
5. Develop literary
appreciation and refine
ones reading taste.

THANK YOU
AND
HAPPY TEACHING!