What is Literature?
Literature is a broad term used to refer to
written works, such as books, magazines,
short stories, plays, and poems. Literature
can provide insight into the human
experience and can be used as a way to
explore ideas, express emotions, and tell
stories.
It has been a powerful tool for expressing
and exploring our humanity. When
discussing literature, one can talk about the
author's style, the themes explored in the
work, the characters and their motivations,
and the historical context in which the
work was written.
 Why is it
Important?
Literature helps to develop Literature teaches us about
language and communication history and culture. Reading
skills. Reading and literature from different times
understanding literature helps to and places can give us an
build vocabulary, encourages insight into the history, culture,
imagination, and helps to and beliefs of the people who
develop critical thinking. wrote them.
Literature provides a form of
escapism. Reading literature
can be a great way to escape
from the stresses of daily life
and open up a world of
possibility.
 Why is it
Important?
Literature can inspire and Literature encourages empathy.
motivate. Reading literature can Reading literature can help us
help to inspire and motivate us to understand the thoughts and
in our own lives, allowing us to feelings of others, and to
learn from the experiences of develop a greater understanding
the characters. and appreciation of different
cultures.
Literature helps to build
connections. Literature can help
to build connections between
people, creating a sense of
shared understanding and
appreciation.
 21st Century Literature

Genres of
Literature
Prepared by: Mr. Louie E. Delos Santos

Understand and familiarize the
periods of literature in the
Philippines.

Learning
Objectives
Differentiate the three major List down and discuss the
genres of literature and its other characteristics of different
components. genres and value the
significance of genres in
literature.
 What is Genre?

Genre is a category of artistic, musical, or literary

composition characterized by a particular style,
form, or content.
Literary genres are categories, types, or collections
of literature. They often share characteristics, such
as their subject matter or topic, purpose, or
audience.
 Literature
Prose Poetry Drama

Fiction Non-Fiction Narrative Lyric Tragedy

Novel History Epic Song Comedy

Short Story News Ballad Ode Melodrama

Novella Biography Metrical Tale Sonnet Farce

Fable Diary Elegy Social Tale

Parable Anecdote Idyll

Legend Essay
 Literature

Prose
Fiction Non-Fiction
Novel History

Short Story News

Novella Biography

Fable Diary

Parable Anecdote

Legend Essay
 Prose
Prose is essentially identified as written text that aligns with the
flow of conversation in sentence and paragraph form, as opposed to
verses and stanzas in poetry.

Writing of prose employs common grammatical structure and a

natural flow of speech, not a specific tempo or rhythm as is seen in
traditional poetry.

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 Prose
Fiction
Fiction is fabricated and based on the
author’s imagination. Short stories,
novels, myths, legends, and fairy tales
are all considered fiction. While settings,
plot points, and characters in fiction are
sometimes based on real-life events or
people, writers use such things as
jumping off points for their stories.
Non-Fiction
Nonfiction, by contrast, is
factual and reports on true
events. Histories, biographies,
journalism, and essays are all
considered nonfiction. Usually,
nonfiction has a higher standard
to uphold than fiction.
Fiction
A novel is a work of long prose fiction, which is usually centered
Novel around characters, events and settings. Novels usually have multiple
chapters, with a larger plot and focus on character development.

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually shorter in length than

Short Story a novel. Short stories often have less developed characters and
settings than longer works, but can still explore complex themes.

A novella is a work of narrative fiction, longer than a short story but

Novella shorter than a novel. Generally, novellas are between 20,000 and
40,000 words in length.
Fiction
A fable is a short story, typically with animals as characters, that
Fable teaches a moral lesson. Fables often have an element of humor and
are an enduring form of folk literature.

A parable is a short story or brief tale that is used to illustrate a moral

Parable lesson or religious principle. It typically features characters and
events that are symbolic of larger truths or ideas.

A legend is a traditional story that has been passed down through

Legend generations and is typically based on historical events. Legends often
include elements of mythology and folklore.
Non-Fiction
History is the study of past events, particularly human activity and its impact
History on people and societies. It is a term that relates to past events as well as
interpretation of information about these events.

A news is a piece of information about a current event or situation. It may

News be reported in a variety of media, including newspapers, television, radio,
and the Internet.

A biography is a detailed description or account of a person's life. It

Biography includes facts and information about the person's childhood, education,
family, work, and death.
Non-Fiction
A diary is a personal record of experiences, thoughts, and/or reflections kept
Diary regularly and often privately. It can be a physical book or an electronic
document.

An anecdote is a brief, often amusing story about a real incident or person.

AnecdoteAnecdotes are usually related as a way to support an argument or point in a
speech or essay.

An essay is a short piece of writing that focuses on a particular topic or

Essay argument. Essays are used to express ideas, explain a point, or discuss a topic in
a structured and organized way.
 Literature

Poetry

Narrative Lyric
Epic Song

Ballad Ode

Metrical Tale Sonnet

Elegy

Idyll
 Poetry
Poetry is expression written in verse, often with some form of
regular rhythm. The basis of poetic expression is a heightened
sense of perception or consciousness.

The word “poetry” comes from the Greek word “poiesis” which
essentially means, making, which is translated into the making of
poetry.

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 Poetry
Narrative
Narrative poetry is a form of
poetry that tells a story. It
usually follows a plot with
characters, a setting, and a
climax.
Lyric
Lyric poetry is a type of
poetry that expresses personal
emotions or thoughts. It often
includes rhyme and meter and
can be sung as a song.
Literature

Drama
Tragedy
Lyric
Comedy

Melodrama

Farce

Musical
Drama
 Dram
a
Drama is a story intended to be acted out on a
stage. Some critics include pantomime (silent
acting), but others specify that drama requires
dialogue. It also requires a plot, a setting,
and characters.
Drama
One of the oldest forms of drama. The theme usually revolves around
Tragedy the ruins of a dynasty, downfall of man, emotional betrayals, moral
setback, personal loss, death, and denials.

Is lighter in tone. Provides a happy ending. Uses highly improbable

Comedy situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, and
violent horseplay.
 Literary
Elements &
techniques
Interpretative skills involve learning to examine and analyze
the literary elements and techniques that work together in a
text.

These literary elements and techniques include meaning,

form, voice and tone, characters and characterization, and
language (uses and meanings)
 Ask these questions to help you identify and understand meaning.

Meaning • What is the work about? What is the theme?

• What effect or impression does the work have on the reader?
• What is the argument or the summary of the work?
• What is the writer’s intent?

Ask questions to help you identify and understand form.

• How has the writer organized the literary work to achieve the effect and express
Form the meaning?
• How is the work structured or planned? As prose or poetry? As topics or scenes?
As long as narrative, several short stories, or episodes?
• Into what genre could the work be placed?
• What method of organization or pattern of development was used within the
structure of the work?
 Ask these questions to help you identify and understand voice and tone.
• Who is telling the story?
• How is the speaker or narrator characterized of his character revealed? By

Voice action or by description/expressed or implied?

• From what perspective is the story told? By a person outside of the story or
and by someone actually involved in the narrative?

Tone • Is the Speaker (the one telling the story) and the author or writer of the work
same person?
• If the writer and the speaker are two different individuals, are their attitudes
toward the subject, events, and readers the same or different?
 • What is the author’s attitude toward the material, subject, or theme?
• What is the speakers attitude (if different from the author) toward the material,
subject, or theme? Toward the reader?

Voice • Is the tone playful? Serious? Angry? Formal? Pleading? Joyful?

• What is the atmosphere of the work (the way in which the mood, setting, and
and feeling blend together to convey the prevailing tone)?

Tone • If the writer and the speaker are two different individuals, are their attitudes
toward the subject, events, and readers the same or different?
 Ask these questions to help you identify and understand character and
characterization.
• Who are the people in the work?
• How do the dialogue (what he or she says) and the action (what he or she
does) reveal a character’s personality traits?
• Is there is principal character?
Character & • What is the character’s motivation?

Characterizat • Is the characters personality revealed directly by the speaker telling the reader
or indirectly by the character’s own words and deeds (requiring the reader to
ion come conclusions about the character based on the dialogue and action)?
• In a non-narrative work, how would you characterize the speaker or the
writer? How would you characterize the work itself?
 Ask these questions to help you identify and understand language.
• Does the selection include any imagery (the use of sensory images to
represent someone or something?

Language • What figures of speech does the writer use, and what effect do they have on
the meaning of the selection?
(Uses & • How does the writer use diction (word choice) to convey meaning?

Meanings) • What is the impact of the words, phrases, and lines as they are used in the
selection?
 • Did the writer intend the words used to convey the meaning normally assigned
to those words (denotations)?
• Did the writer intend that some words would imply additional, associated
meanings for the reader (connotations)?

Language • What is the significance of those implications to the meaning of the selection
and the intent of the writer?
(Uses & • How does the use of denotation, connotation, and syntax (how the words are
Meanings) structured and grouped to form meaningful thought units) relate to the style of
the selection?
• Does the language of the selection include any elements of propaganda?
Figurative
Language
 Figurative
Language
Is a type of language that varies from norms of literal language, in
which words mean exactly what they say. Also known as the
“ornaments of language,” figurative language does not mean
exactly what it says, but instead forces the reader to make an
imaginative leap in order to comprehend the author’s point.

It is divided into three categories:

Figures of Thought, Figures of Speech, and
Figures of Sound.
 Figurative
Language
Figures of Thought are also called tropes. A trope is the meaning of a word has other
than its literal meaning. Trope refers to change or turn, in other words, using a word in
other than its literal sense, such as in comparison.
Ex.: Simile, Metaphor, Irony, and Personification

Figures of Speech are called rhetorical figures or schemes. Rhetorical figures depart,
not from the literal meaning of the word, but from the standard usage or order of the
words (or some other departure other than in meaning), thus making a special effect.
Ex.: Apostrophe, Chiasmus, Antithesis, and Rhetorical Question

Figures of Sound include the sound effect devices which will be discussed later.
Ex.: Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance, and Onomatopoeia
 Figures of Speech based on
Analogy
Analogies are drawn to explain, describe, argue, and justify. There are distinct units of
thought in analogy, the vehicle and the tenor.

Tenor is the subject or idea you are trying to explain, and the vehicle is the means by
which you explain it.

Simile is a stated comparison usually formed with “like”, “than”, or “as” between two
fundamentally dissimilar or unlike things that have a certain qualities in common.

Ex. Like peas in the pod.

Metaphor is an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have
something important in common.

Ex. Heart of stone.

 Figures of Speech based on
Analogy
Personification is an inanimate object, an animal or an idea is endowed with human
qualities or abilities.

Ex. The flowers nodded.

Allusion is a reference to, or representation of, people, events, literary work, myths,
or works of art, either directly or by implication.

Ex. Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel.

Reification is the treatment of something abstract as a material or concrete thing.

Ex. You can't fool Mother Nature.
 Figures of Speech based on
Analogy
Metonymy is a word or a phrase substituted for another with which it is closely
associated: also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring
to things around it.

Ex. Crown – in place of a royal person.

Synecdoche is a part used for the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the
general, the general for the specific, or the material for the thing made from it.

Ex. Wheels – a car

 Figures of Speech based on
Analogy
Symbol is an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning.

Ex. A cloud with a silver lining - represents hope or something good in a bad situation.

Synesthesia is a description of one kind of sense impression using words that

normally describe another.

Ex. Back to the region where the sun is silent.

 Figures of Speech based on
Rhetoric
Rhetoric relates directly to the use of language for the purpose of persuading the readers.

Deliberate Rhetoric is aimed at moving the hearers or readers to some action either pro or
con about some public policy.

Forensic Rhetoric is aimed at proving someone’s guilt or innocence.

Epideictic Rhetoric is aimed at displaying rhetorical skills at some special occasion by

praising (or perhaps condemning) a person or group.
 Figures of Speech based on
Rhetoric
Rhetorical Question is a question that is asked not
emphasize a point.
to get an answer but instead to

Ex. Do you want to get us in trouble?

Anachronism is an error of chronology or timeline in a literary piece. Anything that is out

of time and out of place.

Ex. A caveman who microwaves his dinner or watching a film adaptation of a Jane Austen
novel in which the characters text each other instead of writing letters.

Litotes is an ironical understatement in which affirmative is expressed byt the negation of

the opposite.

Ex. You are not as young as you used to be.

 Figures of Speech based on
Rhetoric
Hyperbole is an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis.

Ex. I’ve told you a hundred times.

Meiosis is a deliberate underplaying or undervaluing of a thing and mutes the

expression of an emotion, idea or situation.

Ex. I fear that my mind is far from perfect.

 Figures of Speech based on
Rhetoric
Paradox is a statement that is self-contradictory because it often contains two
statements that are both true, but in general, cannot both be true at the same time.

Ex. Bittersweet. Wise fool.

Irony is a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally
anticipated. It is a difference between the appearance and the reality.

Ex. The Titanic was said to be unsinkable.

 Figures of Speech based on
Syntax
Syntax is a set of rules in a language. It dictates how words from different parts of
speech are put together in order to convey a complete thought.

The general word order of an English sentence is “Subject + Verb + Object. In poetry,
however, the word order may be shifted to producing rhythm or melody in the lines,
achieving between two words etc. The unique syntax used to poetry makes it different
from prose.
 Figures of Speech based on
Syntax
Antithesis is the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases or clauses.

Ex. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

Apostrophe is someone absent or non-existent person or thing is addressed as if present

and capable of understanding or replying.

Ex. Blue moon, you saw me standing alone.

Asyndeton is the deliberate omission of conjunctions from a series of related clauses.

Ex. He crossed the road without looking, without listening, without caution.
 Figures of Speech based on
Syntax
Chiasmus is two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of
structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted
parallelism.

Ex. You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to
forget.

Oxymoron is two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect.

Ex. Peace force, Free market

Pun is a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes
on the similar sense or sound of different words.

Ex. The grammarian was very logical. He had a lot of comma sense.
 Figures of Sound
The poet, unlike the person who uses language to convey only information, chooses
words for sound as well as for meaning, and uses the sound as a means of reinforcing
meaning.

Figures of sound or sound-effect devices or verbal music is one of the important

resources that enable the poet to do something more than communicate mere
information.

The poet may indeed sometimes pursue verbal music for its own sake; more often, at
least in first-rate poetry, it is adjunct to the total meaning or communication of the
poem.
 Figures of Sound
Alliteration is the repetition of the initial consonant sounds of stressed syllables in
neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage.

Ex. Sally sells sea shells.

Anaphora is the repetition of a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring

clauses, thereby lending them emphasis.

Ex. We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end.

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases
or sentences. It is the repetition of internal vowel sounds to set the mood or add to the
meaning of the word.

Ex. E – Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee.

 Figures of Sound
Cacophony is the juxtaposition of words producing a harsh sound. The word
cacophony originates from the Greek word meaning "bad sound". The term in poetry
refers to the use of words that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds.

Ex. Twas brillig, and the slithy toves. Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Consonance is the cunning combination of consistently copied consonants! It's when

the same consonant sound appears repeatedly in a line or sentence, creating a rhythmic
effect.

Ex. Hickory dickory dock. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
 Figures of Sound
Euphony is the juxtaposition of words producing a pleasant sound. It is a term used to
refer to a word or phrase that is pleasing in sound, specifically one that includes
consonants and vowels that work well together.

Ex. The words mists, mellow, close, sun, bless, vines and eves all have a soothing
quality to them and don't sound harsh or jarring, thus making them euphonious words.

Onomatopoeia is the formation or use of words which imitates or suggests the source
of the sound that it describes.

Ex. Woosh. Buzz. Click. Bang.

Literary works have the
power to transport us to
worlds far beyond our own
and to open our eyes to new
perspectives.
They can inspire us to take stands, to take action, and to think differently. In
short, they are essential to our individual growth and to the health of our
society.