WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS OF

LITERATURE?
 1. UNIVERSALITY
It appeals to everyone regardless of culture, race, gender,
and time which are all considered significant; timeless,
timely and forever relevant; different perceptions,
orientations towards fundamental truths and conditions;
the domain that recurs across genetically and areally
unrelated traditions with greater frequency than would be
predicted by chance
 2. ARTISTRY

All art is the expression of life in forms of

truth and beauty; it is the reflection of
some truth and beauty which are in the
world, but which remain unnoticed until
human soul.
brought to our attention by some sensitive
 3. Intellectual Value
Literature stimulates critical thinking that enriches mental
processes of abstract and reasoning, making man realize
the fundamental truths of life and its nature; stimulate
thought, enrich intellectual life with the truth of human
nature;
 4. Suggestiveness

It appeals to emotion and imagination

w ith w h at it say s as w h at it aw ak en s in u s
rather than to intellect; it is not so much

any fact or expect an answer.

that constitute its charm; he doesn’t state
 5. Spiritual value
Literature elevates the spirit and the soul and this has
the power to motivate, and inspire drawn from the
suggested morals or lessons of the different literary genres;
bringing moral values to the realm of the physical world;
the necessity to reflect and inspire to become a better
person
 6. Permanence

The world does not live without seeing its

material things. It does not willingly let
hurry and bustle and apparent absorption in
any beautiful thing perish; it can be read
and insights.
again and again while giving fresh delights
 7.Style
This is personal standard, as such that it is
only in a mechanical sense that style is the
adequate expression of thought, or the peculiar
manner of expressing thought, or any other of
the definitions that are found in the rhetoric. In
a deeper sense, style is the man that is the
unconscious expression of the writer’s own
personality.
 LITERARY
CONSTRUCT
 A. Construct
Ideology/ Philosophy/ History/ Aesthetics: Colonialism

The idea illustrates how an individual can be alienated by

the product of his labor. For example, if you are a worker in a
garment industry, while you produce clothing for a company,
you are paid for your labor but not receive the equal amount of
invested time and talent in the merchandise. You will not be
able to sell, consume or profit from the object. Your work,
equivalent to time and skill, becomes the commodity sold and
not your inherent talent. The company who hired you will get
the royalty, profit and power to own the product of your talent.
 3. Continuum:
New Historicism
New historicism is historicist in
orientation, however, influenced by
theories in language and textuality
that question the dominant modes of
reading while engaging the text to a
new interpretation of lived realities.
3. Continuum: New
Historicism
Post Colonialism
Basically, post-colonialism is
expressed colloquially as after
colonialism, then what? What does
the agent do with his colonial nature,
or how does he live his life after
being colonized? What remains of his
ideological construct? Will he remain
as subservient to foreign rule, or will
he recreate his reality with the new
freedom he gained?
3. Continuum: New
Historicism
Deconstruction
Deconstruction is a philosophical term or
activity initiated by Jacques Derrida. It is
mainly a critique of concepts and
hierarchies which are essential to
traditional criteria of certainty, identity,
and truth. These truths are determined
only by repressing and forgetting other
elements which become a thought that
was not spoken or written, or not
thinkable.
3. Continuum: New
Historicism
Deconstruction in Gender and Race

Representation in gender and race: The

question highlighted for example in race
or gender is who or what is the basis of
one’s representation? This type includes
the question of origin (where one comes
from) and closure (to legitimize belonging
with another). Before an agent is able to
deconstruct any thought, there is a need to
refer to the same from its origin.
3. Continuum: New
Historicism
Translation
Translation from English to other languages and vice versa:
Translation is a branch of literary criticism that brings close
analysis of language through convergence in the language (Childs
& Fowler, 2006, p.243). One cannot separate form and content.
The language used in the original text has embedded in it the life,
intelligence, and culture of a group of people. In the same way,
other languages essentially bear the same characteristics in a
unique way. The coming together of the unique experiences both
in form and content, in the cross-cultural activity provides the
creative energy for convergence and exchange.
3. Continuum: New
Historicism
Critiquing: Excerpts and Examples in the
Discourse
Example #1: Poetry – Displacement Theory
In an example of “Hay(Na)Ku” poems introduced
by Eileen Tabios, the haiku windows/branch
light/reflecting shadow selves (p.15) illustrate a
repressed self that finds its expression in nature,
specifically, the light and the branch of trees. The
mention of "shadow selves" reflect an image of
the ideal self which is broken as the light reached
the window.