21st C - Literature

• Literature comes from the Latin word "litera" which means letter
• Literature is a piece of printed work connected to the thoughts and expressions of the people
• Prose is written or oral language without metrical control, consists of the common flow of conversation in sentences and paragraph.
• Literature is classified into two groups: Prose and Poetry
• Novel is a long narrative divided into chapters, events taken from true to life stories and spans a long period of time.

  • Legends are fictitious narratives usually about the origin of things, events, or natural phenomena
  • Fables are stories dealing with animals and inanimate things which speak and act like people, enlighten the minds of children to events that can mold their ways and attitudes
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  • An Essay expresses the viewpoint or opinion of a writer about a particular problem or event
  • A Biography deals with the life of a person which may be about himself or that of others
  • News is a report of everyday events in society, government, science and industry, accidents or happenings done nationally or not
  • Oration is a formal treatment of a subject intended to be spoken in public, appeals to the intellect, will, or emotions of the audience
• • Fairy Tales: wonder tales involving marvelous elements and occurrences
  • Parables: short allegorical stories designed to teach a truth, religious principle or moral lesson
• Types of Poetry:

  • Narrative Poetry: describes important events in life either real or imaginary
  • Lyric Poetry: meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre, expresses emotions and feelings of the poet
  • Dramatic Poetry: includes Comedy, Melodrama, Tragedy, Farce, Social Poems, Riddles, Proverb
• Narrative Poetry:

  • Epic: an extended narrative about heroic exploits under supernatural control, may deal with heroes and gods
  • Metrical Tale: a narrative written in verse, can be classified as a ballad or a metrical romance
  • Ballads: the shortest and simplest of the narrative poems, have simple structures and tell of a single incident
• • Corridos (Kuridos): have measures of eight syllables and recited to a martial beat
• Lyric Poetry:

  • Folksong: short poems intended to be sung, common themes include love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope, and sorrow
  • Sonnets: lyric poems of 14 lines dealing with an emotion, a feeling, or an idea
  • Elegy: a lyric poem expressing feelings of grief and melancholy, theme is death
  • Ode: a poem of noble feeling expressed with dignity, no definite number of syllables or lines in a stanza
  • Psalm (Dalit): a song praising God or the Saints, contains a philosophy of life
  • Song (Awit): has a measure of twelve syllables and slowly sung to the accompaniment of a guitar or a bandurria
• Dramatic Poetry:

  • Comedy: light and with the purpose of amusing people, usually has a happy ending
  • Melodrama: used in musical plays with the opera, arouses immediate and intense emotion, usually sad but with a happy ending for the principal character
  • Tragedy: involves the hero struggling mightily against dynamic forces, meets death or ruin without success and satisfaction obtained by the protagonists in a comedy
• • Farce: an exaggerated comedy seeking to arouse mirth by laughable lines, situations are too ridiculous to be true, characters seem to be caricatures and motives undignified and absurd
  • Social Poems: forms either purely comic or tragic, picture the life of today, may aim to bring about changes in social conditions
  • Riddles: statements or questions having double or veiled meanings put forth as puzzles to be solved
  • Proverb: a simple and concrete saying expressing truth, based on common sense or practical experience, often metaphorical, describes a basic rule of conduct known as a maxim
• • Thesis is a treatise advancing a new point of view resulting from research findings
  • Folk Songs are songs long popular with the common people
  • Folk speech is the speech of the common people, distinguished from that of the educated class
• Other literary terminologies:

  • Folklore: culture including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, within a particular population
  • Folktales: traditional narratives handed down orally, e.g., fables, fairytales, legends
  • Electronic book or e-book: digital media equivalent of a conventional printed material
  • Blog: a composition of what is happening in a person's life and on the web, a hybrid diary/guide site
  • Dissertation: a document presenting the author's research and findings
• Short Story is a narrative involving one or more characters, one plot and one single impression
• Plays are presented on stage, divided into acts and have many scenes.
• • Social Poems are forms either purely comic or tragic, picture the life of today, may aim to bring about changes in social conditions
• Anecdotes are products of the writer's imagination, aim to bring lessons to the readers.