WORLD LIT (PRELIM)

• Literature is a body of written works that have excellence of form and expression, expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest
• Literature is a "slice of life" that contains imaginative language realistically portraying thoughts, emotion, and experiences
• Literature is the creation of human experiences and an art that reflects imagination, aesthetics, and creativity
• Cirilo F. Bautista stated that literature raises life into a new level of meaning and understanding, restoring sanity and justice in an insane and unjust world
• • Style: presents peculiar ways on how man sees life evidenced by the formation of ideas, forms, structures, and expressions marked by their memorable substance
• Genre:

  • Literature in the broadest sense consists of any written productions
  • Refers to those deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, or deploy language in ways that differ from ordinary usage
  • Prior to the eighteenth century in Western Europe, literature indicated all books and writing
  • Writings that possess high quality or distinction, forming part of the Belles-lettres tradition
• Genre of literature:

  1. Poetry

  2. Prose

  3. Drama
• Poetry: A form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language

  • Three different kinds: Lyrics Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Descriptive and Didactic Poetry
• Lyric: A comparatively short, non-narrative poem where a single speaker presents a state of mind or emotional state

  • Four kinds: Elegy, Ode, Sonnet, Dramatic Monologue
• Narrative: A form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of a narrative and characters

  • Three kinds: Epics, Mock-epic, Ballad
• Descriptive and Didactic:

  • Both lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed descriptions or scenes in direct speech
  • The purpose of a didactic poem is primarily to teach something
• Prose: Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure

  • Two kinds: Fiction, Non-Fiction
• Fiction: Literature written in prose describing imaginary events and people

  • Two kinds: Realistic Fiction, Fantastic Fiction
• Non-Fiction: Prose writing based on facts, real events, and real people such as biography and history

  • Five kinds: Biographies, Autobiographies, Essays, Articles, Humour
• Drama: A piece of writing that tells a story and is performed on a stage

  • Six kinds: Comedies, Tragic dramas, Farce, Melodrama, Fantasy
• Major characters in a story:

  • Protagonist: One of the main characters who receives the blow from the antagonist
  • Antagonist: In conflict with the protagonist, giving the protagonist a sense of terror and realization. Can be a single person or a group
• Setting:

  • Where the story takes place
  • Helps give context in analyzing the text
  • Shapes the tone and mood of the story
  • Gives readers a vivid mental picture of the world
• Literary Standards: Universality, Artistry, Intellectual Value, Subjectiveness, Spiritual Value, Permanence, Style
• Literary Approaches: Formalistic, Moral or Humanistic, Historical, Sociological, Cultural, Psychological, Impressionistic
• Universality: appeals to everyone regardless of culture, race, gender, and time
• Artistry: possesses aesthetic appeal and a sense of beauty
• Intellectual Value: stimulates critical thinking enriching mental processes of abstraction and reasoning
• Subjectiveness: unravels man's emotional power to define symbolisms, nuances, implied meaning, and images
• Spiritual Value: elevates the spirit and soul, motivating and inspiring, drawn from suggested morals of different literary genres
• Conflict: Involves a struggle between two opposing forces, usually a protagonist and an antagonist
• Internal conflict: Struggle within the mind of a character
• External conflict: Struggle that occurs between a character and an outside force
• Point of View: Answers the question of who is telling the story
• First Person POV: Seeing events through the eyes of the character telling the story
• Second Person POV: Narrator is speaking to the reader
• Third Person Limited POV: The narrator only knows what one or more characters know
• Setting: Where the action takes place
• Third Person Omniscient POV: The narrator knows everything about all characters
• Plot: Series of events that happen in a story
• Conventional: Linear flow of events with exposition, conflicts, climax, resolution, and denouement
• Episodic: Functions as conventional plots but comes in series
• Flashback: Shares an event that happened in the past
• Medias Res: Starts the story in the middle of a situation
• Static: Remains the same throughout the story
• Dynamic: Undergoes a change as a result of learning from conflict