Lit3(midterm)

• Contemporary, popular and emerging literature

  This literary era was highly influenced by the Bhakti Movement
• Popular literature


  Writings intended for the masses and those that find favour with large audiences, designed primarily to entertain
• The growth of popular literature has paralleled the spread of literacy through education and has been facilitated by technological developments in printing – Industrial Revolution
• Popular literature in English

  Writing which has shown wide and continued acceptance, measured by sales, frequent imitation, adaptation to other cultural forms and general commercial success
• Postmodernism


  Brought in a complete breakdown of categories, an end to elitism based on distinctions of culture, and a celebration of the victory of commerce over culture
• Factors that gave way to popular literature

  • Industrial Revolution
  • Media
  • Bhakti Movement
• Characteristics of popular literature


  • Plot driven
  • Stock figure characters
  • Common language
  • Dialogues are daily spoken language
• Genres of popular literature

  • Romance
  • Action adventure
  • Science fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Young adults
  • New adult
  • Horror/paranormal
• Before the publication of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, children's books focused on moral instruction and academic basics
• Before the printing advances of the mid-18th century, books were simply too expensive to illustrate and make widely available to children
• Recruiting the famed political cartoonist John Tenniel to illustrate Alice's adventures, Carroll and his publisher set a new standard for all children's books
• As we engage in technology more and more, we create and discover more existing forms of expressive culture as well. We have a wide range of resources through the internet and this gave opportunities to people, especially the youth, to begin writing and expressing their thoughts, ideas, and feelings
• The idea is to create an e-book reading application, as e-books are becoming in demand during that time, however, the founders thought that it would be time consuming to maintain their own catalog, so they decided to let the community decide what they want to read, and they can also upload their works and content into the application
• Hypertext poetry and hypertext fiction


  New genres of literature that use the computer screen as medium, rather than the printed page, relying on the qualities unique to a digital environment
• Cell phone novel


  A literary work originally written on a cellular phone via text messaging, originating in Japan and becoming a popular literary genre internationally
• Blog


  An online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with latest posts appearing first
• Spoken word poetry


  Poetry as performance art using words, with the poet becoming a performer, choosing tone and timing as part of the poem's appeal
• Spoken word poetry


  1. Start with a line to draw your audience in

  2. Tell a story

  3. Use strong imagery

  4. Read it aloud

  5. Adapt for performance