WHAT IS

LITERATURE?
Lesson 1
 Literature is the total of preserved writings belonging toa given
language or people.
 Literature is the class or the total of writings, of a given country or
period, is which notable for literary form orexpression, as distinguished,
on the one hand, fromworks merely of technical or erudite and, on the
other,from journalistic or other ephemeral writings.
 Literature consists of those writings which interpret themeanings of
nature and life, in words of charm and power,touched with the
personality of the author, in artistic formsof permanent interests.
 It is a product of life and about life.
 It uses language as medium
 As imaginative writing, fiction (as well as modern poetry and drama)
THE GENRES AND THEIR ELEMENTS

Literariness
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction
Poetry
LITERARINESS

By "literary" we strictly mean artistic written expression as oppose

totraditional forms like myths, epics, folktales, legends, ballads,proverbs,
folk drama, which had oral culture as their life and basis.
In their purely oral state, these tales and songs constantly involve
asmembers of the community retell them countless of times among
oneanother.
The content of myths, epics, and folktales appear marvelous to usonly
because we tend to contrast it to the "realism" of our dailyordinary lives,
but in the consciousness of those in the oralcommunities who shared
these myths and tales, reality is just thatmarvelous.
 In the formalist, literariness is the apt use of devices,techniques, and
figurative language in the carefulshaping of the elements of a poem or
story to communicate a point or insight.
 The use of creative techniques must not feel forced orartificial;
verbosity or shallow, decorative applicationsof figurative language do
not qualify as literariness.
FICTION

 It is a basically prose narrative, its distinctive feature being thecentrality

of plot action. The propeller of plot action is thepresence of conflict,
and the narrative proceeds ascomplications arising from the conflict add
up and reach aclimax wherein the situation becomes finally unbearable
andbegs to be resolved.
 This is the turning point of the story, when the protagonistarrives at a
very important realization or makes a decision thatmakes the course of
events, and the conflict is resolved.
CREATIVE NONFICTION

 This is a genre that incorporates elements of fiction and poetry in

theretelling of a person experience.
 In autobiography, biography, autobiographical narratives, memoir,
andessays in the tradition of "new journalism or literary
journalism,"literariness is considered in the depiction of real events and
people.
 In another short story by Clinton Palanca titled “
 In Days of Rain" (1996),the first few paragraphs establish not only the
romance mode of the storyas a nostalgic recollection of childhood.
 It is also meta-fiction that works around the fine lines dividing
nonfiction,vare Windosfiction, poetry.
POETRY

 Mina Roy defines a poetry as prose bewitched". If fiction ismainly

concerned with plot action, poetry is "life distilled"-Gwendolyn Brooks
said.
 Poetryworks via suggestion, implication, and ambiguityrather than via
literal, straightforward communication.
 Poems are primarily relished as words as the building blocksof this art
how their meticulous selection, arrangement,and calculated interplay
deliver ideas, feelings, perspective etc.
ELEMENTS AND FORMS OF POETRY
1. Theme: the main point or the insight to be derived from the poem.
2. Speaker/ Persona: the fictitious character whose voice we hear in
thepoem. In the same way that narrator is not necessarily the author,
thespeaker is not necessarily human. The speaker may either be an
observer ora direct participant in the dramatic situation.
3. Dramatic situation: the momentfin lyric poetry or series of
events(innarrative poetry that the speaker speaks about in the poem
4. Diction: the poem's choice of words, with each word suggestive in
termnsof its meaning, sound, and replacement together with other words.
Words maybe abstract/concrete, general/specific,
formal/informal,denotative/connotative.
5. Figurative language/figures of speech: comparison or substitutionthat,
for the sake of freshness, emphasis, or surprise, depart from theusual
denotation of words.
 A. Simile and Metaphor: express similarly between dissimilar
things(whereas literal language would express similarly between
obviouslysimilar things). Simile focuses on a single aspect of the
likeness anduses connectives(like ,as, than, such as, resembles, etc.)
Metaphordoes not use connectives but states that one thing is something
else,implying likeness in nanature
 B. Metonymy: a word is subtitued by another closely associated with
it,e.g., "between the candle and the grave which means "between
birthand death".
 C. Paronomasia/pun: a form of word play involving two
similarsounding words but with different meaning. In "Ask for
metomorrow and you shall find me a grave man (a line onShakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet, two meanings of the wordgrave are used: "grave
which means serious, and "grave" as ametonym for death.
 D. Personification/anthropomorphism: human qualities aregiven to
inanimate objects, animals, or abstract terms(like love,nature, truth,
death, etc.)
 E. Apostrophe: the speaker addresses someone or somethingwho is
absent, dead, does not/cannot respond, or is notordinarily spoken to.
DRAMA
 Like poetry, drama is also an ancient form of communalexpression.
Unlike modern fiction that encourages reflectiveisolation and
individuation in the act of reading, poetry, anddrama are best enjoyed
when performed, with the sounds andrhythms in poetry heard and the
spectacle in drama seen byan embodied audience
 In the Philippines, folk and indigenized dramatic forms like
thepanunuluyan are commercial reenactments of familiar stories.
 The basic structure of panunuluyan as described by NicanorG. Tiongson
includes a procession with candles and a brassband.
 Still practiced today as a part of Christmas festivities, thepanuuyulan
retains its basic structure while incorporatingnew elements responsive
to the times, like the one in Palo,Bulacan in 1983
 A modern play also cited by Tiongson is y the PhilippinesTheater
Association PETA) titled Ang Panunuluyan ni BirhengMaria at San Jose
sa Cubao, Ayala, Plaza Miranda, at Ibapang Lugar sa Loob at Labas ng
Metro Manila (1979)