Exploring Literary Characteristics and Forms

• Literature encompasses written or oral works expressing ideas, emotions, and stories through language, reflecting human experiences, culture, society, and history.
• It serves as an artistic mirror of life, offering insights into the human condition, values, and beliefs, and acts as a tool for communication, education, and social change.

Nature of Literature

• Literature is a form of artistic expression, using language to convey emotions, thoughts, and ideas in creative ways.
• It mirrors culture, society, history, and individual and group psychology, often providing insight into social and personal issues.
• It often involves imagination, offering readers an escape into these new worlds or promotes critical thinking about real-world ones.
• Literature evokes emotions, provokes thought, and challenges perspectives, enabling readers to connect with characters, stories, and ideas.

Scope of Literature

• Fiction includes novels, short stories, and dramas that tell invented stories, exploring human experiences and societal issues.
• Non-fiction includes essays, autobiographies, biographies, and historical works providing factual accounts of real events or ideas.
• Poetry focuses on verse, rhyme, and rhythmic language to express feelings, concepts, and images.
• Drama includes plays, screenplays, and scripts meant to be performed, exploring conflict, character, and dialogue.
• Contemporary literature includes hybrid forms like graphic novels, multimedia storytelling, and interactive narratives.

Forms of Literature

• Written literature includes traditional printed forms like novels, essays, poems, and plays.
• Oral literature includes folk tales, myths, legends, and songs passed down verbally.
• Digital literature includes e-books, blogs, social media storytelling, and online narratives.
• Visual and Multimedia literature include forms like graphic novels, movies, and interactive storytelling.

Philippine Literature During the Pre-Colonial Period

• Philippine literary forms in this era were spoken, sung, or chanted for entertainment, to promote community values, accompany rituals, or impart wisdom.
• Common forms included riddles, poems, lullabies, courtship songs, lamentations, and carousals.
• Riddles were a common form of oral literature, demanding an answer, often with a humorous tone but serious answers.
• Chants, or bulong, were used in witchcraft or enchantment, especially in remote Visayas areas.
• Legends are narratives of human actions believed to have taken place within human history by both teller and listeners.
• Folktales are stories about life, adventure, love, horror, and humor, from which lessons can be derived.
• Epics are long narrative poems detailing heroic achievements or events, usually of a hero.
• Folk songs mirrored early cultural forms; examples include Kundiman, Kumintang, Dalit or Imno, Oyayyi or Hele.

Colonial Period

Spanish Period (1521-1871)

• Literature was classified as religious and secular, in both prose and poetry.
• The Roman alphabet replaced the Baybayin.
• Christian doctrine became the basis for religious practices.
• European legends and traditions were assimilated into songs, corridos, and moro-moro plays. There were also folk songs like: Pamulinawen, Dandansoy, Sarong Banggi, Ati Cu Pung Sing-sing that manifested the artistic feelings of Filipinos
• Recreational plays performed by Filipinos during the Spanish times were poetic in form like Cenaculo, Panunuluyan, Salubong, Embayoka, Lagaylay, and Zarzuela.

Period of Enlightenment (1872-1898)

• Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe (Illustrados) wrote about the effects of colonization.
• The Propaganda Movement was led by middle-class intellectuals like Jose Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena.
• Rizal's works include Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo, Mi Ultimo Adios, Sobre La Indolencia De Los Filipinos, and Filipinas Dentro de Cien Anos.
• Del Pilar's writings include Pagibig sa Tinubuang Lupa, Kaingat Kayo, and Dasalan at Tocsohan.
• Jaena's writings include Fray Botod, La Hija Del Fraile, Sa Mga Filipino, Everything is Hambug, and Talumpating Paggunita kay Kulumbus.

American Regime (1898-1944)

• Americans influenced Filipino writers through the English language.
• Jose Garcia Villa became known for his free verse poetry.
• Writings were in Spanish, Tagalog, and regional dialects.
• Tagalog writers lamented the country's conditions and promoted love for the native tongue.
• Writers in English imitated American themes and methods.

The Japanese Period (1941-1945)

• Philippine literature in English halted.
• Newspapers not circulated included TRIBUNE and PHILIPPINE REVIEW.
• Common themes in poetry: nationalism, country, love, barrio life, faith, religion, and the arts.
• Three poem types emerged: Haiku (17 syllables, three lines), Tanaga (short with measure and rhyme), and Karaniwang Anyo.
• Strict prohibitions by the Japanese government publishing in English, led to a dark time.
• Many books published in Filipino and English and Philippine literature in Tagalog was revived.

Rebirth of Freedom (1946-1970)

• It was marked by a "struggle of mind and spirit" after emancipation and literature in vernacular became popular.
• Writers had better knowledge and political activism.
• Examples of poetry include When I See a Barong-Barong by Maximo Ramos.
• Examples of short stories include Plighted Wood by Narciso G. Reyes, Scent of Apples by Bienvenido Santos, Cadaver by Alberto S. Florentino, They Called It “Brotherhood” by Maximo V. Soliven and Kwento ni Mabuti by Genoveva Edroza-Matute.

Period of Activism (1970-1972)

• Youth activism sought social reforms due to societal issues.
• Youth expressed sentiments, demanding government change via demonstrations, expressions, and literature.

Period of the New Society (1972-1980)

• Poems focused on patience, native culture, customs, and nature's beauty.
• Economic progress, discipline, culture, and tourism were favored in news over sensationalized reports.
• Filipinos enjoyed reading magazines and comics.

Period of the Third Republic (1981-1985)

• Martial Law lifted on January 2, 1981.
• Poems were romantic and revolutionary.
• Filipino songs addressed themes of grief, poverty, freedom, love of God, country, and fellow humans.

Post EDSA 1 Revolution (1986-1999)

• Filipino people regained independence via People Power.
• Changes were evident in songs, newspapers, speeches, and television programs.

21st Century Period

• New trends are used and introduced to meet the needs and tastes of the new generation.
• 21st-century learners use Information and Communication Technology to compete with writing styles and formats.
• New codes or lingos are used to add flavor in the literary pieces.

21st Century Literary Genres

• Illustrated Novel: Story told through text and illustrated images, 50% of the narrative is presented without words.
• Digi-Fiction: Combines book, movie/video, and internet website.
• Graphic Novels: Narrative in comic book format.
• Manga: Japanese word for comics and originally published in Japan.
  • Shonen- Boy’s Manga (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece)
  • Shojo- Girl’s Manga (Sailormoon)
  • Seinen- Men’s Manga (Akira)
  • Josei- Women’s Manga (Loveless, Paradise Kiss)
  • Kodomo- Children’s Manga (Doraemon, Hello Kitty)
• Doodle Fiction: Author incorporates doodle writing, drawings, and handwritten graphics instead of fonts.
• Text-Talk Novels: Stories told via simulated social network exchanges.
• Chick Literature: Fiction addressing modern womanhood, featuring a woman protagonist with romantic relationships and workplace issues; targets young women.
• Flash Fiction: Very brief story offering plot and character development.
• Science Fiction: Speculative fiction involving futuristic science, technology, time travel, and extraterrestrial life.

Literary Devices

Literal Language

• It means exactly what it says

Figurative Language

• It uses idiomatic expressions and figures of speech to convey meaning in a way that differs from its literal meaning.

Literary Techniques

• These are specific methods of writing that authors use to express their ideas and enhance the impact of their work, such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, imagery, and symbolism.

Literary Devices

• Writers use these specific tools to create effects and enhance language. Examples include metaphors, similes, personification, and alliteration.
• Foreshadowing hints at future events to create suspense and conflict.
• Imagery uses words to create vivid mental pictures.
• Symbolism uses objects, people, or words to represent ideas or themes.
• Idiomatic Expression: A phrase or group of words that has a figurative or non-literal meaning that is different from the literal meanings of the individual words.
• Figures of Speech: A rhetorical device that uses creative language to convey meaning in a non-literal way.
• Simile compares two unrelated things using "like" or "as".
• Metaphor compares two things indirectly without "like" or "as".
• Personification gives human traits to non-human things.
• Hyperbole exaggerates for emphasis or comic effect.
• Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like its meaning.
• Apostrophe directly addresses a nonexistent person or an inanimate object.
• Alliteration is the repetition of an initial consonant sound.

Reading Techniques

• Skimming: rapidly read material to get a general overview.
• Scanning: rapidly read material to find specific facts.
• Intensive reading: Reading a text in detail to gain a deeper understanding of it - also known as "reading to learn". Extensive reading: Reading texts for enjoyment and to develop general reading skills - also known as "learning to read".
• Reader’s Response Approach: A theory focusing on how readers create meaning from a text.
  • Transactional Reader-Response Approach: Meaning is created through the transaction between the reader and the text.
  • Affective Reader-Response Approach: Focuses on the emotions and feelings evoked in the reader while engaging with the text.
  • Subjective Reader-Response Approach: Readers construct their own unique meaning based on their individual perspectives and life experiences.
  • Social Reader-Response Approach: Meaning is shaped by the reader’s cultural, social, and communal context.
  • Interpretive Communities Approach: Readers belong to "interpretive communities", which share ways of interpreting texts.
• Psychological Reader-Response Approach - Emphasizes the reader's subconscious, psychological state, or identity in shaping their response to a text.

Textual and Contextual Reading Approaches

• Textual analysis looks at the text and the literary strategies it entails, analyzing the style, words, and delivery.
• Contextual evidence focuses on understanding why a piece is written, viewing it as part of a bigger picture and a role in a particular time or event.
  • Biographical Context: It is the background information about an author's life that influenced their writing. It includes their education, culture, beliefs, and experiences
  • Historical Context: It is the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions that existed during a specific time and place.
  • Linguistic Context: words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs surrounding a word help determine its meaning.
    • It helps clarify word meanings.
    • Readers understand the nuances of word meanings
    • Reader's comprehension is enriched by the social setting and the status of the speaker and audience.

This quiz delves into the transformative qualities of literature, from offering diverse perspectives to reflecting societal values. It explores how digital advancements have broadened literary scope and how hybrid forms challenge genre conventions. The quiz also touches on the functions of pre-colonial Philippine literature.