Introduction to Literature

What is Literature?

• Literature is derived from the Latin word "litera," meaning letters or words.
• It encompasses the preserved writings and spoken words of a given language or people.
• Literature interprets nature and life's meanings, including thoughts and emotions, expressed with charm, power, and the author's personality, in artistic forms of lasting interest.
• Literature expresses significant human experiences.

Literary Types Based on Structure

• Prose is one of the two main types of literature, based on structure and content.
• Prose includes novels, short stories, plays, legends, fables, anecdotes, essays, biographies, news, and orations.
• Non-prose (poetry) is the second main type of literature, based on structure and content.
• Non-prose includes narrative poetry (epics, metrical tales, ballads), lyric poetry (folk songs, sonnets, elegies, odes, psalms, awits, corridos), and dramatic poetry.

Literary Types Based on Content

• Literature is divided into two aspects based on content.
• Fiction or "literature of power" includes myths, poems, short stories, novels, and plays.
• Non-fiction or "literature of knowledge" includes biographies and news.

Literary Standards

• Universality means that the literature appeals to everyone regardless of culture, race, sex, and time and is considered significant.
• Permanence endures across time, encompassing both timeliness (occurring at a particular time) and timelessness (remaining invariably throughout time).
• Artistry has an aesthetic appeal to everyone, possessing a sense of beauty.
• Intellectual value stimulates critical thinking, enriching abstract and reasoning mental processes, leading to the realization of life's fundamental truths and its nature.
• Suggestiveness unravels and conjures man's emotional power to define symbolism, nuances, implied meanings, images, and messages, giving and evoking visions beyond ordinary life and experiences.
• Spiritual value elevates the spirit and soul, motivating and inspiring through morals or lessons of different literary genres.
• Style presents life as people see it, evidenced by how their ideas, forms, structures, and expressions are made and marked by their substance.

Literary Devices

• Literary devices are structures writers use to convey messages in a simple manner.
• These have two aspects: literary elements and literary techniques.
• Literary elements inherently exist in literary pieces and are used by writers to develop a literary piece.

Literary Elements

• Plot is the logical sequence of events that develops the story.
• Setting refers to the time and place in which a story takes place.
• Protagonist is the "good guy," the main character of a story, novel, or play.
• Antagonist is the "bad guy," the character in conflict with the protagonist.
• Point of View is the person or entity through whom the reader experiences the story.
• Conflict is an issue in a narrative that the whole story revolves around.
• Mood is the general atmosphere of a narrative.
• Tone: The "attitude” of the speaker, narrator as conveyed through the language of the piece.
• Theme is the central idea or concept of a story.

Literary Techniques

• Literary techniques are structures, usually words or phrases, in literary texts that writers employ to achieve artistic ends and give readers a greater understanding.

Common Literary Techniques

• Symbolism uses an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning.
  • Pink symbolizes the fight against breast cancer.
  • The Statue of Liberty stands for freedom.
  • Roses symbolize romance.
• Flashback tells an interjected scene of the story that takes it back in time from the current point in the story and is often used to tell the events that happened before another important event
• Flash forward tells a scene that takes the narrative to a future time from the current point of the story
• Cliffhanger tells an abrupt ending that places the main characters in a perilous situation with no resolution
• Foreshadowing: Important hints that an author drops to prepare the reader for what is to come and help the reader anticipate the outcome. A pipe is going to burst, but before it does, the author writes a scene where the family notices a small dark spot on the ceiling, but ignores it.
• Imagery is the use of figurative language to create visual representations of actions, objects, and ideas to appeal to the different senses.
  • Taste (gustatory imagery)
  • Sight (visual imagery)
  • Smell (olfactory imagery)
  • Touch (tactile imagery)
  • Hear (aural imagery)
  • Example: the room was dark and gloomy. The words "dark" and "gloomy" are visual images.
  • Example: The river was roaring in the mountains. The word "roaring" appeals to our sense of hearing
• Simile and Metaphor both compare two distinct objects and draw similarities between them.
  • Simile uses "as" or "like," while Metaphor does not.
  • "My love is like a red rose” (Simile)
  • He is an old fox very cunning. (Metaphor)
• Personification is the attribution of human qualities to something non-human like objects and animals.
  • Example: The flowers are dancing beside the lake.
  • Example: Have you seen my new car? She is a real beauty!
  • Example: My clock yelled at me in the morning.
• Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration of actions and ideas for the sake of emphasis.
  • Example: I'm so sad that I'm drowning in tears!
  • Example: I have got a million issues to look after!

Literary Approaches

• Feminism is often associated with literary pieces written by women that deal with women in society.
  • It involves characters who chide the common gender norms dominated by masculinity.
  • Feminism has an impact on the voice of women.
• New Historicism deals with the cultural context during the writing of literature.
  • It interprets literature for its meaning or idea in a particular socio-historical atmosphere.
• Formalism or New Criticism is the interpretation of a work of art that is formulated by the information and details of the piece itself.
  • Formalists focus on rhetorical and logical connections within the writing.

Morning in Nagrebcan

• Manuel Estabillo Arguilla (1911-1944) was an Ilokano writer in English, a patriot, and a martyr.
• "Nagrebcan" is the name of the barrio (village) where Manuel E. Arguilla was born.
• This story captures the essence of rural life in the Philippines.
• Characters Baldo, Ambo, Nana Elang and Tang Ciaco
• Type of conflict Man verses man

Tata Selo

• "Tata Selo" is a story by Rogelio Sicat.
• Sicat, sometimes referred to as "Rogelio Sikat", who was as a prolific Filipino novelist, playwright, and short story writer.
• "Tata Selo" won the second prize in the Carlos Palanca Award for 1963.
• "Tata Selo" is based on issues regarding real-life land reform and recurring political cruelties in the Philippines.

Vietnam literature

• Vietnam literature consists of two parts, namely folk and written literature.
• Folk literature is oral literature.
• Written literature includes kanji, “chu Nom” (Nom letters) and “chu Quoc ngu" (national language) literature.
• "Chu Quoc ngu" became widespread over nationwide after the early 20th century.
• "Tu Luc Van Doan" group, influenced by the West, created the modern Vietnam novel.
• The literary arts, especially poetry, have traditionally been highly prized in Vietnam.
• Vietnamese literature includes three main types
  • TRUYEN (traditional oral literature)
  • HAN VIET (Chinese-Vietnamese literature);
  • QUOC AM (modern literature, or anything written in the romanticized quoc ngu alphabet)
• In poetry, based on Vietnamese language tones:
  • flat tones (BẰNG): ngang and huyền.
  • sharp or non-flat tones (TRẮC): sắc, hỏi, ngã, nặng.
• Two kinds of rhymes in Vietnamese poetry:
  • VẦN GIÀU (rich rhymes): are when two words have the same final sound and their tones come from the same category.
  • VẦN NGHÈO (poor rhymes): are when two words have nearly similar final sound and their tones come from the same category.

Vietnam Poetic Forms

• Tho Bon Chu: Four Word Verse. It measures the number of words (4) per line rather than syllables
• Tho Sau Chu: Six-Word Verse. It measured by word count and uses either alternate or envelope rhyme, in quatrains or octaves. Octaves writing version called Six-Eight Poetry
• Other Vietnamese Poetic Forms are:
  • Tho Bay Chu which 7 words per line,
  • Tho Tam Chu which 8 words per line

Brunei Literature

• Brunei was known to be trading with and paying tribute to China in the 6th century CE.
• It then came under Hindu influence for a time through allegiance to the Majapahit empire, based in Java.
• Brunei gained independence on January 1, 1984, and an Islamic sultanate was proclaimed.
• Languages spoken in Brunei include: Brunei Malay, Kadayan, Standard Malay, Arabic, Hainanese, Hoisan, Fuchow and English as business and official language
• The Language and Literature Bureau promotes the development of literature and folklore and publishes textbooks in Malay and English for use in primary and secondary schools.
• Sajak poetry is famous in Brunei to school children
• Syair Awang Simawn - epic poem, most famous work of traditional literature which recounts the exploits of the culture hero

Myanmar Literature

• Burmese is the mother tongue of the Bamar and official language of Myanmar.
• It is written in a script consisting of circular and semi-circular letters, which comes from the Mon script.
• Mon script - The Mon language is a recognized indigenous language in Myanmar as well as a recognized indigenous language of Thailand
• Palm and Folded paper was how literature was written since historic times
• "The Kindergarten Teacher" ~by Aung Thinn

Thai Literature

• Thai language is the official language of Thailand and English is its unofficial second language.
• Thai language has five tones: high, mid, low, rising, and falling
• Written Thai is based on an alphabet adopted from the Khmers of Cambodia
• The Sukhothai period standardized the written alphabet
• Traditional Thai greeting called "wai" is generally offered first by the younger of the two people meeting
• Traditional Thai greeting has hands pressed together, fingertips pointing upwards as the head is bowed so face touches fingertips with the spoken words “sawatdi khrap" for male speakers, and "sawatdi kha" for females
• Thai Literature was traditionally heavily influenced by Indian culture. Thailand's national epic is a version of the Ramayana called the Ramakien.
• Sunthorn Phu was best known for his romantic adventure story Phra Aphai Mani and nine travel pieces called Nirats.