Understanding Literature: Types and Definitions

What is Literature?

• Literature derives from the Latin word "litera," translating to letters or words.
• It encompasses the total preserved writings or spoken words of a particular language or people.
• Literature interprets nature and life, such as thoughts and feelings, using charm and power, reflecting the author's personality in artistic forms of enduring interest.
• It articulates significant human experiences.

Literary Types Based on Structure

• Prose includes novels, short stories, plays, legends, fables, anecdotes, essays, biographies, news, and orations.
• Non-prose encompasses narrative poetry, lyric poetry and dramatic poetry.
• Narrative poetry includes epics, metrical tales, and ballads.
• Lyric poetry includes folk songs, sonnets, elegies, odes, psalms, awits, and corridos.

Literary Types Based on Content

• Fiction, or "literature of power," covers myths, poems, short stories, novels, and plays.
• Non-fiction, or "literature of knowledge," includes biographies and news.

The 7 Literary Standards

• Universality: Appeals to everyone, no matter what their culture, race, sex, or time, and is considered insightful.
• Permanence: Endures across time, considering both timeliness (occurring at a particular time) and timelessness (remaining constant throughout time).
• Artistry: Possesses aesthetic appeal and a sense of beauty.
• Intellectual Value: Stimulates critical thought and enriches abstract and reasoning.
• Suggestiveness: Unravels and applies man's emotional power to define symbolism, nuances, implied meanings, images, and messages.
• Spiritual Value: Elevates the spirit and soul and inspires with morals or lessons of literary genres.
• Style: Presents an author's unique view of the human experience.

Literary Devices

• Literary devices are structural elements used by writers to convey messages in a simple way to readers.
• Literary devices have two aspects: literary elements and literary techniques.
• Literary devices have an inherent existence and are employed by writers to develop literature.

Literary Elements

• Plot: The logical succession of events that develop a story.
• Setting: The time and place in which a story takes place.
• Protagonist: The "good guy", or main character of the story, novel, or play.
• Antagonist: The "bad guy", or the character in conflict with the protagonist.
• Point of View: The entity through whom the reader experiences the story.
• Conflict: The core issue in a narrative around which the story pivots.
• Mood: The overall atmosphere or feeling within a narrative.
• Tone: The attitude of the speaker or narrator expressed through language.
• Theme: The central idea or underlying concept of a story.

Literary Techniques

• Literary techniques are structures used by writers for artistic and reading comprehension.

Literary Techniques In Detail

• Symbolism: Using an object or action to convey a deeper meaning than its literal one; for example, pink represents the fight against breast cancer.
• Flashback: Presenting an interjected scene to revert to an earlier point in the story, often detailing events before a significant moment.
• Flash Forward: A narrative technique shifting the story to a future time relative to the current point in the plot.
• Cliffhanger: Creates an abrupt ending that places the main characters in a perilous situation without resolution.
• Foreshadowing: Drops key hints to prepare the reader for future events and helps to predict the outcome.
• Imagery: Employs figurative language to create visual representations that appeal to the senses, such as taste, sight, smell, touch, an hearing.
• Simile and Metaphor: Both compare two distinct objects, but similes use "as" or "like," while metaphors do not.
• Personification: Attributes human qualities to non-human objects or animals.
• Hyperbole: Deliberately exaggerating actions and ideas for emphasis.

Literary Approaches

• Feminism: Focuses on literature by women that deals with women in society. It can also include characters that go against the gender norms dominated by masculinity.
• New Historicism: Examines literature in the context of its cultural and historical background.
• Formalism or New Criticism: Interprets a work based on the information and details presented within the piece itself, focusing on rhetorical and logical connections.

Morning in Nagrebcan

• Manuel Estabillo Arguilla, born June 17, 1911, in Nagrebcan, Bauang, was an Ilokano writer in English, a patriot, and a martyr. He died August 30, 1944.
• "Nagrebcan" sets the scene for the entire story and showcases the essence of rural life in the Philippines. It is the name of the barrio where Manuel E. Arguilla was born and sets many of his stories in.
• The characters involved in the story are Baldo, Ambo, Nana Elang, and Tang Ciaco.
• The type of conflict is man vs. man.

Tata Selo

• Rogelio Sicat, sometimes referred to as Rogelio Sikat, prolific Filipino novelist, playwright, and short story writer.
• The story “Tata Selo” won the second prize in the Carlos Palanca Award for 1963.
• It showcases political cruelties and references real-life land reform issues in the Philippines. It tells the story of a male farmer named Tata Selo.
• The type of conflict is man vs. society.
• Summary: An old man wants to farm the land that was sold when his wife became ill. He wished for the land to be returned, but he did not have the money, and asked Kabesa Tano to farm his land. One day, Kabesa Tano told Tata Selo to leave his farm because there were other farmers. Kabesa Tano did not listen, so Tata Selo accidentally killed him and was imprisoned.

Vietnam Literature

• Vietnam literature has two parts: folk and written. Folk literature is oral; written includes kanji, “chu Nom” (Nom letters) and “chu Quoc ngu" (national language) literature.
• Since the early 20th century, "chu Quoc ngu" has spread nationwide supported by printing technologies and exposure to Western and Eastern Literature. There were new literature genres in which prose had occupied poems' position. The New Poetry movement in the 1930s liberated Vietnamese poetry from Chinese poetry rules. "Tu Luc Van Doan" group created "modern Vietnam novel," a prose work influenced by the West. Vietnamese literature has movements that align with realism, works, romanticism, or politics (revolutionary literature flow).
• The literary arts, especially poetry, have traditionally been highly prized.
• The main types of Vietnamese literature: TRUYEN (traditional oral), HAN VIET (Chinese-Vietnamese), and QUOC AM (modern literature).

Vietnamese Poetry

• Tones has most important elements.
• Based on their falling and rising nature, tones are in two categories: BẰNG (flat), comprising two tones: ngang and huyền and TRẮC (sharp or non-flat), comprising four tones: sắc, hỏi, ngã, nặng.
• Rhyme Scheme Rules: There are two kinds of rhymes in Vietnamese poetry.
  • VẦN GIÀU (rich) have the same final sound and tones.
  • VẦN NGHÈO (poor) have nearly similar sound and tones.

Poetic Forms of Vietnam

• Tho Bon Chu or Four Word Verse: Involves the number of words per line. The elements are stanzaic written in a series of couplets. Each line contains four words.
• Tho Sau Chu or Six-Word Verse: Uses word count and alternate or envelope rhyme in quatrains or octaves. When written in octaves it is Six-Eight Poetry. It is stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains or octaves and uses 6 words per line. The rhyme scheme can be alternate or envelope style.
• Tho Bay Chu or Seven Word Poetry: This uses a more flexible tonal pattern. An end word in the first line is flat, the 3rd word must be sharp, and when the end word of the second line is sharp, the 4th word in the line must be flat. It has stanzas in quatrains and uses a 7 word per line count with a rhymed structure.
• Tho Tam Chu or Eight Word Poetry: It is more flexible in stanza length and in tonal and end rhyme. It has a stanzaic structure using either tercets, quatrains, or septets. It has a measured word count of 8 words per line with a rhymed structure.

Brunei

• There is Brunei Literature

Welcome to Brunei

• Selamat Pagi (Good Morning)
• Selamat Petang (Good Afternoon)
• Selamat Datang ke Brunei Indah Darussalam (Welcome to beautiful Brunei Darussalam).

Brunei History and Language

• Brunei traded and paid tribute to China in the 6th century CE and became influenced by Hinduism via allegiance to the Majapahit empire in Java.
• Brunei gained independence on January 1, 1984, and an Islamic sultanate was proclaimed.
• Brunei Malay (Bahasa Melayu Brunei) or Kedayan (Kedaian) is Brunei’s national language and a lingua franca in parts of East Malaysia.
• Standard Malay is the official language of Brunei.
• Arabic is used by Islamic scholars and proficiency possessed by adherents of the Islamic faith.
• Hainanese, Hoisan and Fuchow are other Chinese languages spoken.
• English is widely used as the language of business and other affairs and spoken by a majority.

Brunei Literature

• The Language and Literature Bureau promotes development of literature and folklore and publishes textbooks in Malay and English.
• Sajak, a form of poetry, is popular to school children.
• Sya'ir Awang Simawn is an epic poem and most famous work of traditional literature.

Myanmar Language

• Burmese is the mother tongue of the Bamar and official language.
• Burmese is written in a script of circular and semi-circular letters from the Mon script.
• Mon Script: Mon language is a recognized indigenous language of Myanmar and Thailand.

Thailand Information

• The Thai language is the official language.
• English is its unofficial second language.
• Thai's five tones: high, mid, low, rising, and falling
• The traditional greeting is called "wai" and is offered with the hands in a prayer position.
• Thai Literature is traditionally influenced by the Indian culture.
• Ramakien is Thailand's national epic translated from the Ramayana. Sunthorn Phu was the most important poet.