Understanding the Nature and Importance of Literature

Nature of Literature

• Literature comes from the Latin word "littera," meaning "a letter of the alphabet," and can be defined as anything written.
• Literature can provide information in a clear, straightforward manner.
• Literature can be read without expecting a practical payoff, for the simple enjoyment of it.
• Literature grants a certain kind of pleasure.
• Literature allows appreciation of brilliance and admiration of achievement.
• Literature allows a temporary escape from reality.
• Literature is historically and culturally specific, and there are different collective nomenclatures for literature according to place and time.
• Examples of literature include African Literature, Greco-Roman Literature, and Southeast Asian Literature.

Importance of Literature

• Literature expands horizons by showing us more than just the immediate surroundings.
• Literature helps us realize the wide world outside, prompting us to learn, ask questions, and build our intuitions and instincts.
• Literature builds critical thinking skills by teaching us to look between the lines, find symbols, make connections, find themes, and learn about characters.
• Reading literature expands our skills and allows us to see sentences with a larger sense of detail and depth, realizing the importance of hidden meanings.
• Literature is entwined with history.
• History includes people's lives and their experiences in specific time periods.
• Without literature, we would not know about our past, families, and the people who came before us.
• Literature provides a method of learning about cultures and beliefs other than our own, allowing us to understand and experience these other systems of living and other worlds.
• Literature gives a personal view and insight into the minds and reasoning of someone else, helping us learn, understand, and appreciate other cultures.
• Literature expands writing skills by allowing us to imagine and write like the authors, poets, or playwrights who used literature to expand their own writing.
• Literature addresses human nature and conditions that affect all people, such as the need for growth, doubts, fears, compassion, empathy, trust, and the realization of imperfection.
• Literature teaches us that imperfection is not always bad and that normal can be boring.
• Life must be lived to the fullest, and literature helps us connect with our own humanity.

The Seven Literary Standards of Literature

• Artistry appeals to our sense of beauty.
• Intellectual Beauty involves each piece of literature stimulating thought by enriching our mental life and making us realize the fundamental truths of life and human nature.
• Suggestiveness is the quality relevant to the emotional power of literature to make us feel deeply and stir our imagination by triggering and evoking visions above and beyond ordinary life experiences.
• Spiritual Value involves a literary work elevating the spirit within us by bringing moral values into the realm of the physical world, presenting moral values necessary for reflection and inspiration.
• Permanence involves a great literary work enduring and can be read again, with each reading giving fresh delights and new insights, without being ephemeral or merely a passing hype to the audience, but instead being long-lasting.
• Universality involves a great literary work being timeless and timely, appealing to one and all, anytime, and anywhere because it deals with an array of individual's perceptions as well as orientations toward fundamental truths and universal conditions.
• Style is a depiction of a writer who sees life and form her or his ideas.

Literary Genres

• Fiction is a genre based on imagination but could also be based on real-life events.

Short Story

• Short stories (Flash Fiction) are shorter and less elaborate than a novel, typically read in one sitting.
• Examples of short stories include "Fogtown" by Timothy Montes and "Midsummer" by Manuel Arguilla.
• Short stories are approximately 10,000 words.

Novel

• Novels are works of fiction that have considerable length and complexity.
• Novels are published as books.
• Examples of novels include "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and "Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro.
• Novels are approximately 40,000 words.

Novella

• Novellas are works of fiction that are relatively longer than short stories but shorter than novels.
• Examples of novellas include "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy.
• Novellas are approximately 20,000-40,000 words.

Poetry

• Poetry is a type of literature that conveys a thought, describes a scene, or tells a story in a concentrated, lyrical arrangement of words.
• One type of poetry is a Sonnet, consisting of only one stanza and fourteen lines.
• Examples of sonnets include Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote Her Name by Edmund Spenser and Remember by Christina Rossetti.
• Ballads are a type of poem that tells stories most often based on a legend or a folk tale.
• Examples of ballads are Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe and La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats.
• Elegies are a type of poem that reflects upon death or loss.
• Examples of elegies are The Lost Sister: An Elegy by Joyce Carol Oates and "Elegy Written on a Country Church" by Thomas Gray.
• Epics are a type of poem that is long and narrative and normally tells a story of a hero or an adventure.
• Examples of epics are Beowulf and Biag ni Lam-ang.
• Odes address and often praise a certain person, thing, or event.
• Examples of odes are "Ode of Solitude" by Alexander Pope and "Ode to the West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
• Free Verse has no regular meter nor rhyme scheme and usually follows the natural rhythms of speech.
• Examples of free verses are Song of Myself by Walt Whitman and This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams.

Ancient and Classical Literature

• An epic is a long, often book-length, narrative in verse form that retells the heroic journey of a single person or group of persons.
• The word "epic" comes from Latin 'epicus' and from Greek 'epikos', meaning "a word; a story; poetry in heroic verse.”
• The elements that typically distinguish epics include superhuman deeds, fabulous adventures, highly stylized language, and a blending of lyrical and dramatic traditions, which also extend to defining heroic verse.
• Traditional epics were shaped by literary artists from historical and legendary materials developed in the oral traditions of their nation during periods of expansion and warfare.
• Widely known epic poems include Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," which detail the events of the Trojan War and King Odysseus's journey home from Troy.
• "The Mahābhārata" is an ancient Indian epic composed in Sanskrit, dating back to 400 BC, though its subject matter may be thousands of years older.
• "Beowulf" is an Old English poem written between 975 and 1025 AD, telling the story of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf against the monster Grendel.
• "The Nibelungenlied" is a long narrative poem written in Middle High German around 1200 AD, concerning Siegfried, a legendary hero of German mythology.
• "The Divine Comedy" was composed by Dante Alighieri over twelve years and completed in 1320, imagining Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and finally Heaven.
• John Milton's "Paradise Lost", first published in 1667, tells the biblical tale of Adam and Eve, the fallen angel Satan, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, written in blank verse form.

Epic Conventions

• In Medias Res (“in the middle of things”): The narrative begins in the middle of the story's action, rather than at the beginning.
• Invocation: Classical epics often begin with an invocation of the muse, with poets calling for a blessing from a god or gods to attend the poet's efforts.
• Statement of Theme: Classical epics often begin with a statement of theme, such as of man's first disobedience" in Paradise Lost.
• Stock Epithets: An epithet is an adjective or descriptive phrase that expresses a quality or characteristic of the person or thing mentioned.
• Cataloguing: Classical epics include long and short lists of things.
• Long, Formal Speeches: Much of Paradise Lost is composed of such speeches.
• Divine Intervention: In epics, gods intervene in human affairs.
• Epic Digressions: Epics frequently have epic digressions, passages that do not further the action of the story because they are asides or repetitions.
• Vast Settings: Epic settings cover tremendous geographical expanses; For example, Paradise Lost takes place in heaven, in hell, and on the planet earth.
• Heroes Idealize the Values of Their Civilizations: The hero of the story embodies the hegemonic ideologies of the times.
• Grandiose/Elevated Language: Epic poems use stylized literary language to narrate the story.
• Definitive Meter: Epics tend to deploy "heroic meter," otherwise known as "blank verse."
• Epic Battles: Epics often depict heroic battles.
• Descent into the Underworld: Epic heroes often descend into the underworld.
• Heroic Oath: In many epics, heroes pledge oaths that oblige them to fulfill a particular promise.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

• Summary: The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, his friendship with Enkidu, and his failed quest for eternal life.

Prologue

• The narrator shares the story of Gilgamesh.
• Gilgamesh traveled the world and knew about every land and returned from a journey where he learned secret things about the flood.
• The story is recorded in writing on clay tablets and Gilgamesh was created by the gods.
• The gods Shamash and Adad created him to be the strongest, most beautiful, and most courageous man alive.
• His appearance is awe-inspiring.
• He built the walls around Uruk and has added many temples to the city.

Book 1

• Gilgamesh traveled the world and returned home to the city of Uruk, where he reigns as king.
• Gilgamesh becomes an arrogant and oppressive ruler, sleeps with any woman he wants, and has taken or killed all the young men in the city.
• The people's pleas reach the gods, who ask Aruru to create a man to oppose Gilgamesh.
• Aruru creates Enkidu by combining water and clay and places him in the wilderness.
• He has the spirit of the god of war, Ninurta and has no knowledge of humanity or civilization.
• Enkidu lives among the animals as their protector and eats grass, and drinks from water holes.
• Enkidu protects the animals from human trappers.
• A particular trapper encounters Enkidu three days in a row.
• The trapper describes Enkidu to his father as godlike.
• The trapper's father orders him to go to Gilgamesh in Uruk and tell him about the wild man.
• The trapper is told to bring a prostitute from Ishtar's temple in Uruk.
• The prostitute will seduce Enkidu, and then the animals will no longer accept him.
• The trapper meets with Gilgamesh and tells him about Enkidu.
• Gilgamesh allows the trapper to take the prostitute back with him to tempt Enkidu away from the wilderness.
• Gilgamesh says that the animals will reject Enkidu once he has been seduced.
• The trapper and Shamhat return to the wilderness and they set up camp by the watering hole and wait.
• After several days, Enkidu drinks with his animal companions and the trapper sends Shamhat to Enkidu as she embraces him.
• After spending seven days and six nights with Shamhat, Enkidu tries to return to the wilderness, but he cannot because the animals run away from him.
• He is now weak and he then accepts Shamhat's invitation and she prepares him for his journey to Uruk.
• Gilgamesh then asks his mother Ninsun to interpret a strange dream and his mother said that the meteor represents a man who will be his equal and his friend.
• Shamhat hears of these dreams and tells Enkidu about them.
• She also tells Enkidu that by gaining wisdom he has become like a god, and that he should stop living like a beast.
• She teaches him to wear clothes and takes him to the shepherds' village.
• Enkidu learns to eat bread and wine, human food, and grooms himself like a human.
• Enkidu protects the flocks of sheep by killing wild animals and hears of Gilgamesh's tyrannical actions.
• Enkidu then travels to the city with Shamhat, where everyone admires him.
• Gilgamesh is on his way to a house where a new bride is waiting as, and Enkidu will not let him pass
• The men begin to fight, and Gilgamesh defeats Enkidu.
• Enkidu admits that Gilgamesh is stronger and without equal, and the two immediately become friends.

Book 2

• Enlil sends Gilgamesh a dream telling him that he is a mighty king, but that he must not abuse his power.
• Enkidu has grown tired of life in the palace because he can feel himself getting weaker and needs adventure.
• The friends decide to travel to the "Land of Cedars" to fight the giant Humbaba.
• Gilgamesh encourages Enkidu by declaring that everyone dies, so it does not matter if the men die heroically while fighting Humbaba.
• Enkidu suggests that Gilgamesh ask Shamash, the sun god, to bless their adventure
• Gilgamesh sacrifices two goats at the temple of Shamash and asks the god to keep him safe on his adventure
• Shamash asks why Gilgamesh must venture into the "Country of the Living," that is, the realm of the gods, on this quest.
• The king replies that he needs to accomplish great things so that he can be remembered and states that a man cannot die free and happy within the city.
• Shamash responds to Gilgamesh's prayers and sacrifices and asks the winds to speed Gilgamesh on his journey and gives Gilgamesh and Enkidu new weapons.
• Gilgamesh announces his heroic plans to the people of Uruk.
• They point out that Gilgamesh is young and foolish and the giant is supposed to be immortal.
• Gilgamesh visits Ninsun at her temple to ask for advice.
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu arrive at Ninsun's temple and ask her to pray to Shamash to help them on their quest.
• She also scolds the other god for making her son too focused on glory.
• After she finishes her prayers, she returns to the heroes and he asks them to serve and protect Gilgamesh.
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu return to the city and prepare for their journey.
• Before they leave, the wise men of the city tell Gilgamesh to not trust too much in your own strength"
• The wise men remind him to let Enkidu, who has been to the forest before, to go first.
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu begin the journey to Humbaba's forest, where Enkidu acts as guide.
• Enkidu says that last time he opened the gate to the cedar forest, he lost all his strength.
• Once inside the forest, the heroes can see the mountain where the gods live.
• They stand in awe of the forest and Gilgamesh digs a well as the sun is setting and makes an offering to the gods.
• He asks for a dream to guide him and the gods send Gilgamesh a dream, that man that will help the triumph over Humbaba.
• Gilgamesh has a that the dream means says that they will defeat the giant and that Shamash will protect them
• At sunset, Gilgamesh again digs a well and makes an offering to the gods, and asks the gods to give Enkidu a dream.
• Meanwhile, Gilgamesh wakes and reveals that he's had a third dream
• Gilgamesh chops down a tree with his axe to lure Humbaba out from his lair.
• Shamash urges the heroes not to be afraid, but fear overtakes Gilgamesh
• Enkidu manages to wake Gilgamesh, who is no longer afraid of the the monster.
• Enkidu says he will return to the city and leave Gilgamesh alone to fight this hopeless battle, but then Gilgamesh urges Enkidu to have courage andjoin the fight.
• Gilgamesh asks Shamash for protection

Book 3

• Shamash attacks with the wind, freezing the giant in place and blinding him so that the heroes can defeat him.
• The friends chop down seven cedars, driving Humbaba into a rage.
• Humbaba realizes that the heroes have defeated him, he pleads for mercy and offers the heroes a deal.
• Enkidu warns that Humbaba is a monster trying to trick Gilgamesh.
• Humbaba accuses Enkidu of envy.
• The two friends attack the giant, and Enkidu strikes the killing blow.
• The god Enlil, however, is filled with rage at the death of Humbaba and he curses the heroes.
• Gilgamesh bathes when the battle, and then washes weapons and dresses in luxurious garments with the crown.
• he says that Ishtar asks Gilgamesh to marry her and have a chariot and luxurious palace
• Gilgamesh refuses her offer.
• Angry, Ishtar returns to her parents and demands that Anu send the bull of heaven to punish Gilgamesh for his arrogance.
• Enkidu and Gilgamesh work together to subdue the bull
• Enkidu rips off a hunk of the bull's thigh and hurls it at the goddess while yelling insults.
• Gilgamesh uses the horns of the bull to beautify the city, and makes sacrifices to the god Lugalbanda in his temple.
• In the night, Enkidu has a terrible dream and to kill to have been with Humbaba in the world.
• Enlil grows angry at Shamash and accuses him of being too close to the heroes, but he curses then to death.
• Enkidu is angry at his coming death and wishes that he had never left the wilderness
• Enkidu then is filled with remorse, and replaces the curse with a blessing and Enkidu tells Gilgamesh of another dream.
• In the afterlife, past deeds don't matter. Heroes and kings are servants to the gods of the dead, and there is no escape. Gilgamesh is disturbed by the dream, and the vision of the afterlife it gives him.
• Gilgamesh, though, is unable to change the gods' minds, and Enkidu continues to sicken and was brought there by Ishtar's actions.
• Gilgamesh sees that Enkidu is dead, and sings a funeral hymn for his friend.
• He says that the Euphrates River mourns, where they filled their waterskins and Gilgamesh was driven wild with grief for his best friend.

BOOK 4

• Gilgamesh, driven mad with grief, loses himself in the wilderness, decides to seek out Utnapishtim.
• in the mountains, Gilgamesh prays for protection and has a dream that he kills fierce lions and animals who had not done anything.
• Scorpion Men prevent Gilgamesh from continuing on his path, but the guards warn him that if he wants to continue to the land of the gods, he will have to pass through complete darkness.
• They open the gate for him. Gradually, light appears, and eventually he steps out into sunlight once again as he enters the Garden of the Gods. Shamash sees Gilgamesh passing through the garden towards the sea and he tells him to turn back, because no mortal can cross the sea.
• Near the sea, Gilgamesh meets Siduri, the goddess of wine.
• She locks her gate to keep him out, but then Gilgamesh stops the gate with his foot and threatens to break it down.
• Siduri tries to distract Gilgamesh from his impossible quest. Siduri tells him that only Shamash, the sun, can cross the sea and she decides to travel across the universe.
• Gilgamesh goes to find the ferryman, but as he waits by the ferryman's ship he becomes impatient and angrier. The ferryman is moved with pity, but says he cannot take Gilgamesh across the sea, because Gilgamesh has damaged the ship.
• He refers to the waters as "The waters of death." Gilgamesh once was sailing, they begin the journey across the sea on a new ship. He explains that he has come to find the secret of eternal life. and the gods tell them to turn away from the path of light. However, Utnapishtim responds that Gilgamesh has failed the challenge and must leave the land of the gods, for he will never be immortal. There was no more that can be done, so that they must move from the light.

BOOK 5

Utnapishtim begins his tale as The the mortal Enlil grows tired of human life. Ea does not want the mortals to die, so he sends Utnapishtim a dream, who follows them. He must take apart his house and use the wood to build a large boat and so he prepares for war.

• The gods see that so many is coming and sends an army, that will soon follow. Enlil is the first of the gods to regret the decision to flood the earth, because her worshippers all follow in this path. . On the seventh day, he releases a dove to see if it can find land.the war was about to begin. Utnapishtim opens up the boat and makes an offering to the gods and so the battle ends.
• Enlil is angry that any humans survived the battles of death and Ea is the first to strike.
• Ea sings a song about how small punishment is better than too large a punishment and ends the era with one last breath.
• Enlil responds by granting immortality to Utnapishtim and his wife and it is said that they guard the rivers.

BOOK 6

• Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that he can gain immortality by making the gods pity him. and there is no pity from the gods.
• Gilgamesh is sure that he can easily pass the challenge and gain immortality. is his final attempt to gain human favor. At the end of the week, Gilgamesh says he has not slept at all. But the loaves of bread reveal that he could not stay awake even one night. Gilgamesh fails the challenge and loses his chance at eternal life and thus is a failure. Gilgamesh must discard his clothes made out of animal skins to reveal his true beauty but finds nothing. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh how to find a special plant that grants youthfulness on the bottom of the sea to all, but fails to the final trial. Then he walks along the bottom of the water and a sea serpent appears, grabs the plant, consumes it, grows you again.
• Together with Urshanabi, he retraces his journey back to the land.

BOOK 7

Enlil declares that Gilgamesh has fulfilled the destiny the gods made for him, and he will be remembered for longer than other men. all the world can appreciate. He was never meant to be immortal, but to become a noble and honorable human being and is mourns then on to the land. He says that he will be dead forever, “he is gone into the mountain, he will not come again." and is the curse left on then. His household makes offerings to Gilgamesh and to all the gods of the dead and leaves him at rest. The epic ends with a hymn praising Gilgamesh as a great man, and for his piety to the gods and is celebrated to all the ages.

Beowulf

• Beowulf is the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem.
• The setting of the epic is the sixth century in what is now known as Denmark and southwestern Sweden.
• The Scyldings (Dane) royal dynasty is named after a mythic hero, Scyld Scefing.
• Focus soon shifts to the reign of his great-grandson, Hrothgar, whose successful rule is symbolized by a magnificent central mead-hall called Heorot.
• A huge man-like ogre named Grendel, a descendant of the biblical murderer Cain, has menaced the aging Hrothgar for 12 years, raiding Heorot and killing the king's thanes (warriors).
• Beowulf comes to the Scyldings' aid.
• The Geats bed down in Heorot, fully aware that Grendel will visit them.
• Angered by the joy of the men in the mead-hall, the ogre furiously bursts in on the Geats, killing one and then reaching for Beowulf.
• With the strength of 30 men in his hand-grip, Beowulf seizes the ogre's claw and does not let go.
• Beowulf emerges victorious as he rips Grendel's claw from its shoulder socket, sending the mortally wounded beast fleeing to his mere (pool).
• Hrothgar's wife, Queen Wealhtheow, proves to be a perfect hostess, offering Beowulf a gold collar and her gratitude.
• Filled with mead, wine, and great food, the entire party retires for what they expect to be the first peaceful night in years.
• Beowulf dives into the mere to seek the mother and fights kills her to take out her sword and kill Grendal once more. After more celebration and gifts and a sermon by Hrothgar, Beowulf and his men return to Geatland.
• Led by the fugitive, Beowulf and eleven of his men seek out the dragon's barrow and they all soon die.
• Seeing his king in trouble, one thane, Wiglaf, goes to his assistance, with the dragon's treasure-hoard buried with him, it is said that they lie there still.

Greek Literature

• Greek literature has a continuous history extending from the 1st millennium BC to the present day.
• Greek writers are responsible for the introduction of such genres as poetry, tragedy, comedy, and western philosophy to the world.
• Sophocles (496?–406 BCE) was born in Colonus, near Athens.
• Among Sophocles's tragedies are Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus.

Oedipus Rex

• Oedipus, realizing that he has indeed murdered his father and married his mother, runs offstage in grief.
• An inconsolable Oedipus then re-enters the stage and bemoans the tragedy of his life. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice

• Orpheus is known as the most talented music player of the ancient times.
• He played his lyre and sang out to King Hades and Queen Persephone that Eurydice was returned to him and was so moving that Hades promised to this desperate man that Eurydice would follow him to the Upper World.
• however, he warned Orpheus that for no reason must he look back while his wife was still in the dark, for that would undo everything he hoped for.
• Orpheus was drawn back into the underworld after looking back.

The Iliad

• Homer is perhaps the greatest of all epic poets.
• Homer had written The Iliad and the Odyssey.

Afro-Asian Literature

• Afro-Asian literature is a term for novels or writings such as short stories and poems written by people from mixed African-Arab ethnicity, or African-Asian ethnicity.

• Modern trends generally seem to be moving away from publishing novellas. Novellas are more commonly published as eBooks in specific genres, especially romance, sci-fi, and fantasy.

• There are many new terms that more that define flash fiction.

• Drabble is a story of exactly 100 words (not including the title). It's typically around 250 words, but could be as much as 500 or as few as 2

• Rising Action includes the events that the main character encounters and Each event, developed in separate scenes, makes the problem more complex.

• Conflict. The struggle between two entities, encounters a conflict with the antagonist, which is an adversary.

• “Is it possible, that by telling these tales, one might indeed save one's self?"

• The Arabian Nights is a that fantastically precious jewel exists which, when it comes into contact with people, actually changes them and saves then.

Mademoiselle

• In speaking of him by his last name only, the name is Maupassant, not de Maupassant
• "Ah! Mademoiselle, what a nice girl you make." said the simpleton
• After many moons, The simpleton appeared delighted for thought then was more the boy with a new dress and they would think more of himself