GEC-13 Reviewer - Prelim 2023-2024 PDF

Lecture 1 Introduction Overview: The first question that a student in Literature class will encounter from his teacher is, what is Literature? Usually, as students hear the question, they are dumbfounded as if it is their first time to encounter the word. T...

Lecture 1 Introduction Overview: The first question that a student in Literature class will encounter from his teacher is, what is Literature? Usually, as students hear the question, they are dumbfounded as if it is their first time to encounter the word. They are not aware that they have been dealing with literature since they started to study. What is really the meaning of literature? It is a question that seems to be too difficult to answer. But, in fact it is as easy as how we breathe air. Objectives: By the end of the lecture, students should have: 1. Defined Literature 2. Understood the functions and characteristics of literature 3. Determined what to consider in studying literature. 4. Learned the reasons for studying Philippine literature. Scope of Lecture 1 1. Definitions of Literature 2. Standards of a good literature 3. What is Philippine Literature? 4. Reasons for Studying Philippine Literature ______________________________________________________________ __ Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary. -Boris Pasternak DEFINITIONS OF LITERATURE The simplest definition of literature can be traced from the word itself. Every age has its theoretical definitions of the nature of literature and its theorized principles on which critical approaches to the analysis of literature are premised. (Selden, Widdowson,&Brooker, 2005) According to Baritugo, et al. (2004) as cited by Ang (2012), Literature comes from the French phrase “belles-letters” which means beautiful writing. The word literature is derived from the Latin term litera which means letter. (Kahayon, 2009, p. 1) Also, Webster dictionary defines literature as “…the total preserved writings belonging to a given language or people” or “…the class or the total writings or a given period or country.” Meanwhile, literature is language in use that Prepared by: 1 Maria GLoria B. Nada provides insights and intellectual stimulation to the reader. As one explores literature, he likewise discovers the beauty of language. (Sialongo, et al.,2007, p.1) In addition, Estolas, Payno and Javier (2011) discussed that in its broadest sense, literature is everything oral and written. The medium of literature is language. The words are combined into sentences to express ideas, thoughts, feelings, desires, and values. The study of literature is like an endless journey to discover new things around us. It is said to be life but it is more than just life as it is usually defined. All aspects of life can be a source of Literature. Literature places reality in a capsule which anyone can buy in a drugstore. Figuratively, that is what literature does. In Del Castillo and Medina’s definition “true literature is a faithful reproduction of man’s life executed in an artistic pattern.” Is there really such true literature? How will we know that it is true literature? It will only become true literature once it faithfully imitates what is in reality. Then, it is up to the writer to use any genre of literature to create his own literary work. Every time you read a short story, have you ever pondered how the writer was able to write a plausible story? It leads you to ask yourself if the story is real or not because whatever ideas and philosophies which are included in a story based on one’s or others’ personal experiences and observations. Aside from experience, imaginations, creativity and general knowledge are also important source in literature. Ang (2012) said that literature offers us an experience in which we should participate as we read and test what we read by our own experience. Then, according to Baytan (2014), Literature is about self -- its search for meaning, its discoveries about itself and the world, its possibilities for greatness. While examining the techniques and themes of the selections, the students are also exploring a world similar to their own and interacting with characters whose lives, inner conflicts and aspirations may resonate with theirs…It is about the nature of existence. Furthermore, Carpio (2006) explains that in man’s striving for truth, literature provides avenues for unlocking certain treasure troves to human expression and creative urges. As shades of feelings and passions are acutely delineated, man soars to gothic heights. It only means that as people engage in literature, they are able to have broader understanding about life. Also, it opens their minds to many realizations that aid them throughout their life. STANDARDS OF A GOOD LITERATURE According to Garcia (1993) as cited by Ang (2012), the ability to judge of literature is based on the application of certain recognizable standards of good literature. Great literature is distinguishable of the following qualities. 1. Artistry Literature has a natural aesthetic appeal depending on the genre. As one reads a poem or a story, there will be an immediate reaction to the literary work. The reaction is based on how it appeals to one’s aesthetic standard. A good literary work should have Prepared by: 2 Maria GLoria B. Nada  innate artistry. Ang said, literature has an aesthetic appeal and thus possesses a sense of beauty. 2. Intellectual Value - Literature is not only intended for entertainment. It also confers intellectual value. A good literary work gives intellectual value in order to help readers to be critical thinkers. According to Sialongo et al. (2007), literature stimulates critical thinking that enriches mental processes of abstract and reasoning, making man realize the fundamental truths of life and its nature. 3. Suggestiveness This is the quality associated with the emotional power of literature , such that it should move us deeply and stir our creative imagination, giving and evoking vision above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and experience. (Ang, 2012, p. 2) A great literature should be able to fire the imagination of the the readers. As a form of entertainment, readers will enjoy more their reading experience as they are able to vividly create the images in their mind. 4. Spiritual Value According to Ahmed (2017), literature is also a tool for the foundation of religion. With literature, various religions in the world were able to spread their teachings. Aside from that, Ahmed also mentioned that literature explains human values. A good literature elevates the spirit by bringing out moral values which makes us better persons - this capacity to inspire is part of the spiritual value of literature. (Ang, 2012, p. 2) 5. Permanence A great work of literature endures - it can be read again and again as each reading gives fresh delight and new insights and open new worlds of meaning and experience. (Ang, 2012, p. 2) This kind of permanence is how the literary work will sustain the interest of the readers. A good literary work should be fascinating, exciting, and captivating. Readers should discover more, the moment they read it again. 6. Universality A good literature should have passed the test of time. This refers to literary works that have been handed down from one generation to another but they are still being read and enjoyed. Only those literary that already achieve universality can be called “classic” Ang (2012) said that great literature is timeless and timely - forever relevant in terms of its theme and conditions. 7. Style Literature presents peculiar way/s on how man sees life as evidenced by the formation of his ideas, forms structures, and expressions which are marked by their memorable substance. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 2) A good literature should posses a unique style in the manner of presentation. The author should be creative enough to put his ideas into words. It is the main reason why there are literary works that are still being read. The style of the author should imprint to the readers that will make them cling to the literary work. WHAT IS PHILIPPINE LITERATURE? Del Castillo and Medina (2002) discussed in their book that literature is the product of a particular people, fashioned according to their own aesthetic ideals. It may mirror the life of a group. Philippine literature refers to the various unwritten and written works by Prepared by: 3 Maria GLoria B. Nada Filipinos. Those works reveal the lives of Filipinos from ancient times to the present. It also shows the diversity of Philippine culture. Furthermore, Philippine literature is as rich as other countries’ literature because of the variety of literary works that have been written through the years. According to Ramallosa (2000), the Literatures of the Philippines of Filipino literature refers to the oral or written expression of the feelings and emotions, thoughts and ideas or our people, the facts of their daily life, their social practices and religious beliefs. It also refers to all forms of literary made by the native of the island - ancient or modern, Muslim or Christian - of any region or ethnic group, in the lowland or in the highland, in the dialect or any foreign tongue. Ordonez (2001) as cited by Ang (2012) said that today Philippine literature may be classified into: the residual, a good part of which is oral and regional, but remaining in the margins simply because the center of writing and publishing is in Metro Manila. Also, it was discussed that the dominant language, largely in English and Tagalog-based Filipino and the emergent, produced by those in the periphery - the marginalized sectors, including workers, peasants, urban poor, women, gays, lesbians and ethnic groups. Lastly, in Philippine literature we find literary works which reveal to us that the Filipino has a passion for the good, the true and the beautiful. (Alcantara, Cabanilla, & Casambre, 2000) REASONS FOR STUDYING PHILIPPINE LITERATURE In Philippine literature class, as students are asked who is their favorite Filipino author? They can enumerate many foreign authors but can not hardly give a single Filipino author. It is similar to how students know the names of foreign epic heroes or Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. It is a simple example but it has a serious effect to them. The lesser students are exposed to Philippine literature the more they will not embrace their own cultural roots. Their point of view about Filipinos and their world may no longer be in the perspective of being a Filipino. In fact, De Leon (2015) discussed that the moment we began to view ourselves through Western eyes, what we held sacred suddenly became worthless, our virtues turned into vices, and our strengths began to be seen as weaknesses. Anything indigenous became a source of embarrassment and uneasiness. In the discussion of Cruz (1984), he said, before anything else, we Filipinos should liberate ourselves from the bondage our cultural colonialism by knowing, understanding and appreciating our own literature first before any foreign literature. We have our own literature, not only in one but in three and more languages. It is rich and its richness it can stand up to the best of the world. So, why should we study literature? 1. To know ourselves, our heritage, and the genius of our race as a people distinct from others; 2. To identify the Filipino major writers who contributed to the development of Prepared by: 4 Maria GLoria B. Nada the literatures of the Philippines; 3. To read, discuss and interpret selected literary pieces from the different regions of our country and relate them to our contemporary life; 4. To show awareness of the varied subjects ans themes in which the Filipino writers have reflected Philippine life; 5. To discern the moral, philosophical, social, and artistic values of the literatures written by our own writers; 6. To cultivate a continuing appreciation of the literatures of our country and take pride in what is our own. Meanwhile, Kahayon and Zulueta (2009) discussed that we study literature so that we can better appreciate our literary heritage. We cannot appreciate something that we do not understand. Through a study of our literature, we can trace the rich heritage of ideas handed down to us from our forefathers. Then, we understand ourselves better and take pride in being a Filipino. Like other races of the world, we need to understand that we have a great and noble tradition which can serve as the means to assimilate other cultures. Through such a study, we will realize our literary limitations conditioned by certain historical factors and we can take steps to overcome them. Above all, as Filipinos, who truly love and take pride in our own culture, we have to manifest our deep concern for our own literature and this we can do by studying the literature of our country. As a whole, the study of Philippine Literature will help students to reaffirm their cultural identity. Sialongo et al. (2007) said, literature is a product of a particular culture that concretizes man’s array of values, emotions, actions, and ideas. References: Ahmed, A. (2017). Literature and Its Influence to Human Life. National Conference Cum Workshop on Recent Trends in Technical Language and Communication. Alcantara, R. D., J. Q. Cabanilla, & A. J. Casambre. (2000). Introduction to World Literature: An Adventure in Human Experience. Quezon City:Katha Publishing Co., Inc. Ang, J. G. ed. (2012). Literature 101. Intramuros, Manila: Mindshapers Co. Inc. Baytan, R. ed. (2014). Lit Matters: A Manual for Teaching Philippine Literature. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing Inc. Carpio, R. ed. (2006). Crisscrossing Through Afro-Asian Literature. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing Inc. Cruz, I. (1984). Beyond Futility: The Filipino as Critic. University of Michigan: New Day Publishers. Estolas, J., C. Javier,& N. Payno.(2011). Introduction to Humanities.Mandaluyong City: National Book Store. De Leon, Felipe (2015). “Defining the Filipino Through the Arts,” in journals.upd.edu.ph/index. php/phr/ article/ download/4737/4273. Del Castillo, T. and B. S. Medina, Jr. (2002). Philippine Literature From Ancient Times to the Present. Caloocan City: Philippine Graphic Arts, Inc. Kahayon, A. and C. A. Zulueta. (2009). Philippine Literature Through the Years. Mandaluyong Prepared by: 5 Maria GLoria B. Nada  City: National Book Store. Ramallosa, G. (2000). The Literatures of the Philippines. Lucena City: Enverga University Press. Selden, R., P. Widdowson,& P. Brooker. (2005). A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 5th ed. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited. Sialongo, E. et al. (2007). Literatures of the World. Manila: REX Book Store, Inc. Lecture 2 Theories in Literature Overview: Literary theory is substantial in the study of literature. Readers will able to have in-depth understanding about the literary text as they apply certain theory. Also, knowledge in literary theories will broaden the perspective of the readers in analyzing a literary text. In this lesson, students will able to learn about different literary theories as well as their application. There is also a sample reading text that will guide Prepared by: 6 Maria GLoria B. Nada them how to do literary criticism. Objectives: By the end of the lecture, students should have: 1. Defined literary theory and literary criticism 2. Learned the different theories in literature. 3. Understood the functions of literary theories in the study of literature Scope of Lecture 2: 1. What is literary criticism? 2. Theories in Literature 3. Sample Reading The Female Protagonists: An Analysis on the Portrayal Of Women in Popular Literature Theory can help us learn ourselves and our world in valuable new ways, ways that can influence how we educate our children, both as parents and teachers; how we view television, from the nightly news to situation comedies; how we behave as voters and consumers; how we react to other with whom we do not agree on social, religious, and political issues; and how can we recognize and deal with our own motives, fears and desires. - Lois Tyson LITERARY THEORY Critical theory or literary theory and criticism should always be part in the study of literature. What will be the possible effect of studying literature and ignoring literary theory in understanding a literary text? According to Tyson (2006), the interpretations of literature we produce before we study critical theory may seem completely personal or natural, but they are based on the beliefs -- beliefs about literature, about education, about language, about selfhood -- that permeate our culture and that we therefore take for granted. Critical theory, in fact, long pre-dates the literary criticism of individual works. The earliest work of theory was Aristotle's Poetics, which, in spite of its title, is about the nature of literature itself: Aristotle offers famous definitions of tragedy, insists that literature is about character, and that character is revealed through action, and he tries to identify the required stages in the progress of a plot. Aristotle was also the first critic to develop a 'reader- centred' approach to literature, since his consideration of drama tried to describe how it affected the audience. (Barry, 2002, p. 23) Then, according to Holman (1992), the first important critical treatise, the Poetics (4th century BC), has proved to be the most influential. Prepared by: 7 Maria GLoria B. Nada  Below is Peter Barry’s discussion about critical theory from his book Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Some Recurrent Ideas in Critical Theory These different approaches each have their separate traditions and histories, but several ideas are recurrent in critical theory and seem to form what might be regarded as its common bedrock. Hence, it makes some sense to speak of 'theory' as if it were a single entity with a set of underlying beliefs, as long as we are aware that doing so is a simplification. Some of these recurrent underlying ideas of theory are listed below. 1. Many of the notions which we would usually regard as the basic 'givens' of our existence (including our gender identity, our individual selfhood, and the notion of literature itself) are actually fluid and unstable things, rather than fixed and reliable essences. Instead of being solidly 'there' in the real world of fact and experience, they are 'socially constructed', that is, dependent on social and political forces and on shifting ways of seeing and thinking. In philosophical terms, all these are contingent categories (denoting a status which is temporary, provisional, 'circumstance-dependent') rather than absolute ones (that is, fixed, immutable, etc.). Hence, no overarching fixed 'truths' can ever be established. The results of all forms of intellectual enquiry are provisional only. There is no such thing as a fixed and reliable truth (except for the statement that this is so, presumably). The position on these matters which theory attacks is often referred to, in a kind of shorthand, as essentialism, while many of the theories discussed in this book would describe themselves as anti-essentialist. 2. Theorists generally believe that all thinking and investigation is necessarily affected and largely determined by prior ideological commitment. The notion of disinterested enquiry is therefore untenable: none of us, they would argue, is capable of standing back from the scales and weighing things up dispassionately: rather, all investigators have a thumb on one side or other of the scales. Every practical procedure (for instance, in literary criticism) presupposes a theoretical perspective of some kind. To deny, this is simply to try to place our own theoretical position beyond scrutiny as something which is 'commonsense' or 'simply given'. This contention is problematical, of course, and is usually only made explicit as a counter to specific arguments put forward by opponents. The problem with this view is that it tends to discredit one's own project along with all the rest, introducing a relativism which disables argument and cuts the ground from under any kind of commitment. 3. Language itself conditions, limits, and predetermines what we see. Thus, all reality is constructed through language, so that nothing is simply 'there' in an unproblematical way - everything is a linguistic/ textual construct. Language doesn't record reality, it shapes and creates it, so that the whole of our Prepared by: 8 Maria GLoria B. Nada universe is textual. Further, for the theorist, meaning is jointly constructed by reader and writer. It isn't just 'there' and waiting before we get to the text but requires the reader's contribution to bring it into being. 4. Hence, any claim to offer a definitive reading would be futile. The meanings within a literary work are never fixed and reliable, but always shifting, multi- faceted and ambiguous. In literature, as in all writing, there is never the possibility of establishing fixed and definite meanings: rather, it is characteristic of language to generate infinite webs of meaning, so that all texts are necessarily self-contradictory, as the process of deconstruction will reveal. There is no final court of appeal in these matters, since literary texts, once they exist, are viewed by the theorist as independent linguistic structures whose authors are always 'dead' or 'absent'. 5. Theorists distrust all 'totalising' notions. For instance, the notion of 'great' books as an absolute and self-sustaining category is to be distrusted, as books always arise out of a particular socio-political situation, and this situation should not be suppressed, as tends to happen when they are promoted to 'greatness'. Likewise, the concept of a 'human nature', as a generalised norm which transcends the idea of a particular race, gender, or class, is to be distrusted too, since it is usually in practice Eurocentric (that is, based on white European norms) and androcentric (that is, based on masculine norms and attitudes). Thus, the appeal to the idea of a generalised, supposedly inclusive, human nature is likely in practice to marginalise, or denigrate, or even deny the humanity of women, or disadvantaged groups. LITERARY CRITICISM Holman (1992) defined criticism as a term which has been applied since the 17th century, justification, analysis, or judgment of works of art. He added that there are many ways which criticism may be classified. It may be classified according to the purpose which it is intended to serve. The principal purposes which critics have had are: (1) justify’s one’s own work or to explain it and its underlying principles to an uncomprehending audience (Dryden, Wordsworth, Henry James); (2) to justify imaginative art in a world that tends to find its value questionable (Sidney, Shelley, the New Criticism); (3) to describe rules for writers and to legislate taste for the audience (Pope, Boileau, the Marxists); (4) to interpret works to readers who might otherwise fail to understand or appreciate them (Edmund Wilson, Matthew Arnold); (5) to judge works by clearly defined standards of evaluation (Samuel Johnson, T. S. Elliot); (6) to discover and apply the principles which describe the foundations of good art (Coleridge, Addison, I.A. Richards). Then, Tyson (2006) explained that, literary criticism is the application of critical theory to a literary text, whether or not a given critic is aware of the theoretical assumptions informing her or his interpretation. As critics confer their interpretation about the text, they are doing literary criticism. What guides the critic to interpret the text, he is using critical theory (literary theory). Prepared by: 9 Maria GLoria B. Nada  LITERARY THEORIES Semiotics/Structuralist Theory In the discussion of Eagleton (1996) structuralism, as the term suggests, is concerned with structures, and more particularly with examining the general laws by which they work. Then, Barry (2002) explained that structuralism is an intellectual movement which began in France in the 1950s and is first seen in the work of the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (1908—) and the literary critic Roland Barthes (1915-1980). He also mentioned that, structuralism was imported into Britain mainly in the 1970s and attained widespread influence, and even notoriety, throughout the 1980s. Moreover, Selden, Widdowson and Brooker (2005) explained that in a 1968 essay, Roland Barthes put the structuralist view very powerfully, and argued that writers only have the power to mix already existing writings, to reassemble or redeploy them; writers cannot use writing to ‘express’ themselves, but only to draw upon that immense dictionary of language and culture which is ‘always already written’ (to use a favourite Barthesian phrase). It would not be misleading to use the term ‘anti-humanism’ to describe the spirit of structuralism. Indeed the word has been used by structuralists themselves to emphasize their opposition to all forms of literary criticism in which the human subject is the source and origin of literary meaning. In other words, structuralism has linguistic background. To understand this theory, critic needs to be knowledgeable of Ferdinand Saussure’s key ideas; object of linguistic investigation and relationship between words and things - from his book Course in General Linguistics (1915). Also, in structuralism Barry (2002) clearly discussed that the structures in question here are those imposed by our way of perceiving the world and organising experience, rather than objective entities already existing in the external world. It follows from this that meaning or significance isn't a kind of core or essence inside things: rather, meaning is always outside. Meaning is always an attribute of things, in the literal sense that meanings are attributed to the things by the human mind, not contained within them. But let's try to be specific about what it might mean to think primarily in terms of structures when considering literature. Eagleton (1996) illustrated structuralism by giving a simple example. He said, suppose we are analysing a story in which a boy leaves home after quarrelling with his father, sets out on a walk through the forest in the heat of the day and falls down a deep pit. The father comes out in search of his son, peers down the pit, but is unable to see him because of the darkness. At that moment the sun has risen to a point directly overhead, illuminates the pit's depths with its rays and allows the father to rescue his child. After a joyous reconciliation, they return home together. What a structuralist critic would do would be to schematize the story in diagrammatic form. The first unit of signification, 'boy quarrels with father', might be rewritten as 'low rebels Prepared by: 10 Maria GLoria B. Nada Structuralism and Semiotics 83 against high'. The boy's walk through the forest is a movement along a horizontal axis, incontrast to the vertical axis 'low/high', and could be indexed as 'middle'. The fall into the pit, a place below ground, signifies 'low' again, and the zenith of the sun 'high'. By shining into the pit, the sun has in a sense stooped 'low', thus inverting the narrative's first signifying unit, where 'low' struck against 'high'. The reconciliation between father and son restores an equilibrium between 'low' and 'high', and the walk back home together, signifying 'middle', marks this achievement of a suitably intermediate state. Flushed with triumph, the structuralist rearranges his rulers and reaches for the next story. In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002), these are the things that structuralist critics can follow: 1. They analyse (mainly) prose narratives, relating the text to some larger containing structure, such as: (a) the conventions of a particular literary genre, or (b) a network of intertextual connections, or (c) a projected model of an underlying universal narrative structure, or (d) a notion of narrative as a complex of recurrent patterns or motifs. 2. They interpret literature in terms of a range of underlying parallels with the structures of language, as described by modern linguistics. For instance, the notion of the 'mytheme', posited by Levi-Strauss, denoting the minimal units of narrative 'sense', is formed on the analogy of the morpheme, which, in linguistics, is the smallest unit of grammatical sense. An example of a morpheme is the 'ed' added to a verb to denote the past tense. 3. They apply the concept of systematic patterning and structuring to the whole field of Western culture, and across cultures, treating as 'systems of signs' anything from Ancient Greek myths to brands of soap powder. Deconstruction/Poststructuralist Theory At some point in the late 1960s, structuralism gave birth to ‘poststructuralism’. Some commentators believe that the later developments were already inherent in the earlier phase. One might say that poststructuralism is simply a fuller working-out of the implications of structuralism. But this formulation is not quite satisfactory, because it is evident that poststructuralism tries to deflate the scientific pretensions of structuralism.If structuralism was heroic in its desire to master the world of artificial signs, poststructuralism is comic and anti-heroic in its refusal to take such claims seriously. However, the poststructuralist mockery of structuralism is almost a self-mockery: poststructuralists are structuralists who suddenly see the error of their ways. (Selden, Widdowson & Brooker, 2005) According to Queddeng (2013), the critic examines and tests assumptions supporting intellectual insight in order to interrogate the ‘self-evident’ truths they are based on. It tests the legitimacy of the contextual ‘bound’ Prepared by: 11 Maria GLoria B. Nada understanding both presents and requires…It is a concept that focuses on this instability of meaning, then, rises out of Jacques Derrida’s recognition that in modern conceptions of knowledge there is temporal ‘decentering’ or a ‘rupture’ in the conventional order, a dramatic and decisive shift in traditional relations to authority, what might be termed a radical challenge to all authority. The analytical method known as deconstruction is most often associated with Jacques Derrida, a French poststructuralist philosopher who discusses art as well as written texts. Derrida opens up meanings, rather than fixing them within structural patterns. But he shares with the structuralists the notion that a work has no ultimate meaning conferred by its author. (Adams, 2011, p. 11) Then, based from Barry (2002), below are the similarities and differences of structuralism/semiotics and deconstruction/poststructuralism. 1. Origins Structuralism derives ultimately from linguistics. Linguistics is a discipline which has always been inherently confident about the possibility of establishing objective knowledge. It believes that if we observe accurately, collect data systematically, and make logical deductions then we can reach reliable conclusions about language and the world. Structuralism inherits this confidently scientific outlook: it too believes in method, system, and reason as being able to establish reliable truths. By contrast, post-structuralism derives ultimately from philosophy. Philosophy is a discipline which has always tended to emphasise the difficulty of achieving secure knowledge about things. This point of view is encapsulated in Nietzsche's famous remark 'There are no facts, only interpretations'. Philosophy is, so to speak, sceptical by nature and usually undercuts and questions commonsensical notions and assumptions. Its procedures often begin by calling into question what is usually taken for granted as simply the way things are. Post-structuralism inherits this habit of scepticism, and intensifies it. It regards any confidence in the scientific method as naive, and even derives a certain masochistic intellectual pleasure from knowing for certain that we can't know anything for certain, fully conscious of the irony and paradox which doing this entails. 2. Tone and Style Structuralist writing tends towards abstraction and generalisation. It aims for a detached, 'scientific coolness' of tone. Given its derivation from linguistic science, this is what we would expect. An essay like Roland Barthes's 1966 piece 'Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narrative' (reprinted in Image, Music, Text, ed. Stephen Heath, 1977) is typical of this tone and treatment, with its discrete steps in an orderly exposition, complete with diagrams. The style is neutral and anonymous, as is typical of scientific writing Post- structuralist writing, by contrast, tends to be much more emotive. Often the tone is urgent and euphoric, and the style flamboyant and self-consciously showy. Titles may well contain puns and allusions, and often the central line of the argument is based on a pun or a word-play of some kind. Often Prepared by: 12 Maria GLoria B. Nada deconstructive writing fixes on some 'material' aspect of language, such as a metaphor used by a writer, or the etymology of a word. Overall it seems to aim for an engaged warmth rather than detached coolness. 3. Attitude to Language Structuralists accept that the world is constructed through language, in the sense that we do not have access to reality other than through the linguistic medium. All the same, it decides to live with that fact and continue to use language to think and perceive with. After all, language is an orderly system, not a chaotic one, so realising our dependence upon it need not induce intellectual despair. By contrast, post-structuralism is much more fundamentalist in insisting upon the consequences of the view that, in effect, reality itself is textual. Post- structuralism develops what threaten to become terminal anxieties about the possibility of achieving any knowledge through language. The verbal sign, in its view, is constantly floating free of the concept it is supposed to designate. Thus, the post-structuralist's way of speaking about language involves a rather obsessive imagery based on liquids - signs float free of what they designate, meanings are fluid, and subject to constant 'slippage' or 'spillage'. This linguistic liquid, slopping about and swilling over unpredictably, defies our attempts to carry signification carefully from 'giver' to 'receiver' in the containers we call words. We are not fully in control of the medium of language, so meanings cannot be planted in set places, like somebody planting a row of potato seeds; they can only be randomly scattered or 'disseminated', like the planter walking along and scattering seed with broad sweeps of the arm, so that much of it lands unpredictably or drifts in the wind. Likewise, the meanings words have can never be guaranteed one hundred percent pure. Thus, words are always 'contaminated' by their opposites - you can't define night without reference to day, or good without reference to evil. Or else they are interfered with by their own history, so that obsolete senses retain a troublesome and ghostly presence within present-day usage, and are likely to materialise just when we thought it was safe to use them. Thus, a seemingly innocent word like 'guest', is etymologically cognate with 'host is', which means an enemy or a stranger, thereby inadvertently manifesting the always potentially unwelcome status of the guest. Likewise, the long-dormant metaphorical bases of words are often reactiviated by their use in philosophy or literature and then interfere with literal sense, or with the stating of single meanings. Linguistic anxiety, then, is a keynote of the post-structuralist outlook. 4. Project The 'project' here means the fundamental aims of each movement, what it is they want to persuade us of. Structuralism, firstly, questions our way of structuring and categorising reality, and prompts us to break free of habitual modes of perception or categorisation, but it believes that we can thereby attain a more reliable view of things. Prepared by: 13 Maria GLoria B. Nada  Post-structuralism is much more fundamental: it distrusts the very notion of reason, and the idea of the human being as an independent entity, preferring the notion of the 'dissolved' or 'constructed' subject, whereby what we may think of as the individual is really a product of social and linguistic forces -that is, not an essence at all, merely a 'tissue of textualities'. Thus, its torch of scepticism burns away the intellectual ground on which the Western civilisation is built. Psychoanalytic Theory Adams (2011), discussed that the branch of psychology known as psychoanalysis was originated by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud in the late nineteenth century. Then, Eagleton (1996) said that what has dominated human history to date is the need to abhor; and for Freud that harsh necessity means that we must repress some of our tendencies to pleasure and gratification. If we were not called upon to work in order to survive, we might simply lie around all day doing nothing. Every human being has to undergo this repression of what Freud named the 'pleasure principle' by the 'reality principle', but for some of us, and arguably for whole societies, the repression may become excessive and make us ill. We are sometimes willing to forgo gratification to an heroic extent, but usually in the canny trust that by deferring an immediate pleasure we will recoup it in the end, perhaps in richer form. In addition, he also said that Freud looks at its implications for the psychical life. The paradox or contradiction on which his work rests is that we come to be what we are only by a massive repression of the elements which have gone into our making. Furthermore, Freud believed that human beings are not aware of these repressions. In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002), these are the things that Freudian psychoanalytic critics can follow: 1. They give central importance, in literary interpretation, to the distinction between the conscious and the unconscious mind. They associate the literary work's 'overt' content with the former, and the 'covert' content with the latter, privileging the latter as being what the work is 'really' about, and aiming to disentangle the two. 2. Hence, they pay close attention to unconscious motives and feelings, whether these be (a) those of the author, or (b) those of the characters depicted in the work. 2. They demonstrate the presence in the literary work of classic psychoanalytic symptoms, conditions, or phases, such as the oral, anal, and phallic stages of emotional and sexual development in infants. 3. They make large-scale applications of psychoanalytic concepts to literary history in general, for example, Harold Bloom's book The Anxiety of Influence Prepared by: 14 Maria GLoria B. Nada (1973) sees the struggle for identity by each generation of poets, under the 'threat' of the greatness of its predecessors, as an enactment of the Oedipus complex. 5. They identify a 'psychic' context for the literary work, at the expense of social or historical context, privileging the individual 'psycho-drama' above the 'social drama' of class conflict. The conflict between generations or siblings, or between competing desires within the same individual looms much larger than conflict between social classes, Marxist Criticism and New Historicism Selden, Widdowson&Brooker (2005) mentioned that Karl Marx himself made important general statements about culture and society in the 1850s. Even so, it is correct to think of Marxist criticism as a twentieth-century phenomenon. They also discussed that Karl marx believed that People have been led to believe that their ideas, their cultural life, their legal systems, and their religions were the creations of human and divine reason, which should be regarded as the unquestioned guides to human life. Marx reverses this formulation and argues that all mental (ideological) systems are the products of real social and economic existence. The material interests of the dominant social class determine how people see human existence, individual and collective. Legal systems, for example, are not the pure manifestations of human or divine reason, but ultimately reflect the interests of the dominant class in particular historical periods. Then, according to Queddeng (2013), it disrupt both the hierarchy of history as superior to literature and the distance between the two. Instead of viewing history as the determining context for literature, critics like George Lukacs and Raymond Williams throughout the 20th century have conceived history as a field of discourse in which literature and criticism make their own impact as political forces and, in effect, participate in an historical dialects. He added that, contemporary Marxist approaches demand that criticism must be political, not simply to interpret but to change the world. Also, he explained that historicism is the awareness that history, like a fictional narrative, exists in a dialogue with something foreign or other to it that can never be contained or controlled by the historian. In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002), these are the things that Marxist critics can follow: 1. They make a division between the 'overt' (manifest or surface) and 'covert' (latent or hidden) content of a literary work (much as psychoanalytic critics do) and then relate the covert subject matter of the literary work to basic Marxist themes, such as class struggle, or the progression of society through various historical stages, such as, the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism. Thus, the conflicts in King Lear might be read as being 'really' about the Prepared by: 15 Maria GLoria B. Nada conflict of class interest between the rising class (the bourgeoisie) and the falling class (the feudal overlords). 2. Another method used by Marxist critics is to relate the context of a work to the social-class status of the author. In such cases an assumption is made (which again is similar to those made by psychoanalytic critics) that the author is unaware of precisely what he or she is saying or revealing in the text.3. A third Marxist method is to explain the nature of a whole literary genre in terms of the social period which 'produced' it. For instance, The Rise of the Novel, by Ian Watt, relates the growth of the novel in the eighteenth century to the expansion of the middle classes during that period. The novel 'speaks' for this social class, just as, for instance, Tragedy 'speaks for' the monarchy and the nobility, and the Ballad 'speaks for' for the rural and semi-urban 'working class'. 3. A fourth Marxist practice is to relate the literary work to the social assumptions of the time in which it is 'consumed', a strategy which is used particularly in the later variant of Marxist criticism known as cultural materialism (see Chapter 9, pp. 182-9). 5. A fifth Marxist practice is the 'politicisation of literary form', that is, the claim that literary forms are themselves determined by political circumstance. For instance, in the view of some critics, literary realism carries with it an implicit validation of conservative social structures: for others, the formal and metrical intricacies of the sonnet and the iambic pentameter are a counterpart of social stability, decorum, and order. Feminism According to Queddeng (2013), this is a challenge to male-centered thinking. Feminist criticism seeks on the one hand to investigate and analyze the differing representations of women and men in literary texts and, on the other hand, to rethink literary history by exploring an often marginalized tradition of women’s writing. Feminist criticism is concerned to question and challenge conventional notions of masculinity and femininity; to explore ways in which such conventions are inscribed in a largely patriarchal canon; and to consider the extent to which writing, language and even literary form itself are themselves bound up with issues of gender difference. (Bennet & Royle, 2004) Then, Selden, Widdowson & Brooker (2005) discussed that feminist criticism, in all its many and various manifestations, has also attempted to free itself from naturalized patriarchal notions of the literary and the literary-critical. In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002), these are the things feminist critics can follow: 1. Rethink the canon, aiming at the rediscovery of texts written by women. 2. Revalue women's experience. 3. Examine representations of women in literature by men and women. 4. Challenge representations of women as 'Other', as 'lack', as part of 'nature'. Prepared by: 16 Maria GLoria B. Nada 5. Examine power relations which obtain in texts and in life, with a view to breaking them down, seeing, reading as a political act, and showing the extent of patriarchy. 5. Recognise the role of language in making what is social and constructed seem transparent and 'natural'. 6. Raise the question of whether men and women are 'essentially' different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different. 7. Explore the question of whether there is a female language, an ecriture feminine, and whether this is also available to men. 8. 'Re-read' psychoanalysis to further explore the issue of female and male identity. 10. Question the popular notion of the death of the author, asking whether there are only 'subject positions... constructed in discourse', or whether, on the contrary, the experience (e.g. of a black or lesbian writer) is central. 11. Make clear the ideological base of supposedly 'neutral' or 'mainstream' literary interpretations. Queer Theory During the 1980s, the term ‘queer’ was reclaimed by a new generation of political activists involved in Queer nation and protest groups such as ActUp and Outrage, though some lesbian and gay cultural activists and critics who adopted the term in the 1950s and 1960s continue to use it to describe their particular sense of marginality to both mainstream and minority cultures. In the 1990s, ‘Queer Theory’ designated a radical rethinking of the relationship between subjectivity, sexuality and representation. Its emergence in that decade owes much to the earlier work of queer critics such as Ann Snitow (1983), Carol Vance (1984) and Joan Nestle (1988), but also to the allied challenge of diversity initiated by Black and Third World critics. In addition, it gained impetus from postmodern theories with which it overlapped in signifificant ways. Teresa de Lauretis, in the Introduction to the ‘Queer Theory’ issue of differences (1991), traced the emergence of the term ‘queer’ and described the impact of postmodernism on lesbian and gay theorizing. (Selden, Widdowson & Brooker, 2005, p. 269) In analyzing a literary text using this theory, based from Barry(2002), these are the things lesbian/gay critics can follow: 1. Identify and establish a canon of 'classic' lesbian/gay writers whose work constitutes a distinct tradition. These are, in the main, twentieth-century Prepared by: 17 Maria GLoria B. Nada writers, such as (for lesbian writers in Britain) Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville- West, Dorothy Richardson, Rosamund Lehmann, and Radclyffe Hall. 2. 2. Identify lesbian/gay episodes in mainstream work and discuss them as such (for example, the relationship between Jane and Helen in Jane Eyre), rather than reading same-sex pairings in non-specific ways, for instance, as symbolising two aspects of the same character (Zimmerman). 3. Set up an extended, metaphorical sense of 'lesbian/gay' so that it connotes a moment of crossing a boundary, or blurring a set of categories. All such 'liminal' moments mirror the moment of selfidentification as lesbian or gay, which is necessarily an act of conscious resistance to established norms and boundaries. 3. Expose the 'homophobia' of mainstream literature and criticism, as seen in ignoring or denigrating the homosexual aspects of the work of major canonical figures, for example, by omitting overtly homosexual love lyrics from selections or discussions of the poetry of W. H. Auden (Mark Lilly). 9. Foreground homosexual aspects of mainstream literature which have previously been glossed over, for example the strongly homo-erotic tenderness seen in a good deal of First World War poetry. 6. Foreground literary genres, previously neglected, which significantly influenced ideals of masculinity or femininity, such as the nineteenth-century adventure stories with a British 'Empire' setting (for example those by Rudyard Kipling and Rider Haggard) discussed by Joseph Bristow in Empire Boys (Routledge, 1991). References: Adams, L. (2011). A History of Western Art. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc. Barry, P. (2002). Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press. Bennett, A. and N. Royle. (2004). An Introduction to Literature, Criticism, and Theory. 3rd ed. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited. Eagleton,T. (1996). Literary Theory: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Blackwell Publishing. Holman, C. H. (1992) A Handbook to Literature 6th ed. Indiana:The Odyssey Press, Inc. Queddeng, (2013). Literature of the Philippines. Lucban, Quezon: Southern Luzon State University. Selden, R., P. Widdowson,& P. Brooker. (2005). A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 5th ed. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited. Smith, K. (nd). Literary Criticism Primer: A Guide to the Critical Approaches to Literature. Baltimore County Public Schools. Talabong, M. M. Z. and J. K. C. Villa. (2011). The Female Protagonists: An Analysis on the Portrayal of Women in Popular Literature. Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide. 2nd ed. Routledge Taylor Prepared by: 18 Maria GLoria B. Nada &Francis Group. Lecture 3 Poetry and Its Elements Overview: What is your favorite song? Do you listen to it because of its rhythm or its lyrics? People find it hard to understand poetry, but they do not know that everyday they are already engaging to it. As they listen to their favorite song, they are also letting themselves enjoy poetry. Aside from the rhythm of the song, people enjoy it because of its lines. Objectives: By the end of the lecture, students should have: 1. Defined poetry 2. Distinguished the different types of poetry 3. Identified the elements of poetry 4. Learned how to read poetry 5. Understood basic information about poetry Scope of Lecture 3: 1. Definition of Poetry 2. Five Things to Remember about Poetry. 3. How to Read Poetry 4. Types of Poetry Lyric Poetry Narrative Poetry Dramatic Poetry 5. Elements of Poetry Content/Subject Theme Mood/Tone Imagery Symbols Sound effect devices Persona Speaker Shape and Form Figurative Languages Stanza Rhythm Foot Meter Prepared by: 19 Maria GLoria B. Nada  Poetry is the clear expression on of mixed feelings -W.H. Auden DEFINITION OF POETRY Poetry is one of the genres of literature. Its existence has already gone too far, as far as human civilization has gone through. From oral recitation down to written poems, there are already so many innovations that occur which are preferred to be used and practiced by both amateur and veteran poets. There is no clear record about when it really started to take form. Holman (1992) said that no literary historian presumes to point out the beginnings of poetry, though the first conscious literary expression took the form of primitive verse. Then, it is also difficult to define because of its complex nature. Dimalanta said that regarding poetry, definitions can only be general and tentative, oversimplified, personal, and at times, ambiguous. Attribute to this the essential ineffable nature of poetry. (Guile, 2003, p. 10) Meanwhile, the simplest definition according to Ang (2012) is, it is derived from a Greek word poesis meaning “making or creating.” To easily understand poetry, Baritugo et al (2007) gave five things to remember about poetry. 1. Poetry is a concentrated thought. Poems use few words to express the emotions, and thoughts of poets. In understanding poetry, one must know the use of its language. According to Abad, poetry is a special use of language by which language transcends itself. (Guile, 2003, p. 11) 2. Poetry is a kind of word-music. To fully enjoy poetry, one must read it aloud. In this way, the reader will be able to hear the use of words as it creates music. Also, the use of rhythm in poetry lets its meaning more comprehensible. Lacia and Gonong (2003) said that for the poet to convey ideas, he chooses and organizes his words into a pattern of sound that is part of the total meaning. 3. Poetry expresses all the senses. With use of language, poets help readers to use their sense. They let readers smell the fragrant flower, see the blue skies, hear the singing birds, feel the cold wind and taste the sweet mangoes. The poet, as someone has said, does not speak the accurate language of science, does not, for example, refer to water as H2O but as “rippling,” a “mirror,” or “blue,” using not elements which compose water but the effect which water creates in his imaginative mind and wanting the reader to respond to “water” as physical fact rather than abstract concept. (Holman, 1992, p. 405) 4. Poetry answers our demand for rhythm. Rhythm in poetry is essential for readers to fully enjoy. In reading aloud, rhythm makes the poem more pleasing to the ears. Also, Baritugo said that a poem beats time simply and strongly; therefore, we need only respond to it Prepared by: 20 Maria GLoria B. Nada with our own natural rhythm. 5. Poetry is observation plus imagination. Abad said that the poem after all, for poet and reader, is work of imagination. (Gulle, 2003, p.11) There are other readers find poetry difficult. The moment that the reader fails to imagine the images in the poem then it will hard for him to understand it. According to Lewis (1961) the image is a picture in words which one must serve a purpose in a poem. In addition, Dimalanta explained that effective imagery radiating from a given metaphorical center that is the core of the poem’s body. (Gulle, 2003, p. 15) These are the other things that you need to know in reading poetry according to Tan (2001) First, a poem differs from prose work in that it is to be read slowly, carefully, and attentively. You need to read poems slowly, carefully and attentively because you will not read it as it is but as a reader you have to go beyond what it is. Reading a poem takes a lot of hard work because it requires the reader to think critically, to imagine the images comprehensively, to analyze and to interpret the theme connotatively. Second is, a poem recreates an experience. Every time the reader will read the poem several times. The reader is also recreating the poem by means of extracting the different emotions, experiences, thoughts, ideas, etc. Reading the poem once is not enough because as the reader reads it form the second time, he or she will certainly unveil revelations from the poem that she happen to oversee on the first reading. So, the moment the reader reads the poem over and over again becomes more meaningful and sensible. Third, the subject matter of poetry can be found in everything that interests the human mind. It is very evident that subject matter adds sparks to a poem because without it nothing will be talked about on the poem. Although it is “only a part of the meaning” still it plays a vital role in understanding a poem. The subject matter in a poem depends on the writer’s choice (variety of subjects). Fourth, a poem presents a dramatic situation. In every poem there is always a speaker that will give the reader the background of the poem. There is a peculiar effect in reading the poem in either for private or for public audience because of the presence of the sound effects devices, figurative languages, and other elements of poetry that are not present from prose and drama. Also, the conciseness and brevity of the language used in poetry takes greater advantage as it is read. The dramatic effect in reading poetry is either intentionally or not because as a reader the responsibility is solely on his/her shoulders. Most especially if the poem is intended to be read publicly whether the reader likes it or he has to read it dramatically because, the listeners will not thoroughly understand the poem unless there is an element of art as the poem is being read. Lastly, it is an act of speech that takes place in a particular setting on a particular occasion. Prepared by: 21 Maria GLoria B. Nada TYPES OF POETRY There are three types of poetry. These are lyric, narrative and dramatic. Though they all follow similar elements but still each type has its own unique nature. Lyric Poetry Originally, this refers to that kind of poetry meant to be sung to the accompaniment of a lyre, but now, this applies to any type of poetry that expresses emotions and feelings of the poet. They are usually short, simple and easy to understand. (Kahayon & Zulueta, 2009, p. 11) It is also described by Sialogo (2007) as descriptive or expository in nature where the poet is concerned mainly with presenting a scene in words, conveying sensory richness of his subject, or the revelation of ideas or emotions. Then, Holman (1992) defined it as a brief subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody, and emotion and creating for the reader a single unified impression. Lyric poetry is a poetry that deals with the personal feeling of the poet. It is a subjective expression of man’s passion and emotion in artistic and musical language. There are seven kinds of lyric poetry. They are the sonnet, songs, ode, elegy, psalm, hymn and idyll. (Ramallosa, 2000, p. 15) Kinds of Lyric Poems A. Song A lyric porm in a regular metrical pattern set to music. These have twelve syllables (dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the accompaniment of a guitar or banduria. (Ang, 2012, p. 11) A lyric poem adapted to musical expression. Song lyrics are usually short, simple sensuous, emotional - perhaps the most spontaneous lyric form. (Holman, 1992, p. 503) B. Elegy This is a lyric poem which expresses feelings of grief and melancholy, and whose theme is death. (Kahayon and Zulueta, 2009, p. 13) A poem written on the death of a friend or the poet. The ostensible purpose is to praise the friend but the death prompts the writer to ask, “If death can intervene, so cruelly in life, what is the point of living?” By the end of the poem, however, we can expect that the poet will have come to terms with his grief. (Ang, 2012, p.10) A sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet’s meditations upon death or another solemn theme. (Holman, 1992, p. 183) C. Sonnet A lyric poem of fourteen lines, highly arbitrary in form and following one or another of several set rhyme-schemes. (Holman, 1992, p. 503) A lyric poem containing fourteen iambic lines, and a complicated rhyme. (Ang, 2012, p. 11) Rhyme schemes in Sonnets ababcdcdefefgg - Shakesperian sonnet abbaabba (cde,cde) - Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet (cdc,cdc) (cd,cd,cd) D. Ode In manner, the ode is an elaborate lyric, expressed in language dignified, sincere, and imaginative and intellectual in tone. (Holman, 1992, p. 363) A lyric poem of some length serious in subject in dignified style. It is most Prepared by: 22 Maria GLoria B. Nada  majestic of the lyric poems. It is written in a spirit of praise of some persons or things. (Ang, 2012, p.10) This is a poem of a noble feeling, expressed with dignify, with no definite syllables or definite number of lines in a stanza. (Kahayon and Zulueta, 2009, p. 14) E. Psalm This is a song praising God or the Virgin Mary and containing a philosophy of life. (Kahayon and Zulueta, 2009, p. 14) F. Hymn A lyric poem expressing religious emotion and generally intended to be sung by a chorus. (Holman, 1992, p. 260) G. Idyll Pastoral and descriptive elements are usually the first requisites of the idyll, although the pastoral element is usually presented in a conscious literary manner. (Holman, 1992, p. 263) Narrative Poetry This type of poetry tells a story in verse. It is a nondramatic poem which tells a story or presents a narrative, whether simple or complex, long or short. (Holman, 1992, p. 336) This form describes important events in life either real or imaginary. (Kahayon & Zulueta, 2009, p. 7) Narrative poetry is an objective narration in verse. It is a poem that tells a story, recounts an event or narrates an episode in the life of another person. Narrative poetry has four kinds such as ballad, epic, metrical romance, and metrical tale. (Ramallosa, 2000, P. 15) Kinds of Narrative Poems A. Epic A long narrative poem of the largest proportions. A tale centering about a hero concerning the beginning, continuance, and the end of events of great significance. (Ang, 2012 p. 10) This is an extended narrative about heroic exploits often under supernatural control. It may deal with heroes and gods. (Kahayon & Zulueta, 2009, p. 7) Holman (1992) classifies epic as folk epic and art epic. Epics without certain authorship are called folk epics, whether the scholar believes in a folk or a single authorship theory of origins. Art epic is a term sometimes employed to distinguish such an epic as Milton’s Paradise Lost or Virgil’s Aenied from so called folk epics such as Beowulf, the Nibelungenlied, and the Iliad and Odyssey. Common Characteristics of Folk Epic and Art Epic According to Holman  The hero is a figure of imposing stature, of national or international importance, and of great historical or legendary significance.  The setting is vast in scope, covering great nations, the world, or the universe.  The action consists of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.  Supernatural forces - gods, angels, and demons - interest themselves in the action and intervene from time to time.  A style of sustained elevation and grand simplicity is used.  The epic poet recounts the deeds of his heroes with objectivity. B. Metrical Romance A narrative poem that tells story of adventure, love, and chivalry. The typical hero is a knight on a quest. (Ang, 2012 p. 10) C. Metrical Tale A narrative poem consisting usually of a single series of connective events Prepared by: 23 Maria GLoria B. Nada  that are simple idylls or home tales, love tales, tales of the supernatural or tales written for strong moral purpose in verse form. (Ang, 2012 p. 10) D. Ballad The simplest type of narrative poetry. It is a short narrative poem telling a single incident in similar meter and stanzas. It is intended to be sung. (Ang, 2012 p. 10) Of the narratives poems, this is considered the shortest and simplest. It has a simple structure and tells a single incident. There are also variation of these: love ballads, war ballads, sea ballads, humorous, moral, historical, or mythical ballads. In the early times, this referred to as a song accompanying a dance. (Kahayon & Zulueta, 2009, p. 10) Dramatic Poetry It is a poem where a story is told through the verse dialogue of the characters and a narrator. (Sialogo, et al., p. 15) A term that, logically, should be restricted to poetry which employs form or some element or elements of dramatic technique as a means of achieving poetic ends. (Holman, 1992, p. 172) The drama in verse is an artistic production involving real living people in a performance. It is a story in poetic form revealed through speech and action. In genera, there are only two kinds of drama: the tragedy and comedy. Modern dramatists however made them four: tragedy, comedy, melodrama and farce. (Ramallosa, 2000, p. 15) (Refer to the lecture in finals for the comprehensive discussion of Drama) ELEMENTS OF POETRY 1. Content/Subject –  It is what is being talked about in the poem. Any subject can be great in a poem depending on the poetic style of the poet.  Dimalanta said that even generally considered banal or vulgar subjects become poetically acceptable, handled artistically. (Gulle, 2003) 2. Theme  This refers to the message/s of the poem. It is not easy to find theme in poetry. But, other elements of poetry will assist the readers to generate the theme of the poem. 3. Mood  This is the emotional atmosphere that poet wants the readers to feel. It helps the readers to fully appreciate the poem. Also, it builds the credibility of subject and theme the poem.  Willa Cather as cited by Holman (1992) said that mood as expression of the author’s attitude becomes a control over the techniques of literary expression. 4. Imagery  It is how the reader pictures the poem in his mind. The imagination that is evoked from the collection of tangible images created by the poet. It refers to the pictures which we perceive with our mind’s eyes, nose, tongue, skin, and through which we experiences the duplicate world created by poetic language. Imagery evokes meaning and truth of human experiences not in abstract terms, as in philosophy, but in more perceptible and tangible forms. This is a device by which the poet makes his meaning strong, clear and sure. The poet uses sound words and words of color and touch in addition of Figures of Speech. Concrete details that appeal to the reader’s senses are used as well build up images.  It is the use of sensory details or descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. These are otherwise known as “senses of the mind” (Sialongo, 2007, p. 9)  More than a visual detail, imagery includes sounds, textures feel, odors, and sometimes Prepared by: 24 Maria GLoria B. Nada  even tastes. Selection of concrete details is the poet’s of giving his reader a sensory image. By means of images, the poet makes the reader think about the meaning of the meaning. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003) 5.Symbols  Once the writer mentioned images like “sun” “flower” “river” “mountain” “dreams” etc. as a reader you will not accept those images as they are but convert them into higher level of giving meaning. For instance, a sun may stand for enlightenment, knowledge, hope, etc. depending on how it is used by the poet in the poem. 6. Sound Effect Devices  It gives music to the ears of the readers. It avoids the poem to be monotonous in approach. This makes the poem a kind of word-music. Some of the sound effect devices are also identified as figure of speech since they nature create a ‘sound effect’ a. Rhyme - Rime or rhyme is the similarity of sounds in the lines of poetry. It is often times found at the end of the lines although there are also rhyme in the initial or middle part of the lines of poetry. (Ramallosa, 2000, p. 15) - It is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sounds and any succeeding sound in two or more words. (Sialongo et al., 2007, p. 12) b. Assonance - It is the repetition of similar accented vowel sound. (Sialongo et al., 2007, p. 12) Example The bows glided down and the coast Blackened with birds took a last look At his thrashing hair and whale blue eye The trodden town rang its cobbles for luck Dylan Thomas “Ballad of Long-Legged Bait” c. Consonance - It is the repetition of similar consonant sound typically within or at the end of words.(Sialongo et al., 2007, p. 12) Example The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. Robert Frost “Out-out” d. Repetition -A rhetorical device reiterating a word or phrase, or rewording the same idea, to secure emphasis. (Holman, 1992, p. 446) “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light… And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Dylan Thomas “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” e. Onomatopoeia - It is the use of a word or phrase that actually imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes. (Sialongo et al., 2007, p. 11) Example Prepared by: 25 Maria GLoria B. Nada  The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees. Alfred Tennyson “The Princess” f. Alliteration - You repeat the initial letter or sound in two or more nearby words. (Baker, 1976 p. 528) - It is the repetition of similar and accented sounds at the beginning of words. (Sialongo et al., 2007, p. 12) Example The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free Samuel Taylor Coleridge 7. Persona  In every poem, there is always a character. It relies with the writer’s creativity in constituting images and other literary devices to visibly introduce the character to the readers. 8. Speaker  The speaker is the point of view in the poem. It is sometimes referred as the poet but it is not all the time the poet is speaking. Poets may also create a persona who is the speaker in the poem or can be both. 9. Shape and Form  This refers to the structure of poems which can be structured or free verse. The structured verse or metered verse pertains to poems that follow conventions of poetry in terms of rhyme scheme, versification, rhythmic pattern, and others. Free verse was said to be introduced by Walt Whitman, an American poet, which aimed to break free from the conventions in the structure of poetry. According to Holman (1992), free verse is poetry that is based on the irregular rhythmic cadence (measure) of the recurrence, with variations, of phrases, images and syntactical patterns rather than the conventional use of meter. 10. Figurative Language  Intentional departure from the normal order, construction, or meaning of words in order to gain strength and freshness of expression, to create a pictorial effect to describe by analogy, or discover and illustrate similarities in otherwise dissimilar things. (Holman, 1992, p. 223) Examples: Simile - -Consists of comparing two things using the like or as. (Ang, 2012, p.11) -uses a word or phrase such as “as” or “like” to compare seemingly unlike things or ideas. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 11) -is directly expressed comparison between two dissimilar objects by means of the word like, as, or as if. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 4) Examples: Be beautiful, noble like the antique ant, Jose Garcia Villa “Be Beautiful, Noble, Like an Antique Ant” His house was quiet, like the man who closed Ricaredo Demetillo “The Lover’s Death” Metaphor Prepared by: 26 Maria GLoria B. Nada  -gives an implied, not expressed, comparison to two unlike objects. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 5) -Uses direct comparison of two unlike things or ideas. (Ang, 2012, p.11) -implies comparison instead of a direct statement and that equates two seemingly unlike things or ideas. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 10) Examples: I am a candle of unpolluted wax Lighted at the altar for God Vicente de Jesus (Translated by Alfredo S. Veloso) “Teardrop” The whole country was a boiling volcano Amado V. Hernandez (translated by Jose Villa Panganiban) “The Blacksmith” Personification. -Gives human traits to inanimate objects or ideas. (Ang, 2012, p.11) -is giving human attributes/characteristics to inanimate objects, an animal, force of nature, or an idea. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 11) -gives an inanimate object or an abstract idea a human attribute or considers it a live being. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 5) Examples: Let the wind with sad lament over me keen Jose Rizal “My Last Farewell’ The springs at my feet has tears welling Jose Corazon De Jesus (translated by: Jose Villa Panganiban) “Isang Punongkahoy” (Tree) The night that weeps the death of day Surprises me at times on the rough threshold Claro M. Recto (Translated by: Alfred S. Veloso) “My Nipa Hut” Irony -says the opposite of what is meant. (Ang, 2012, p.12) -is a contrast or discrepancy between appearance and reality. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 10) -method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which intended meaning of the words is the direct opposite of what is meant. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 6) Examples: Neither is man aware of the unkind Flight of time; for, though it gives him life, It is dragging him nearer his grave. Juan Atayde “The Man” If all these men whose heads are with the stars, Who dream unceasingly of blazing royalty, Will only strive to be like you, A dweller of the sod with the heart of royalty Florizel Diaz “To a Dog” Allusion - refers to any literary, biblical, historical, mythological, scientific, character or place. (Ang, 2012, p.12) - is a reference in a work of literature to a character, a place, or a situation from history, literature, the Bible, mythology, scientific event, character or place.(Sialongo, Prepared by: 27 Maria GLoria B. Nada  2007, p. 8) Examples: Let others give to Caesar Caesar’s own Angela Manalang Gloria “I Have Begrudged the Years” Winds that Hades unleashes over me Vicente de Jesus (Translated by Alfredo S. Veloso) “Teardrop” Paradox - uses a phrase or statement that on surface seems contradictor, but makes some kind of emotional sense. (Ang, 2012, p.12) -is a phrase or statement that seems to be impossible or contradictory but is nevertheless true, literally or figuratively. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 11) Examples: All sounds waved to the seasons Of living and dying pipe-smoke Tita Lacambra-Ayala “Wedding Song” And the foam crept to the edges of darkness Burning its inflammable garments… (Grow, 1984. Modern Philippine Poetry in the Formative Years: 1920-1950. ) Hyperbole -You exaggerate for emphasis, humorous or serious. (Baker, 1976, p. 525) - is an exaggeration used to express strong emotion, to make a point, or to evoke humor. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 10) - exaggeration for effect and not to deceive or to be taken literally. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 6) Examples: I vialed the universe Leoncio P. Deriada “I Vialed the Universe” Shall I count the sands on the seashore, Or pick the numberless stars in heaven Benito F. Reyes “You Ask Me How Much I Love You” Synecdoche -You put (a) the part for the whole, (b) the whole for the part, (c) the species for the genus, (d) the genes for the species, (e) the material for the object it constitute. (Baker, 1976, p. 531) - uses a part to represent the whole. (Ang, 2012, p.12) -is the naming of parts to suggest the whole. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 12) Examples: Where are they -- The pointing hand, The vibrant voice of high command Aurelio Alvero “Of Power” And two kindred minds shall mark the hour as rare Edith Tiempo “Bibliophile” Apostrophe - “a turning away” “you turn away” from your audience to address someone new – God, the angels, the dead, or anyone no present. (Baker, 1976, p. 523) -is a direct address to someone absent, dead, or inanimate. (Ang, 2012, p.11) Prepared by: 28 Maria GLoria B. Nada  -is an address to an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is absent/long dead. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 10) -is an address to the absent as if were present or to somebody dead as if he were alive or to inanimate things as if they were animated. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 5) Example: Bend me then, O Lord Bend me if you can Amador Daguio “Man of Earth Oxymoron -“Pointed stupidity” You emphasize your point by the irony of an apparent contradiction or inconsistency. (Baker, 1976, p. 524) -puts together in one statement two contradictory terms. (Ang, 2012, p.13) -is putting together two opposite ideas in one statement. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 11) Examples: living dead, wise fool, cruel kindness, exact estimate, deafening silence, organized chaos, open secret, seriously funny, little giant Metonymy -You substitute an associated item for the thing itself. (Baker, 1976, p. 530) -substitutes a word that closely relates to a person or a thing. (Ang, 2012, p.11) -a name of one thing used in place of another suggested or associated with it. It consists in giving idea that is so closely associated with another. (Lacia & Gonong, 2003, p. 5) -is the use of one word to stand for a related term or replacement or word that relates to the thing or person to be named for the name itself. (Sialongo, 2007, p. 10) Examples: Naught will he find but snow and the ruins, Ashes of love and the tomb of his friends Jose Rizal (Translated by: Charles Derbyshire) “Canto Del Viajero” (Song of the Traveller) Between her brown lips, A poem of sunrise Oscar de Zuniga “Love Song” 11. Stanza  A recurrent grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form and often rhyme-scheme. However, the division into stanzas is sometimes made according to thought as well as form. (Holman, 1992, p. 508) (refer to the table at the latter part of this lecture, for the different types of stanza) 12.Rhythm  Rhythm is the musical arrangement of the accented and unaccented syllable in poetry. (Ramallosa, 2000, p. 15)  The passage of regular or approximately equivalent time intervals between definite events or the recurrence of specific sounds or kinds of sounds or the recurrence of stressed or unstressed syllables is called rhythm. (Holman, 1992, p. 456) Prepared by: 29 Maria GLoria B. Nada 13. Foot  Foot is the combination of accented and unaccented sound or syllables in the lines of poetry. (Ramallosa, 2000, p. 15)  In prosody (the theory and principles of versification), whether quantitative verse (verse whose basic rhythm is determined by quantity, that is duration of sound in utterance) or accentual syllabic verse (verse that depends both on the number of syllables in establishing its rhythm), the concept of foot and the names by which various feet are known in English prosody are borrowings from classical prosody, which has only quantitative verse. (Holman, 1992, p. 229) Foot Combinations: Rising Iambus or Iambic (ua combination) A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable and an accented. The most common metrical measure on English verse. (Holman, 1992, p. 262) Ex. u a / u a/ u a/ u a Come live / with me/ and be / my love By: Christopher Marlowe Anapest or Anapestic (uua combination) A metrical foot in verse, consisting of three syllables, with two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one. (Holman, 1992, p. 23) Ex. u u a / u u a /u u a / u u a Like a child / from the womb, / like a ghost / from the tomb, u ua / u u a /u ua I arise / and unbuild / it again. By: Percy Bysshe Shelley The Cloud Falling Trochee or Trochaic (au combination) A poetic foot consisting of an accented and unaccented syllable. (Holman, 1992, p. 539) Ex. a u /a u /a u /a u Double,/ double,/ toil and / trouble, a u/ a u / a u / a u Fire/ burn and / cauldron bubble By: William Shakespeare Dactyl or Dactylic (auu combination) A metrical foot consisting of one accented syllable followed by two accented syllables. (Holman, 1992, p. 145) Ex. a u u / a u u /a u u / a u u / a u u / a u This is the/ forest prim/eval. The/ murmuring pines and the hemlocks Prepared by: 30 Maria GLoria B. Nada  By: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Spondee or Spondaic (aa combination) A foot composed of two accented syllables. Spondees on our oetry are usally composed of two monosyllabic words as all joy! (Holman, 1992, p. 507) Ex. a a / a a Cry, cry! / Troy burns, or else let Helen go By: Wiliam Shakespeare Pyrrhic (uu combination) A foot of two unaccented syllables; the opposite of spondee. Common in classical poetry, the pyrrhic is unusual in English versification and is not accepted as a foot at all by some prosodists since it contains no accented syllable. (Holman, 1992, p. 429) Ex. uu u u My way | is to | begin | with the | beginning. By: Lord Byron 14. Meter  Meter or measure in poetry refers to the regular recurrence of the accented and unaccented syllables in the lines of poetry. (Ramallosa, 2000, p. 15)  The recurrence in poetry of a rhythmic pattern, or the rhythm established by the regular or almost regular occurrence of similar units of sound pattern. (Holman, 1992, p. 318) A verse is classified as monometer - 1 foot combination dimeter - 2 feet combination octameter - 8 feet combination trimeter - 3 feet combination nonameter- 9 feet combination tetrameter - 4 feet combination decameter - 10 feet combination pentameter - 5 feet combination hexameter - 6 feet combination heptameter - 7 feet combination The scansion below is based from the example of Queddeng (2013) u a/u u a/ u ua/uu a/ u u a/ As unto a rose of ineffable beauty you are Rhythm: uua (Most common in the group) Foot: Anapest/Anapestic Meter: Pentameter (number of combinations) Prepared by: 31 Maria GLoria B. Nada References: Ang, J. G. ed. (2012). Literature 101. Intramuros, Manila: Mindshapers Co. Inc. Baker, S. (1976). The Complete Stylist and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Baritugo, M. et al. (2007). Philippine Literature: An Introduction to Poetry, Fiction & Drama. Manila, Philippines. Grow, L. M. (1984). “Modern Philippine Poetry in the Formative Years: 1920 - 1950”. CAHSS Faculty Articles. Nova Southeastern University. Gulle, R. (2003). Frequently Asked Questions about Poetry: a Review and Discussion of Topics from the Writers Workshops / Ophelia Dimalanta, Ph. D. and Gemino H. Abad, Ph.D. Manila: UST Publishing House. Holman, C. H. (1992) A Handbook to Literature 6th ed. Indiana:The Odyssey Press, Inc. Kahayon, A. and C. A. Zulueta. (2009). Philippine Literature Through the Years. Mandaluyong City: National Book Store. Lacia, F. and G. O. Gonong. (2003). The Literatures of the World.Manila: REX Book Store, Inc. Lewis, C. D. (1961). The Poetic Image. London: A.W. Bain & Co. Ltd. Queddeng, G. (2013). Philippine Literature. Lucban, Quezon: Southern Luzon State University. Ramallosa, G. (2000). The Literatures of the Philippines. Lucena City: Enverga University Press. Sialongo, E. et al. (2007). Literatures of the World. Manila: REX Book Store, Inc. Tan, A. B. (2001). Introduction to Literature. Quezon City: Academic Publishing Corporation. Lecture 4 Poetry in the Philippines Prepared by: 32 Maria GLoria B. Nada Overview: Riddles or bugtong is a fun game for children because they are able to use their imagination while enjoying the game. But, did you know that before bugtong was part of many important social gatherings in the Philippines? In this lecture, you will be able to know riddles and other poems as well as background of poetry in the Philippines. Objectives: By the end of the lecture, students should have: 1. Understood the background of poetry in the Philippines 2. Realized the impact of history in Philippine poetry 3. Identified the different kinds of Philippine poetry 4. Learned how to analyze a poem Scope of Lecture 4: 1. Poetry in the Philippines 2. Poetry Analysis 3. Poems for Reading and Analysis Poetry in the Philippines In the discussion of Del Castillo and Medina (2002) in Philippine Literature From Ancient Times to the Present “Ancient poetry is an extension of earlier cultures of Southeast Asia, the ancestral home of most Filipino Malays” Epics, folk songs, epigrams, riddles, chants, maxims, proverbs or sayings were the common forms of poems during the pre - Spanish period. These are the epics which are still read and enjoyed; Bidasari, Biag ni Lam Ang, Maragtas, Haraya, Lagda, Hari sa Bukid, Kumintang, Parang Sabir, Dagoy at Sudsod, Tatuaan, Indarapata at Sulayman, Bantugan, Daramoke-A- Baybay. These folk epics are described by Manuel in Lumbera and Lumberas’ (2005) discussion as “narratives of sustained length, based on oral tradition, revolving around supernatural events or heroic deeds, in the form of verse, which is either chanted or sung and with a certain seriousness of purpose, embodying or validating the beliefs, customs, ideals or life – values of the people” According to Maramba (2006) “There are around 28 epics known or identified. Most of the remaining epics have been found among the peoples “untouched” by accularative processes i.e., indigenous and ethnic groups in the Mountain Province and in Mindanao and among Muslims. The fewest are found among the Christian peoples. What most probably happened in regions Christianized by the Spaniards was that the native epics were displaced and replaced by the Pasyon (sometimes and erroneously called the Tagalog epic) Prepared by: 33 Maria GLoria B. Nada and the metrical romances of European descent (also mistakenly referred to as “epics”) Special mention must be made of Belgian Fathers Francisco Billiet and Francis Lambrecht who have played great parts in the preservation of the Mountain Province; no less of Father Francisco Demetrio S.J., E. Arsenio Manuel, F. Landa Jocano, Sister Delia Coronel and others who have all done extensive research on our epics and folklore” It is said that aside from epics, folk songs are also one of the oldest forms of literature in the Philippines. Kahayon and Zulueta (2009) mentioned that the folk songs in the pre – Spanish period were composed of 12 syllables. The examples of these folk songs were; Kundiman (awit ng pag – ibig), Kumintang o Tagumpay (war song), Ang Dalit o Imno (song to the god of the Visayans), Ang Oyayi (lullaby), Diana (wedding song), Soliraning (song of the labourer), Talindaw (boatman’s song), etc. The religious and political nature of Filipinos can be traced to different folk songs. Del Castillo and Medina (2002) explained that “songs and verses filled early religious practices: to express devotion, to atone for sins, to minister to the sick, and to bury the dead…In like manner, verses aired love for and loyalty to the barangay and its rulers. These were supplemented by accounts of battle (kudanag), songs of victory (tagumpay, talindad), songs of hanging a captured enemy (sambotan, tagulaylay) and songs expressive of manliness.” Similar to folk songs, epigrams, riddles, chants, maxims, proverbs or saying were being recited to different occasions. For instance riddles, they were used in weddings, feasts, baptisms, mournings and other special gatherings. Chants were used in witchcraft or enchantment. Epigrams, riddles, maxims, proverbs or sayings are naturally witty. Epigrams are like allegories or parables that give moral and philosophical lessons. In creating epigrams there is no standard format but it is commonly composed of two lines. Unlike in riddles and maxims, they follow versification, syllabication and rhyme patterns. The former is made up of one or more measured lines with rhyme and consists of four to twelve syllables. While the latter is in rhyming couplets with verses of 5, 6 or 8 syllables, each line have the same number of syllables. Philippine Literature during Spanish period still continued to flourish. Spaniards brought civilization in the Philippines including religion and education. Some Filipinos were able to finish their formal education because there were already schools which were built by the Spaniards. This development is can be seen on the Spanish influences on Philippine literature. In poetry, folk songs still existed during this period but it became more widespread. Kahayon and Zulueta (2009) said that each region had its national song from lowlands to mountains of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The examples these folk songs were Leron, Leron Sinta (Tagalog), Pamulinawen (Iloko), Dandansoy (Bisaya), Sarong Banggi (Bicol), Atin Cu Pung Singsing (Kapampangan), Kalusan (Batanes), Song of My Seven Lovers (Lanao), Mutya Ko Paalam (Jolo), Sa Bundok (Kalinga), Pagbati (Tinguian) etc. Spaniards even noticed the love of early Filipinos in singing. Diego Lopez Povedano in 1578 once said, in his observation about early Filipinos, that “They (people of Negros) have songs which tell about the lives of their warriors and ancestors, recount the life of their great voyages” It was said that even Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan’s logkeeper, also mentioned that Filipinos love to sing while singing in the Visayan seas. Early Filipinos use Prepared by: 34 Maria GLoria B. Nada musical instruments to accompany their songs. They used metal bells and gongs. There were even times where they also used native musical instruments like kudyapi or kulintang. Aside from folk songs, metrical tales called Awit and Corrido were also loved by early Filipinos. In Tagalog Awit and Corrido are both called buhay. But most of the time Awit and Corrido were interchangeably used because of vague distinction on their characteristics. Awit is in dodecasyllabic verse while Corrido is in octosyllabic verse. The latter is referred to narration while the former is referred to chanting. In terms of contents, Corridos were composed of legends or stories from European countries like Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Awit is purely from writers’ imagination. The known writers of buhay are Francisco Balagtas, Jose de la Cruz, Roman de los Angeles and Pascual Poblete, Pedro Aranas, D.V. Buenaventura, Esteban Castillo, SImplicio Flores, Marcelo P. Garcia, Cleto H. Ignacio, Nemesio Magboo, Florendo Rivera, Angel de los Reyes, Padre Joaquin Tuazon and Juanito Castillo. “Over to hundred and fifty names found in the pages of the buhays. Most of the heroes and heroines belong to the nobility, some to the middle class; and others to the underprivileged few are Muslims Filipinos. Some are shepherds; others orphans and abandoned