WORLD LITERATURE PRELIM LECTURE.pdf

WORLD LITERATURE PRELIM LECTURE Literature – comes from the Latin word litera meaning letter. This is a body of oral, written, or visual literary production of excellent form containing imaginative language expressing ideas, emotions, and experiences of human condition with permanent...

WORLD LITERATURE PRELIM LECTURE Literature – comes from the Latin word litera meaning letter. This is a body of oral, written, or visual literary production of excellent form containing imaginative language expressing ideas, emotions, and experiences of human condition with permanent or universal interest. Literary Standard 1. Universality - Literature appeals to everyone, regardless of culture, race, gender, and time which are all considered significant. 2. Artistry - Literature has an aesthetic appeal and possesses a sense of beauty. 3. Intellectual Value - Literature stimulates critical thinking that enriches mental processes of abstract and reasoning, making man realize the fundamental truths of life and its nature. 4. Suggestiveness - Literature stimulates man’s emotional power to define symbolisms, nuances, implied meanings, images and messages, giving and evoking visions above and beyond the state of ordinary life and experience. 5. Spiritual Value - Literature elevates the spirit and the soul and this has the power to motivate and inspire, drawn from the suggested morals or lessons of the different literary genres. 6. Permanence - Literature endures across time and draws out the time factor: timeliness, occurring at a particular time, and timelessness, remaining invariable throughout time. 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 substances. Literature, as compared to any other forms of writing, possesses distinct qualities below that separate it from the rest. Qualities of a Good Literature 1. Literature should have a theme. Any literary work must have a theme because it gives the writing direction. From start to finish, the work should be linked to the overall theme meaning that whatever different issues are chosen to address in the work must all contribute towards the broad theme. 2. It should explain the relevance of the theme. Writers are like artists looking to share their worldviews with the audience. Therefore, as they select a theme, they must also creatively let the audience know what the relevance of the theme is to them. Audiences will only apprec iate literary works that have some relevance to their day to day lives. 3. Literature should have a compelling idea. The only way to keep readers or listeners glued to literature is if it communicates a compelling idea that the audience can relate to. It doesn’t matter if the piece of literature is a work of fiction or reality, it’s the idea it’s communicating that will compel the audience to keep reading or listening as they keenly anticipate knowing what the conclusion is. 4. Literature should have good style and grammar. The audience will stay glued to the literary works if it has a good sense of style and grammar, and the writer has a clear understanding of who the audience is. Audience stays interested in the literature if it uses not too complex or too simple language. 5. Literature should sound genuine. Regardless whether the writing is a fiction or non-fiction, there is a certain level of genuineness that needs to be felt in the literary work. The characters must not be too exaggerated and the theme must be reasonable and worthy of belief. Interpretation is based on gathering evidence (within the literary text) and making reasoned conclusions/inferences from that evidence. There are numerous schools of interpretation, each with their own interpretive schema. A schema is a broad theoretical framework for understanding the world. Producing a Literary Interpretation 1. Notice significant details in the literary text. 2. Find a pattern in those details. 3. Map the pattern found in the literary text to an interpretive schema. Literary theory is defined as a type of literary analysis that helps readers evaluate literature. It is an entire way to understand the meaning of literature through different lenses. It is a school of thought that provides readers with the logical means to critique the concepts, ideas, and principles of a certain piece of literature which is theoretical in nature. Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature which is practical in nature. Literary Theories 1. Archetypal Criticism - Archetypal criticism is the interpretation of a text based on the archetypes that appear time and time again in a wide variety of literature.  While cultures may be separated by time and space, their mythologies all seem to follow the same basic structure. In many myths, religious and spiritual texts, and literary classics, the hero sets out on a quest, surpasses many obstacles, and finally reaches his goal. Some examples are Odysseus, King Arthur, and Harry Potter. Even religious figures such as Jesus, Mohammad, and Buddha. 2. Feminist Criticism - uses the principles and ideals of feminism (belief that women and men should have equal opportunities in economic, political, and social life) to critique literature. It suggests that civilization is largely patriarchal (characteristic of a system of society or government controlled by men) and that history and literature are largely written and studied through the male point of view. In doing so, it aims to uncover the implicit and explicit misogyny (dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women) that may be contained in writing about women, the exclusion of women in the literary canon (a set of texts that serve as a recognized standard of stylistic quality, cultural or social significance, and intellectual value), and other types of marginalization(treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant). Common feminist criticisms in literature are weak female characters, idealized female representations written by male writers, and female characters in positions that are always beneath males. In resorting to these stereotypes, writers fail to present the true complexity of the female gender. 3. Marxist Criticism - Based on Karl Marx’s (Father of Communism and German-born philosopher, economist, political theorist, historian, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist) doctrines, this theory emphasizes class, socioeconomic situations, the power relations among different segments of society, and how these segments are represented. Marxist criticism supposes that literature can be analyzed through the social and material conditions that it was created. So, a writer’s social situation determines what characters, political ideas, and economic declarations will develop in their text. The Hunger Games has strong Marxian undertones. Most of the population is beset with poverty and scarcity. And while the districts (the proletariat) have varying levels of wealth, they are ultimately at the mercy of the Capitol (the bourgeoisie). The plot centers on the struggles between these two sides and the social transformation it will bring. 4. Reader-Response Criticism - In reader-response criticism, to understand a text, the processes that the readers use to create meaning and experience must be considered. This is in contrast to most other schools that focus more on the author or content of the work. It believes that literature has no objective meaning. Readers bring their own thoughts, emotions, and experiences into a work that they’re reading. Thus, whatever they take from it is based on their own expectations and ideas at the time of reading. Reader-response criticisms are of a personal nature. For example, reading The Parable of the Prodigal Son can have different responses from people with different backgrounds. A parent with a rebellious child might focus on the father and the significance of his forgiveness. Someone with a checkered past might sympathize more with the son. 5. Deconstruction - Deconstruction recognizes that literature has no fixed meaning (and thus can mean anything) because meaning itself is unstable. Language is ever-changing so attaching static meanings and ideals to a text is impossible. Instead, it tries to demonstrate that any text is not a unified and logical whole, but has a variety of irreconcilably contradictory meanings. Put simply, language in a text cannot describe any truth and any criticism of language will not get to the truth because language is flawed to begin with. For example, take a look at the sentence, “This is light.” Judging on the context given, there’s no way to know whether “light” is being used as an adjective or a noun. Therefore, the sentence is unstable and can mean either. 6. Formalism - Formalism treats a work of literature as its own distinct piece, separate from its cultural, social, historical, and even authorial context. As such, its focus is purely on its form, including grammar, syntax, meter, and rhythm. The true meaning of a text can only be determined by analyzing the formal elements of a text and seeing how they work to create a cohesive whole. Non-formal elements only create false impressions that jeopardize a reader’s interpretation. 7. Psychoanalytic Criticism -Psychoanalytic criticism is based on Sigmund Freud’s (Father of Psychology) theories in psychology, including those of the consciousnesses and the unconscious. It argues that much like dreams, literary texts are a manifestation of the author’s neuroses(a mental illness resulting in high levels of anxiety, unreasonable fears and behavior and, often, a need to repeat actions for no reason), revealing their unconscious desires and anxieties. A character from a text may be psychoanalyzed, but the usual assumption is that all characters are a projection of the author’s psyche. The author’s traumas, fixations, guilts, and conflicts may be traced through how these characters behave. 8. Postcolonial criticism - Postcolonial criticism concerns itself with literature written by colonizers and those who were/are colonized. In particular, it looks at issues of culture, religion, politics, and economics within the text and how these relate to colonial hegemony (the colonizer’s act of controlling the colonized). Put simply, it addresses the problems, consequences, and challenges that a decolonized country goes through. Specifically, it looks at these countries’ struggles with political and cultural independence, racism, and colonial mentality. 9. Queer Theory - Queer theory explores the representation of gender and sexuality in literature. It challenges the assumption that heterosexuality is the preferred or normal mode of sexual orientation—a notion that is reinforced by certain social institutions such as marriage, employment, and adoption rights. It argues that sexuality is fluid and plural, not a fixed identity. Thus, queer theory is interested in the breakdown of binaries such as gay/straight, masculine/feminine, and mother/father. Queer theorists are then primarily concerned about those who don’t fit in conventional categories such as intersex, bisexuals, and trans people. 10. New Historicism - New Historicism acknowledges that literature isn’t only influenced by the history of the author, but also that of the critic. Put simply, the writer’s circumstances shape their writing, their work reflects their time, and the critic’s circumstances and environment affect their criticism. This theory then reveals that literary criticism is impermanent. Current criticisms are colored by current prejudices, social environments, and beliefs much like literature affects and is affected by its historical context. As times change, so will the understanding of a particular work. Elements of Fiction 1. Plot - all of the related things that happen in sequence in a story. 2. Setting - space and time. Space refers to the where of the story; most often the geographical location where the action of the story takes place. Time refers to the when of the story. This could be a historical period, the present, or in the future. 3. Characters – doers of the actions. 4. Point-of-view - the perspective through which you experience the events of the story like first person or third person point of view. First person (“I”) Second person (“you”) Third person (“he, she, they” in one character’s head) Omniscient third person (“he, she, they” from an all-seeing perspective) 5. Theme – universal idea of the kind of literature like love, courage, etc. 6. Conflict - Conflict is what prevents the protagonist from achieving their goals. All fiction writing requires conflict because otherwise there would be no story, just a happy ending. 7. Tone - Tone helps the author evoke emotion. The mood of the literature and gives life to the story as a whole like serious, comical or funny, sentimental, etc. Literary Devices 1. Allegory – a narration or description in which events, actions, characters, settings or objects represent specific abstractions or ideas. It represents something else entirely, like a historical event or significant ideology, to illustrate a deeper meaning. Sometimes the stories are entirely fabricated and only loosely tied to their source, but sometimes the individual characters act as fictional stand-ins for real-life historical figures. 2. Allusion is an indirect reference to another figure, event, place, or work of art that exists outside the story. Allusions are made to famous subjects so that they don’t need explanation—the reader should already understand the reference. 3. Analogy compares one thing to something else to help explain a similarity that might not be easy to see. 4. Antithesis places two contrasting and polarized sentiments next to each other in order to accent both. Example: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong 5. Colloquialism uses casual and informal speech, including slang, in formal writing to make dialogue seem more realistic and authentic. It often incorporates respelling words and adding apostrophes to communicate the pronunciation. Example: “How you doin’?” asked Friends character Joey Tribbiani. 6. Circumlocution is when the writer deliberately uses excessive words and overcomplicated sentence structures to intentionally convolute their meaning. In other words, it means to write lengthily and confusingly on purpose. 7. Euphemism is a soft and inoffensive word or phrase that replaces a harsh, unpleasant, or hurtful one for the sake of sympathy or civility. Example: Euphemisms like “passed away” and “downsizing” are quite common in everyday speech. 8. Hyperbole is using exaggeration to add more power to what you’re saying, often to an unrealistic or unlikely degree. Example: “I had to wait in the station for ten days—an eternity.” — Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness 9. Imagery refers to writing that invokes the reader’s senses with descriptive word choice to create a more vivid and realistic recreation of the scene in their mind. Example: “The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay. and it smelled of manure. 10. Metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things to show their similarities. 11. Oxymoron combines two contradictory words to give them a deeper and more poetic meaning. Example: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet  12. Paradox is similar to an oxymoron. It combines two contradictory ideas in a way that, although illogical, still seems to make sense. Example: “I know only one thing, and that is I know nothing.” — Socrates in Plato’s Apology Note: The main difference between an oxymoron and a paradox is that oxymoron uses contradictory words whereas paradox uses contradictory ideas. An oxymoron is usually just two words (sometimes one, as in “bittersweet”), but a paradox is an entire statement, usually a standalone sentence or even a full paragraph. 13.Personification is when an author attributes human characteristics to nonhuman things like the weather or inanimate objects. Example: The trees gracefully danced as the Southwind strongly blew. 14.Satire is a style of writing that uses parody and exaggeration to criticize the faults of society or human nature. 15. Simile compares two different things to point out their similarities. however, the difference between similes and metaphors is that similes use the words “like” or “as” to soften the connection and explicitly show it’s just a comparison. Example: His harsh words are like a knife. 16. Symbolism is when objects, characters, actions, or other recurring elements in a story take on another, more profound meaning and/or represent an abstract concept. Example: In J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (and The Hobbit), it is said the ring of Sauron symbolizes evil, corruption, and greed, which everyday people, symbolized by Frodo, must strive to resist. 2 Major Types of Literature 1. Prose – comes from the Latin word prosa meaning straightforward. It consists of words within the common flow of conversation presented in a straightforward manner. Work written in paragraph form. 2. Poetry – imaginative awareness of experience expressed thru meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choice that affects emotion. Work written in verse.  2 Types of Prose A. Fiction – based on imagination. B. Nonfiction – based on real life. 2. Types of Poetry 1.Narrative – describes real or imaginative important events in life. 2. Lyric – originally, poetry meant to be sung with the accompaniment of a lyre, but now, it is any type of poetry expressing emotions and feelings. The Five Main Genres of Literature 1- Fiction - One of the most popular genres of literature, fiction, features imaginary characters and events. This genre is in five subgenres: fantasy, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, mystery, and science fiction. 2- Nonfiction tells the story of real people and events. Examples include biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs. 3- Drama - known as play, is a story created specifically for a stage performance. The most renowned author of drama was William Shakespeare—the writer of Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. 4- Poetry - In poetry, the words are arranged in a metrical pattern and often (though not always) in rhymed verse. 5- Folktale, also referred to as myth, tells stories of originally oral literature and are meant to pass on particular moral/lessons. These tales often have a timeless quality, dealing with common concerns that are relevant despite the time period. Literary Forms 1. Allegory is a narration or description in which events, actions, characters, settings or objects represent specific abstractions or ideas. 2. Fable is considered a short allegory with moral or lesson, featuring animal characters or other non-human characters that behave like humans and have human characteristics. 3. Autobiography is a type of biography which tells a life story of its author. Rather than being written by somebody else, an autobiography is written by the author himself/herself. 4. Biography is an account or detailed description about the life of a person. It entails basic facts, such as childhood, education, career, relationships, family, and death. Biography is a literary genre that portrays the experiences of all these events occurring in the life of a  person, mostly in a chronological order. Unlike a resume or profile, a biography provides a life story of a subject, highlighting different aspects of his of her life. A person who writes biographies, is called as a “biographer.” 5. Epic - a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation. 6. Essay is derived from the French word essayer, which means “to attempt,” or “to try.” An essay is a short form of literary composition based on a single subject matter, and often gives the personal opinion of the author. 7. Eulogy originates from the Greek word eulogia, which means “to praise” somebody or something. It is a literary device that is a laudatory/ praising expression in a speech, or a written tribute to a person recently deceased. 8. Legend - An unverifiable story handed down from earlier times, or a modern story that presents similar characteristics that shows the origin of a thing. 9. Memoir is a written factual account of somebody’s life. It comes from the French word mémoire, which means “memory,” or “reminiscence.” This literary technique tells a story about the experiences of someone’s life. A literary memoir is usually about a specific theme, or about a part of someone’s life. It is a story with a proper narrative shape, focus, and subject matter, involving reflection on some particular event or place. 10. Myth is a classic or legendary story that usually focuses on a particular hero or event, and explains mysteries of nature, existence, or the universe with no true basis in fact. Myths exist in every culture; but the most well known in Western culture and literature are part of Greek and Roman mythology. 11. Parable - usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle just like the Biblical Parable of the Prodigal Son. 12. Play is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between characters and intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. 13. Short Story – a fictional prose shorter than a novel.  14. Tale - a simple narrative, either fictitious or true, written or recounted orally in prose or in verse. It often recounts a strange event, focusing on something or someone exotic, marvelous, or even supernatural, often involving magic or exciting events. 15. Sonnet is a poem generally structured in the form of 14 lines, usually iambic pentameter, that expresses a thought or idea and utilizes an established rhyme scheme. Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian long and eventful or adventurous journey or experience recorded in the Akkadian language about Gilgamesh, the king of the Mesopotamian city-state Uruk (Erech). The fullest extant text of the Gilgamesh epic is on 12 incomplete Akkadian-language tablets found in the mid-19th century by the Turkish Assyriologist Hormuzd Rassam at Nineveh in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–627 BCE). The gaps that occur in the tablets have been partly filled by various fragments found elsewhere in Mesopotamia and Anatolia. In addition, five short poems in the Sumerian language are known from tablets that were written during the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE; the poems have been entitled “Gilgamesh and Huwawa,” “Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven,” “Gilgamesh and Agga of Kish,” “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld,” and “The Death of Gilgamesh.”  Picture from Britannica Introduction to Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumerian epic) The epic’s prelude offers a general introduction to Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who was two-thirds god and one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, or temple towers, surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically beautiful, immensely strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any woman who struck his fancy, whether she was the wife of one of his warriors or the daughter of a nobleman. He accomplished his building projects with forced labor, and his exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression. The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods. Gilgamesh then traveled to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge and other secrets of the gods, and he recorded them on stone tablets. Summary of Epic of Gilgamesh The epic begins with Enkidu. He lives with the animals, suckling at their breasts, grazing in the meadows, and drinking at their watering places. A hunter discovers him and sends a temple prostitute into the wilderness to tame him. In that time, people considered women and sex calming forces that could domesticate wild men like Enkidu and bring them into the civilized world. When Enkidu sleeps with the woman, the animals reject him since he is no longer one of them. Now, he is part of the human world. Then the harlot teaches him everything he needs to know to be a man. Enkidu is outraged by what he hears about Gilgamesh’s excesses, so he travels to Uruk to challenge him. When he arrives, Gilgamesh is about to force his way into a bride’s wedding chamber. Enkidu steps into the doorway and blocks his passage. The two men wrestle fiercely for a long time, and Gilgamesh finally prevails. After that, they become friends and set about looking for an adventure to share. Earliest Forms of Fiction: Fable - a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral. Tale - a fictitious or true narrative or story, especially one that is imaginatively recounted.  References https://colinwilsonworld.co.uk/5-essential-qualities-of-good-literature/ https://nuworldlit.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/literary-standards/ https://pressbooks.online.ucf.edu/sandboxstrategies3/chapter/interpreting-literary- works/ https://prowritingaid.com/elements-of-fiction https://study.com/learn/lesson/literary-theory-overview-criticism.html https://vhlblog.vistahigherlearning.com/the-five-main-genres-of-literature.html https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epic-of-Gilgamesh https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/rl/litrlgenres.asp https://www.costercontent.co.uk/blog/writers-corner-importance-literature https://www.definitions.net/definition/literature https://www.grammarly.com/blog/literary-devices https://www.literacyideas.com/elements-of-literature https://www.slideshare.net/regine_22/types-of-literature https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/gilgamesh/summary https://www.tckpublishing.com/literary-theories/