i.

short story
• fables
• folktales and fairytales
• ghost and horror
• crime and mystery
• adventure
• love
• science fiction
ii. novel
• bildungsroman; moral/psychological development
• mystery
• science fiction
• fantasy
• thriller
• romance
2. non-fiction
• formal essay
• scientific prose
• historical prose
• technical writing
NATURE OF LITERATURE • economic writing
VISTA 1: TRADITIONALISM • literary criticism
o representation of life 3. creative non-fiction
• likened to an object - a mediocre representation of nature (mimesis: • personal essay
simply copying from the physical world) • memoir
o reflection of writer’s inner soul rather than external world; emotions, deepest • autobiography
thoughts • travel writing
o source of knowledge, insight, and wisdom • food writing
o more meaningful when milieu or that of its author is understood • profiles
o must teach morality and probe philosophical issues B. Poetry - versifies
1. lyric poem
VISTA 2: modernism • ode – exaltation of style
o language of literature foregrounds poetic effects. Poeticity renders literature • elegy – tribute for the dead
distinctive and special (example: using indirection; literary devices) • song – poems in emotion
o best understood through binary oppositions (example: reality versus fantasy) • sonnet
o literature: an expression of universal experience across times and cultures • simple lyric – highlight deep personal feelings
(example: archetype – appears regularly, universal, and timeless) 2. narrative poem
o a symbolic statement of unconscious fantasies that the artist and reader • epic – long narrative poem, heroic exploits
could not otherwise admit (example: William Blake’s The Sick Rose – the • ballad – slow sad song telling a story
concave image is the rose; it is a yonic symbol and your reference is the • idyll – pastoral poem (example: peaceful country life)
psychoanalysis) • lay – ballad/melody song
o must have social dimension; it exists in time and space, in history and society • metrical tale – simple, straight forward, romance; chivalry,
– these are tool for exposure adventure, etc.
• metrical romance
VISTA 3: Postmodernism C. Drama
o a discourse, represents and refracts reality (reshaping something due to PROSE DRAMA VERSE DRAMA
intention or desire)
Tragedy – sorrowful, disastrous
o a performing art in which each reader creates his/her own possibly unique
text-related performance (example: Horizons of Experience – highly Comedy – light, happy ending
subjective and personal)
Dramatic history – historical place
o mirrors, resists, or reinforces patriarchal male-centered culture, stereotypes,
and oppression of women Farce- satirical comedy
o must explore issues of sexuality, gender, power, and marginalized populations Melodrama – exciting, characters exaggerate emotions
o needs to look at issues of power, economics, politics, religion and culture,
and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony
21st century LITERATURE
CHARACTERISTICS OF LITERATURE o 2001 – onwards
1. universality
o unifies us all 1. gender sensitive – promote gender fluidity
o anyone can relate despite age, gender, race, etc. 2. technologically alluding – see allusion and reference in form and context
2. permanence 3. culturally pluralistic – diversity, culture varies across time and space
o timelessness 4. operates on the extreme reality or extreme fiction – high degree, harsh reality,
o why we have access to classical figures up to today presented as it is
o withstand test of time 5. questions conventions and supposedly absolute norms – bold and brave,
3. artistry challenge
o literature is art
o style that we see the writer’s uniqueness (writer’s use of literary devices) 21st century LITERATURE types and forms
4. suggestiveness 1. blog
o emotional value o website containing short articles called posts
o appeals/makes us feel o changed regularly
o sympathize/empathize o written by one/group containing opinions, interests, experiences
5. intellectual value 2. chick lit
o mind, cognitive domain o genre of fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often
o makes us think, imagine, reflect humorously and light-heartedly
6. spiritual value o popular in the late 1990s
o moral value o celebration of femininity
o literature is source of knowledge and wisdom o role of young women
o not a direct subcategory of romance
DIVISIONS AND GENRES OF LITERATURE 3. creative nonfiction
A. Prose – discoursal form o literary nonfiction or narrative nonfiction
1. fiction
Borromeo, g.a.r.
 o uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate o five novel masterpiece (Rosales saga) – sweep of Philippine history,
narratives social struggles, international appeal
o contrasts with other nonfiction such as technical writing or journalism • The Pretenders
which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service • Tree
to its craft • My Brother
o relatively young • My Executioner
4. flash fiction • Mass
o style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity • Po-on
o no widely accepted definition of length of category o publisher, lecturer on cultural issues, founder of Philippine chapter of
o six word story international organization PEN
o twitterature (140-character story) o CCP Centennial Honor for the Arts 1999
o dribble (50 words) o Oustanding Fulbrighters Award for Literature 1988
o drabble (100 words) o Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative
o sudden fiction (750 words) Communication Arts 1980
o others (300 words; 1000 words) 7. Edith Tiempo (1999)
5. hyper poetry 8. Levi Celerio (1999)
o digital poetry uses links-hypertext markup 9. Rolando Tinio (1997)
o very visual form 10. NVM Gonzalez (1997)
o is related to hypertext fiction and visual arts 11. Francisco Arcellana (1990)
o links: poem has no set order, poem being generated in response to the 12. Carlos Romulo (1982)
links that the reader/user chooses 13. Nick Joaquin (1976)
o phrases, words, lines – presented in variable order 14. Amado Hernandez (1973)
6. mobile phone text tula 15. Jose Garcia Villa (1973)
o example: tanaga
• Filipino poem POETRY
• 4 lines, 7 syllables NATURE OF POETRY
7. speculative fiction POETRY
o umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, etc. o measured and restrained expression
o fantastical fiction genres o brevity – shortness, conciseness, but it can suggest meanings
o expression of beautiful thought
NATIONAL ARTISTS FOR LITERATURE o form of linguistic communication – Cirilo Bautista
1. Cirilo Bautista (2014) o extraction of wonder from that which is meaningful, so that it becomes
o poet, fictionist, and essayist beautiful; and the bestowal and meaning to that which has no meaning
o contribution to literary arts so that it becomes beautiful – Jose Garcia Villa
o foremost writer of his generation o spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in moments of
o reputation for fine and profound artistry – influence peers and tranquility – William Wordsworth
generations of young writers o journal of sea animal living on and, wanting to fly in the air (power of
o holding regular funded and unfunded workshops throughout the country imaginative thinking) – Carl Sandburg
o updated student/writers on literary development and techniques o what makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle,
o DLSU, Bienvenido Santos Creative Writing Center makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you
o writer – significant body of works, teacher – discovery and are alone in the unknown world that your bliss and suffering is forever
encouragement of writers in workshops and lectures, critic – essays that shared and forever all your own – Dylan Thomas
provide insights o a memorable speech – W.H. Arden
2. Lazaro Franciso (2009) o criticism of life (poetry as tool for unveiling dark mysteries of life) –
3. Bienvenido Lumbera (2006) Matthew Arnold
o poet, librettist, scholar
o Tagalog literature (now known as Bagay poetry) – helped vernacular UNDERSTANDING POETS
poetic tradition o producers of text
o pioneered creative fusion of fine arts and popular imagination o as texts
4. Virgilio Almario (2003) o live in a world of implications
o Rio Alma o speak in an uncommon language
o poet, literary historian and critic o see things from strange perspectives
o reinvented and revived Filipino poetic forms o most terrifying thing for them: to start a line and not to be able to
o championed in modernist poetics proceed from there
o published 12 books of poetry o has a profound sense of personal ethics
• (a few are) Makinasyon o when everything fails them in completion of their masterpieces, they resort
• Peregrinasyon to delaying tactics, alcoholism, violence, absurdism, antisocialism- to
• Doktrinang Anakpawis justify the postponement of the product of their genius
• Mga Retrato at Rekwerdo
• Muli, sa Kandungan ng Lupa FUNCTIONS OF POETRY
o poetic voice from lyrical to satirical to epic, from dramatic to COMMITMENT OF POETRY
incantatory two fold
o redefined how Filipino poetry is viewed and paved way for the o to delight
discussion of the same in his 10 books of criticism and anthologies o to instruct
o founded Galian sa Arte at Tula Horace
o involved with children’s literature o the Roman poet
o present in national writing workshops o Ars Poetica
o headed National Commission for Culture and the Arts as executive By at once delighting and teaching the reader, the poet who mixes the sweet
director (1998 – 2001) with the useful has
o put a face to the Filipino writer in the country, one strong face
determinedly wielding a pen into untruths, hypocrisy, injustice Percy Bysshe Shelley – a romanticist, a defense of poetry (1821)
5. Alejandro Roces (2003)
o short story writer, essayist, best writer of comic short stories content OF POETRY
o My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken 1. Everything is a suitable poetic material.
o brought to public attention the aesthetic of country’s fiestas 2. The crucial substance of poetry is its human relevance and the philosophic
o popularized several local fiestas (Moriones, Ati-atihan) truth it reveals.
6. F. Sionil Jose (2001) 3. The content of all poetry that is considered authentic is revealed from a
o his writings since the late 60s were epic point of view that is universal and enduring. (universality and timelessness
o espousal of the aspirations of the Filipino for national sovereignty and authenticate poetic content.)
social justice 4. The content of poetry recognizes the paradoxical nature of man and the
tensive forces under which he moves.
Borromeo, g.a.r.
 FORM OF POETRY o limited length; one major plot, few characters
A. Structured (Conventional) 2. novella
o strictly follows conventions, standard, rules of poetry o 20, 000 to 50, 000 words, 60-120 pages
B. Unstructured (Unconventional verse) o more complex plot, more characters
o free verse 3. novel
o form is flexible o 50, 000 words, 120 pages +
o experimentation o more complex than novella, more plots, many well-developed characters
o remarkable deviations o can be as long as what the author wants

Stanza elements of fiction

Verse 1. Characters
refrain o players in the story
o people who act and are acted upon
ELEMENTS/CONSTITUENTS OF POETRY o drive story’s plot
1. Subject (explicit image) Theme (implicit idea) o Types
2. Persona – the mask, identity of author is hidden by disguise, Who is the • major characters – central to story, take leading role, complex,
speaker? develop through the story
3. Imagery – use of language to evoke sensory experience, use imaginative • minor characters – support major characters, not as highly
faculty, captures immediate perceprion of 5 senses developed
4. Sound • protagonist – central character, faces major conflict
a. Rhythm • antagonist – opposes protagonist, serves as obstacle that
o strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement/sound protagonist must overcome
o meter: rhythmical • dynamic – grow and change as story progresses
o pattern of un/stressed syllables (U-weak, /-accented, strong, • static – stay pretty much the same
long) • round – complex in personality, often conflicted as they solve
o Metrical Types problems
• Iamb (iambic) – U / • flat - highlight one or two major characteristics
• trochee (trochaic) – / U • direct characterization – author simply tells reader about character
• anapest (anapestic) – U U / • indirect characterization – shows characters in action, invitation to
• dactyl (dactylic) – / U U discover traits through words and choices
• spondee (spondaic) - / / (not common as lines but 2. Setting
appears as foot) 3. Plot
b. Rhyme o Exposition
o words thus corresponding in sound o Complication
o rhyme scheme: pattern of rhymes o Climax
o Alliteration – repetition of initial sounds on the same line/stanza o Falling Action
o Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds (anywhere in middle or o Resolution
end) 4. Point of view
o Consonance – repetition of consonant sounds (anywhere in o first person - narrator
middle or end) o second person – addresses reader as ‘you’
5. Tone (feeling created by poet) Mood (feeling sensed by readers) o third person – narrator is someone outside the story
6. Diction – poet’s choice of words o limited third person – narrator describes internal thoughts, feelings, and
7. Medium – how the poem is presented, relayed, or communicated?, the motivations (usually main character)
message, dialogue, narration, description o omniscient third person – narrator knows and partially reveals internal
8. Figures of speech thoughts, feelings, motivations of all characters
a. simile – specific comparison between two dissimilar elements, use of 5. Tone
like/as o author’s attitude towards subject
b. metaphor – use of word or phrase denoting one kind of idea/object in o authors use this to draw readers into stories, arouse emotions, emotions
place of another word/phrase for suggesting likeness or add meaning and interest
to one of the things being compared o subjective tone – opinions, feelings and judgements; usually used in fiction
c. personification – giving human qualities to inanimate objects or pieces that relate author’s personal experiences, can be any human
d. metonymy – use of word/phrase to substitute to another – bears a emotion or attitude
significant relationship as the effect for the cause, abstract for the o tools
concrete, & other similar relations • author’s word choice and arrangement
e. synecdoche – use of part to stand for a whole, whole for part, etc • details and imagery
f. hyperbole – intentional overstatement, exaggeration of fact/possibility • figurative language
g. litotes – understatement that asserts affirmative by negating its contrary 6. Style
h. paradox – phrase/statement that’s logically contradictory yet makes o writer’s verbal identity; choosing various words and putting it in various
good emotional sense ways and employing specifically selected figures of speech
i. oxymoron – use of phrase that combines two seemingly incompatible o personal and unique; distinguishes work from others
elements o elements
j. allusion – use of reference to without explicit identification to literary/ • diction, syntax, abstract and concrete language, dialogue and
historical person, place, or event/another literary work dialect
k. apostrophe – use of direct address to a person absent or dead • imagery, figures of speech, symbolism
l. irony – dissembling/hiding the actual case 7. Theme
a. verbal – speaker says something but means opposite o underlying message or big idea
b. irony or situation – situation turns out to be completely of o what the story means
what’s expected
c. dramatic irony – when reader/audience knows something that assumptions
a character in story/play does not know o literary texts, like dreams, express the secret unconscious desires and
anxieties of the author
FICTION o most of the individual’s mental processes are unconscious
DISTINCTIONS o all human behavior is motivated ultimately by what we could call sexuality
o work of fiction is created in the imagination of its author o prime psychic force is libido or sexual energy
o does not claim to tell a true story o three areas of mind that wrestle for dominance as we grow from infancy,
o can inspire, intrigue, scare, and engage us in new ideas childhood, to adulthood: id ego, and superego.
o childhood events have powerful psychological influence throughout life.
TYPES OF FICTION
1. Short story ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
o piece of fiction, can be read in one sitting (half hour – 2 hours) o can be used as a useful tool for understanding some works in which
o 1000 and 20000 words characters obviously have psychological issues
Borromeo, g.a.r.
o like biographical approach, knowing something about writer’s psychological
make-up can give us insight to his work TEXTS DISCUSSED
o psychological criticism can turn a work into little more than psychological THE HAIYAN DEAD BY MERLIE ALUNAN
case study, neglecting to view it as a piece of art do not sleep.
o critics sometimes attempt to diagnose dead authors based on their works, They walk our streets
which is perhaps not the best evidence of their psychology climb stairs of roofless houses
o critics tend to see sex in everything, exaggerating this aspect of literature latchless windows blown-off doors
o some works do not lend themselves readily to this approach they are looking for the bed by the window
cocks crowing at dawn lizards in the eaves
TYPICAL QUESTIONS they are looking for the men
o How do the operations of repression structure or inform the text? who loved them at night the women
o Are there any oedipal dynamics or any other family dynamics which are who made them crawl like puppies
present in the work? to their breasts babes they held in arms
o How can characters’ behavior, narrative events, and/or images be explained the boy who climbed trees the Haiyan dead
in terms of psychoanalytic concepts of any kind? are looking in the rubble for the child
o What does the work suggest about the psychological being of its author? they once were the youth they once were
o What might a given interpretation of a literary work suggest about the the bride with flowers in her hair
psychological motives of the reader? red-lipped perfumed women
o Are there prominent words in the piece that could have different or hidden white-haired father gap-toothed crone
meanings? Could there be a subconscious reason for the author using these selling peanuts by the church door
problem words? the drunk by a street lamp waiting
for his house to come by the girl dreaming
ARCHETYPAL APPROACH under the moon the Haiyan dead are
looking for the moon washed out
in a tumult of water that melted their bodies
they are looking for their bodies that once
moved to the dance to play
to the rhythms of love moved
in the simple ways--before wind
lifted sea and smashed it on the land--
of breath talk words shaping
in their throats lips tongues
the Haiyan dead are looking
for a song they used to love a poem
a prayer they had raised that sea had
swallowed before it could be said
the Haiyan dead are looking for
the eyes of God suddenly blinded
DISTINCTIONS in the sudden murk white wind seething
o emphasizes the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary works. water salt sand black silt--and that is why
o explores the artist’s common humanity by tracing how the individual the Haiyan dead will walk among us
imagination uses myths and symbols common to different cultures and epochs. endlessly sleepless—
o One key concept in this approach is the archetype--a symbol, character,
situation, or image that evokes a deep universal response--which entered THIRD WORLD GEOGRAPHY BY CIRILO BAUTISTA
literary criticism from Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. A country without miracles
sits heavy on the map,
assumptions thinking of banana trees rotting
o All individuals share a “‘collective unconscious,’ a set of primal memories in the sunlight.
common to the human race, existing below each person’s conscious mind”— The man who watches over it
often deriving from primordial phenomena such as the sun, moon, fire, night, has commandeered all hopes,
and blood, archetypes according to Jung “trigger the collective placed them in a sack,
unconscious.” and tied its loose end.
o The relationship of dreams, myth, and art serves as media through which He goes around carrying it
archetypes become accessible to consciousness. on his back.
o Every work of literature can be categorized and fitted into a large framework When asked what is inside,
that encompasses all literature. he says, “Just a handful of feathers,
just a handful of feathers.”
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES That’s how light the burden
o The approach offers some unusual opportunities for the enhancement of of government is in peace time–
literary appreciation and understanding. any tyrant can turn it into a metaphor.
o Although myth critics have posited that certain archetypal and mythic You kneel on the parched earth
patterns are "universaI” today many critics disagree with the entire concept and pray for rice. Only the wind
of universals. hears your useless words.
o Myth critics tend to forget that literature is more than a vehicle for The country without miracles
archetypes and ritual patterns. tries to get up from the page,
but the bold ink and sharp colors
TYPICAL QUESTIONS hold it down.
o What connections can we make between elements of the text and the
archetypes? (Mask, Shadow, Anima, Animus) TEXTS TO BE READ
o How do the characters in the text mirror the archetypal figures? (Great SWEET SUMMER
Mother or nurturing Mother, Whore, destroying Crone, Lover, Destroying THE LUCKY PLAZA
Angel)
o How does the text mirror the archetypal narrative patterns? (Quest, Night-
Sea-Journey)
o How symbolic is the imagery in the work?
o How does the protagonist reflect the hero of myth?
o Does the “hero” embark on a journey in either a physical or spiritual sense?
o Is there a journey to an underworld or land of the dead?
o What trials or ordeals does the protagonist face?
o What is the reward for overcoming them?

Borromeo, g.a.r.