Introduction to LITERATURE

Literature Defined
Forms of Literature
Types of Literature
Literary Genre
Ingredients of Literature
Eagleton: Literature is imaginative writing.
Jakobson: Literature uses language in peculiar ways
not necessarily to communicate ideas or emotions
but to focus attention on language itself.
Eagleton: Literature is a construct.
Culler: Texts whose language are foregrounded.
Culler: Literature integrates language to form.
Culler: Literary work is an aesthetic object.
Culler: Literature is intertextual.
 Forms of Literature

Prose Poetry
 PROSE POETRY

Most everyday writing Expressing something special in an artistic way

Language is expressive/decorated, with comparisons,

Language is straightforward without much decoration
Ideas are in sentences arranged into paragraphs
rhyme, and rhythm contributing to a different sound
and feel
Ideas are in lines that may or may not be sentences
arranged into stanzas

No line breaks. Sentences run to the right margin Uses line breaks

First letter of every line is capitalized but modern poets

First word of each sentence is capitalized
deviated from this form

Shape of poetry can vary depending on line length and

Prose looks like large blocks of words
intent of the poet
F
I A series of imagined facts which
illustrates truths about human life.
C
T
Misleading to:
I ▪ oppose fiction to truth
▪ Call it false or untrue
O
N
F
I Incidents that have not happened
C in real life, characters that may
not actually have existed, could be
T created by fiction to illustrate what
may and can happen within the
I scope of the possible and the
probable.
O
N
N
O
N
F Facts
I
C
Real events
T Real people
I
O
N
NOVEL
It is an extensive prose narrative. Its length varies from a
barely 100 pages of a stream-of-consciousness novel like
Haruki Murakami’s works to Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace. The
length permits:
▪ Greater number of characters
▪ More complicated plot
▪ More elaborate use of setting (but there is a definite
setting where significant events happen)
▪ Greater complexity of theme (but there is a single
predominant theme)

It has an opportunity for character development. It is

capable of revealing both a broader and deeper view of
human nature and human experience.
SHORT STORY
It is a brief, artistic form which is centered on a single main
incident and is intended to produce a single dominant
impression (sadness, surprise, sympathy, terror or other
reactions). Economy, compression and emphasis
characterize the short story:
▪ Definite time and place setting
▪ Local color (superficial elements of setting, dialect,
customs for decoration)
▪ Rapidly developed central action
▪ May portray a character whose personality and
temperament dominate and even determine the
course of the narrative
▪ Simpler theme
Querida – Angela Manalang
Gloria

The door is closed, the curtains drawn within

One room, a brilliant question mark of light…
Outside her gate, an empty limousine
Waits in the brimming emptiness of night.
POETRY
A. Lyric
An utterance of the human heart in poetic form. In
earlier times, lyric poems were meant to be sung with the
lyre. Generally, its subjects and moods dwell on love,
death, grief, patriotic feelings, love of nature and art,
imagination etc.

1. Sonnet—a lyric of 14 lines with a formal rhyme

scheme or pattern.
2. Elegy—a lament or an expression of mourning for
the dead; mood is solemn and sorrowful.
3. Ode—exalted in tone and expresses lofty praise for
some person, object, event or idea.
COUPLET
TERCET
QUATRAIN
QUINTET
SESTET
SEPTET
OCTAVE
POETRY
B. Narrative Poetry
It tells a story, following a chronology of events. An
example is the Epic which is a long majestic narrative
poem which tells the exploits of a traditional hero and
development of a nation.

1. Metrical Romance—a long rambling love story in

verse revolving around the adventures of knights
and lords and their highborn ladies during the age
of chivalry.
2. Epic—a long majestic poem which tells of the
exploits of a traditional hero and the development
of a nation.
DRAMA
A story presented on stage by actors impersonating
characters in a given situation. The story, called the play, is
written in the form of dialogue. Its elements are the
playwright, his play, theater, actors/actresses, and
audience.

1. Tragedy—the action usually culminates unhappily in

his death or in some catastrophe or disaster; the
hero has a tragic flaw or weakness.
2. Comedy—a drama which portrays the lighter and
brighter aspect of life and is meant to evoke
laughter.
NONFICTION
PROSE
Creative nonfiction
Writing that uses literary style
and techniques to create
factually accurate narratives.
Nonfiction Prose
Based on facts, well-written prose
that deals with real people, things,
events, and places.
1. Biography—a record of human life, an
account, written by someone else, of an
individual’s significant experiences, their effects
on him and his personal reactions and response
to them.
2. Autobiography—an account of a person’s life,
written by the person himself.
3. Diaries/Journals—daily records of events and
experiences in the author’s life.
SUBJECT
This refers to the theme of a literary piece.
Any work of literature is about something
and for this reason, it has a subject.
FORM
The vehicle used by literature to
communicate its subject, whether its in prose
or poem or if its through a play etc. It also
refers to the verbal structuring of ideas.
POINT OF VIEW
It is the angle of narration in a story. It is the
vantage point from which the writer views and
interprets his materials.
▪ First person POV—involves the use of either of
the two pronouns “I” or “we”
▪ Second person POV—employs the pronoun
“you”
▪ Third person POV—uses pronouns like “he,”
“she,” “it,” “they,” or a name(s)
Daffodils by William Wordsworth

“I gazed – and gazed – but little thought 1st

person
What wealth the show to me had brought.”

The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

“I could picture it. I have a habit of imagining the conversations

between my friends. We went out to the Cafe Napolitain to have
an aperitif and watch the evening crowd on the Boulevard.”
 Bright Lights, Big City by Jay Mclnerney

“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place

like this at this time of the morning. But here you are,
and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely
unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.”
2nd
person
 3rd
person Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

“When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been
cautious in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister how
very much she admired him.”
“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good
humoured, lively; and I never saw such happy manners! — so much ease,
with such perfect good breeding!”
 A narrator which reveals characters,
events and setting from the vantage point
of an all-knowing but detached observer.
He has a superior mind which not only
perceives, hears, and understands
everything but can also interpret them
unerringly.

Omniscient