Contemporary, Popular, and Emergent Literature Instructional Materials

Republic of the Philippines
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR BRANCHES AND
CAMPUSES MARAGONDON BRANCH
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
IN
SEEN 30153
CONTEMPORARY, POPULAR, AND EMERGENT LITERATURE
Compiled by:
Mr. Dither June U. Malaluan, MEM.

Faculty
Date: September 14, 2020
Approved by:
Assoc. Prof. Cherry E. Angeles Assoc. Prof. Denise A. Abril Head,

Academic Programs Director
Date: _________________ Date: __________________

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Polytechnic University of the Philippines- Maragondon Branch. As we open

the school year 2020- 2021, I hope you are geared and equipped with excitement to navigate
towards greater learning. From its establishment, the university remains to its commitment of
providing the highest quality of education for aspiring teachers like you. And as we move
forward let us continue to conquer the tides and build lives.
THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES
VISION
PUP: The National Polytechnic University
MISSION
Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities
through a re-engineered polytechnic university by committing to:
• provide democratized access to educational opportunities for the holistic development of

individuals with global perspective
• offer industry-oriented curricula that produce highly-skilled professionals with managerial
and technical capabilities and a strong sense of public service for nation building • e
mbed a
culture of research and innovation
• continuously develop faculty and employees with the highest level of professionalism •
engage public and private institutions and other stakeholders for the attainment of social
development goal
• establish a strong presence and impact in the international academic community
PHILOSOPHY
As a state university, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines believes that:
• Education is an instrument for the development of the citizenry and for the enhancement
of nation building; and
• That meaningful growth and transmission of the country are best achieved in an
atmosphere of brotherhood, peace, freedom, justice and nationalist-oriented education
imbued with the spirit of humanist internationalism.
TEN PILLARS
Pillar 1: Dynamic, Transformational, and Responsible Leadership

Pillar 2: Responsive and Innovative Curricula and Instruction
Pillar 3: Enabling and Productive Learning Environment
Pillar 4: Holistic Student Development and Engagement
Pillar 5: Empowered Faculty Members and Employees
Pillar 6: Vigorous Research Production and Utilization
Pillar 7: Global Academic Standards and Excellence
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Subject: SEEN 30153 – Contemporary, Popular, and Emergent Literature
Compiled by: Mr. Dither June U. Malaluan, LPT., MEM
Pillar 8: Synergistic, Productive, Strategic Networks and Partnerships
Pillar 9: Active and Sustained Stakeholders’ Engagement
Pillar 10: Sustainable Social Development Programs and Projects
SHARED VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

• Integrity and Accountability
• Nationalism
•S pirituality
• Passion for Learning and Innovation
• I nclusivity
• Respect for Human Rights and The Environment
• Excellence
• Democracy
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

MARAGONDON BRANCH
GOALS
• Quality and excellent graduates

• Empowered faculty members
• Relevant curricula
• Efficient administration
• Development – oriented researches
• State-of-the-art physical facilities and laboratories
• Profitable income – generating programs
• Innovative instruction
• ICT – driven library
• Strong local and international linkage
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
a. Demonstrate basic and higher-level literacy, communication, necessary critical thinking,

and learning skills needed for higher learning
b. Apply research skills acquired in various subjects
c. Execute a wide-range of teaching process skills (including curriculum development,
lesson planning, materials development, educational assessment and teaching
approaches) applicable in various contexts (community, nation, and world) and life-long
learning.
d. Exhibit employable skills, competencies, and work attitudes that will meet manpower
requirements of educational institutions and businesses for social and economic
development.
e. Share expertise in literacy, numeracy, and livelihood technology to the adopted
community
f. Use various educational tools and technologies in day-to-day lesson to facilitate learning g.
Keep abreast with technological changes affecting lifestyle and workplaces to be globally
competitive.
iii
h. Display high level of leadership and organizational skills
in school and classroom management
SEEN 30153
i. Practice the professional and ethical requirements of the
teaching profession.
CONTEMPORARY, POPULAR, AND contexts (community, nation, and various cultural aspects imp
world) and life-long learning. literature.
EMERGENT LITERATURE COURSE
4. Passion to Share expertise in literacy, Demonstrate interest and
DESCRIPTION Life Long numeracy, and livelihood technology understanding of the contin
Learning to the adopted community development in world litera
COURSE TITLE : CONTEMPORARY, POPULAR, AND
5. Sense of Practice the professional and Demonstrate high sense of
EMERGENT LITERATURE COURSE CODE : SEEN
Nationalism and ethical requirements of the professionalism in understa
30153 Global teaching profession and evaluating literature.
COURSE CREDIT : 3 UNITS Responsiveness
PRE-REQUISITE : CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT
LITERATURE
This course is designed to emphasize on the critical issues

in contemporary and popular literature and genres. This iv
course provides foundational understanding about the Subject: SEEN 30153 – Contemporary, Popular, and Emergent
concepts and significance of emerging literary genres and Literature
compositions. Compiled by: Mr. Dither June U. Malaluan, LPT., MEM
COURSE OBJECTIVES
After this course, the students are expected to:
1. Develop deeper understanding of the various concepts
and principles of contemporary and emergent literature.
2. Develop high sense of ethical professionalism as literary
critics.
3. Apply the principles of literary criticism and analysis in
evaluating and studying various literary genres.
Institutional Program Outcomes Course Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
1. Creative and Demonstrate basic and higher- Develop high sense of creativity
Critical Thinking level literacy, communication, and critical ability in navigating
necessary critical thinking, and the rich culture of the world
learning skills needed for higher through literature.
learning
2. Effective Apply various communication Apply the art of good questioning

Communication techniques in dealing with the reality to understand learners’ concerns
of life as future educators and and personal struggles and come
knowledge builders. up with good solution to alter the
problems.
3. Strong Execute a wide-range of teaching Demonstrate strong

Service process skills (including curriculum understanding of the skills
Orientation development, lesson planning, applied in various learning
materials development, educationalFormatted
situations
Table in order to apply
assessment and teaching effectively the concepts in
approaches) applicable in various understanding and analyzing
6. Community Execute a wide-range of teaching Engage oneself in creative execution
Engagement process skills (including curriculum and utilization of theories and
development, lesson planning, practice to better understand various
materials development, educational literary forms.
assessment and teaching
approaches) applicable in various
contexts (community, nation, and
world) and life-long learning.
7. Adeptness in Exhibit employable skills, Demonstrate higher order thinking

the competencies, and work attitudes skills to improve competencies to
Responsible that will meet better understand the concepts
Use manpower requirements of integrated in various literary pieces.
of Technology educational institutions and
businesses for social and economic
development.
8. High Level of Use various educational tools Demonstrate higher level of

Leadership and and technologies in day-to-day leadership skills in dealing with
Organizational lesson to facilitate learning. organizational issues.
Skills
Keep abreast with technological
changes affecting lifestyle and
workplaces to be globally
competitive.
9. Sense of Display high level of leadership Demonstrate strong sense of

Personal and and organizational skills in professionalism in the
Professional school and classroom utilization of counseling
Ethics management concepts, theories and
processes.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The course requirements are as follows:

1. Students are encouraged to attend the class sessions (online students) and complete all
the requirements (online and offline students).
2. The course is expected to have a minimum of four (4) quizzes and two (2) major
examination (Midterm and Final Examination).
3. Other requirements such as written outputs, exercises, assignments and the likes will be
given throughout the sessions. These shall be submitted on the due dates set by the
teacher.
GRADING SYSTEM
The grading system will determine if the student passed or failed the course. There will be two
grading periods: Midterm and Final Period. Each period has components of: 70% Class
Standing + 30% Major Examination. Final Grade will be the average of the two periodical
grades.
Midterm Grading Final Grading
Class Standing 70% Class Standing 70%

• Quizzes • Quizzes
• Activities • Activities
Midterm Examination 30% Final Examination 30%
100% 100%
FINAL GRADE = Midterm Grade + Final Grade

2
v
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vi
Unit 1: World development. cited
literary Subject: SEEN 30153 – Contemporary, Popular, and Emergent
references)
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5 Quiz No. 1
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Lesson 5: foundation of
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Formatted Table Formatted Table the representative
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18 FINAL EXAMINATION
vii
10-1 Lesson 4: Identify and discuss
Subject: SEEN
Discussion
30153 – Contemporary,
Learning Module
Popular, and Emergent
Assignment,
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Popular and contemporary Compiled by: Mr.
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Genres in
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adventure • Action/ Adventure,
Classics Classic Literature,
• Mystery Mystery
14 Quiz No. 3
Formatted Table
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Topic Page
Introduction
Orientation
Lesson 1 Nature of Contemporary Literature 1
Unit 1: Contemporary Literature 1 Unit 2: The Rise of Modernism 2 Unit 3:

Popular Literature 7
Lesson 2 Literary Movements 9
Unit 1: World Literature Periods 9 Unit 2: American Literary Movements 11
Lesson 3 Approaches in the Analysis of Contemporary Literature 15
Unit 1: The Contemporary Theories and approaches to Literature 15 Unit 2:

Other Known Theories 22
Lesson 4 Genre of Contemporary Literature 28 Unit 1: Literary Genres of Contemporary
Literature 28 Lesson 5 Popular and Emergent Literature in the Philippines 46
Unit 1: Contemporary Philippine Literature 46 Unit 2: Philippine Emergent

Literature 53
References 57
viii
SEEN 30153 CONTEMPORARY, POPULAR, AND EMERGENT
LITERATURE
LESSON 1 NATURE, ESSENCE, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF

CONTEPORARY LITERATURE
Overview
When we talk about literature, there are myriad ways to define, describe and label the
content. When we talk about contemporary literature, we are describing writing during a
specific time period. Read on to learn about contemporary literature and what that label entails.
Learning Objectives:
After successful completion of this lesson, the learners should be able

to: 1. Discuss the definition and nature of contemporary literature.
2. Discuss the Development the development of contemporary literature.
3. Respond in varied activities presented at the end of the lesson.
Course Materials:
Unit 1: Contemporary Literature
The word contemporary means living, belonging to or occurring in the present. So,
when we talk about contemporary literature, we are talking about literature that is being written
in the now about the now. But what does the now encompass?
Contemporary literature is defined as literature written after World War II through the
current day. While this is a vague definition, there is not a clear-cut explanation of this concept
-only interpretation by scholars and academics. While there is some disagreement, most agree
that contemporary literature is writing completed after 1940.
Works of contemporary literature reflect a society's social and/or political viewpoints,
shown through realistic characters, connections to current events and socioeconomic
messages. The writers are looking for trends that illuminate societal strengths and weaknesses
to remind society of lessons they should learn and questions they should ask. So, when we
think of contemporary literature, we cannot simply look at a few themes or settings. Since
society changes over time, so do the content and messages of this writing.
When we talk about contemporary literature and the start date of this label, we have to
acknowledge World War II and the surrounding events. The horrors of the war, including
bombs, ground wars, genocide and corruption, are the pathways to this type of literature. It is
from these real-life themes that we find the beginning of a new period of writing.
While there is not one type of contemporary work, each piece sends a message from a
person living through and after World War II. However, this does not mean all works will center
around the Holocaust or war narratives. These works aim to speak to the injustices in the world
and the search for civil rights, the topics and questions that were raised during this traumatic
time in world history. The war serves as a catalyst for this shift in mindset, and the authors
writing in this period consciously and unconsciously illuminate this shift in thinking through their
writing.
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For example, Beloved b y Toni Morrison, is a classic piece of contemporary literature.
The novel follows an ex-slave named Sethe on her journey to fight her traumatic past while
raising her daughter Denver. The book serves as a powerful message about the trauma slaves
face and cultural injustices slavery brought upon the citizens of the US.
But to the point, this slave narrative does not define contemporary literature. There are
many other works that are vastly different, all of which fulfill the definition of the contemporary
period. To provide contrast, the novel, The Poisonwood Bible b y Barbara Kingsolver, is another
example of contemporary literature. This narrative follows a minister and his family from the US
on a mission to Africa where their lives are drastically changed, and their Christian values are
tested. It speaks to the idea of forcing one's religion and culture on another and the pitfalls and
realizations that come with the task. Completely different from Morrison's Beloved, both are
considered works of contemporary fiction.
Characteristics of Contemporary Literature

• Uses code switching between elevated literary language and "lower" forms, between high
art and low art.
• Deploys metafictional techniques to draw our attention to the work's relationship (or
non-relationship) to "reality"
• Emphasizes performative nature of our identities; they aren't "true" or natural but just
seem that way because they are consistent and persistent
• Emphasizes fragmentation in human experience of postmodern culture, and as an artistic
strategy
• Breaks down our faith in the supremacy of the rational, scientific human being (e.g.
comparisons between animals and humans and machines)
• Questions our ability to understand ourselves and our culture
• Questions omniscience by questioning our ability to accurately see reality • Questions the
link between language and reality (everything is a biased representation) • Depicts
border-crossing and migration as fundamental to human experience • Emphasizes the
permeability of old boundaries: between men and women; between the East and the West;
between high and low culture
• Shows people struggling to find meaning in a world that doesn't offer us the old
assurances (of either faith or science)
Unit 2: Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More

specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and
array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching
changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism. Arguably the most
paradigmatic motive of modernism is the rejection of tradition and its reprise, incorporation,
rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in new forms. Modernism rejected the lingering
certainty of Enlightenment thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all
powerful Creator God.
In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the
"traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization and daily life
were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging
fully industrialized world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was
paradigmatic of the movement's approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic
exhortation was articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor Adorno, who, in the 1940s, 2
challenged conventional surface coherence and appearance of harmony typical of the
rationality of Enlightenment thinking. A salient characteristic of modernism is self
consciousness. This self-consciousness often led to experiments with form and work that
draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of
abstraction).
The modernist movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked the first time
that the term "avant-garde", with which the movement was labeled until the word "modernism"
prevailed, was used for the arts (rather than in its original military and political context).
Surrealism gained fame among the public as being the most extreme form of modernism, or
"the avant-garde of modernism".
Some commentators approach Modernism as an overall socially progressive trend of
thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape their
environment with the aid of practical experimentation, scientific knowledge or technology.
From this perspective, Modernism encouraged the re-examination of every aspect of
existence, from commerce to philosophy, with the goal of finding that which was 'holding back'
progress, and replacing it with new ways of reaching the same end. Others focus on
Modernism as an aesthetic introspection. This facilitates consideration of specific reactions to
the use of technology in The First World War, and anti-technological and nihilistic aspects of
the works of diverse thinkers and artists spanning the period from Nietzsche to Samuel
Beckett.
The Beginning of Modernism

Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830, a Romantic work of art. The first
half of the 19th century for Europe was marked by a number of wars and revolutions, which
contributed to an aesthetic "turning away" from the realities of political and social
fragmentation, and so facilitated a trend towards Romanticism. Romanticism had been a revolt
against the values of the Industrial Revolution and bourgeois conservative values, putting
emphasis on individual subjective experience, the sublime, the supremacy of "Nature" as a
subject for art, revolutionary or radical extensions of expression, and individual liberty.
By mid-century, however, a synthesis of the ideas of Romanticism with stable governing
forms had emerged, partly in reaction to the failed Romantic and democratic Revolutions of
1848. It was exemplified by Otto von Bismarck's Realpolitik and by "practical" philosophical
ideas such as positivism. This stabilizing synthesis, the Realist political and aesthetic ideology,
was called by various names—in Great Britain it is designated the "Victorian era" — and was
rooted in the idea that reality dominates over subjective impressions. Central to this synthesis
were common assumptions and institutional frames of reference, including the religious norms
found in Christianity, scientific norms found in classical physics and doctrines that asserted that
the depiction of external reality from an objective standpoint was not only possible but
desirable. Cultural critics and historians label this set of doctrines realism, though this term is
not universal. In philosophy, the rationalist, materialist and positivist movements established a
primacy of reason and system.
Against the current ran a series of ideas, some of them direct continuations of Romantic
schools of thought. Notable were the agrarian and revivalist movements in plastic arts and
poetry (e.g. the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the philosopher John Ruskin). Rationalism
also drew responses from the anti-rationalists in philosophy. In particular, Hegel's dialectic view
of civilization and history drew responses from Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard,
who were major influences on existentialism. All of these separate reactions together began to
be seen as offering a challenge to any comfortable ideas of certainty derived by civilization,
history, or pure reason.
From the 1870s onward, the ideas that history and civilization were inherently progressive and
that progress was always good came under increasing attack. Writers Wagner 3
and Ibsen had been reviled for their own critiques of contemporary civilization and for their
warnings that accelerating "progress" would lead to the creation of individuals detached from
social values and isolated from their fellow men. Arguments arose that the values of the artist
and those of society were not merely different, but that Society was antithetical to Progress,
and could not move forward in its present form. Philosophers called into question the previous
optimism. The work of Schopenhauer was labelled "pessimistic" for its idea of the "negation of
the will", an idea that would be both rejected and incorporated by later thinkers such as
Nietzsche.
Two of the most significant thinkers of the period were, in biology, Charles Darwin, and
in political science, Karl Marx. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection undermined the
religious certainty of the general public, and the sense of human uniqueness of the
intelligentsia. The notion that human beings were driven by the same impulses as "lower
animals" proved to be difficult to reconcile with the idea of an ennobling spirituality. Karl Marx
argued there were fundamental contradictions within the capitalist system—and that the
workers were anything but free. Both thinkers would spawn defenders and schools of thought
that would become decisive in establishing modernism. This is not to say that all modernists or
modernist movements rejected either religion or all aspects of Enlightenment thought, rather
that modernism can be viewed as a questioning of the axioms of the previous age.
Historians have suggested various dates as starting points for modernism. William
Everdell has argued that modernism began with Richard Dedekind's division of the real number
line in 1872 and Boltzmann's statistical thermodynamics in 1874. Clement Greenberg called
Immanuel Kant "the first real Modernist", but also wrote, "What can be safely called Modernism
emerged in the middle of the last century—and rather locally, in France, with Baudelaire in
literature and Manet in painting, and perhaps with Flaubert, too, in prose fiction. (It was a while
later, and not so locally, that Modernism appeared in music and architecture)." The modernist
movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked the first time that the term "avant
garde", with which the movement was called until the word "modernism" prevailed, was being
used for the arts instead that in its original military and political context; the term remained to
describe movements which identify themselves as attempting to overthrow some aspect of
tradition or the status quo. Surrealism gained the fame among the public of being the most
extreme form of modernism, or "the avant-garde of modernism".
Separately, in the arts and letters, two ideas originating in France would have particular
impact. The first was impressionism, a school of painting that initially focused on work done,
not in studios, but outdoors (en plein air). Impressionist paintings demonstrated that human
beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself. The school gathered adherents despite
internal divisions among its leading practitioners, and became increasingly influential. Initially
rejected from the most important commercial show of the time, the government-sponsored
Paris Salon, the Impressionists organized yearly group exhibitions in commercial venues
during the 1870s and 1880s, timing them to coincide with the official Salon. A significant event
of 1863 was the Salon des Refusés, created by Emperor Napoleon III to display all of the
paintings rejected by the Paris Salon. While most were in standard styles, but by inferior artists,
the work of Manet attracted tremendous attention, and opened commercial doors to the
movement. The second school was symbolism, marked by a belief that language is expressly
symbolic in its nature and a portrayal of patriotism, and that poetry and writing should follow
connections that the sheer sound and texture of the words create. The poet Stéphane
Mallarmé would be of particular importance to what would occur afterwards. At the same time
social, political, and economic forces were at work that would become the basis to argue for a
radically different kind of art and thinking. Chief among these was steam-powered
industrialization, which produced buildings that combined art and engineering in new industrial
materials such as cast iron to produce railroad bridges and glass-and-iron train sheds—or the
Brooklyn Bridge (1883) and the Eiffel Tower (1889), which broke all previous limitations on how
4
tall man-made objects could be—and at the same time offered a radically different environment
in urban life.
The miseries of industrial urbanism and the possibilities created by scientific
examination of subjects brought changes that would shake a European civilization which had,
until then, regarded itself as having a continuous and progressive line of development from the
Renaissance. With the telegraph's harnessing of a new power, offering instant communication
at a distance, and Standard Time, synchronizing clocks and railroad timetables, the experience
of time itself was altered.
Many modern disciplines (for example, physics, economics, and arts such as ballet and
architecture) denote their pre-20th century forms as "classical." This distinction indicates the
scope of the changes that occurred across a wide range of scientific and cultural pursuits
during the period.
Late 19th to early 20th century

In the 1890s a strand of thinking began to assert that it was necessary to push aside
previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of current
techniques. The growing movement in art paralleled such developments as the Theory of
Relativity in physics; the increasing integration of the internal combustion engine and
industrialization; and the increased role of the social sciences in public policy. It was argued
that, if the nature of reality itself was in question, and if restrictions which had been in place
around human activity were falling, then art, too, would have to radically change. Thus, in the
first fifteen years of the 20th century a series of writers, thinkers, and artists made the break
with traditional means of organizing literature, painting, and music.
Powerfully influential in this wave of modernity were the theories of Sigmund Freud and
Ernst Mach, who argued, beginning in the 1880s, that the mind had a fundamental structure,
and that subjective experience was based on the interplay of the parts of the mind. All
subjective reality was based, according to Freud's ideas, on the play of basic drives and
instincts, through which the outside world was perceived. Ernst Mach developed a well-known
philosophy of science, often called "positivism", according to which the relations of objects in
nature were not guaranteed but only known through a sort of mental shorthand. This
represented a break with the past, in that previously it was believed that external and absolute
reality could impress itself, as it was, on an individual, as, for example, in John Locke's
empiricism, with the mind beginning as a tabula rasa. Freud's description of subjective states,
involving an unconscious mind full of primal impulses and counterbalancing self-imposed
restrictions, was combined by Carl Jung with a belief in natural essence to stipulate a collective
unconscious that was full of basic typologies that the conscious mind fought or embraced.
Darwin's work remade the Aristotelian concept of "man, the animal" in the public mind, and
Jung's view suggested that people's impulses toward breaking social norms were not the
product of childishness or ignorance, but derived from the essential nature of the human
animal.
Friedrich Nietzsche championed a philosophy in which forces, specifically the 'Will to
power', were more important than facts or things. Similarly, the writings of Henri Bergson
championed the vital 'life force' over static conceptions of reality. All these writers were united
by a romantic distrust of Victorian positivism and certainty. Instead they championed, or, in the
case of Freud, attempted to explain, irrational thought processes through the lens of rationality
and holism. This was connected with the 19th-century trend to thinking in holistic and
continuitarian terms, which would include an increased interest in the occult, and "the vital
force," at the same time as contemporary biology was dismantling the idea.
5
Modernism as a literary movement
Modernisms as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the
mid-1920s. ‘Modernist’ literature addressed aesthetic problems similar to those examined in
non-literary forms of contemporaneous Modernist art, such as painting. Gertrude Stein’s
abstract writings, for example, have often been compared to the fragmentary and multi
perspectival Cubism of her friend Pablo Picasso. The general thematic concerns of Modernist
literature are well-summarized by the sociologist Georg Simmel: “The deepest problems of
modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of
his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external
culture, and of the technique of life” (The Metropolis and Mental Life, 1903).
The Modernist emphasis on radical individualism can be seen in the many literary
manifestos issued by various groups within the movement. The concerns expressed by Simmel
above are echoed in Richard Huelsenbeck’s First German Dada Manifesto of 1918: “Art in its
execution and direction is dependent on the time in which it lives, and artists are creatures of
their epoch. The highest art will be that which in its conscious content presents the
thousandfold problems of the day, the art which has been visibly shattered by the explosions of
last week. The best and most extraordinary artists will be those who every hour snatch the
tatters of their bodies out of the frenzied cataract of life, who, with bleeding hands and hearts,
hold fast to the intelligence of their time.”
The cultural history of humanity creates a unique common history that connects
previous generations with the current generation of humans, and the Modernist re
contextualization of the individual within the fabric of this received social heritage can be seen
in the ‘mythic method’ which T.S. Eliot expounded in his discussion of James Joyce’s Ulysses:
“In using the myth, in manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and
antiquity, Mr. Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him ... It is simply a
way of controlling, of ordering, of giving a shape and a significance to the immense panorama
of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history” (Ulysses, Order and Myth, 1923).
Modernist literature involved such authors as Knut Hamsun (whose novel Hunger
(1890) is considered to be the first ‘modernist’ novel), Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Gertrude
Stein, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Dylan Thomas, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ezra Pound, Mina Loy,
James Joyce, Hugh MacDiarmid, William Faulkner, Jean Toomer, Ernest Hemingway, Rainer
Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Joseph Conrad, Andrei Bely, W. B. Yeats, F. Scott
Fitzgerald, Luigi Pirandello, D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Jaroslav Hašek, Samuel
Beckett, Menno ter Braak, Marcel Proust, Mikhail Bulgakov, Robert Frost, Boris Pasternak,
Djuna Barnes, and others.
Modernist literature attempted to move from the bonds of Realist literature and to
introduce concepts such as disjointed timelines. Modernism was distinguished by an
emancipatory metanarrative. In the wake of Modernism, and post-enlightenment,
metanarratives tended to be emancipatory, whereas beforehand this was not a consistent
characteristic. Contemporary metanarratives were becoming less relevant in light of the
implications of World War I, the rise of trade unionism, a general social discontent, and the
emergence of psychoanalysis. The consequent need for a unifying function brought about a
growth in the political importance of culture.
Modernist literature can be viewed largely in terms of its formal, stylistic and semantic
movement away from Romanticism, examining subject matter that is traditionally mundane – a
prime example being The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot (1915). Modernist
literature often features a marked pessimism, a clear rejection of the optimism apparent in
Victorian literature in favor of portraying alienated or dysfunctional individuals within a
predominantly urban and fragmented society. Many Modernist works, like Eliot’s The Waste
Land (1922), are marked by the absence of any central, heroic figure at all, as narrative and
narrator are collapsed into a collection of disjointed fragments and overlapping voices. 6
Modernist literature, moreover, often moves beyond the limitations of the Realist novel with a
concern for larger factors such as social or historical change, and this is particularly prominent
in ‘stream of consciousness’ writing. Examples can be seen in the work of, among others, two
exact contemporaries, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce (1882-1941).
Goals of the movement

Many modernists believed that by rejecting tradition they could discover radically new
ways of making art. Arguably the most paradigmatic motive of modernism, is the rejection of
the obsolescence of tradition and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision
and parody in new forms.
T. S. Eliot's emphasis on the relation of the artist to tradition. Eliot wrote: "[W]e shall
often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of [a poet's] work, may be those
in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously."
Literary scholar Peter Childs sums up the complexity:
"There were paradoxical if not opposed trends towards revolutionary and reactionary
positions, fear of the new and delight at the disappearance of the old, nihilism and fanatical
enthusiasm, creativity and despair."
These oppositions are inherent to modernism: it is in its broadest cultural sense the
assessment of the past as different to the modern age, the recognition that the world was
becoming more complex, and that the old "final authorities" (God, government, science, and
reason) were subject to intense critical scrutiny.
Unit 3: Popular Literature
Popular literature includes those writings intended for the masses and those that find
favor with large audiences. It can be distinguished from artistic literature in that it is designed
primarily to entertain. Popular literature, unlike high literature, generally does not seek a high
degree of formal beauty or subtlety and is not intended to endure. The growth of popular
literature has paralleled the spread of literacy through education and has been facilitated by
technological developments in printing. With the Industrial Revolution, works of literature, which
were previously produced for consumption by small, well-educated elites, became accessible
to large sections and even majorities of the members of a population.
The boundary between artistic and popular literature is murky, with much traffic
between the two categories according to current public preference and later critical evaluation.
While he was alive William Shakespeare could be thought of as a writer of popular literature,
but he is now regarded as a creator of artistic literature. Indeed, the main, though not
invariable, method of defining a work as belonging to popular literature is whether it is
ephemeral, that is, losing its appeal and significance with the passage of time.
The most important genre in popular literature is and always has been the romance,
extending as it does from the Middle Ages to the present. The most common type of romance
describes the obstacles encountered by two people (usually young) engaged in a forbidden
love. Another common genre is that of fantasy, or science fiction. Novels set in the western
frontier of the United States in the 19th century, and called westerns, are also popular. Finally,
the detective story or murder mystery is a widely read form of popular literature. Popular
literature has also come to include such genres as comic books and cartoon strips.
The Role of Literature to Modern Society

Literature teaches us to analyze a character, allows us to reach inside his or her mind
so we see what drives a character, what shapes his or her beliefs and how one relates to
7
others. One example is when readers read Great Expectation: in the book, Pip is embarrassed
by Joe, because he is crude and Pip is on the way up. Reading it, they asked themselves, what
is it like to be Pip and what is it like to be Joe? Would the readers behave better than Pip in his
situation? It is when readers sympathize with the characters’ actions that empathy occurs. It is
also scientifically proved that reading literary fiction enhances the ability to detect and
understand other people’s emotions, a crucial skill in navigating complex social relationships.
Literature catalyzes the procurement of social actions due to its thought-provoking
nature. It exposes critical, often controversial, issues such as prejudice, discrimination, and
political frauds in society which can have a powerful impact across multidiscipline. A great
example is during Indonesia’s darkest days in the 1960s, when radicalism thrived through the
culture community of Lekra (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat).
Through Lekra, artists and writers alike were expressing their disappointment toward
the government through creating controversial literature works. These works, which are
considered leftist biased, contributed to the building tension within the society, which led to the
30 September Movement in 1965. Another example is the works of feminist writers, which
catalyzed to the protests that demands gender equality and promote women’s rights. Through
literature, readers further discover the human nature in various situations such as joy, sadness,
and anger. Therefore, we can see why literature
develops individual’s empathy and tolerance.
Through deliberate elaborations that the writer made, we can see how literature takes
role in our society. Literature is proven to contribute to the development of our society through
its broad outreach. It relentlessly shaping our civilization by developing morale and ethics in
our society. Its authenticity plays a huge part in building individuals’ empathy and catalyzing the
procurement of our social actions.
Assessment/ Activities:
Directions: Answer the following questions:
1. What gave rise to contemporary literary literature or modernism?
2. What is the goal of modernism?
3. How does literature affect society?
4. What does contemporary literature reflect?
Assignment:
Directions: What are the genres under contemporary literature? Give examples for each genre.
8
LESSON 2 LITERARY MOVEMENTS
Übersicht
Literature constantly evolves as new movements emerge to speak to the concerns of

different groups of people and historical periods.
After successful completion of this lesson, the learners should be able to: 1. Discuss
the different literary movements that influence contemporary literature. 2.
Differentiate the different literary movement through time.
3. Discover concepts and information useful in understanding contemporary and emerging
literature.
Course Materials:
Unit 1: World Literature Periods
These periods are spans of time in which literature shared intellectual, linguistic,
religious, and artistic influences. In the Western tradition, the early periods of literary history are
roughly as follows below:
1. The Classical Peiod (1200 BCE - 455 CE)
• Homeric or Heroic Period (1200-800 BCE) Greek legends are passed along orally,
including Homer's “The Iliad and The Odyssey”. This is a chaotic period of warrior
prince wandering sea-traders, and fierce pirates.
• Classical Greek Period (800-200 BCE) Greek writers and philosophers such as Gorgias,
Aesop. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euripides, and Sophocles. The fifth century (499-400
BCE) in particular is renowned as The Golden Age of Greece. This is the sophisticated
period of the polis, or individual City-State, and early democracy. Some of the world's
finest art, poetry, drama, architecture, and philosophy originate in Athens.
• Classical Roman Period (200 BCE-455 CE) Greece's culture gives way to Roman power
when Rome conquers Greece in 146 CE. The Roman Republic was traditionally
founded in 509 BCE, but it is limited in size until later. Playwrights of this time include
Plautus and Terence. After nearly 500 years as a Republic, Rome slides into
dictatorship under Julius Caesar and finally into a monarchial empire under Caesar
Augustus in 27 CE. This later period is known as the Roman Imperial period. Roman
writers include Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. Roman philosophers include Marcus Aurelius
and Lucretius. Roman rhetoricians include Cicero and Quintilian.
• Patristic Period (c. 70 CE-455 CE) Early Christian writings appear such as Saint
Augustine, Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome. This is the
period in which Saint Jerome first compiles the Bible, when Christianity spread across
Europe, and the Roman Empire suffered its dying convulsions. In this period,
barbarians attack Rome in 410 CE and the city finally falls to them completely in 455
CE.
2. The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)

9
• The Old English (Anglo- Saxon) Period (428-1066) The so-called "Dark Ages" (455 CE -
799 CE) occur when Rome falls and barbarian tribes move into Europe. Franks,
Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Goths settle in the ruins of Europe and the Angles, Saxons,
and Jutes migrate to Britain, displacing native Celts into Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
Early Old English poems such as Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer originate
sometime late in the AngloSaxon period. The Carolingian Renaissance (800- 850 CE)
emerges in Europe. In central Europe, texts include early medieval grammars,
encyclopedias, etc. In northern Europe, this time period marks the setting of Viking
sagas.
• The Middle English Period (c. 1066-1450 CE) In 1066, Norman French armies invade
and conquer England under William I. This marks the end of the Anglo- Saxon
hierarchy and the emergence of the Twelfth Century Renaissance (c. 1100-1200 CE).
French chivalric romances--such as works by Chretien de Troyes--and French fables--
such as the works of Marie de France and Jeun de Meun--spread in popularity. Abelard
and other humanists produce great scholastic and theological works.
• Late or “High” Medieval Period (c. 1200-1485 CE) This often-tumultuous period is marked
by the Middle English writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, the "Gawain" or "Pearl" Poet, the
Wakefield Master, and William Langland. Other writers include Italian and French
authors like Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, and Christine de Pisan.
3. The Renaissance and Reformation (c. 1485-1660 CE). The Renaissance takes place in the
late 15th, 16th, and early 17th century in Britain, but somewhat earlier in Italy and the
southern Europe, somewhat later in northern Europe.
• Early Tudor Period (1485-1558): The War of the Roses ends in England with Henry
Tudor (Henry VII) claiming the throne. Martin Luther's split with Rome marks the
emergence of Protestantism, followed by Henry VIII's Anglican schism, which creates
the first Protestant church in England. Edmond Spencer is a sample poet.
• Elizabethan Period (1558-1603): Queen Elizabeth saves England from both Spanish
invasion and internal squabbles at home. Her reign is marked by the early works of
Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kydd, and Sidney.
• Jacobean Period (1603-1625): Shakespeare's later work, Aemilia Lanyer, Ben Jonson,
and John Donne.
• Age of Caroline (1625-1649): John Milton, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, the "Sons of
Ben" and others write during the reign of Charles I and his Cavaliers (The Cavalier
Poets).
• Puritan or Commonwealth Period (1649-1660): Under Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship,
John Milton continues to write, but we also find writers like Andrew Marvell and Sir
Thomas Browne.
Later Periods of Literature. These periods are spans of time in which literature shared
intellectual, linguistic, religious, and artistic influences. In the Western tradition, the later
periods of literary history are roughly as follows below:
4. The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (C. 1660-1790) "Neoclassical" refers to the
increased influence of Classical literature upon these centuries. The Neoclassical Period is
also called the "Enlightenment" due to the increased reverence for logic and disdain for
superstition. The period is marked by the rise of Deism, intellectual backlash against earlier
Puritanism, and America's revolution against England.
• Restoration Period (c. 1660-1700): This period marks the British king's restoration to the
throne after a long period of Puritan domination in England. Its symptoms include the
dominance of French and Classical influences on poetry and drama. Sample writers
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include John Dryden, John Lock, Sir William Temple, and Samuel Pepys, and Aphra
Behn in England. Abroad, representative authors include Jean Racine and Molière. • The
Augustan Age (c. 1700-1750): This period is marked by the imitation of Virgil and Horace's
literature in English letters. The principal English writers include Addison, Steele, Swift, and
Alexander Pope. Abroad, Voltaire is the dominant French writer. • The Age of Johnson (c.
1750-1790): This period marks the transition toward the upcoming Romanticism though the
period is still largely Neoclassical. Major writers include Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, and
Edward Gibbon who represent the Neoclassical tendencies, while writers like Robert
Burns, Thomas Gray, Cowper, and Crabbe show movement away from the Neoclassical
ideal. In America, this period is called the Colonial Period. It includes colonial and
revolutionary writers like Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.
5. Romantic Period (c. 1790-1830) Romantic poets write about nature, imagination, and
individuality in England. Some Romantics include Coleridge, Blake, Keats, and Shelley
in Britain and Johann von Goethe in Germany. In America, this period is called the
Transcendental Period. Transcendentalists include Emerson and Thoreau. Gothic
writings, (c. 1790-1890) overlap with the Romantic and Victorian periods. Writers of
Gothic novels (the precursor to horror novels) include Mary Shelley, Radcliffe, Monk
Lewis, and Victorians like Bram Stoker in Britain. In America, Gothic writers include Poe
and Hawthorne.
6. Victorian Period and the 19th Century (c. 1832-1901) Writing during the period of Queen
Victoria's reign includes sentimental novels. British writers include Elizabeth Browning,
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, the Brontë
sisters, and Jane Austen. Pre- Raphaelites, like the Rossettis and William Morris,
idealize and long for the morality of the medieval world. The end of the Victorian Period
is marked by intellectual movements of Asceticism and "the Decadence" in the writings
of Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. In America, Naturalist writers like Stephen Crane
flourish, as do early free verse poets like Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
7. The Modern Period (c. 1914-1945) In Britain, modernist writers include W. B. Yeats,
Seamus Heaney, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Virginia Woolf, and Wilfred Owen. In
America, the modernist period includes Robert Frost and Flannery O'Connor as well as
the famous writers of The Lost Generation (also called the writers of The Jazz Age,
1914-1929) such as Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner. "The Harlem
Renaissance" marks the rise of black writers such as Baldwin and Ellison. Realism is the
dominant fashion, but the disillusionment with the World Wars lead to new
experimentation.
8. Post Modern (c. 1945 onward) T. S. Eliot, Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Stoppard, Fowles,
Calvino, Ginsberg, Pynchon, and other modern writers, poets, and playwrights’
experiment with metafiction and fragmented poetry. Multiculturalism leads to increasing
canonization of non-Caucasian writers such as Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, and
Zora Neal Hurston. Magic Realists such as Gabriel García Márquez, Luis Borges, Alejo
Carpentier, Günter Grass, and Salman Rushdie flourish with surrealistic writings
embroidered in the conventions of realism.
Unit 2: The American Literary Movements/ Periods
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1. Native American. Much of the literature of this period is mythological. Most of Native
American myths were written long before Europeans settled in North America. Like most
cultural myths, these myths examine the creation, the nature of gods, and the natural world.
Non-mythological writings of Native Americans often examine the relationship between
Native American society and early European settlers and, later, the effect of United States’
political policies on Native American culture. N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko, and Louis
Erdrich are all contemporary Native American writers that utilize Native American themes
and experiences in their work.
2. Puritan Period ( 1472-1750) Most of this is histories, journals, personal poems, sermons,
and diaries. The literature is either utilitarian, very personal, or religious: it focused on daily
life, settlement, moral attitudes, and the authority of the Bible and the Church. We call it
Puritan because the majority of the writers during this period were strongly influenced by
Puritan ideals and values, especially the concept of predestination and sin. “Puritan” began
as an insult by traditional Anglicans to those who criticized or wished to "purify" the Church
of England. Jonathan Edwards, William Bradford, and Ann Bradstreet are authors of this
period. This period still influences American concepts about God, money, and America as
the “promised land.”
3. Enlightenment/Revolutionary Period (1750-1800) Called the Enlightenment period due to

the influence of science and logic, this period is marked in US literature by political writings
and diverged from the religious focus of the Puritan era. Genres included political
documents, speeches, and letters. There is a lack of emphasis and dependence on the
Bible and more use of common sense (logic) and science. Writings expanded the truths
found in the Bible and did not necessarily divorce from the idea of God and spirituality. The
writings were often meant to explore the ideas of liberty, patriotism, government,
nationalism, and American character. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry,
and Thomas Paine are all examples of authors of this period. The notions of liberty,
freedom, independence, and rights that were discussed and debated at this time are still
part of the American culture and political system.
4. Romanticism ( 1800-1840) Romanticism is a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth

century that arose in reaction against eighteenth-century Neoclassicism and the political
focus of the Enlightenment. Placing a premium on fancy, imagination, emotion, nature,
individuality, human intuition, and exotica, it moved from personal and political documents
to entertaining ones, which gave rise to short stories, poetry, and novels. Purely American
topics were introduced such as frontier life, manifest destiny, and individualism. Romantic
elements can be found in the works of American writers as diverse as Cooper, Poe,
Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and Melville. Romanticism is particularly evident
in the works of the New England Transcendentalists.
• Transcendentalism (1840-1855): Transcendentalism is an American literary and
philosophical movement of the nineteenth century. The Transcendentalists, who
were based in New England, believed that intuition and the individual conscience
“transcend” experience and thus are better guides to truth than are the senses and
logical reason. Influenced by Romanticism, the Transcendentalists respect the
individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity is present everywhere,
in nature and in each person. The Transcendentalists include Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, W.H. Channing, Margaret Fuller,
and Elizabeth Peabody. The anti-Transcendentalist (Hawthorne and Melville)
rebelled against the philosophy that man is basically good. A third group, the
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Fireside poets, wrote about more practical aspects of life such as dying and
patriotism.
• Gothic: Writers like Poe and Hawthorne responded to the optimistic vision of the
romantics with a darker vision. The industrial revolution brought ideas that the "old
ways" of doing things are now irrelevant and out of this came the exploration of the
supernatural, being at the mercy of forces beyond human control, and the nature of
good and evil. It is out of the gothic writers that the contemporary genre of horror
springs.
5. Realism ( 1865-1915) Realism is the presentation in art of the details of actual life. Realism
began during the nineteenth century and stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined or
the fanciful. The Realists tried to write truthfully and objectively about ordinary characters in
ordinary situations. They reacted against Romanticism, rejecting heroic, adventurous,
unusual, or unfamiliar subjects. American realism grew from the work of local-color writers
such as Bret Harte and Sarah Orne Jewett and is evident in the writings of major figures
such as Mark Twain and Henry James.
• Naturalism: An outgrowth of Realism, Naturalism is a literary movement among
novelists at the end of the nineteenth century and during the early decades of the
twentieth century. The Naturalists tended to view people as hapless victims of
immutable natural laws and the effects of heredity and environment on people
helpless to change their situations. Early exponents of Naturalism include Stephen
Crane, Jack London, and Theodore Dreiser.
• Regionalism: Another outgrowth of Realism, Regionalism in literature is the tendency
among certain authors to write about specific geographical areas. Regional writers
like Willa Cather and William Faulkner, present the distinct culture of an area,
including its speech, customs, beliefs, and history. Local-color writing may be
considered a type of Regionalism, but Regionalists, like the southern writers of the
1920’s, usually go beyond mere presentation of cultural idiosyncrasies and attempt,
instead, a sophisticated sociological or anthropological treatment of the culture of a
region.
6. Modernism (1915-1946) The authors during this period raised all the great questions of life,
but offered no answers. Because Modernism came about during an age of disillusionment,
confusion, and major societal change, this period reacted to two world wars, the Great
Depression, and African American and Women suffrage. Writers often examined self
definition and new opportunity. In addition, because of the emancipation of slaves in the
late 19th century and the adoption of the 14th and 15th amendments, race became a more
pronounced aspect of literature: prejudice and stereotypes were often explored, even if only
with a minor character. Also, because of the women’s suffrage movement and the adoption
of the 19th amendment, gender roles were often explored. Faulkner, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald,
Hemingway, and Frost are all examples.
• Imagism (1912-1927) Imagism was a literary movement that flourished between 1912
and 1927. Led by Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell, the Imagist poets rejected
nineteenth-century poetic forms and language. Instead, they wrote short poems that
used ordinary language and free verse to create sharp, exact, concentrated
pictures.
• Harlem Renaissance. Part of the Modern Age, The Harlem Renaissance, which
occurred during the 1920’s, was a time of African American artistic creativity
centered in Harlem, in New York City. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance include
13
Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes, and Arna
Bontemps.
7. New Criticism. A literary movement that started in the late 1920s and 1930s and
originated in reaction to traditional criticism that new critics saw as largely concerned
with matters extraneous to the text, e.g., with the biography or psychology of the author
or the work's relationship to literary history. New Criticism proposed that a work of
literary art should be regarded as autonomous, and so should not be judged by
reference to considerations beyond itself. A poem consists less of a series of referential
and verifiable statements about the 'real' world beyond it, than of the presentation and
sophisticated organization of a set of complex experiences in a verbal form. Major
figures of New Criticism include I. A. Richards, T. S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, David
Daiches, William Empson, Murray Krieger, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, F. R.
Leavis, Robert Penn Warren, W. K. Wimsatt, R. P. Blackmur, Rene Wellek, Ausin
Warren, and Ivor Winters.Contemporary (1946-present) No clear philosophy identifies
the present span of literature, but like the Modernist movement, often explores personal
experience and social change. Writers like J.D. Salinger, Beat Poet Jack Kerouac, John
Updike, Flannery O’Connor, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. represent the span of
contemporary styles and works.
• Post- Modernism: Writers of post-modernism often utilize absurd plots, lyrical style,
elaborate symbolism, and narrative digression or fragmentation. Notable
Postmodern writers include Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Cormac McCarthy.
Directions: Do the following activities:
1. Differentiate the various English and American literary movements.
2. Compile pieces of literature during each period.
14
LESSON 3 APPROACHES IN THE ANALYSIS OF POPULAR AND
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
Übersicht
This lesson offers the learners rich concepts about various literary theories applied in
the modern literary analysis. Historical backgrounds and development will be discussed in this
lesson.

to: 4. Discuss the different contemporary approaches to literary
analysis.
5. Apply the basic concepts of literary approaches in understanding
ifferentiate the varied literary approaches and theories.
literature. 6. D
Course Materials:
Unit 1: The Contemporary Theories and Approaches to Literature
Text-oriented approaches
• American New Criticism. Largely independent of European Formalism and
Structuralism, the New Criticism established itself as the dominant school of literary criticism in
the English-speaking academic community during the 1930s and 1940s. Literary critics such as
William K. Wimsatt (1907–75), Allen Tate (1899–1979) and J.C. Ransom (1888–1974)
represented this school, which maintained its status as an orthodox method for more than three
decades. The central features of New Criticism—whose name deliberately negates preceding
critical methods—are best understood in contrast to the academic approaches in literary
studies which were prevalent in the preceding years. New Criticism objects to evaluative
critique, source studies, investigations of socio-historic background, and the history of motifs; it
also counters author-centered biographical or psychological approaches as well as the history
of reception. Its main concern is to free literary criticism of extrinsic factors and thereby shift the
center of attention to the literary text itself.
New Criticism disapproves of what are termed the affective fallacy and the intentional
fallacy in traditional analyses of texts. The term affective fallacy stigmatizes interpretive
procedures which take into account the emotional reaction of the reader. In this respect, New
Criticism does away with the use of ungrounded subjective emotional responses caused by
lyrical texts as an analytical “tool.” In order to maintain an objective stance, the critic must focus
solely on textual idiosyncrasies. The term intentional fallacy is applied by interpretive methods
which try to recover the original intention or motivation of an author while writing a particular
text. New Criticism therefore does not try to match certain aspects of a literary work with
biographical data or psychological conditions of the author; instead, its aim is the analysis of a
text—seen as a kind of message in a bottle without a sender, date, or address—based solely
on the text’s intrinsic dimensions.
In its analyses, New Criticism therefore focuses on phenomena such as multiple
meaning, paradox, irony, word-play, puns, or rhetorical figures, which—as the smallest
distinguishable elements of a literary work—form interdependent links with the overall context.
15
A central term often used synonymously with New Criticism is close reading. It denotes the
meticulous analysis of these elementary features, which mirror larger structures of a text. New
Criticism thus also objects to the common practice of paraphrase in literary studies since this
technique does not do justice to such central elements of a work as multiple meaning, paradox,
or irony. Another recurrent term in new critical interpretations is unity, which originally goes
back to Aristotle’s Poetics. The elements mentioned above underlying close reading
supposedly reflect the unified structure of the entire literary text.
Among the formalist schools, New Criticism is particularly distinguished by the rigidity of
its rules for textual analysis. Its applicable methodology and clear guidelines, however, are
mainly responsible for the dominant position it held until the late 1960s in English and
American universities. It was pushed into the background by reader-oriented approaches as
well as by newer text-centered schools. These recent text-oriented trends are often subsumed
under the term post-structuralism not only because they come after the above-mentioned
structuralist schools but also because they adapt structuralist methodology for purposes which
go beyond those originally intended approaches.
• Formalism and Structuralism. The terms Formalism and Structuralism encompass a

number of schools in the first half of the twentieth century whose main goal lies in the
explication of the formal and structural patterns of literary texts. This emphasis on the intrinsic
and structural aspects of a literary work deliberately distinguished itself from older traditions—
above all the biographical literary criticism of the nineteenth century—which were primarily
concerned with extrinsic or extra-textual features in their analysis of literature. The consecutive
schools of Russian Formalism, the Prague School of Structuralism, New Criticism and
Poststructuralism find a common denominator—despite their respective idiosyncrasies—in
their general attempts to explain levels of content in relation to formal and structural
dimensions of texts.
In traditional philosophical and aesthetic discourse, form denotes the relationship
between different elements within a specific system. Questions concerning form and content,
already discussed by ancient philosophers, lie at the heart of this approach. According to this
traditional point of view, things in the world only exist because shapeless matter receives
structure through superimposed form. Form thus functions as a container in which content is
presented. This basic philosophical principle, which distinguishes between a level of structure
and a level of content, was introduced into literary criticism as early as classical antiquity.
Aristotle (384–322 BC), for instance, in his Poetics (4th century BC) adopts the notion of the
determining function of form over matter for literary phenomena by using formal schemes to
explain generic features of drama. With this structural approach, Aristotle lays the basis for
twentieth-century formalist movements in the study of literature and language. While a number
of schools of literary criticism focus primarily on the level of content (the “what?” of a text),
formalists and structuralists emphasize the level of form (the “how?” of a text).
Russian Formalism rejects explanations which base their arguments on the spirit,
intuition, imagination or genius of the poet. This “morphological” method developed by the
formalists deliberately neglects historical, sociological, biographical or psychological
dimensions of literary discourse, propagating instead an intrinsic approach which regards a
work of art as an independent entity. In contrast to traditional, extrinsic methodologies, Russian
Formalism privileges phonetic structures, rhythm, rhyme, meter, and sound as independent
meaningful elements of literary discourse.
According to Victor Shklovski (1893–1984) and a number of other formalists, these
structural elements in a literary text cause the effect called defamiliarization. This tendency
inherent in literary language counteracts the reader’s familiarity with everyday language and
consequently offers a tool to distinguish between literary and non-literary discourse.
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Formalism also tries to analyze structurally elements of a text, such as characters in a
plot, which older schools traditionally explain on a merely thematic level. Vladimir Propp’s
(1896–1970) character typology, which reduces the indefinite number of characters in literary
works to a limited list of recurrent types, became one of the most influential contributions of
Russian Formalism to the general structuralist theories of the twentieth century. This kind of
analysis attempts to narrow down the infinite number of possible literary characters to a finite
number of basic structural agents including villain, donor, helper, princess, hero and false hero.
• Semiotics and Deconstruction are the most recent trends in textoriented literary theory
of the 1970s and 1980s, which regards a text as a system of signs. The basis for these
complex theoretical constructs is the linguistic model of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857– 1913).
The Swiss linguist starts from the assumption that language functions through representation,
in which a mental image is verbally manifested or represented. Before a human being can, for
example, use the word “tree” he or she has to envision a mental concept of a tree. Building on
this notion, Saussure distinguishes between two fundamental levels of language by referring to
the pre-linguistic concept (in this case the mental image of a tree) as the signified and its verbal
manifestation (the sequence of the letters or sounds T-R-E-E) as the signifier.
Saussure introduces a similar dichotomy in his two-leveled structural explanation of
language as a means of communication. The conceptual level of langue provides the
necessary abstract rules and methods of combination which are eventually realized by parole
in individual spoken or written utterances. Semiotics and Deconstruction use the verbal sign or
signifier as the starting point of their analyses, arguing that nothing exists outside the text, i.e.,
that our perception of the world is of a textual nature.
A new and unconventional aspect of Semiotics and Deconstruction is their attempt to
extend the traditional notion of textuality to non-literary or non-linguistic sign systems. Semiotic
methods of analysis which originated in literary criticism have been applied in anthropology, the
study of popular culture (e.g., advertisements), geography, architecture, film, and art history.
The majority of these approaches emphasize the systemic character of the object under
analysis. Buildings, myths, or pictures are regarded as systems of signs in which elements
interact in ways analogous to letters, words, and sentences. For this reason, these divergent
disciplines are often subsumed under the umbrella-term Semiotics (the science of signs).
Like Semiotics, Deconstruction also highlights the building-block character of texts
whose elements consist of signs. This poststructuralist method of analysis starts with the
assumption that a text can be analyzed (destructed) and put together (constructed). According
to Deconstruction, the text does not remain the same after its reconstruction, since the analysis
of signs and their re-organization in the interpretative process is like a continuation of the text
itself. Traditional divisions into primary and secondary literature therefore dissolve when one
regards interpretation as a continuation or integral part of the text.
This approach does not provide any clear-cut guidelines for the analysis of texts and
does not consider itself to be a monolithic method or school. Despite the complexity of its
philosophical bases, Deconstruction developed into one of the most influential theoretical
trends in literary criticism during the 1970s and 1980s and has continued to provide basic
notions and terminology for recent publications on literature.
• Philology generally denotes approaches which center around editorial problems and the
reconstruction of texts. Philology, which experienced its heyday in the Renaissance with the
rediscovery of ancient authors, the invention of the printing press, and the desire for correct
editions of texts, remained one of the dominant schools into the nineteenth century. Informed
by the rise of modern science, these philological approaches tried to incorporate advanced
empirical methodologies into the study of literature.
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This positivist spirit is directly reflected in the major concordances (alphabetical lists of
words) of nineteenth century literary scholarship, which document the exact frequency and
usage of words by a particular author. These empirical studies not only list all words employed
by Shakespeare in his dramas and poems, for example, but also provide the exact line
reference for each entry. Concordances, as the most extreme developments of these positivist
approaches in Philology, have been experiencing a revival due to current computer
technologies.
• Rhetoric and Stylistics. In addition to traditional editorial problems, today’s text oriented
schools focus primarily on aspects of form (textual and narrative structure, point of view,
plot-patterns) and style (rhetorical figures, choice of words or diction, syntax, meter). Together
with Theology and Grammar, Rhetoric remained the dominant textual discipline for almost two
thousand years. Since ancient Greco-Roman culture treasured public speech, Rhetoric
compiled a number of rules and techniques for efficient composition and powerful oratory.
Although Rhetoric was mainly concerned with teaching effectively how to influence the
masses, it soon developed as did the interpretation of holy and legal texts—into a theoretical
academic discipline. In its attempt to classify systematically and investigate elements of human
speech, Rhetoric laid the foundation for current linguistics and literary criticism.
Rhetoric originally mediated rules concerning eloquence and perfect speech and was
hence primarily prescriptive. It offered guidelines for every phase of textual composition
including inventio (selection of themes), dispositio (organization of material), elocutio
(verbalization with the help of rhetorical figures), memoria ( the technique of remembering the
speech) and actio (delivery of the speech). Despite its prescriptive and practical inclination,
Rhetoric also introduced descriptive and analytical elements into textual studies. Even in its
earliest phases, Rhetoric analyzed concrete textual samples in order to delineate rules for the
composition of a “perfect” text. In these theoretical investigations into textuality, structural and
stylistic features— above all dispositio a nd elocutio—eventually surfaced as the most
dominant areas of inquiry. Today’s text-oriented literary criticism derives many of its fields from
traditional Rhetoric and still draws on its terminology.
In the nineteenth century, Rhetoric eventually lost its influence and partially developed
into Stylistics, a field whose methodology was adopted by literary criticism and art history as
well. With the aim of describing stylistic idiosyncrasies of individual authors, entire nations, or
whole periods, Stylistics focused on grammatical structures (lexis, syntax), acoustic elements
(melody, rhyme, meter, rhythm) and overarching forms (rhetorical figures) in its analyses of
texts. Although Stylistics experienced a slight revival a few decades ago, its main contribution
to recent literary theory was as a precursor to formalist structuralist schools of the twentieth
century.
Author-oriented approaches
In the nineteenth century, before the major formalist-structuralist theories of twentieth
century, biographical criticism evolved and became a dominant movement. This author
oriented approach established a direct link between the literary text and the biography of the
author. Dates, facts and events in an author’s life are juxtaposed with literary elements of his or
her works in order to find aspects which connect the biography of the author with the text.
Research into the milieu and education of the author is conducted and then related to certain
phenomena in the text. In addition, an author’s library can be examined in order to gain insight
into the author’s background reading or letters and diaries may be consulted for personal
reflections.
Autobiographies are obviously suitable for this kind of approach, which compares the
fictional portrayal with the facts and figures from the author’s life. The American playwright
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Eugene O’Neill (1888–1953), for example, used veiled autobiographical elements in his play
Long Day’s Journey into Night (c. 1941; published 1956). Although the characters and events
in the play are supposedly fictional, they are based on real people and dramatize events from
his family life.
Author-centered approaches focus also on aspects which might have entered the text
on a subconscious or involuntary level. The fact that Mary Shelley (1797–1851) had a
miscarriage during the period in which she wrote her novel Frankenstein (1818) can be related
directly to the plot. According to the author-centered approaches, the central theme of the
novel, the creation of an artificial human being, can be traced back to Mary Shelley’s intense
psychological occupation with the issue of birth at the time. Many authors wish to keep their
texts fictional and their private spheres intact and hence oppose these approaches. For
example, the American author J.D. Salinger (*1919), who became famous with the publication
of his novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), has strictly refused to make public any information
about his private life over the last decades.
Reader-oriented approaches
As a reaction to the dominant position of text-oriented New Criticism, a reader-oriented
approach developed in the 1960s called Reception Theory, Reader-Response Theory or
Aesthetics of Reception. All three terms are used almost synonymously to summarize those
approaches which focus on the reader’s point of view. Some of these approaches do not
postulate a single objective text, but rather assume that there are as many texts as readers.
This attitude implies that a new individual “text” evolves with every individual reading process.
With the focus on the effect of a text on the recipient or reader, reception theory is
obviously opposed to New Criticism’s dogma of affective fallacy, which demands an
interpretation free of subjective contributions by the reader. Reader-centered approaches
examine the readership of a text and investigate why, where and when it is read. They also
examine certain reading practices of social, ethnic or national groups. Many of these
investigations also deal with and try to explain the physiological aspect of the actual reading
process. They aim at revealing certain mechanisms which are employed in the transformation
of the visual signs on paper into a coherent, meaningful text in the mind of the reader.
These approaches assume that a text creates certain expectations in the reader in
every phase of reading. These expectations are then either fulfilled or left unfulfilled. Wolfgang
Iser’s (*1926) term of the blank refers to this phenomenon of expectation stimulated by the text
and “filled” by the reader. This principle of the blank can be applied to the elementary level of
the sentence as well as to more complex units of meaning. While reading even the first words
of a sentence, the reader continually imagines how it might continue. In every phase, the
reader attempts to complement what is missing through his own imagination and skill at
combination. Similarly, we continually pick up open questions which are then connected to
various explanatory options. The filling of the blanks, on the one hand, depends on subjective
individual traits and, on the other, on more general features, such as education, age, gender,
nationality, and the historical period of the reader.
The reader’s expectation plays a role in every sort of text, but it is most obvious in
literary genres like detective fiction, which depends very much on the interaction between text
and recipient. Edgar Allan Poe’s (1809–49) “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), for
example, consists of several blanks of this sort which consistently guide the reader’s
imagination and expectation in different directions. A viciously mutilated body is found in a
Paris apartment. The reconstruction of the murder and the discovery of the culprit are founded
on a number of contradictory testimonies and circumstantial evidence; the reader is continually
forced to change assumptions in order to identify the murderer’s motive and identity.
Context-oriented approaches
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The term context-oriented approaches refer to a heterogeneous group of schools and
methodologies which do not regard literary texts as self-contained, independent works of art
but try to place them within a larger context. Depending on the movement, this context can be
history, social and political background, literary genre, nationality or gender. The most
influential movement to this day is Literary History, which divides literary phenomena into
periods, describes the text with respect to its historical background, dates texts and examines
their mutual influence. This movement is associated with the discipline of history and is guided
by historical methodology. The entire notion of literary history has become so familiar to us that
it is difficult to distinguish it as an approach at all. This historically informed methodology which
organizes literary works in a variety of categories is, of course, as arbitrary and subject to
conventions as any other approach.
An important school which places literary works in the context of larger socio-political
mechanisms is Marxist Literary Theory. On the basis of the writings of Karl Marx (1818–83)
and literary theoreticians in his wake, including Georg Lukács (1885–1971) and Antonio
Gramsci (1891–1937), texts are analyzed as expressions of economic, sociological and
political factors. Conditions of production in certain literary periods and their influence on the
literary texts of the time are examined. A Marxist literary interpretation, for example, might see
the development of the novel in the eighteenth century as a consequence both of new
economic conditions for writers and readers and of new modes in the material production of
printed books. The Frankfurt School, whose Marxist theoreticians include Theodor Adorno
(1900–69) and Jürgen Habermas (1929) have exerted a major influence on English and
American literary criticism. Independent of the fall of the Eastern bloc, however, Marxist
Literary Theory has lost much of its former impact over the last two decades.
Since the mechanisms of class, on which Marxist theory focuses, often parallel the
structural processes at work in “race” and “gender,” the theoretical framework provided by
Marxist criticism has been adapted by younger schools that focus on marginalized groups,
including feminist, African American, gay and lesbian literary criticism or colonial literary
studies. Text-oriented theoretical approaches such as Deconstruction and New Historicism are
also indebted to Marxist thought, both for their terminology and philosophical foundations.
• New Historicism. One of the latest developments in the field of contextual approaches
has been New Historicism, which arose in the USA in the 1980s. It builds on Poststructuralism
and Deconstruction, with their focus on text and discourse, but adds a historical dimension to
the discussion of literary texts. Certain works by Shakespeare, for instance, are viewed
together with historical documents on the discovery of America, and the discovery itself is
treated as a text. History, therefore, is not regarded as isolated from the literary text in the
sense of a “historical background” but rather as a textual phenomenon. An example of this is
the leading figures in New Historicism, Stephen Greenblatt (1943), has analyzed a colonial text
of early American literature by Thomas Harriot (c. 1560– 1621), comparing the relationship
between Europeans and Indians in this text with the structures of dependence in
Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) play The Tempest (c. 1611). As a result, the mechanisms of
power are exposed as deeply rooted cultural structures which dominate the historical as well as
the literary discourses of the time.
New Historicism takes an approach similar to that of the poststructuralist schools,
including non-literary phenomena in the definition of “text” and thus treating historical
phenomena as they would literary ones. The movement is comparatively new and, like
deconstruction, opposed to rigid methods associated with a particular school.
Related to New Historicism, although an independent movement, are Cultural Studies,
which have advanced to one of the most influential areas within literary studies. Cultural
Studies adopts a comprehensive perspective, which attempts to grasp culture’s multi-faceted
nature. As early as 1958 the theorist Raymond Williams (1921–88) in Culture and Society
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argued in favor of a cultural understanding which takes into consideration the whole of cultural
production rather than isolated details.
• Feminist Literary Theory and Gender Theory. The most productive and, at the same
time, most revolutionary movement of the younger theories of literary criticism in general and
the contextual approaches in particular is Feminist Literary Theory. This complex critical
approach is part of a movement which has established itself in almost all academic disciplines
and has become particularly strong in the various branches of modern literary criticism.
Although gender is always at the center of attention in this school, this particular
movement may be used to demonstrate how different approaches in literary studies tend to
overlap. Feminist Literary Theory starts with the assumption that “gender difference” is an
aspect which has been neglected in traditional literary criticism and, therefore, argues that
traditional domains of literary criticism have to be re-examined from a gender-oriented
perspective.
At the beginning of this movement in the late 1960s, thematic issues such as the
portrayal of women in literary texts by male authors stood in the foreground. These early
attempts of feminist literary criticism concentrated on stereotypes or distorted portrayals of
women in a literary tradition dominated by men. One of the main issues of this reader-centered
attitude is the identification of the woman reader with fictional female characters in literary
texts.
The next phase in Feminist Literary Theory, the use of historical and author-centered
approaches, can be described as Feminist Literary History and canon revision, whose primary
goal was to establish a new set of standard texts by non-male authors. Feminist literary critics
in the mid-1970s drew attention to neglected female authors in the English tradition and
propagated a new literary history by focusing on an independent female literary tradition. This
kind of feminist literary criticism with a focus on the revision of the canon remained the
dominant movement up to the late 1970s, when it was weakened and diverted under the
influence of French feminists.
With the American reception of French feminists such as Hélène Cixous (1937) and
Julia Kristeva (1941), who have strong backgrounds in psychoanalysis and philosophy, the
focus of feminist literary criticism shifted at the beginning of the 1980s to textual stylistic
reflections. Assuming that gender difference determines the act of writing, i.e., the style,
narrative structure, contents and plot of a text, feminist literary criticism entered domains which
are usually treated by text-oriented formalist-structuralist schools. This movement in feminism
views the female physical anatomy as responsible for a specifically feminine kind of writing that
manifests itself in plot, contents, narrative structure and textual logic.
Later works of this movement, which endeavor to account for the position of men in
literary criticism and in feminism, produced one of the most distinctive paradigm changes in this
field by shifting the emphasis from Feminist Theory to Gender Theory. In Gender Theory the
object of analysis is no longer the female alone, but rather the interaction of the two genders.
An increasing number of male critics are now working on gender problems, thus integrating
masculinity into gender studies. In accord with these latest developments, the role of male and
female homosexuality in literature and literary criticism receives a great deal of attention.
The most recent trends in Gender Theory incorporate concepts of deconstruction, thus
questioning the entire notion of a stable gender identity. This discussion which was initiated by
the American literary theorist Judith Butler (1956) approaches gender identity in a manner
reminiscent of deconstruction explaining meaning in language. Gender is thus “constructed”
through a number of interacting elements within a societal system. The key term is “gender
construction” according to which “man” and “woman” adopt the role of signifiers whose
meaning or identity is construed through an interdependent network of other signifiers.
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Unit 2: Other Theories of Literary Analysis
1. Archetypal/Myth Criticism. A form of criticism based largely on the works of C. G. Jung
(Yoong) and Joseph Campbell (and myth itself). Some of the school's major figures include
Robert Graves, Francis Fergusson, Philip Wheelwright, Leslie Fiedler, Northrop Frye, Maud
Bodkin, and G. Wilson Knight. These critics view the genres and individual plot patterns of
literature, including highly sophisticated and realistic works, as recurrences of certain
archetypes and essential mythic formulae. Archetypes, according to Jung, are "primordial
images"; the "psychic residue" of repeated types of experience in the lives of very ancient
ancestors which are inherited in the "collective unconscious" of the human race and are
expressed in myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies, as well as in the works of
literature (Abrams). Some common examples of archetypes include water, sun, moon,
colors, circles, the Great Mother, Wise Old Man, etc. In terms of archetypal criticism, the
color white might be associated with innocence or could signify death or the supernatural.
Key Terms:
Anima- feminine aspect - the inner feminine part of the male personality or a man's image
of a woman.
Animus- male aspect - an inner masculine part of the female personality or a woman's
image of a man.
Archetype-"a typical or recurring image, character, narrative design, theme, or other literary
phenomenon that has been in literature from the beginning and regularly reappears" (508).
Note- Frye sees archetypes as recurring patterns in literature; in contrast, Jung views
archetypes as primal, ancient images/experience that we have inherited. Collective
Unconscious- "a set of primal memories common to the human race, existing below each
person's conscious mind" (Jung)
Persona- the image we present to the world
Shadow- darker, sometimes hidden (deliberately or unconsciously), elements of a person's
psyche.
2. Psychoanalytic Criticism. The application of specific psychological principles particularly

those of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan to the study of literature. Psychoanalytic
criticism may focus on the writer's psyche, the study of the creative process, the study of
psychological types and principles present within works of literature, or the effects of
literature upon its readers (Wellek and Warren). In addition to Freud and Lacan, major
figures include Shoshona Felman, Jane Gallop, Norman Holland, George Klein, Elizabeth
Wright, Frederick Hoffman, and, Simon Lesser.
Key Terms:
Unconscious- the irrational part of the psyche unavailable to a person's consciousness
except through dissociated acts or dreams.
Freud's model of the psyche:
Id - completely unconscious part of the psyche that serves as a storehouse of our desires,
wishes, and fears. The id houses the libido, the source of psychosexual energy. Ego- mostly
to partially (a point of debate) conscious part of the psyche that processes experiences and
operates as a referee or mediator between the id and superego. Superego- often thought of
as one's "conscience"; the superego operates "like an internal censor [encouraging] moral
judgments in light of social pressures" (Bressler).
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Lacan's model of the psyche
Imaginary - a preverbal/verbal stage in which a child (around 6-18 months of age) begins to
develop a sense of separateness from her mother as well as other people and objects;
however, the child's sense of sense is still incomplete.
Symbolic- the stage marking a child's entrance into language (the ability to understand and
generate symbols); in contrast to the imaginary stage, largely focused on the mother, the
symbolic stage shifts attention to the father who, in Lacanian theory, represents cultural
norms, laws, language, and power (the symbol of power is the
phallus- an arguably "gender-neutral" term).
Real- an unattainable stage representing all that a person is not and does not have. Both
Lacan and his critics argue whether the real order represents the period before the imaginary
order when a child is completely fulfilled--without need or lack, or if the real order follows the
symbolic order and represents our "perennial lack" (because we cannot return to the state of
wholeness that existed before language).
3. Marxism. A sociological approach to literature that viewed works of literature or art as the
products of historical forces that can be analyzed by looking at the material conditions in
which they were formed. In Marxist ideology, what we often classify as a world view (such as
the Victorian age) is actually the articulations of the dominant class. Marxism generally
focuses on the clash between the dominant and repressed classes in any given age and
also may encourage art to imitate what is often termed an "objective" reality. Contemporary
Marxism is much broader in its focus, and views art as simultaneously reflective and
autonomous to the age in which it was produced. The Frankfurt School is also associated
with Marxism (Abrams, Childers and Hentzi). Major figures include Karl Marx, Terry
Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser , Walter Benjamin
(ben-yeh-MEEN), Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukacs, and Friedrich Engels, Theordor Adorno
(a-DOR-no), Edward Ahern, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.
Key Terms
Commodification- "the attitude of valuing things not for their utility but for their power to
impress others or for their resale possibilities".
Conspicuous consumption - "the obvious acquisition of things only for their sign value
and/or exchange value".
Dialectical materialism- "the theory that history develops neither in a random fashion nor in a
linear one but instead as struggle between contradictions that ultimately find resolution in a
synthesis of the two sides. For example, class conflicts lead to new social systems". Material
circumstances - "the economic conditions underlying the society. To understand social
events, one must have a grasp of the material circumstances and the historical situation in
which they occur".
Reflectionism- associated with Vulgar Marxism - "a theory that the superstructure of a
society mirrors its economic base and, by extension, that a text reflects the society that
produced it". Superstructure- "The social, political, and ideological systems and
institutions--for example, the values, art, and legal processes of a society--that are generated
by the base".
4. Existentialism is a philosophy promoted especially by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus
that views each person as an isolated being who is cast into an alien universe, and conceives
the world as possessing no inherent human truth, value, or meaning. A person's life, then, as
it moves from the nothingness from which it came toward the nothingness where it must end,
defines an existence which is both anguished and absurd (Guerin). In a world without sense,
all choices are possible, a situation which Sartre viewed as human being’s central dilemma:
"Man [woman] is condemned to be free." In contrast to atheist existentialism, Søren
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Kierkegaard theorized that belief in God (given that we are provided with no proof or
assurance) required a conscious choice or "leap of faith." The major figures include Søren
Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre Albert Camus,
Simonede Beauvoir, Martin Buber, Karl Jaspers, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Key Terms:
Absurd- a term used to describe existence--a world without inherent meaning or truth.
Authenticity- to make choices based on an individual code of ethics (commitment) rather than
because of societal pressures. A choice made just because "it's what people do" would be
considered inauthentic.
"Leap of faith"- although Kierkegaard acknowledged that religion was inherently unknowable
and filled with risks, faith required an act of commitment (the "leap of faith"); the commitment to
Christianity would also lessen the despair of an absurd world.
5. Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

Phenomenology. Phenomenology is a philosophical method, first developed by Edmund
Husserl, that proposed "phenomenological reduction" so that everything not "immanent" to
consciousness must be excluded; all realities must be treated as pure "phenomena" and this is
the only absolute data from which we can begin. Husserl viewed consciousness always as
intentional and that the act of consciousness, the thinking subject and the object it "intends,"
are inseparable. Art is not a means of securing pleasure, but a revelation of being. The work is
the phenomenon by which we come to know the world (Eagleton, Abrams, Guerin).
Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid

interpretation can be achieved by a sustained, mutually qualifying interplay between our
progressive sense of the whole and our retrospective understanding of its component parts.
Two dominant theories that emerged from Wilhelm Dilthey's original premise were that of E. D.
Hirsch who, in accord with Dilthey, felt a valid interpretation was possible by uncovering the
work's authorial intent (though informed by historical and cultural determinants), and in
contrast, that of Martin Heidegger who argued that a reader must experience the "inner life" of
a text in order to understand it at all. The reader's "being-in-the-world" or Dasein i s troubled
with difficulties since both the reader and the text exist in a temporal and fluid state. For
Heidegger or Hans Georg Gadamer, then, a valid interpretation may become irrecoverable
and will always be relative.
Key Terms:
Dasein- simply, "being there," or "being-in-the world" - Heidegger argued that "what is
distinctive about human existence is its Dasein ('givenness'): our consciousness both projects
the things of the world and at the same time
is subjected to the world by the very nature of existence in the world" (Selden and Widdowson).
Intentionality- "is at the heart of knowing. We live in meaning, and we live 'towards,' oriented
to experience. Consequently, there is an intentional structure in textuality and expression, in
self-knowledge and in knowledge of others. This intentionality is also a distance:
consciousness is not identical with its objects, but is intended consciousness" (Dr. John Lye).
Phenomenological Reduction- a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl;

as explained by Terry Eagleton, "To establish certainty, then, we must first of all ignore, or 'put
in brackets,' anything which is beyond our immediate experience: we must reduce the external
world to the contents of our consciousness alone....Everything not 'immanent' to consciousness
must be rigorously excluded: all realities must be treated as pure 'phenomena,' in terms of their
appearances in our mind, and this is the only absolute data from which we can begin"
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6. Structuralism and Semiotics
Structuralism. Structuralism is a way of thinking about the world which is predominantly
concerned with the perceptions and description of structures. At its simplest, structuralism
claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and
in fact is determined by all the other elements involved in that situation. The full significance of
any entity cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it
forms a part (Hawkes). Structuralists believe that all human activity is constructed, not natural
or "essential. "Consequently, it is the systems of organization that are important (what we do is
always a matter of selection within a given construct). By this formulation, "any activity, from
the actions of a narrative to not eating one's peas with a knife, takes place within a system of
differences and has meaning only in its relation to other possible activities within that system,
not to some meaning that emanates from nature or the divine" (Childers & Hentzi). Major
figures include Claude Lévi-Strauss, A. J. Greimas, Jonathan Culler, Roland Barthes,
Ferdinand de Saussure, Roman Jakobson, Vladimir Propp, and Terence Hawkes.
Semiology. Semiotics, simply put, is the science of signs. Semiology proposes that a great
diversity of our human action and productions--our bodily postures and gestures, the social
rituals we perform, the clothes we wear, the meals we serve, the buildings we inhabit--all
convey "shared" meanings to members of a particular culture, and so can be analyzed as signs
which function in diverse kinds of signifying systems. Linguistics (the study of verbal signs and
structures) is only one branch of semiotics but supplies the basic methods and terms which are
used in the study of all other social sign systems (Abrams, p. 170). Major figures include
Charles Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, Michel Foucault, Umberto Eco, Gérard Genette, and
Roland Barthes.
Key terms:
Binary Opposition- "pairs of mutually-exclusive signifiers in a paradigm set representing
categories which are logically opposed and which together define a complete universe of
discourse (relevant ontological domain), e.g. alive/not-alive. In such oppositions each term
necessarily implies its opposite and there is no middle term" (Daniel Chandler). Mythemes - a
term developed by Claude Lévi-Strauss--mythemes are the smallest component parts of a
myth. By breaking up myths into mythemes, those structures (mythemes) may be studied
chronologically (diachronically) or synchronically/relationally.
Sign vs. Symbol- According to Saussure, "words are not symbols which correspond to
referents, but rather are 'signs' which are made up of two parts (like two sides of a sheet of
paper): a mark, either written or spoken, called a 'signifier,' and a concept (what is 'thought'
when the mark is made), called a 'signified'. The distinction is important because Saussure
contended that the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary; the only way we can
distinguish meaning is by difference (one sign or word differs from another).
The relational nature of language implied by Saussure's system rejects the concept
that a word/symbol corresponds to an outside object/referent. Instead, meaning--the
interpretation of a sign--can exist only in relationship with other signs. Selden and Widdowson
use the sign system of traffic lights as an example. The color red, in that system, signifies
"stop," even though "there is no natural bond between red a nd stop". Meaning is derived
entirely through difference, "a system of opposites and contrasts," e.g., referring back to the
traffic lights' example, red's meaning depends on the fact that it is not green and not amber.
Structuralist narratology- "a form of structuralism espoused by Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan

Todorov, Roland Barthes, and Gerard Genette that illustrates how a story's meaning develops
25
from its overall structure (its langue) rather than from each individual story's isolated theme. To
ascertain a text's meaning, narratologists emphasize grammatical elements such as verb
tenses and the relationships and configurations of figures of speech within the story" (Bressler).
7. Autobiographical Theory. As the critical attention to biography waned in the mid-twentieth
century, interest in autobiography increased. Autobiography paired well with theories such as
structuralism and poststructuralism because autobiography was fertile ground for considering
the divide between fact and fiction, challenging the possibility of presenting a life objectively,
and examining how the shaping force of language prohibited any simple attempts at truth and
reference. Classical autobiographies focused on public figures, were, largely, written by men,
and works theorizing autobiography primarily treated men's life writing. Until the mid-1970s,
little work was done on theorizing women's autobiographies. Major theorists include Bella
Brodski, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Paul John Eakin, Leigh Gilmore, Georges Gusdorf,
Carolyn Heilbrun, Philippe Lejeune, Françoise Lionnet, Mary G. Mason, Nancy K. Miller,
Shirley Neuman, Felicity Nussbaum, James Olney, Roy Pascal, Adrienne Rich, Sidonie Smith,
Patricia Meyer Spacks, Domna Stanton, Julia Watson, and Karl Weintraub.
8. Travel Theory. Interest in travel and travel writing has emerged as the result of an
intellectual climate that is interrogating imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism, ethnography,
diaspora, multiculturalism, nationalism, identity, visual culture, and map theory. Travel theory's
lexicon includes such words as transculturation, metropolitan center, "imperial eyes," contact
zones, border crossing, tourist/traveler, imperial frontier, hybridity, margin,
expatriation/repatriation, cosmopolitanism/localism, museology, displacement, home/abroad,
arrival/return, road narrative, and diaspora, to name just a few. Major theorists include Sara
Mills, James Clifford, Anne McClintock, Mary Louise Pratt, Homi Bhabha (bah-bah), Edward
Said, Paul Fussell, StevenClark, Inderpal Grewal, Guy Debord, Umberto Eco, Caren Kaplan,
Dean McCannell, James Urry, Jean Baudrillard, and David Spurr.
An example of Travel Theory is the Weary Sons of Conrad poses the question, how
is Africa represented in some late twentieth-century European and North American fiction
written by white men? Its contribution is to unearth a rich treasure of such fiction that opposes
imperialism and struggles with patriarchy and gender stereotypes. These writers go to battle
against the stranglehold of myths about Africa, its lands, and its people, which are deeply
embedded in the language itself. The writers struggle for new tongues and original ways of
telling their stories but cannot be totally free of history, family, language, and tradition. Written
in a lively, accessible style, this book is of great interest to a broad range of readers in the
fields of postcolonial literary theory, gender, and cultural and African studies.
An Excerpt from The Weary Sons of Conrad.

The "weary sons" of Brenda Cooper's title are while males writing in the aftermath of European
colonialism. What makes them weary (or wary, as Cooper puns) is their awareness of the
pitfalls of Africanist discourse and the imperialist legacy, and their struggles to undo or escape
from that historical burden—that is, to write self-consciously about Africa. This is then a
particular subset of postmodernism, and the texts Cooper works with are, like their Conradian
precursor, tense with spatial and temporal complications, by turns satirical, ironic, parodic, and
despairing. In working through what is less a tradition than a common problematic, a struggle
with and against a repressive archive, Cooper brings a skeptical yet generous eye to bear. She
challenges the dual temptations of hasty dismissal and convenient amnesia, making her book
an important contribution to the project of Peter Lang's series on "Travel Writing across the
Disciplines."
26
The writers Cooper takes up range from prominent figures like John Irving, Paul Theroux, and
T. C. Boyle to lesser-known authors like Alan Hollinghurst and Adam Thorpe; her strategy is to
set their fictions against the powerful tropes of Africanist discourse, including treatments of
history, exploration, nature, primatology (Tarzan and Jane Goodall) and sexuality, both to make
visible the heritage they are contesting and to measure the success of their inventions.
Cooper's method is close reading. She pays scrupulous attention to character, setting, and
tone, while also showing a keen ear for intertextual echoes and allusions. Since the texts she
treats are often massive and convoluted, her focus on detail sometimes bogs the reader down
and hides the thread of a larger argument. More seriously, it risks losing the tonal complexity of
an extended narrative, as attention to one incident or passage isolates it from ironic
juxtaposition or unraveling. Several of Cooper's texts defy summary (that is: their effects
depend on a continual tension between manner and matter), and while she works hard to
address this difficulty, it occasionally makes for awkward reading.
At its best, Cooper's book sheds welcome light on an important fictional "contact zone," as
Mary Louise Pratt calls it. It also inevitably raises questions about how Cooper delimits her
topic: why single out white male writers for special treatment? The argument would have
greater clarity had Cooper set her authors off against some others: women, for instance
(Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible springs to mind, or some of Alice Walker's African
fictions). Some consideration of popular or journalistic versions of Africa—even for Conrad,
"heart of darkness" was already something of a popular cliché—would have raised questions
about the distinctiveness of self-consciously "literary" treatments. Although Cooper regularly
refers to the "dangers" and "risks" of certain representations, she rarely spells out the dangers
evoked or acknowledges that risk may be a necessary component of imaginative treatment,
and thus well worth running. Nevertheless, this ambitious and intelligent book should inspire
further study of a set of provocative contemporary fictions.
Directions: Do the given activity. Fill out the table to complete the needed information.
Approaches General Focus Processes applied
Assignment:
Directions: Give the definitions and the focus of the following literary
movements: 1. Puritanism
2. Transcendentalisms
3. Realism and naturalism
4. Romanticism
27
LESSON 4 GENRES OF CONTEMPORARY AND POPULAR
LITERATURE
Overview
This lesson offers the learners the significant genres in contemporary and popular
literature. This will provide various examples of the genres which are relevant in understanding
the concepts of contemporary literature.

. Discuss the different genres of modern/ contemporary literature.
to: 1
2. Distinguish the characteristics of the different genres of contemporary
ifferentiate the genres of literature.
literature. 3. D
Course Materials:
Unit 1: Genres of Contemporary Literature
1. Adventure Literature is a fiction whose chief aim is the absorbing narration of real or
imaginary events and in which analytical, didactic, and descriptive elements are either
absent or are secondary in importance. The concept of adventure literature applied more
specifically to the adventure literature that arose during the 19th century within the current of
romanticism and neoromanticism and took on a number of their traits, among them
absorbing plots, a turning away from bourgeois everyday life, a search for the lofty and
heroic, and a striving for the new and original.
Adventure literature is marked by a rapid development of action, inventiveness of plot,
and intense emotions; secrets and enigmas and motifs of abduction and pursuit are also
common. The settings are unusual and the characters are clearly divided into villains and
heroes. Modern adventure literature is often combined with science fiction, thus extending
the narrative possibilities to the ultimate limit. Example of this genre are the Adventure of
Tom Sawyer, Gulliver’s Travel, etc.
Life of Pi
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi i s the story of a young man who survives a harrowing shipwreck
and months in a lifeboat with a large Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The beginning of the
novel covers Pi’s childhood and youth. His family owns and runs a zoo in their hometown in
India, and his father is emphatic about being aware of the wildness and true nature of animals,
namely that they are not meant to be treated like or thought of as people. Early in Pi’s life, his
father realizes that his son’s naiveté about the tiger in their care may put Pi in danger. To
illustrate how true and real the threat is, he forces the children to watch the tiger kill and eat a
goat.
Pi goes through a significant religious awakening in his formative years, eventually
subscribing to a variety of religions: Hinduism, Catholicism, and finally Islam. Although the
religious leaders don’t accept Pi’s plural religions, his family gradually does, and he remains a
devout follower of all his religious paths for his entire life.
When Pi is a teenager, his family decides to sell the animals and immigrate to Canada
on a cargo ship named Tsimtsum. A terrible storm occurs during the voyage, and when Pi,
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excited to see the storm, goes onto the ship’s deck, he is tossed overboard and into a lifeboat
by the crew. The next morning, he finds himself in the company of a badly injured zebra, a
vicious hyena, and a matronly orangutan named Orange Juice. Hiding out of sight, beneath the
canvas of the lifeboat, is the tiger Richard Parker. The hyena wounds and eats the zebra, then
goes after Orange Juice. The orangutan puts up a good fight, but the hyena ultimately kills her.
Richard Parker finally makes himself known by killing and eating the hyena. Now only Pi and
Richard Parker survive on the lifeboat.
How Pi and Richard Parker survive in the Pacific Ocean makes up the rest of the novel.
Pi realizes he must survive the elements while adrift in the lifeboat—and that Richard Parker
will almost certainly eat him. He quickly sees that thirst will kill him sooner than hunger or the
tiger, so he sets about finding a way to get water. He discovers provisions stored in the lifeboat,
including biscuits, water, water purifiers, a whistle, and a handbook for surviving at sea. With
the tools of survival in hand, Pi builds a second watercraft—a raft made of oars and
lifejackets—and attaches it to the boat. With this second watercraft, he can remain out of both
the shark-infested waters and Richard Parker’s immediate reach. He considers a variety of
survival options and concludes that he must tame the tiger. Although he is unable to fully train
and domesticate Richard Parker, by blowing a whistle and rocking the lifeboat enough to make
the tiger seasick, Pi is able to subdue him and secure his own territory on the lifeboat.
Pi goes temporarily blind and loses his mind. He begins having a conversation with
Richard Parker in which they mutually fantasize about the kinds of foods they would like to eat.
Pi fixates on vegetarian delicacies, and Richard Parker continues to revise the recipes with
meat as the main ingredient. At first Pi is morally outraged at the idea of eating meat, but then
he realizes that it is Richard Parker’s preference. During this fantastical exchange, another
castaway in a lifeboat appears, also blind and also very hungry. Pi allows the man, who speaks
with a French accent, on the lifeboat, believing him to be a true companion. The man attacks
Pi, saying that he intends to eat him; Richard Parker attacks and consumes the man.
Richard Parker and Pi eventually find an island, which is made entirely of trees, roots,
leaves, fresh water, and plants. However, Pi makes a horrible discovery that causes them to
leave the island: Believing he has found a fruit-bearing tree, Pi peels back the layers of a piece
of fruit to find that it contains a human tooth. The island is a carnivorous being, consuming
everything that lives on it. Pi and Richard Parker return to the lifeboat and the ocean.
An undetermined amount of time passes, and Pi and Richard Parker arrive in Mexico.
Richard Parker runs into the wild and is never seen again. Pi is brought into custody, given
food, and questioned for some time by two officials from the Maritime Department in the
Japanese Ministry of Transport. The officials’ transcript of the conversation reveals that they do
not believe Pi’s story in its entirety, and they tell him so. Initially Pi sticks to his story, but then
he offers them another, somewhat similar story in which he shares the lifeboat with a crew
member of the sunken ship, his own mother, and a foul-tempered French cook who eventually
kills both Pi’s mother and the crewman. Pi tells of how he then stabbed the French cook in the
throat and watched him die. This second account seems to satisfy the skepticism of the
questioners, but they admit to Pi that his account of surviving with the tiger aboard the lifeboat
is a better story.
2. Graphic Novel. A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the
reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format.
The term is employed in a broad manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically
linked short stories as well as fictional stories across a number of genres. Examples of this
genre are the “Earth’s Mighty Heroes: Avengers”, The Walking Dead, Spider Man. In the
Philippines “Darna” was once the most popular graphic novel.
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3. Classics. Classic literature is a term most readers are probably familiar with. The term
covers a much wider array of works than classical literature. Older books that retain their
popularity are almost always considered to be among the classics. This means that the
ancient Greek and Roman authors of classical literature fall into this category as well. It's not
just age that makes a book a classic, however. Books that have a timeless quality are
considered to be in this category. While determining if a book is well-written or not is a
subjective endeavor, it is generally agreed that classics have high-quality prose. What
Makes a Book a Classic? While most people are referring to literary fiction when they refer
to the classics, each genre and category of literature has its own classics. For example, the
average reader might not consider Steven King's novel "The Shining," the story of a haunted
hotel, to be a classic, but those who study the horror genre may. Even within genres or
literary movements, books that are considered classic are those that are well-written and/or
have cultural importance. A book that may not have the best writing but was the first book in
a genre to do something ground-breaking is a classic. For example, the first romance novel
that took place in a historic setting is culturally significant to the romance genre. Example
include The Little Women” written by Louis May Alcott, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen,
and other stories.
Little Women by L. M. Alcott

Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy March are four sisters living with their mother in New England. Their
father is away serving as a chaplain in the Civil War, and the sisters struggle to support
themselves and keep their household running despite the fact that the family recently lost its
fortune. In the process, they become close friends with their wealthy neighbor, Theodore
Laurence, known as "Laurie."
As the girls grow older, each faces her own personal demons and moral challenges. Jo, our
beloved protagonist, must tame her tomboyish ways and learn to be more ladylike while
pursuing her ambition to be a great writer. Meg, the oldest, must put aside her love of wealth
and finery in order to follow her heart. Beth, the shy one, must conquer her bashfulness, while
Amy, the youngest, has to sacrifice her aristocratic pride. The girls are guided in their personal
growth by their mother, "Marmee," and by their religious faith.
The family's tight bonds are forever changed when Meg falls in love with John Brooke, Laurie's
tutor. Meg and John marry and begin a home of their own, quickly populated by twins Daisy
and Demi. Another marriage seems imminent when Laurie reveals to Jo that he has fallen in
love with her, but she declares that she cannot care for him in the same way. Jo goes to New
York as the governess for a family friend, Mrs. Kirke, experiencing the big city and trying her
hand as a professional writer. Meanwhile, Amy travels through Europe with her wealthy Aunt
Carroll and cousin Flo, nurturing her artistic talent. Separately, Laurie goes to Europe
accompanied by his grandfather. He pursues his passion for music and tries to forget Jo.
While in New York, Jo meets German expatriate Professor Bhaer, whose intellect and strong
moral nature spark her interest. Across the Atlantic, Laurie and Amy discover that they lack the
genius to be great artists, but that they make an excellent romantic pairing. When Beth, who
has never been strong, dies young, the sorrow of their loss solidifies Amy's bond to Laurie.
Back in the States, Jo returns home to care for her bereaved parents and learns to embrace
her domestic side.
All the loose ends are tied up as Jo and Professor Bhaer marry and start a boarding school for
boys, while Amy and Laurie marry and use the Laurence family wealth to support struggling
young artists. The Brooke, Bhaer, and Laurence households flourish, and the novel ends with a
30
birthday party for Marmee, celebrating the extended March family connections and the
progress of Jo's boarding school, Plumfield.
4. Mystery fiction is a genre of fiction usually involving a mysterious death or a crime to be
solved. Often with a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a
credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central
character will often be a detective (like Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson) who
eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader.[1]
Sometimes mystery books are nonfictional. "Mystery fiction" can be detective stories in
which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a
whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus
on action and gritty realism.
And Then There were None: Agatha Christie

Eight people, all strangers to each other, are invited to Indian Island, off the English
coast. Vera Claythorne, a former governess, thinks she has been hired as a secretary; Philip
Lombard, an adventurer, and William Blore, an ex-detective, think they have been hired to look
out for trouble over the weekend; Dr. Armstrong thinks he has been hired to look after the wife
of the island’s owner. Emily Brent, General Macarthur, Tony Marston, and Judge Wargrave
think they are going to visit old friends.
When they arrive on the island, the guests are greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, the
butler and housekeeper, who report that the host, someone they call Mr. Owen, will not arrive
until the next day. That evening, as all the guests gather in the drawing room after an excellent
dinner, they hear a recorded voice accusing each of them of a specific murder committed in the
past and never uncovered. They compare notes and realize that none of them, including the
servants, knows “Mr. Owen,” which suggests that they were brought here according to
someone’s strange plan.
As they discuss what to do, Tony Marston chokes on poisoned whiskey and dies.
Frightened, the party retreats to bed, where almost everyone is plagued by guilt and memories
of their crimes. Vera Claythorne notices the similarity between the death of Marston and the
first verse of a nursery rhyme, “Ten Little Indians,” that hangs in each bedroom.
The next morning the guests find that Mrs. Rogers apparently died in her sleep. The
guests hope to leave that morning, but the boat that regularly delivers supplies to the island
does not show up. Blore, Lombard, and Armstrong decide that the deaths must have been
murders and determine to scour the island in search of the mysterious Mr. Owen. They find no
one, however. Meanwhile, the oldest guest, General Macarthur, feels sure he is going to die
and goes to look out at the ocean. Before lunch, Dr. Armstrong finds the general dead of a
blow to the head.
The remaining guests meet to discuss their situation. They decide that one of them
must be the killer. Many make vague accusations, but Judge Wargrave reminds them that the
existing evidence suggests any of them could be the killer. Afternoon and dinner pass
restlessly, and everyone goes to bed, locking his or her door before doing so. The next
morning, they find that Rogers has been killed while chopping wood in preparation for
breakfast. At this point, the guests feel sure the murders are being carried out according to the
dictates of the nursery rhyme. Also, they realize that the dining-room table initially featured ten
Indian figures, but with each death one of the figures disappears.
After breakfast, Emily Brent feels slightly giddy, and she remains alone at the table for a while.
She is soon found dead. Her neck having been injected with poison. At this point, Wargrave
initiates an organized search of everyone’s belongings, and anything that could be used as a
weapon is locked away. The remaining guests sit together, passing time and casting
suspicious looks at each other. Finally, Vera goes to take a bath, but she is startled by a piece
of seaweed hanging from her ceiling and cries out. Blore, Lombard, and Armstrong run to help
31
her, only to return downstairs to find Wargrave draped in a curtain that resembles courtroom
robes and bearing a red mark on his forehead. Armstrong examines the body and reports that
Wargrave has been shot in the head.
That night, Blore hears footsteps in the hall; upon checking, he finds that Armstrong is
not in his room. Blore and Lombard search for Armstrong, but they cannot find him anywhere in
the house or on the island. When they return from searching, they discover another Indian
figure missing from the table.
Vera, Lombard, and Blore go outside, resolving to stay in the safety of the open land.
Blore decides to go back into the house to get food. The other two hear a crash, and they find
someone has pushed a statue out of a second-story window, killing Blore as he approached
the house. Vera and Lombard retreat to the shore, where they find Armstrong’s drowned body
on the beach. Convinced that Lombard is the killer, Vera steals Lombard’s gun and shoots him.
She returns to her bedroom to rest, happy to have survived. But upon finding a noose waiting
for her in her room, she feels a strange compulsion to enact the last line of the nursery rhyme,
and hangs herself.
The mystery baffles the police until a manuscript in a bottle is found. The late Judge
Wargrave wrote the manuscript explaining that he planned the murders because he wanted to
punish those whose crimes are not punishable under law. Wargrave frankly admits to his own
lust for blood and pleasure in seeing the guilty punished. When a doctor told Wargrave he was
dying, he decided to die in a blaze, instead of letting his life trickle away. He discusses how he
chose his victims and how he did away with Marston, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, Macarthur, and
Emily Brent. Wargrave then describes how he tricked Dr. Armstrong into helping him fake his
own death, promising to meet the doctor by the cliffs to discuss a plan. When Armstrong
arrived, Wargrave pushed him over the edge into the sea, then returned to the house and
pretended to be dead. His ruse enabled him to dispose of the rest of the guests without
drawing their suspicion. Once Vera hanged herself on a noose that he prepared for her,
Wargrave planned to shoot himself in such a way that his body would fall onto the bed as if it
had been laid there. Thus, he hoped, the police would find ten dead bodies on an empty island.
5. Horror is a genre of speculative fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust.
Literary historian J. A. Cuddon defined the horror story as "a piece of fiction in prose of
variable length which shocks, or even frightens the reader, or perhaps induces a feeling of
repulsion or loathing". It creates an eerie and frightening atmosphere. Horror is frequently
supernatural, though it might also be non-supernatural. Often the central menace of a work of
horror fiction can be interpreted as a metaphor for the larger fears of a society.
Bird Box: Josh Malerman

Malorie, the protagonist of the story, is in her early twenties. She is inspecting her
stomach. Shortly thereafter, she and her sister Shannon discover that Malorie is, in fact,
pregnant. Immediately after this discovery, news reports of mysterious murder-suicides begin
flooding in, filling the girls with a sense of dread. The sisters shut themselves in their apartment
in preparation for what they can only assume is the end of the world. It is soon revealed that
the creatures wreaking havoc on humanity affect humans through sight, which results in the
remaining population barricading themselves in their homes and only venturing outside with a
protective blindfold so as not to fall under the creatures’ control.
The girls manage to survive this way for the next three months, until Shannon
accidentally looks at one of the creatures, and subsequently kills herself. Alone and unsure
how to proceed, the pregnant Malorie notices an announcement in the newspaper advertising
a safe space. She responds to the ad and carefully makes her way to the home, where she is
welcomed by five others.
32
Shortly after Malorie’s arrival, Olympia, another pregnant woman arrives at the house,
followed by Gary. He tells the group how he was living with Frank but had to leave after Frank
pulled all of the blinds off the windows, believing himself immune to the creatures. After hearing
his story, the others agree to let Gary stay although the house is full, allowing him to take
refuge. Over time, Gary starts to demonstrate some of the same beliefs as Frank, eventually
convincing another member of the household, Don, that he is immune to the effects of the
creatures. This creates a divide between Gary and Don and the rest of the housemates.
Malorie doesn’t trust Gary and so decides to investigate the situation further. She
searches Gary’s room and finds a notebook in which Frank had written down all of his beliefs,
the same beliefs that Gary had denounced upon his arrival. Malorie brings the notebook to the
rest of the group who ultimately send Gary away, deeming him too dangerous to live in the
same house.
Shortly after Gary’s departure, both Malorie and Olympia go into labor on the same
night. The housemates band together, determined to keep the women safe. They decide that
the attic is the safest place to deliver the babies. While the women are in labor, Gary returns to
the house and a fight breaks out between him and the other housemates. Malorie and Olympia
call for the others, but their cries are left unanswered.
The next person to enter the attic is Gary, at which point Malorie realizes that there
never was a Frank and that Gary has been lying and manipulating the group from the very
beginning. Gary informs the women that he and Don have pulled down all the blinds in the
house. Gary assures them that the creatures only harm those who expect to be harmed. He
then opens the door to let one of the creatures into the attic. Malorie closes her eyes and
covers those of her newborn baby boy and Olympia’s daughter, keeping them safe from harm.
Eventually, both the creature and Gary leave the attic.
Malorie buries the bodies of her housemates, and she and the children spend the next
four years in the house, too afraid to leave the confines of its walls. Malorie works with the
children every day in order to prepare them for the outside world and improve their hearing.
With their ability, Malorie hopes to travel down the river in a rowboat to find other survivors.
After four years of training, Malorie decides that the children are ready, and they set off
in the rowboat. After encountering a slew of obstacles including a psychotically deranged man,
a pack of wolves, and a flock of aggressive birds, Malorie and the children finally arrive at a
shelter where they are welcomed by other survivors. Malorie, noticing that some of the
inhabitants of the shelter are blinded, cries and begs Rick not to blind her and the children. He
reassures her, responding that they no longer blind themselves. At the end of the novel,
Malorie, finally feeling that she is in a safe place, names the children whom she has been
calling Boy and Girl—her boy she calls Tom, and the girl, Olympia.
6. Fantasy. Fiction with strange or otherworldly settings or characters; fiction that invites
suspension of reality; fiction that depends on magic or the impossible or inexplicable.
7. Historical Fiction: historical fiction includes stories that are written to portray a time period
or convey information about a specific time period or an historical event. Usually the event or
time period is about 30 years in the past. In historical fiction, setting is the most important
literary element. Because the author is writing about a particular time in history, the
information about the time period must be accurate, authentic, or both. To create accurate and
authentic settings in their books, authors must research the time period thoroughly. They must
know how people lived, what they ate, what kinds of homes they had, and what artifacts were
a common part of their lives.
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Memoirs of a Geisha: Arthur Golden
In 1929, the nine-year-old Chiyo Sakamoto lives with her ailing mother, emotionally
withdrawn father, and older sister Satsu in a small fishing village in Western Japan. One day,
the wealthiest man in her village, Mr. Ichiro Tanaka, takes notices of Chiyo’s beautiful blue-grey
eyes. After striking a deal with Chiyo’s father, Mr. Tanaka sells Chiyo to an okiya, which is a
boarding house for geisha. Geisha are women trained to entertain men with conversation,
dancing, and singing.
At the okiya, Chiyo works as a maid while she trains to be a geisha. The other people
living at the okiya are the young apprentice geisha Pumpkin, the greedy and materialistic
Mother who runs the okiya, and the beautiful but cruel geisha Hatsumomo. A few months after
arriving in the okiya, Chiyo becomes so homesick that she tries to run away to her home
village. The doors to the okiya are locked at night, so Chiyo climbs to the roof, but she falls and
breaks her arm. Enraged at Chiyo for trying to run away, Mother stops paying for Chiyo’s
geisha education. Instead, she tells Chiyo that she will work as a maid in the okiya until Mother
sees fit to release her.
For two years, Chiyo works as a maid. One day, she goes on an errand and realizes
that her life lacks purpose and direction. As Chiyo sits by a stream and begins to cry, a
handsome man named the Chairman comforts her. Touched by his kindness, Chiyo decides
that she must try to become a geisha so she can increase her standing in the world. Only then
will she be able to surround herself with kind men instead of people like Hatsumomo and
Mother.
Not long after this encounter, a geisha named Mameha arrives at the okiya and takes
notice of Chiyo’s beauty. Mameha convinces Mother to reinvest in Chiyo’s education by saying
that she will take on Chiyo as a “little sister”—a geisha apprentice. Since Mameha is one of the
city’s best geisha, Mother sees an opportunity to make money from Chiyo again and agrees to
Mameha’s plan. Chiyo thinks that Mameha is only taking her on as a protégé in order to
infuriate her rival Hatsumomo.
Over the next two years, Chiyo completes her geisha training and makes her debut as
an apprentice geisha. Following the geisha tradition of adopting a new name, Chiyo takes on
the name Sayuri. At one event, Mameha introduces Sayuri to the wealthy businessmen
Toshikazu Nobu and Chairman Ken Iwamura. Sayuri realizes that Chairman Iwamura is the
man who comforted her years ago. However, Sayuri doesn’t get a chance to talk with the
Chairman because Mameha tells her she must cultivate a relationship with Nobu instead.
Mameha wants to make Sayuri a success in Kyoto by having Nobu and a doctor nicknamed
“Dr. Crab” start a bidding war over Sayuri’s mizuage—the ceremonial taking of a young
geisha’s virginity. After months of cultivating relationships with the two men, Dr. Crab ultimately
pays a record amount for Sayuri’s mizuage.
The plan works and Sayuri gains a reputation as a highly coveted geisha. As part of
geisha traditions, Mother adopts Sayuri, because she becomes the highest-earning geisha in
the okiya. Over the next few years, Nobu continues to ask for Sayuri’s company. Though she
likes Nobu as a person, she wishes she could spend more time with the Chairman instead.
When World War Two breaks out, the government closes the geisha districts so that the
women can more actively contribute to the war effort. Nobu uses his influence to find Sayuri the
safe and relatively easy job of sewing parachutes in a village outside of Kyoto.
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After the war, Nobu comes to find Sayuri. He says that he needs her to return to Kyoto
and help him entertain a Japanese official named Sato. The American government wants to
seize Nobu’s business assets, but Sato can use his connections to prevent this from
happening. Sayuri agrees and returns to Kyoto.
At a teahouse, Sayuri—along with Pumpkin and Mameha—entertain Sato, Nobu, and
the Chairman. For the next year, they meet on a weekly basis and Sayuri feels her attraction to
the Chairman growing. Sato successfully convinces the Americans not to bankrupt the
business. With the business secure, Nobu proposes himself as Sayuri’s danna—a patron who
gives a geisha lavish gifts in return for sexual privileges. Because Nobu provided her a safe
place to live during the war, Sayuri feels as if she is in his debt. She reluctantly agrees, wishing
that the Chairman could be her danna instead.
To celebrate the good news, the group goes to an island near Okinawa for a weekend
vacation. Sayuri realizes that if Nobu stumbles upon her sleeping with Sato, then Nobu will
think that she has dishonored herself and withdraw his proposal to be her danna. Sayuri hopes
that this will leave her free to pursue a relationship with the Chairman. Sayuri arranges to meet
Sato at an abandoned theater and tells Pumpkin to bring Nobu at a set time. Pumpkin,
however, brings the Chairman instead, who sees Sayuri and Sato having sex. Thinking that her
chances are ruined with the Chairman, Sayuri feels crushed and utterly despondent.
A few days after returning to Kyoto, Sayuri receives an invitation to meet the Chairman
at a teahouse. At the teahouse, the Chairman confesses that he fell in love with Sayuri the
moment he saw her as a young girl crying by the stream. Surprised that he even remembers
her from that day, Sayuri says that she only slept with Sato in order to make Nobu give her up
so that she could possibly have the Chairman as her danna. Overcome with emotion, the
Chairman pulls her close and kisses her.
A few weeks later, the Chairman becomes Sayuri’s danna. They live happily together
over the next few years. Sayuri even gives birth to the Chairman’s son. Eventually they
immigrate to New York City, where she recounts her memoirs to the Japanese history
professor Jakob Haarhuis.
8. Science Fiction: Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the stories often tell about
science and technology of the future. It is important to note that science fiction has a
relationship with the principles of science—these stories involve partially true partially fictitious
laws or theories of science. It should not be completely unbelievable, because it then ventures
into the genre fantasy. The plot creates situations different from those of both the present day
and the known past. Science fiction texts also include a human element, explaining what
effect new discoveries, happenings and scientific developments will have on us in the future.
Science fiction texts are often set in the future, in space, on a different world, or in a different
universe or dimension. Early pioneers of the genre of science fiction are H. G. Wells (The War
of the Worlds) and Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). Some well-known 20th
century science fiction texts include 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Alduous
Huxley, and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. In addition, the four most-popular and well
recognized 20th century authors are Isaac Asimov, author of the Foundation trilogy and his
robot series, Arthur C. Clarke famous for 2001, a Space Odyssey; Ray Bradbury, known for
his Martian Chronicles, and Robert Heinlein, author of Stranger in a Strange Land and The
Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
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The Martians: Andy Weir
Astronaut Mark Watney is a botanist and mechanical engineer on the American Ares 3
mission to Mars, following two successful Ares missions that have been met first with earthly
excitement, then mostly indifference. After a couple days on Mars, a giant dust storm disrupts
the astronauts' mission and forces an abort. During this, Watney is struck with a shard of
metal—a piece of the crew's own antenna. The crew leaves Watney on Mars, thinking him to
be dead after the incident. Commander Lewis, in charge of the mission, does so with a heavy
heart, but believes it to be the proper protocol. The Ares 3 crew attempts to maintain morale
for the many-months-long trip back to Earth, while NASA does what it can to control fallout, on
Earth, from the supposed death of Watney on the Red Planet.
Roughly a day later, however, Watney returns to consciousness, alone on Mars. He
hobbles back to the Hab (the astronauts' base) and tends to his injury, a puncture wound in
his stomach. He then takes stock of the food, water, and air supplies remaining in the Hab. He
plans to severely ration his food, to survive till the next Ares mission, which is slated several
years in the future, landing many thousands of kilometers from his current location. Watney
discovers that he can recycle almost all the air and water he uses, removing any immediate
dangers to his life (although he now depends entirely on the life support systems in the Hab,
which were intended for a short stint on the planet).
Mark then explores his means of communication, and realizes that the antenna for the
comms satellite is broken. While going through the personal items of his crew members,
Watney finds that his only entertainment is a trove of media files from the 1970s, stored on
Commander Lewis's hard drive. Watney hates disco, and this becomes a recurring joke
throughout the novel.
Back on Earth, a NASA employee named Mindy Park figures out that Watney is still
alive, by reviewing satellite images of the mission-site. Sanders, the chief of NASA, and
Kapoor, head of the Mars program, consult with Montrose, the public relations director, and
Henderson, the immediate boss of the Ares 3 crew. Henderson advocates that NASA should
inform the Ares 3 crew, headed back to Earth on the Hermes, that Watney is still alive. But
Kapoor and Sanders believe that this information will only upset them, and that the crew must
still carry out a fairly complex mission to return safely to Earth. NASA informs the media that
Watney is alive, setting off a firestorm around the world, and an outpouring of support on
Watney's behalf. Nonstop news coverage ensues, including a show on CNN called "Mark
Watney Report," and NASA requests a substantially larger budget from the US government, to
devote resources to bringing Mark home.
NASA tries to figure out an effective rescue plan, first believing they can send interim
food supplies to Watney, then pick him up at the projected Ares 4 site (called Schiaparelli
crater) with a new crew, several years in the future. With the supplies they'll have sent along,
they'll be able to supplement Watney's food-stuffs, consisting mostly of the potatoes Watney is
able, cleverly, to cultivate, using NASA's seeds and his robust botanical skills.
NASA monitors Mark via updated satellite images from the Martian surface. Watney
can leave them messages using rocks and Morse code, but NASA can't talk to him. They
watch as he drives out in the rover and retrieves an old unmanned probe called Pathfinder,
which he brings back to the Hab and eventually uses to communicate with NASA; the
Pathfinder becomes his "modem" and his "radio."
For a short time, it appears Mark's survival and rescue will go smoothly. But then an
airlock to the Hab breaks, and Watney is thrown from the structure. Although he is physically
unhurt, much of his store of potatoes is damaged, as is his ability to grow future crops. NASA
calculates that Watney won't survive until the Ares 4 mission arrives, because of this depleted
supply, so they decide to send a faster replacement mission, called Iris, to relieve him in the
interim. But NASA rushes the launch, owing to the vast distance between Earth and Mars, and
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the rocket explodes soon after take-off. The prospects of Watney's rescue have now, over the
course of months, gone from bad to worse to dire.
Fortunately, the Chinese space agency can provide a replacement rocket. And a NASA
researcher named Purnell has come up with a "maneuver," in secret, which will allow food to
reach Watney far more quickly. This plan involves Watney's Ares 3 crew-mates turning around
and picking him up from space, after he launches off the surface of Mars. Sanders
immediately blocks the idea, fearing it is too dangerous, but Henderson leaks the plan to the
crew of Ares 3, who decouple from NASA's control of their vehicle and begin the process of
saving Watney on their own—at which point NASA has no choice but to publicly support the
Purnell Maneuver.
After an unfortunate accident with a drill, Watney overloads the circuits of the
Pathfinder. His comms with NASA is therefore severed, but not before he learns that the Ares
3 crew is coming back for him. Watney has enough information to travel to Schiaparelli on his
own, using his knowledge of Martian topography, and his skills as an engineer to modify two
rovers to make the long trek. Watney begins the drive to the crater, and manages to avoid a
dust storm and survive a tumble in his vehicle. He reaches the crater, and the Ares 4 MAV—
the rocket that will launch him into space, where he can make a short "hop" over to the
returned Hermes spacecraft.
Watney successfully modifies the Ares 4 MAV, and NASA coordinates his launch.
Although Watney has successfully removed a good deal of the craft, making it lighter, the
MAV veers off course, prompting the Hermes to adjust its location to meet Watney. Lewis and
her crew do just this, and Beck, one of the crew-mates, is able to lift Watney out of the MAV
and bring him into Hermes. Watney has suffered a few broken ribs, and the crew members
say he smells terrible (after having showered only minimally for years). But Watney is as
happy as he's ever been -- he's safe, surrounded by his crew, and headed home.
9. Romance: Romance novels have a central plot revolving around a developing romantic
relationship and with an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending". While the genre
includes books with a wide range of subgenres -- from historical to science fiction to suspense
and more -- those settings are secondary to the love story. With so many subgenres to pull
from, almost anything can happen in the secondary plot of a romance novel. However, the
primary focus remains the same. Each follows a romantic relationship from its beginnings
through to a satisfactory conclusion, while exploring the misunderstandings that threaten to
scuttle the relationship along the way. As the main characters explore their growing passion
for one another, the character growth that accompanies love sets the stage for a happy
ending.
The Notebook: Nicholas Sparks

In a modern-day nursing home, an elderly man named Duke begins to read a love story
from his notebook to a female fellow patient.
The story begins in 1940. At a carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, local
country boy Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) sees seventeen-year-old heiress Allie Hamilton
(Rachel McAdams) for the first time and is immediately smitten. She continuously refuses his
persistent advances until their well-meaning friends lure them together; they then get to know
each other on a midnight walk through empty Seabrook.
Noah and Allie spend an idyllic summer together. One night, a week before Allie is to leave
town, she and Noah go up to an abandoned house called The Windsor Plantation. Noah tells
her that he hopes to buy the house, and Allie makes him promise that the house will be white,
with blue shutters, a walk-around porch, and a room that overlooks the creek so she can paint.
They intend to make love for the first time, but are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin (Kevin
Connolly) with the news that Allie's parents have the police out looking for her. When Allie 37
returns home, her disapproving parents ban her from seeing Noah again. Allie fights with Noah
outside and the two decide to break up. Allie immediately regrets the decision but Noah drives
away. The next morning, Allie's mother reveals that they are going home that morning. Allie
frantically tries to find Noah, but is forced to leave without saying good-bye. The Hamiltons then
send Allie to New York, where she begins attending Sarah Lawrence College. Noah,
devastated by his separation from Allie, writes her one letter a day for a year, only to get no
reply as Allie's mother keeps the letters from her. Noah and Allie have no choice but to move
on with their lives. Allie continues to attend school, while Noah and Fin enlist to fight in World
War II. Fin is killed in battle.
Allie becomes a nurse for wounded soldiers. There, she meets the wealthy Lon
Hammond, Jr. (James Marsden), a well-connected young lawyer who is handsome,
sophisticated, charming and comes from old Southern money. The two eventually become
engaged, to the joy of Allie's parents, although Allie sees Noah's face when Lon asks her to
marry him.
When Noah returns home, he discovers his father has sold their home so that Noah can
go ahead and buy The Windsor Plantation. While visiting Charleston to file some paper work,
Noah witnesses Allie and Lon kissing at a restaurant, causing Noah to go a little crazy,
convincing himself that if he fixes up the house, Allie will come back to him.
While trying on her wedding dress in the 1940s, Allie is startled to read about Noah
completing the house in the style section of a Raleigh newspaper and faints. She visits Noah in
Seabrook and he invites her to dinner, during which Allie tells Noah about her engagement.
Noah questions whether Allie's future husband is a good man and she reassures Noah that he
is. Later in the evening, Noah invites Allie to come back tomorrow.
In the present, it is made clear that the elderly woman is Allie suffering from dementia,
which has stolen her memories and Duke is her husband. Allie does not recognize their grown
children and grandchildren, who beg Duke to come home with them. He insists on staying with
Allie.
The next morning, Allie and Noah go rowing on a nearby lake and begin to reminisce
about their summer together. As a rain storm starts Noah rows to shore, where Allie demands
to know why Noah never wrote to her. After the revelation that Noah had indeed written to Allie,
they share a passionate kiss, before making love into the night.
The next day, Allies mother appears on Noahs doorstep, telling Allie that Lon has
followed her to Seabrook after Allie's father told him about Noah. Her mother takes Allie out for
a drive to show her that there had been a time in her life when she could relate to Allie's
present situation. On returning to Noah's, she hands her daughter the bundle of 365 letters that
Noah had written to her. When alone, Noah asks Allie what she is going to do; Allie is confused
and confesses that she doesnt know. Noah asks her to just stay with him, admitting it is going
to be really hard, but he is willing to go through anything because he wants to be with her.
Confused as ever, Allie drives off.
Allie drives to the hotel and confesses to Lon, who is angry but admits that he still loves
her. He tells her that he does not want to convince his fiancée that she should be with him, but
Allie tells him he does not have to, because she already knows she should be with him.
The film goes back to the elderly couple, and Duke asks Allie who she chose. She soon
realizes the answer herself; young Allie appears at Noah's doorstep, having left Lon at the
hotel and chosen Noah. They embrace in reunion.
Elderly Allie suddenly remembers her past before she and Noah/Duke joyfully spend a brief
intimate moment together; after originally finding out about her illness, she had herself written
their story in the notebook with the instructions for Noah to "Read this to me, and I'll come back
to you." But soon Allie relapses, losing her memories of Noah yet again. She panics, and has
to be sedated by the attending physician. This proves to be too difficult for Noah to watch and
he breaks down. The next morning, Noah is found unconscious in bed and 38
he is rushed to the hospital; he later returns to the nursing home's intensive care ward. He
goes to Allie's room later that night, and Allie remembers again. The next morning, a nurse
finds them in bed together, having both died peacefully holding each other's hands. The last
scene shows a flock of birds flying away.
10. Suspense Thriller: Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping
subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers
heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. Successful
examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Thrillers generally keep the audience on
the "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax. The cover-up of important
information is a common element. Literary devices such as red herrings, plot twists, and
cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is usually a villain-driven plot, whereby they
present obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.
Suspense is a crucial characteristic of the thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of
pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation and tension.
These develop from unpredictable, mysterious and rousing events during the narrative, which
makes the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in
order to make those final moments, no matter how short, the most memorable. The suspense
in a story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more until the climax is reached.
The Guardians: John Krisham

Thirty-eight-year-old Duke Russell is eating what possibly could be his last meal of
steak and fries, on Alabama’s notorious death row. He was hoping to wash the meal down
with some nice cold beers, but the Warden didn’t see the funny side of that last request.
Although totally innocent, Duke’s been fast-tracked for lethal injection, having been on The
Row for only nine years. Only nine? The average in Alabama is 15 to 20 years.
Standing beside him during his last hour is Cullen Post, a lawyer who, for the last four
years, has fought to prove Duke’s innocence. Cullen travels the country fighting wrongful
convictions and taking on clients forgotten by the system.
Duke was charged with rape and murder of a woman called Emily Broone, but Cullen
believes the man was steamrolled by a corrupt system. Prior to all this, Duke’s only brush with
the law had been a few speeding tickets and two DUIs. Violence had never been part of his
modus operandi.
Cullan is still haunted by at least one innocent man executed by the system, and vows
to do all in his power never to let it happen again:
“I’ve watched one of my clients die. I still believe he was innocent. I just couldn’t prove it in
time. One is enough.”
As the clock ticks away the last few minutes of Duke’s life, Cullan is hoping for a
reprieve for his client. He is not confident of that happening and says a silent entreaty to the
Big Man Upstairs, hoping that being an Episcopalian pastor might just sway the decision in
favor of Duke and stop the clock ticking toward death.
While watching Duke eat his last meal, Cullan thinks back to years prior, after becoming
disillusioned about his role as criminal lawyer, walking out of court one day vowing never to 39
return. A nervous breakdown followed the breakdown of his marriage, he was looking into the
abysses of psychosis and hopelessness when he met Father Bennie Drake, an Episcopal
priest at his hometown church. Influenced by Drake’s words and actions, Cullan eventually
found his calling and was himself ordained.
Shortly afterward, he meets Vicki Gourley who would come to be as big an influence
over him as had Drake. Gourley is the founder of Guardian Ministries, and runs it from an old
warehouse in Savannah, Georgia. The Ministries is made up of a tiny group of understaffed
and underfunded attorneys and investigators seeking justice for those who the legal system
has failed, hoping to exonerate prisoners wrongfully accused and convicted, most of whom
are on death row or serving life sentences.
They only accept a few innocence cases at a time and are inundated with hundreds of
letters from prisoners all professing their innocence. It would be an understatement to say the
task of deciding who exactly may be innocent is overwhelming.
Back at death row, Cullan’s cell phone vibrates in his pocket. It’s the call he’s been
waiting on from a law clerk at the Eleventh Circuit that will determine Duke’s fate. Duke looks
at the expression on Cullan’s face trying to read something from it. It’s blank. A few tense
seconds go slowly by before Cullan nods to Duke.
“You got a stay. No needle tonight. How long will it take you finish that steak?”
After leaving a grateful and relieved Duke alone with his thoughts, Cullan heads two
miles down the road and stops at a closed country store to make a call using a burner. He
checks to make sure he’s not being watched, then calls the number he obtained illegally. “‘Is
this Mark Carter?’
“‘Who wants to know?’
“‘You don’t know me, Carter, but I’m calling from the prison. Duke Russell just got a stay, so
I’m sorry to inform you that the case is still alive. Are you watching television?’ “‘Who is this?
“‘I’m sure you’re watching the TV, Carter, sitting there on your fat ass with your fat girlfriend
hoping and praying that the State finally kills Duke for your crime. You’re a scumbag Carter,
willing to watch him die for something you did. What a coward.’
“‘Say it to my face.’
“‘Oh, I will Carter, one day in a courtroom. I’ll find the evidence and before long Duke will get
out. You’ll take his place. I’m coming your way, Carter.’”
Cullan quickly ends the call, not wishing to push his luck with his recklessness. Eleven
years ago, Mark Carter raped and murdered Emily Broone, pinning the blame on Duke. Now
all Cullan has to do is prove it. Easier said than done, of course.
Mentally and physically exhausted by the last few days of fighting for Duke’s life, Cullan
knows he can’t rest on his laurels. He has other clients on death row, and quickly focuses his
attention to Quincy Miller.
In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot
dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no
witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young
black man who was once a client of Russo’s.
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Quincy was tried, convicted, and sent to prison for life. For 22 years he languished in
prison, maintaining his innocence. But no one was listening. He had no lawyer, no advocate
on the outside. In desperation, he wrote a letter to Guardian Ministries.
Cullan was assigned the task, and with his usually steely determination, sets about
trying to prove Quincy’s innocence.
However, with Quincy Miller, Cullan will soon learn that he got far more than he
bargained for. Powerful, ruthless people murdered Keith Russo, and they do not want Quincy
Miller exonerated. They killed one lawyer 22 years ago, and they’ll have no qualms about
killing another to hide their secrets. Cullan is now in their sights, and a finger is slowing
pressing on the trigger.
11. Drama is an imitation of life. Drama is different from other forms of literature because of its
unique characteristics. It is read, but basically, it is composed to be performed, so the ultimate
aim of dramatic composition is for it to be presented on stage before an audience. This implies
that it a medium of communication. It has a message to communicate to the audience. It uses
actors to convey this message. This brings us to the issue of mimesis or imitation. We say that
drama is mimetic which means that it imitates life. You may have heard people say that drama
mirrors life. Yes, it is the only branch of literature which tries to imitate life and presents it
realistically to the people. It is this mimetic impulse of drama that makes it appeal to people.
Aristotle’s definitions sum up these and other numerous definitions of drama by different
scholars. He defines drama simply as an imitation of an action. He links it to the mimetic
impulse in human beings like children playing father and mother in a childhood play. This
means that imitation is part of life. Human beings have the desire to imitate others, situations
or events.
The Death of a Salesman: Arthur Miller

Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, returns home to Brooklyn early from a sales trip. At
the age of 63, he has lost his salary and is working only on commission, and on this trip has
failed to sell anything. His son Biff, who has been laboring on farms and ranches throughout
the West for more than a decade, has recently arrived home to figure out a new direction for
his life. Willy thinks Biff has not lived up to his potential. But as Biff reveals to his younger
brother Happy—an assistant to the assistant buyer at a department store—he feels more
fulfilled by outdoor work than by his earlier attempts to work in an office.
Alone in his kitchen, Willy remembers an earlier return from a business trip, when Biff
and Happy were young boys and looked up to him as a hero. He contrasts himself and his
sons with his next-door neighbor Charley, a successful businessman, and Charley's son
Bernard, a serious student. Charley and Bernard, in his view, lack the natural charisma that the
Loman men possess, which Willy believes is the real determinant of success. But under the
questioning of his wife Linda, Willy admits that his commission from the trip was so small that
they will hardly be able to pay all their bills, and that he is full of self-doubt. Even as Linda
reassures him, he hears the laughter of The Woman, his mistress in Boston.
Charley comes over to see if Willy is okay. While they are playing cards, Willy begins
talking with the recently deceased figure of his brother Ben, who left home at the age of
seventeen and made a diamond fortune in Africa and Alaska. Charley offers Willy a job but
Willy refuses out of pride, even though he has been borrowing money from Charley every week
to cover household expenses. Full of regrets, Willy compares himself to Ben and their equally
adventurous, mysterious father, who abandoned them when they were young. He wanders into
his back yard, trying to see the stars.
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Linda discusses Willy's deteriorating mental state with the boys. She reveals that he
has tried to commit suicide, both in a car crash and by inhaling gas through a rubber hose on
the heater. Biff, chagrined, agrees to stay home and try to borrow money from his previous
employer, Bill Oliver, in order to start a sporting goods business with Happy, which will please
their father. Willy is thrilled about this idea, and gives Biff some conflicting, incoherent advice
about how to ask for the loan.
The next morning, at Linda's urging, Willy goes to his boss Howard Wagner and asks
for a job in the New York office, close to home. Though Willy has been with the company
longer than Howard has been alive, Howard refuses Willy's request. Willy continues to beg
Howard, with increasing urgency, until Howard suspends Willy from work. Willy, humiliated,
goes to borrow money from Charley at his office. There he encounters Bernard, who is now a
successful lawyer, while the greatest thing Willy's son Biff ever achieved was playing high
school football.
Biff and Happy have made arrangements to meet Willy for dinner at Frank's Chop
House. Before Willy arrives, Biff confesses to Happy that Oliver gave him the cold shoulder
when he tried to ask for the loan, and he responded by stealing Oliver's pen. Happy advises
him to lie to Willy in order to keep his hope alive. Willy sits down at the table and immediately
confesses that he has been fired, so Biff had better give him some good news to bring home to
Linda. Biff and Willy argue, as distressing memories from the past overwhelm Willy. Willy
staggers to the washroom and recalls the end of Biff's high school career, when Biff failed a
math course and went to Boston in order to tell his father. He found Willy in a hotel room with
The Woman, and became so disillusioned about his former hero that he abandoned his dreams
for college and following in Willy's footsteps. As Willy is lost in this reverie, Biff and Happy
leave the restaurant with two call girls.
When Biff and Happy return home, Linda is furious at them for abandoning their father.
Biff, ashamed of his behavior, finds Willy in the back yard. He is trying to plant seeds in the
middle of the night, and conversing with the ghost of his brother Ben about a plan to leave his
family with $20,000 in life insurance money. Biff announces that he is finally going to be true to
himself, that neither he nor Willy will ever be great men, and that Willy should accept this and
give up his distorted version of the American Dream. Biff is moved to tears at the end of this
argument, which deepens Willy's resolve to kill himself out of love for his son and family. He
drives away to his death.
Only his family, Charley, and Bernard attend Willy's funeral. Biff is adamant that Willy
died for nothing, while Charley elegizes Willy as a salesman who, by necessity, had nothing to
trade on but his dreams. Linda says goodbye to Willy, telling him that the house has been paid
off—that they are finally free of their obligations—but now there will be nobody to live in it.
12. Literary Fiction: Literary fiction is a category of fiction that explores any facet of the human
condition, and may involve social commentary. Generally speaking, literary fiction is regarded
as having more literary merit than genre fiction, especially the most commercially oriented
type of genre fiction. However, the serious study of genre fiction has developed within
academia in recent decades. Literary fiction usually has 1. A concern with social commentary,
political criticism, or reflection on the human condition. 2. A focus on "introspective, in-depth
character studies" of "interesting, complex and developed" characters, whose "inner stories"
drive the plot, with detailed motivations to elicit "emotional involvement" in the reader. 3. A
slower pace than popular fiction. "Literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to delay, to linger
on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way". 4. A concern with the style and complexity
of the writing. Unlike genre fiction plot is not the central concern. The tone of literary fiction
can be darker than genre fiction.
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The Handmaid’s Tale: Margaret Atwood
The United States has fallen, overthrown by a theocratic regime, founded on rigid
Christian principles and the disempowerment of women, which has installed a new nation
called Gilead in its place. The novel begins with Offred, the first-person narrator, remembering
her restricted life at the Rachel and Leah Center, a training camp for Handmaids in an old high
school. The scene changes to her current residence, where she lives with a Commander and
his wife, Serena Joy. Offred puts on a red uniform and goes on a shopping trip with Ofglen,
and afterwards they stop by the Wall to look at the bodies of recently executed men.
In the evening, Offred lies in bed. She remembers her spunky friend Moira, her activist
mother, and the loss of her daughter and her husband, Luke. She thinks about the previous
Handmaid who left a Latin message scratched into the wall. She describes her trip to the
doctor on the previous day. The doctor suggested that her Commander might be sterile and
offers to have sex with her. Though her life depends on getting pregnant, Offred refused.
She takes a bath and thinks about her daughter and the hysterical Handmaid Janine. After her
bath, she and the rest of the members of the household gather to listen to the Commander
read the bible. Then the Commander, the Commander’s wife Serena Joy, and Offred perform
the Ceremony: the Commander has impersonal sex with Offred while she lies between
Serena Joy’s legs. Afterwards, Offred sneaks downstairs in a rebellious gesture and runs into
Nick, who gives her a message from the Commander to meet the following night.
The next day, Offred and other Handmaids attend Janine’s birth. In the afternoon,
Offred remembers how Moira managed to escape from the Rachel and Leah Center disguised
as an Aunt. In the evening she sees the Commander, who surprisingly only wants to play
Scrabble and get a chaste kiss. Afterwards she can’t stop laughing.
Months pass. Offred and the Commander meet often, and the Ceremony becomes
more fraught for Offred now that she and the Commander know each other. Offred and Ofglen
go shopping regularly, and Ofglen reveals that she’s part of a secret organized resistance.
Offred recalls all the events that lead from the US government to the Republic of Gilead—a
massacre of the President and Congress, a succession of restrictive measures imposed for
“safety,” the removal of all power and possessions from women. One night the Commander
explains the meaning of the previous Handmaid’s Latin, and Offred learns that the previous
Handmaid hanged herself.
After a shopping trip one day, Serena Joy tells Offred to have sex with Nick in an effort
to get pregnant, and Offred agrees. Offred and Ofglen attend a Prayvaganza, celebrating
arranged marriages. Afterward, Serena Joy shows Offred a photo of her daughter. That night,
the Commander gives Offred a skimpy outfit and makeup, and Nick drives them to a
nightclub/hotel filled with prostitutes. Offred spots Moira across the room, and they meet in the
bathroom. Moira reveals that she spent many months on the Underground Femaleroad before
she was captured. Offred and the Commander get a room and have sex, and Offred has to
fake arousal.
Shortly after returning home, Serena Joy leads Offred to Nick, and Offred doesn’t have
to fake arousal this time. Time passes, and Offred sees Nick often. She becomes so
obsessed with him that she doesn’t want to leave or help Ofglen with Resistance efforts.
Offred and Ofglen attend a Women’s Salvaging, where three women are hanged. Afterwards
there’s a Particicution, a frenzied group murder of a supposed rapist, who was actually a
member of the Resistance. The following day, a new Handmaid comes for the shopping trip
with Offred. She says that the old Ofglen committed suicide when the Eyes—the Gilead secret
police—came to get her.
When Offred returns home after shopping, Serena Joy confronts her with the skimpy
outfit and threatens to punish her. Offred goes to her room and sees the Eyes coming for her.
Nick tells her that they’re secretly members of the Resistance, and she enters their van,
unsure of her fate.
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The novel ends with “Historical Notes” from a future academic conference about Gilead.
Professor Pieixoto describes the discovery of Offred’s narrative on cassette tapes in Maine,
suggesting that the Eyes that took her were part of the Resistance, as Nick claimed. It is
revealed that researchers may have discovered who the Commander was, but no one knows
what happened to Offred.
13. Biographies: A biography is simply 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. A biography provides a life story of a
subject, highlighting different aspects of his of her life.
James Boswell’s biography The Life of Samuel Johnson ( 1791) is considered by

many scholars to be one of the finest pieces of biographical writing in the English language.
Boswell was acquainted with Samuel Johnson during his life but did not publish the work until
seven years after Johnson’s death. Later research has shown that Boswell took liberties with
some of Johnson’s quotations and censored important incidents from his biography. However,
the level of detail included in the work makes it a valuable resource on Samuel Johnson and
the eighteenth century.
Samuel Johnson is born in 1709 in a room above his father’s bookshop. His mother,
Sarah, is 40 years old when Johnson is born, and due to the lateness of the pregnancy, she is
attended by a respected surgeon. Johnson is sickly at birth and it is feared that he will not live,
so a vicar is brought in to perform a baptism. However, Johnson’s health improves soon after.
When Johnson is three years old, he begins to show signs of exceptional intelligence.
Much to his embarrassment and irritation, his parents frequently ask him to perform stunts of
memory to show off for friends. Johnson excels in school and begins to write poems and
verse when he is sixteen. However, his academic future remains in doubt because his father
is deeply in debt. When his mother’s cousin dies in 1728, she leaves Johnson enough money
to attend university.
Far ahead of many students in his studies at Oxford, Johnson is idle much of the time
because the work is too easy for him. After a year at university, he runs out of money and is
forced to return home without a degree.
Back home with his parents, Johnson goes through a period of physical and mental
anguish. He tries to become a school teacher but is rejected because he does not have a
degree. When he is finally accepted as a teacher, he is soon forced to leave the school after
an argument with the headmaster. With the help of his friend Thomas Warren, a book
publisher, Johnson begins producing translated and annotated books.
After Warren’s death, Johnson marries his widow, Elizabeth. Johnson’s family opposes
the union, and one of Elizabeth’s children from her first marriage cuts all ties with the couple.
Johnson continues to support his new family with his translation work, as well as tutoring the
children of local prominent families. In 1735, Johnson opens a private school which fails soon
after, taking with it a significant portion of Elizabeth’s fortune. However, one of Johnson’s
students, David Garrick, travels to London to become an actor. He invites Johnson to join him
there and helps him secure work writing for The Gentlemen’s Magazine.
Johnson’s contributions to the magazine are numerous and show great range. Around
this time, Johnson also finishes his first play, the historical tragedy, Irene. His fame grows
quickly as he releases more popular works, including the novel Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
and the ten-volume critical work Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of the
English Poets. He also writes a well-received introduction to the works of William
Shakespeare.
44
During this period, Johnson’s reputation as a brilliant writer grows quickly, and he
makes the acquaintance of many of the famous intellectuals of the time, including David
Hume, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Oliver Goldsmith. He also earns the reputation of an
eccentric, due to the tics that are probably symptoms of Tourette’s disease.
Boswell explains his intention to depict Johnson’s complete life, and so does not shy
away from writing about his illness as well as some of the more ludicrous aspects of his
personality. He says he did not set out to write only praise about Johnson, but to show the
entirety of his life, the good and the bad.
In 1746, a group of publishers pitches to Johnson the idea of writing a complete
dictionary of the English language. Johnson surprises them by saying that he wants to
complete the book on his own instead of with a team of scholars. Johnson works on the
Dictionary for ten years, and it is finally published in 1755. In anticipation of its publication,
Oxford University awards Johnson an honorary degree.
By this point, Johnson is showing signs of deteriorating health. However, he continues
to work, writing mostly for literary magazines. He remains in dire financial straits until 1762
when the king grants him an annual pension in appreciation of his work on the Dictionary.
Boswell meets Johnson in 1763, but they are destined to have only a short
acquaintance. In 1773, Johnson’s health takes a turn for the worse. He suffers a stroke and
loses his ability to speak, though he is still able to write about his fear of death. Many people
came to visit Johnson on his deathbed, including Boswell, who waited in the house until
Johnson died on December 13, 1784.
14. Poetry: Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of words and rhythm. It often
employs rhyme and meter (a set of rules governing the number and arrangement of syllables
in each line). In poetry, words are strung together to form sounds, images, and ideas that
might be too complex or abstract to describe directly. Poetry was once written according to
fairly strict rules of meter and rhyme, and each culture had its own rules. For example, Anglo
Saxon poets had their own rhyme schemes and meters, while Greek poets and Arabic poets
had others. Although these classical forms are still widely used today, modern poets
frequently do away with rules altogether – their poems generally do not rhyme, and do not fit
any particular meter. These poems, however, still have a rhythmic quality and seek to create
beauty through their words.
Assignment:
Directions: Compare and contrast the literary pieces discussed above. Use the table to
properly execute your response.
Literary Piece Characters/ Presentation Plot Structure Themes
Characterizatio
n
Further Readings:
Read the poems in Rupi Kaur’s “The Sun and Her Flowers’.
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LESSON 5 POPULAR AND EMERGING LITERATURE IN THE
PHILIPPINES
Übersicht
This lesson discusses the history of the Philippine literature as well as the famous
literary authors and their famous works.

to: 1. Discover the rich Philippine contemporary literature
2. Recognize the popular and emerging Filipino authors
3. Discuss the Philippine popular and emergent literature.
Course Materials:
Unit 1: Contemporary Philippine Literature: Short History

The Americans returned in 1945. Filipinos rejoiced and guerillas who fled to the
mountain joined the liberating American Army. On July 4, 1946, the Philippines regained is
freedom and the Filipino flag waved joyously alone. The chains were broken.
The Return of the Americans

The State of Literature During the Period
The early post-liberation period was marked by a kind of “struggle of mind and spirit”
posed by the sudden emancipation from the enemy, and the wild desire to see print. Filipinos
had, by this time, learned to express themselves more confidently but post-war problems
beyond language and print-like economic stability, the threat of new ideas and mortality – had
to be grappled with side by side.
There was a proliferation of newspapers like the FREE PRESS, MORNING SUN, of
Sergio Osmeña Sr., DAILY MIRROR of Joaquin Roces, EVENING NEWS of Ramon Lopezes
and the BULLETIN of Menzi. This only proved that there were more readers in English than in
any other vernaculars like Tagalog, Ilocano or Hiligaynon. Journalists had their day. They
indulged in more militant attitude in their reporting which bordered on the libelous. Gradually,
as normality was restored, the tones and themes of the writings turned to the less pressing
problems of economic survival. Some Filipino writers who had gone abroad and had written
during the interims came back to publish their works. Not all the books published during the
period reflected the war year; some were compilations or second editions of what have been
written before.
Some of the writers and their works of the periods are: The Voice of the Veteran – a
compilation of the best works of some Ex-USAFFE men like Amante Bigornia, Roman de la
Cruz, Ramon de Jesus and J.F. Rodriguez. TWILIGHT IN TOKYO and PASSION and DEATH
OF THE USAFFE by Leon Ma. Guerrero, For Freedom and Democracy – by S.P. Lopez
Betrayal in the Philippines – by Hernando Abaya Seven Hill Away – by NVM Gonzales
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POETRY IN ENGLISH DURING THIS PERIOD
For the first twenty years, many books were published…both in Filipino and in English.
Among the writers during this time were: Fred Ruiz Castro, Dominador I. Ilio, and C.B. Rigor.
Some notable works of the period include the following:
• Heart of the Islands (1947) – a collection of poems by Manuel Viray.
• The Philippine Cross Section (1950) – a collection of prose and poetry by Maximo Ramos
and Florentino Valeros
• Prose and Poems (1952) – by Nick Joaquin
• Philippine Writing (1953) – by T.D. Agcaoili
• Philippine Harvest – by Amador Daguio
• Horizons Least (1967) – a collection of works by the professors of UE, mostly in English
(short stories, essays, research papers, poem and drama) by Artemio Patacsil and
Silverio Baltazar
The themes of most poems dealt with the usual love of nature, and of social and
political problems. Toribia Maño’s poems showed deep emotional intensity. • W#ho Spoke
Courage in His Sleep – by NVM Gonzales
• Speak Not, Speak Also – by Conrado V. Pedroche
• Other poets were Toribia Maño and Edith L. Tiempo Jose Garcia Villa’s Have Come, Am
Here won acclaim both here and abroad.
Novels and Shorts Stories in English

Longer and longer pieces were being written by writers of the period. Stevan
Javellana’s WITHOUT SEEING THE DAWN tells of the grim experiences of war during the
Japanese Occupation.
In 1946, the Barangay Writer’s Project whose aim was to publish works in English by
Filipinos was established.
In 1958, the PEN Center of the Philippines (Poets, essayists, novelists) was
inaugurated. In the same year, Francisco Arcellana published his PEN ANTHOLOGY OF
SHORT STORIES.
In 1961, Kerima Polotan’s novel THE HAND O F THE ENEMY won the Stonehi ll Award
for the Filipino novel in English.
In 1968, Luis V. Teodoro Jr.’s short story THE ADVERSARY won the Philippines Free
Press short story award; in 1969, his story THE TRAIL OF PROFESSOR RIEGO won second
prize in the Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and in 1970, his short story THE DISTANT
CITY won the GRAPHIC short story award.
The New Filipino Literature During the Period

Philippines literature in Tagalog was revived during this period. Most themes in the
writings dealt with Japanese brutalities, of the poverty of life under the Japanese government
and the brave guerilla exploits.
Newspapers and magazine publications were reopened like the Bulaklak, Liwayway,
Ilang Ilang and Sinag Tala. Tagalog poetry acquired not only rhyme but substance and
meaning. Short stories had better characters and events based on facts and realities and
themes were more meaningful. Novels became common but were still read by the people for
recreation. The people’s love for listening to poetic jousts increased more than before and
people started to flock to places to hear poetic debates.
Many books were published during this time, among which were:
1. Mga Piling Katha (1947-48) by Alejandro Abadilla
2. Ang Maikling Kuwentong Tagalog (1886- 1948) by Teodoro Agoncillo 3. Ako’y Isang
Tinig (1952) collection of poems and stories by Genoveva Edroza Matute
47
4. Mga Piling Sanaysay (1952) by Alejandro Abadilla
5. Maikling Katha ng Dalawampung Pangunahing Autor (1962) by A.G. Abadilla and Ponciano
E.P. Pineda
6. Parnasong Tagalog (1964) collection of selected poems by Huseng Sisiw and Balagtas,
collected by A.G. Abadilla
7. Sining at Pamamaraan ng Pag-aaral ng Panitikan (1965) by Rufino Alejandro. He prepared
this book for teaching in reading and appreciation of poems, dramas, short stories and novels
8. Manlilikha, Mga Piling Tula (1961-1967) by Rogelio G. Mangahas
9. Mga Piling Akda ng Kadipan (Kapisanang Aklat ng Diwa at Panitik) 1965 by Efren Abueg
10. Makata (1967) first cooperative effort to publish the poems of 16 poets in Pilipino 11.
Pitong Dula (1968) by Dionisio Salazar
12. Manunulat: Mga Piling Akdang Pilipino (1970) by Efren Abueg. In this book, Abueg proved
that it is possible to have a national integration of ethnic culture in our country. 13. Mga Aklat ni
Rizal: Many books about Rizal came out during this period. The law ordering the additional
study of the life of Rizal helped a lot in activating our writers to write books about Rizal.
Period of Activism (1970- 1972)

According to Pociano Pineda, youth activism in 1970-72 was due to domestic and
worldwide causes. Activism is connected with the history of our Filipino youth. Because of the
ills of society, the youth moved to seek reforms. Some continued to believe that the democratic
government is stable and that it is only the people running the government who are at fault.
Some believed that socialism or communism should replace democracy. Some armed groups
were formed to bring down the democratic form of government.
Many young people became activists to ask for changes in the government. In the
expression of this desire for change, keen were the writings of some youth who were fired with
nationalism in order to emphasize the importance of their petitions.
Many young activists were imprisoned in military camps together with rebel writers. As
early as this period of history we can say that many of those writers who were imprisoned were
true nationalists and heroes of their time. Many books aptly record and embody these times but
many of these are not known to many and many of these writers still have to be interviewed.
We just leave to scholars and researchers the giving of credit where credit is due.
The seeds of activism resulted in the declaration of Martial Law in 1972. We can,
however, say that he seeds were earlier sown from the times of Lapu-lapu, Lakandula, and
Rizal. The revolution against the powerful forces in the Philippines can be said to be the
monopoly of the youth in whose veins flow the fire in their blood. What Rizal said of the youth
being the hope of the Fatherland – is still valid even today.
Pineda also said that this was the time when the youth once more proved that it is not
the constant evasion that shapes our race and nationalism. There is a limit to one’s patience. It
may explode like a volcano if overstrained.
The youth became completely rebellious during this period. This was proven not only in the
bloody demonstrations and in the sidewalk expressions but also in literature. Campus
newspapers showed rebellious emotions. The once aristocratic writers developed awareness
for society. They held pens and wrote on placards in red paint the equivalent of the word
MAKIBAKA (To dare!). They attacked the ills of society and politics. Any establishment became
the symbol of the ills that had to be changed. The frustrations of youth could be felt in churches
and school. Even the priests, teachers and parents, as authorities who should be respected
became targets of the radical youth and were thought of as hindrances to the changes they 48
sought. The literature of the activists reached a point where they stated boldly what should be
done to effect these changes. Some of those who rallied to this revolutionary form of literature
were Rolando Tinio, Rogelio Mangahas, Efren Abueg, Rio Alma, and Clemente Bautista.
The irreverence for the poor reached its peak during this period of the mass revolution.
It was also during this period that Bomba films that discredit our ways as Filipinos started to
come out.
Writers During the Period

Jose F. Lacaba, in his book DAYS OF DISQUIET, NIGHTS OF RAGE; THE FIRST
QUARTERS STORM AND RELATED EVENTS, wrote of the tragic and tumultuous moments in
our country’s history.
Describing this period, he writes: “That first quarter of the year 1970…It was a glorious
time, a time of terror and of wrath, but also a time for hope. The signs of change were on the
horizon. A powerful storm was sweeping the land, a storm whose inexorable advance no
earthly force could stop, and the name of the storm was history.”
He mentions that those students demonstrating at that time knew and were aware that
what they were doing would be crucial to our country’s history. Student leaders thought up
grandiose names for their organizations and hence, the proliferation of acronyms likes
SUCCOR, YDS, KTPD, SAGUPA, SMP, KKK, KM, MDP, and SDK.
Politicians endorsed bills for those who interfered with student demonstrators. Mayor
Antonio Villegas himself, on Feb. 18, 1970, led demonstrators away from angry policemen.
Other politicians like Eva Estrada Kalaw, and Salvador Laurel, Benigno Aquino Jr. wrote about
condemnation of police brutalities.
Lacaba’s book is truly representative of writers who were eyewitnesses to this time “of
terror and wrath.” Other writers strove to pour out their anguish and frustrations in words
describing themselves as “gasping for the air, thirsting for the water of freedom.” Thus, the
Philippine Center for the International PEN (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists) held a conference
centering on the “writer’s lack of freedom in a climate of fear.”
For a day they denounced restrictions on artistic freedom and passionately led a plea
for freedom. Among the writers in this group were: Nick Joaquin, S.P. Lopez, Gregorio
Brillantes, F. Sionil Jose, Petronilo Daroy, Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, Mauro Avelina, and Jose
W. Diokno.
People in the other media participated in this quest for freedom. Journalists Jose
Burgos Jr., Antonio Ma. Nieva,; movie director Lino Brocka, art critic Anna Leah S. de Leon
were battling head – on against censorship.
They came up with resolutions that pleaded for causes other than their own – like the
general amnesty for political prisoners, and other secret decrees restricting free expression.
They requested editors and publishers to publish the real names of writers in their columns. It
called on media to disseminate information on national interest without partisan leanings and
resolved to be united with all causes decrying oppression and repression.
New Society (1972-1980)

The period of the New Society started on September 21, 1972. The Carlos Palanca
Awards continued to give annual awards.
Almost all themes in most writings dealt with the development or progress of the
country – like the Green Revolution, family planning, proper nutrition, environment, drug
addiction and pollution. The New Society tried to stop pornography or those writings giving bad
influences on the morals of the people. All school newspapers were temporarily stopped and
so with school organizations.
The military government established a new office called the Ministry of Public Affairs that
supervised the newspapers, books and other publications. The government took part in 49
reviving old plays like the Cenaculo, the Zarzuela and the Embayoka of the Muslims. The
Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Folk Arts Theater and even the old Metropolitan Theater
were rebuilt in order to have a place for these plays. Singing both Filipino and English songs
received fresh incentives. Those sent abroad promoted many Filipino songs. The weekly
publications like KISLAP, and LIWAYWAY helped a lot in the development of literature. These
became outlets for our writers to publish many of their works.
Themes of most poems dealt with patience, regard for native culture, customs and the
beauties of nature and surroundings. Those who wrote poetry during this period were:
Ponciano Pineda, Aniceto Silvestre, Jose Garcia Revelo, Bienvenido Ramos, Vicente
Dimasalang, Cir Lopez Francisco, and Pelagio Sulit Cruz.
Many more composers added their bit during this period. Among them were Freddie
Aguilar, Jose Marie Chan and the group Tito, Vic and Joey. ANAK of Freddie Aguilar became
an instant success because of the spirit and emotions revealed in the song. There were even
translations in Japanese and in other languages.
The government led in reviving old plays and dramas, like the Tagalog Zarzuela,
Cenaculo and the Embayoka of the Muslims which were presented in the rebuilt Metropolitan
Theater, the Folk Arts Theater and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Many schools and organizations also presented varied plays. The Mindanao State
University presented a play Sining Embayoka at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In
1977, the Tales of Manuvu, a new style of rock of the ballet opera was also added to these
presentations. This was performed by Celeste Legaspi, Lea Navarro, Hadji Alejandro, Boy
Camara, Anthony Castello, Rey Dizon and choreographed by Alice Reyes. Even the
President’s daughter at the time participated as a performing artist in the principal role of Santa
Juana of Koral and in The Diary of Anne Frank. The following organizations contributed a lot to
the development of plays during this period:
1. PETA of Cecille Guidote and Lino Brocka
2. Repertory Philippines: of Rebecca Godines and Zenaida Amador
3. UP Repertory of Behn Cervantes
4. Teatro Filipino by Rolando Tinio
Bilingual education which was initiated by the Board of National Education as early as
1958 and continued up to the period of Martial Rule in September 21, 1972, resulted in the
deterioration of English in the different levels of education. The focus of education and culture
was on problems of national identity, on re-orientation, renewed vigor and a firm resolves to
carry out plans and programs.
The forms of literature that led during this period wee the essays, debates and poetry.
The short stories, like the novels and plays were no different in style from those written before
the onset of activism. Some of the books that came out during this period were:
• I Married a Newspaperman (essay) by Maria Luna Lopez (wife of newspaperman
Salvador B. Lopez), 1976
• The Modern Filipino Short Story by Patricia Melendrez Cruz, 1980
• Cross Currents in Afro-Asian Literature, by Rustica D. Carpio, 1976
• Brief Time to Love by Ofelia F. Limcaco
• Medium Rare and Tell the People (feature articles and TV Program) by Julie Yap Daza
The Third Republic (1981-1985)

After ten years of military rule and some changes in the life of the Filipino which started
under the New Society, Martial Rule was at last lifted on January 2, 1981. To those in
government, the lifting of military rule heralded a change. To their perceptions, the Philippines
became a new nation and this; former President Marcos called “The New Republic of the
50
Philippines.” A historian called this the Third Republic. The First Republic he claimed was
during the Philippine Republic of Emilio Aguinaldo when we first got our independence form the
Spaniards on June 12, 1898. The Second was when the Americans granted us our
independence on July 4, 1946. This period, January 2, 1981, was the Third Republic when we
were freed from Military Rule.
During this period, it cannot be denied that many people seethed with rebellion and
protest because of the continued oppression and suppression. This was further aggravated
when former Senator Benigno S. Aquno Jr., the idol of the Filipino masses, whom they hoped
to be the next president, was president, was brutally murdered on August 21, 1983. This stage
of the nation had its effect on our literature. After the Aquino assassinated, the people’s voices
could no long be contained. Both the public and private sectors in government were chanting,
and shouting; women, men and the youth became bolder and their voices were raised in
dissent. We can say that Philippine literature, in spite of the many restrictions, still
surreptitiously retained its luster.
Poems during this period of the Third Republic were romantic and revolutionary. Writers
wrote openly of their criticism against the government. The supplications of the people were
coached in fiery, colorful, violent, profane and insulting language.
Many Filipino songs dealt with themes that were really true-to-life like those of grief,
poverty, aspirations for freedom, love of God, of country and of fellowmen. Many composers,
grieved over Ninoy Aquino’s treacherous assassination composed songs. Among them were
Coritha, Eric and Freddie Aguilar. Coritha and Eric composed a song titles LABAN NG BAYAN
KO and this was first sung by Coritha during the National Unification Conference of the
Opposition in March, 1985. This was also sung during the Presidential Campaign Movement
for Cory Aquino to inspire the movement against Marcos in February 1986. Freddie Aguilar
revived the song BAYAN KO which was written by Jose Corazon de Jesus and C. de Guzman
during the American period.
Poets, surprisingly, by common consent, found themselves writing on a common
subject. Reproduction of some of them is reprinted here. We aptly call them Protest Poetry of
the ‘80’s. The themes of most during this time dealt with courage, shock and grief over the
“treachery inflicted upon Aquino.”
Children’s Book
Among the well-loved forms of writing which abounded during this period were those of
children’s stories. The Children’s Communication Center (CCC) directed by poet and writer
Virgilio S. Almario already has built up an impressive collection of these kinds of books. The
following are some of the books of the period.
1982: PLAYS FOR CHILDREN by Jame B. Reuter S.J. (New Day Pub.)
1983: STORY TELLING FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
1983: JOSE AND CARDO by Peggy Corr Manuel
1983: Joaquinesquerie: MYTH A LA MOD (Cacho Hermanos)
1983: LAHI: 5 FILIPINO FOLK TALES (of 5 English books and 1 cassette tape) 1984:
RIZALIANA FOR CHILDREN: ILLUSTRATIONS and FOLKTALES by: Jose P. Rizal,
Intoduced and annotated by Alfredo Navarro Salanga
1984: GATAN AND TALAW by Jaime Alipit Montero
(Prose) Fables
The people’s cry of protest found outlets not only in poetry but also in veiled prose
fables which transparently satirized the occupants of Malacañang. Among those that saw prints
were:
1. The Crown Jewels of Heezenhurst by Sylvia Mendez Ventura
2. The Emperor’s New Underwear by Meynardo A. Macaraig
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3. The King’s Cold by Babeth Lolarga
4. The Case of the Missing Charisma (unfinished) by Sylvia L. Mayuga.
In all the fables, the king, differently referred to as Totus Markus or the king or Haring
Matinik was meant to poke fun at the ruler at Malacañang; similarly, Reyna Maganda or the
Queen, was a veiled thrust at his queen. They were both drunk with power and were punished
in the end for their misdeeds.
Isagani Cruz, writing about Philippine literature in the “Age of Ninoy,” makes the
following observations: “Philippines literature is definitely changing,” and he summarizes these
as follows:
• Change in the direction of greater consciousness in content and form. • Change in the
number of readers and the number of writers and the kind of class of writers. Writers who
joined the ranks came not only from the established or professional groups but from all
ranks – clerks, secretaries, drivers, housewives, students; in short, the masses.
• The resurgence of Balagtasismo and the continued dominance of Modernismo. While
Balagtasismo turned its back on the American challenge to Philippine literature its
conservative conventions, Modernismo adapted Americanization for its own ends. • The
birth of a new poetic movement still dims in outline.
• The apparent merging of the erstwhile separate streams of oral and written literature.
Periods (1986-1999)
Once more, the Filipino people regained their independence which they lost twenty
years ago. In the span of four days form February 21- 25, 1986, the so-called People Power
(Lakas ng Bayan) prevailed. Together, the people barricaded the streets petitioning the
government for changes and reforms. Freedom became a reality – won through a peaceful,
bloodless and God-blessed revolution. Philippine society was in turmoil for a few weeks but the
rejoicing after the Pres. Marcos was toppled down from power was sheer euphoria. Singing,
dancing and shouting were the order of the day. The events created overnight heroes. In this
historical event, the role played by two big figures in history cannot be doubted. To Defense
Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos, as well as to the
cause of freedom do the Filipinos owe their gratitude for the blessing of Independence? To the
Filipino people, this is the true Philippine Republic, the true Republic of the Philippines.
In the short span of the existence of the true Republic of the Philippines, several
changes already became evident. This in noticed in the new Filipino songs, in the newspapers,
in the speeches, and even in the television programs.
On Newspapers and other publications:

Newspapers which were once branded crony newspapers became instant opposition
papers overnight. This was true of BULLETIN TODAY which became the opposition paper. The
now crony newspapers that enjoyed an overnight increase in circulation were THE INQUIRER,
MALAYA, and the PEOPLE’S JOURNAL.
Newspapers felt that the shackles that muzzled their voices during the repressive years
had been broken and, like a bird “trying its wings after a long time of bondage,” the desire to
write about this “miracle of change” was electric.
Columnists became vocal and unrestricted in there are and a bumper crop of young
journalists emerged. The old stalwarts of the former dispensation like Maximo Soliven, Louie
Beltran, Hilarion Henares, and Francisco Soc Rodrigo came back with a vengeance.
By June 12, 1986, a total of 19 local dailies both in English and Filipino were in
circulation. Nowhere since the 1950’s had there been such a big number of newspapers in
52
circulation (excluding tabloids). These newspapers include: BULLETIN, TEMPO, BALITA,
MALAY, MIDDAY, MASA, MANILA TIMES, NEWS HERALD, TRIBUNE, NGAYON,
INQUIRER, EXPRESS TONIGHT, EVENING POST, PEOPLE’S, DAILY MIRROR, BUSINESS
DAY, and MANILA CHRONICLE.
On Books:
Philippine literature is still in the making…we are just beginning a new era. The
Phillippine revolution of 1986 and the fire of its spirit that will carry the Filipinos through another
epoch in Philippine history is still being documented just as they have been in the countless
millions who participated in body and spirit in its realization.
Two books were conceived during the period. PEOPLE POWER was produced under a
grant by the PCI Bank Human Resources Development Foundation, edited by Monina Allarey
Mercado and published by the James B. Reuter, S.J. Foundation. Another one BAYAN KO was
published by Project 28 Days LTD. in June, 1986 in Kowloon, Hong Kong and co-published in
the Philippines by Veritas Publications and Communications Foundation.
In March 19, 1987, the Seventh National Book Awards cited several best books
published in 1987 according to the choices made by the Manila Critics Circle. Among those
awarded were: Dreamweavers Selected Poems (1976- 1986) by Marjorie Pernia and Awit at
Corrido: Philippine Metrical Romances by Damiana L. Eugenio. Bookfair Manila ’88 organized
by the Philippine Exhibit Company was held on February 20-28, 1988. It was held with the
belief that “requisition of knowledge not only enhances individual skills and capabilities but
more importantly, makes positive contributions to the nation’s development program.”
Unit 2: Philippine Emergent Literature
The Notable Authors of our time

1. Abdon M. Balde Jr. was born in Busac, Oas, Albay in the Bicol region. He finished a
degree in civil engineering and worked as a construction engineer for thirty-three years,
after which he retired to pursue a career as an author. His writing career bloomed and
critics noted his unique raw talent. He concentrated in writing creative short stories,
poems and novels. He received his first literary award in 2003 and has since continued
to win acclaim for his work. Today, he is a councilor of the organization Lupon Sa Wika,
a member of the NationalCommission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and director of
the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL; English: Writers’ Union of the
Philippines). His works include:
Novels
• Mga Pangarap at Pangitain (UST Publishing House, 2001)
• Sa Kagubatan ng Isang Lungsod ( UST Publishing House, 2002)
• Komunikasyon sa Makabagong Panahon (Mutya Publishing House, 2002) •
Mayong (UST Publishing House, 2003)
• Salbakuta ( Sawikaan, 2003)
• Hunyango sa Bato (UST Publishing House, 2004)
• Uda Aksidente sa Bway nikan Tau (Salugsog sa Sulog, 2004)
• Calvary Road ( UST Publishing House, 2005
Short Stories
• “Milagro sa Aming Nayon” (Liwayway Magazine, 1961)
• “Kuwento ng Isang Pag-ibig” (PIC Magazine, 1968)
• “Room for Rent”
• “Kalaguyo”
53
• “Mga Kuwento Mulang Kathmandu” (Ani 32, Cultural Center of the Phiippines,
2005)
• “Cagsawa after Reming”, “Juan Osong” and “Supay” (Graphic Magazine, 2007) •
“Bayawak sa Lambak” (Cultural Center of the Phils, Ani 32, 2007)
Poems
• “Ganito nga Pala,” My Fair Maladies ( Milflores Publishing, 2004)
• “Magali Na Naman Ako”
• “Kagabi Narungug Ako”
2. ChristinaPantoja-Hidalgo has been writing for Philippine newspapers and magazines

since the age of fifteen. She has worked as a writer, editor and teacher in Thailand,
Lebanon, Korea, Myanmar (Burma) and New York, United States. Her interesting
lifestyle, the result of her husband's fifteen-year connection with UNICEF, is reflected in
her writing. Pantoja-Hidalgo was originally best known for an unusual kind of
autobiographical/travel writing, which includes Sojourns (1984), Skyscrapers, C eladon
and Kimchi ( 1993), I Remember ( 1991) and The Path of the Heart (1994), "Passages:
Travel Essays" (2007), "Looking for the Philippines" (2009), and "Travels With Tania"
(2009). Pantoja-Hidalgo later won numerous prizes for her fiction, creative nonfiction,
literary scholarship and edited anthologies. She has frequently published many of her
creative and critical manuscripts in major publications in Finland, Korea, the
Philippines, Thailand and the United States.
Besides travel essays, Hidalgo has published collections of personal essays, The Path
of Heart ( 1994),Coming Home ( 1997) and "Stella and Other Friendly Ghosts" (2012).
She has also edited several anthologies, like "Creative Nonfiction: A Reader" (2003,
2005), "The Children's Hour" (2007, 2008), "Sleepless in Manila: Funny Essays, Etc. on
Insomnia by Insomniacs" (2003), "My Fair Maladies: Funny Essays and Poems on
Various Ailments and Afflictions" (2005), and "Tales of Fantasy and Enchantment"
(2008).She has encouraged many aspiring writers' efforts by editing their works:
Shaking the Family Tree (1998) and Why I Travel and Other Essays by Fourteen
Women ( 2000) with Erlinda Panlilio. Hidalgo found the idea of writing short and simple
initiation stories appealing. It reflects in her collection of short stories: Ballad of a Lost
Season and Other Stories ( 1987), Tales for a Rainy Night (1993), Where Only the Moon
Rages: Nine Tales ( 1994), Catch a Falling Star ( 1999) and the most recent one Sky
Blue After The Rain: Selected Stories and Tales (2005).Hidalgo's critical essays, which
reflect her interest in fictional writing by Filipino women, serves a much-needed
contribution to a developing body of feminist scholarship in the country today.
3. Allan Popa is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Drone ( Ateneo de Manila
University Press, 2013) and Laan (De La Salle University Publishing House, 2013). He
has received the Philippines Free Press Literary Award and the Manila Critics Circle
National Book Award. He teaches at the Filipino Department of Ateneo de Manila
University and is currently the director of Ateneo Institute of Literary Arts and Practices
(AILAP).
Morpo
From the leftmost, towards finitude's margins,
is silence expelled.
A heavy door ushering in
utterance.
Movement is sure-footed in the narrowness of what's allowed.
Towards the chasm's edge, in the pause
54
before facing the vanishing point.
Although reappearing.
Until the door of what's possible
is sealed completely.
There is a mystery to this line.
There is a hand that intervenes between having been
and being.
Nothing ever returns.
As through a hinge, around which the opening revolves.
Weighted shackles to the heavy footfall.
(remember, nothing ever returns)
The immaculate page stops the mouth.
There are lips imprinting the emptiness.
Straining towards form.
Wanting speech?
From the leftmost. Reappearing.
Weighted footfalls. Remember.
Towards finitude's margins.
While outside, a world
of noise bleeds through.
And beyond the world, stillness.
Also known as edgeless space.
On this line the world whirls.
4. Beverly “Bebang” Wico Siy was born on December 10, 1979 in Quirino, Manila to
Resureccion Wico and Roberto Siy. Her mother is Filipina, and her father is Chinese.
She grew up living two traditions, one of the Filipino and the other of the Chinese.
She is the eldest of five daughters—her other sisters being Columbia, Kimberly,
Charisse Ann and Erres. Bebang’s parents met when her mother was working as a
waitress. Her father was a drinker as well as a smoker—and he managed a rice store
and a jueteng racket. Her mother peddled fruits and Christmas decors to get by, as well
as delivered lunch to gambling joints.
Bebang, being half-Chinese, grew up amidst Chinese conventions. In the essay Nakaw
na Sandali, she wrote about how her entire family had to move in with her father’s
parents---as he had no money to afford a place of their own.
She even had to steal a box of gum from her grandparents’ grocery glass cabinet, so
that she could have a taste of what her cousins were usually given when they visited
the house. She would also tell about how her other cousins were favored by her Amah
and her Angkong (Grandmother and Grandfather) because her aunties and an uncle
married into Chinese families. But, despite this, Bebang was a child who danced
through life, as if the storm never bothered her at all –as reflected in her works.
5. J. Neil C. Garcia is the author of numerous poetry collections and works in literary and
cultural criticism, including Closet Quivers (1992), Our Lady of the Carnival (1996), The
Sorrows of Water (2000), Kaluluwa (2001), Slip/pages: Essays in Philippine Gay Criticism
(1998), Performing the Self: Occasional Prose (2003), The Garden of Wordlessness
(2005), and Misterios and Other Poems (2005). Garcia's groundbreaking study, Philippine
Gay Culture: The Last Thirty Years (1996), was awarded a National Book Award by the
Manila Critics Circle in 1996. An editor of the famous Ladlad series 55
of Filipino gay writing, Garcia also edited for the Likhaan, the following anthologies: The
Likhaan Book of Philippine Criticism (1992–1997) and The Likhaan Book of Poetry and
Fiction (1998 and 2000).
Garcia's latest critical work, Postcolonialism and Filipino Poetics: Essays and Critiques,
is a revised version of his very provocative Ph. D dissertation. The book examined
Filipino poetics from the perspective of post-colonialism consisting of the author's own
critical and personal reflections on poetry-both as he "reads" and "writes" it. Garcia
sought to answer a specific and difficult question: just how do the dominant poetic
theories in the Philippines address the problems and debates of postcolonialism? This
inquiry led Garcia to confront the issue of Filipino nationalism. Garcia addressed the
assumptions and consequences of Filipino nationalism then engaged with the poetics of
National Artist Virgilio Almario and eminent poet-critic Gemino Abad, whom Garcia
referred to as "the foremost commentators on Filipino poetics."
Garcia is currently working on a full-length book, a post-colonial survey and analysis of
Philippine poetry in English. Professor Garcia has won several literary awards including
the Palanca and the National Book Award from the Manila Critics Circle. He has also
received grants and fellowships to deliver lectures in Taipei, Hawaii, Berkeley,
Manchester, Cambridge, Leiden and Bangkok.
Assessment:
Directions: Answer the following:
1. Thor's mighty hammer was a formidable weapon of destruction, never missing its mark;
but it was also capable of resurrection, as well as being a symbol of fertility. What was
its name?
2. What was Thor’s hammer made of?
3. In your own words, shortly discuss how Thor’s hammer was created.
Further Readings:
Directions: Look for the works of the given notable authors of our time. Evaluate each literary
piece using the given table.
Author Works Themes Plot Target Review
reader
56
References:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-contemporary-literature-definition-writing-style.html
https://aboutphilippines.org/files/philippineliterature-091020093804-phpapp01.pdf
https://symbiosiscollege.edu.in/assets/pdf/e-learning/tyba/English/ModernismBackground-5.pd
f https://www.britannica.com/art/popular-art#ref236490
https://www.academia.edu/31303871/Role_of_Literature_in_Society
https://sites.google.com/site/zeebsenglisheducation/literaryperiods
http://staff.gps.edu/gaither/literary_movements.htm
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Adventure+Literature
https://www.booksummary.net/and-then-there-were-none-agatha-christie/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fiction
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson927/SciFiDefinition.pd
f https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/guardians-novel
https://literaryterms.net/poetry/
Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. Trans. R. Howard. Evanston: Northwestern
UP,1972 Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge,
2001 Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basics. London and New York: Routledge, 2001
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 3rd Ed.Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
Brocket, Oscar G. (1980). The Essential Theatre. New York: Holt Reinhart and Winston.
Cary, Nelson, and Lawrence Gross berg, eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London:
Macmillan, 1988.
Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, OUP, 2000.
Culler, Jonathan. Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature. New York:
Cornell UP, 1973.
Crown, Brian (1983). Studying Drama. Ikeja: Longman.
Davis, Robert Con, and Ronald Schleifer. Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literaryand Cultural Studies
(4th Edition). Longman, 1988.
Dobie, Ann B. Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Thomson,2002.
Dukore, B. F. (1974). Dramatic Theory and Criticism: Greek to Grotowsky. New York: Holt Reinhart and
Winston.
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1983.
Elliott, Anthony. Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell,

1994. Ellmann, Maud, ed. Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism. London: Longman,
1994.
Foulcher, Keith. 1987. Politics and Literature in Independent Indonesia: The View from the Left. Vol 15,
First Edition. Brill: Adelaide,South Australia.
Gerald Graff (1975) Babbitt at the Abyss: The Social Context of Postmodern. American Fiction,
TriQuarterly, No. 33 (Spring 1975), pp. 307-37; reprinted in Putz and Freese, eds., Postmodernism and
American Literature
57
Gerald Graff (1973) The Myth of the Postmodernist Breakthrough, TriQuarterly, 26 (Winter, 1973) 383-
417; rept in The Novel Today: Contemporary Writers on Modern Fiction Malcolm Bradbury, ed., (London:
Fontana, 1977); reprinted in Proza Nowa Amerykanska, ed., Szice Krytyczne (Warsaw, Poland, 1984);
reprinted in Postmodernism in American Literature: A Critical Anthology, Manfred Putz and Peter
Freese, eds., (Darmstadt: Thesen Verlag, 1984), 58-81.
Green, Keith and Jill LeBihan. Critical Theory & Practice: A Coursebook . London andNew York:
Routledge, 2004.
Gilber, Elliot (1983). The World of Mystery Fiction. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University
Popular Press. ISBN 0 -87972-225-8.
Heidegger, Martin. Being and Time. Tr. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. NewYork: Harper and
Row, 1962
Husserl, Edmund. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An

Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy. Trans. David Carr. Evanston:Northwestern UP, 1970.
John Barth (1979) The Literature of Replenishment, later republished in The Friday
Book'(1984)' Jung, Carl Gustav. Spirit in Man, Art, and Literature and various other works
Pratt, Anais. Archetypal Patterns in Women's Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP,1982.
Sarah Brouillette, course materials for 21L.488 Contemporary Literature: British Novels Now, Spring
2007. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded
on [DD Month YYYY].
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism and Humanism and Being and Nothingness.
Taylor, C. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, Cambridge MA:Harvard University
Press, 1989
58

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Republic of the Philippines

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Mr. Dither June U. Malaluan, MEM.

Date: September 14, 2020

Assoc. Prof. Cherry E. Angeles Assoc. Prof. Denise A. Abril Head,

Date: _________________ Date: __________________

Welcome to Polytechnic University of the Philippines- Maragondon Branch. As we open

PUP: The National Polytechnic University

• ​provide democratized access to educational opportunities for the holistic development of

As a state university, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines believes that:

Pillar 1: Dynamic, Transformational, and Responsible Leadership

SHARED VALUES AND PRINCIPLES

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

• ​Quality and excellent graduates

a. Demonstrate basic and higher-level literacy, communication, necessary critical thinking,

This course is designed to emphasize on the critical issues

2. Effective Apply various communication Apply the art of good questioning

3. Strong Execute a wide-range of teaching Demonstrate strong

7. Adeptness in Exhibit employable skills, Demonstrate higher order thinking

8. High Level of Use various educational tools Demonstrate higher level of

9. Sense of Display high level of leadership Demonstrate strong sense of

The course requirements are as follows:

Class Standing 70% Class Standing 70%

FINAL GRADE = ​Midterm Grade + Final Grade

2 Lesson 1: Discuss the nature Discussion Learning

3- 4 lesson 2: Literary Discuss the different Discussion Learning Module Assignmen​t,

16-1 • ​Suspense/ Discuss the given Discussion Learning Module As

Unit 1: Contemporary Literature 1 Unit 2: The Rise of Modernism 2 Unit 3:

Lesson 2 ​Literary Movements 9

Unit 1: World Literature Periods 9 Unit 2: American Literary Movements 11

Lesson 3 ​Approaches in the Analysis of Contemporary Literature 15

Unit 1: The Contemporary Theories and approaches to Literature 15 Unit 2:

Lesson 4 ​Genre of Contemporary Literature 28 ​Unit 1: Literary Genres of Contemporary

Literature 28 Lesson 5 ​Popular and Emergent Literature in the Philippines 46

Unit 1: Contemporary Philippine Literature 46 Unit 2: Philippine Emergent

LESSON 1 NATURE, ESSENCE, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF

After successful completion of this lesson, the learners should be able

Unit 1: Contemporary Literature

Characteristics of Contemporary Literature

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More

The Beginning of Modernism

Late 19th to early 20th century

Goals of the movement

Unit 3: Popular Literature

The Role of Literature to Modern Society

Literature constantly evolves as new movements emerge to speak to the concerns of

Unit 1: World Literature Periods

2. ​The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)

3. ​Enlightenment/Revolutionary Period ​(1750-1800) Called the Enlightenment period due to

4. ​Romanticism (​ 1800-1840) Romanticism is a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth

After successful completion of this lesson, the learners should be able

Unit 1: The Contemporary Theories and Approaches to Literature

• ​Formalism and Structuralism. ​The terms Formalism and Structuralism encompass a

2. ​Psychoanalytic Criticism​. The application of specific psychological principles particularly

5. ​Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics​. Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid

Phenomenological Reduction​- a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl;

Structuralist narratology​- "a form of structuralism espoused by Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan

An Excerpt from The Weary Sons of Conrad.

After successful completion of this lesson, the learners should be able

Unit 1: Genres of Contemporary Literature

Little Women by L. M. Alcott

Date: _ Date: __

• provide democratized access to educational opportunities for the holistic development of

• Quality and excellent graduates

FINAL GRADE = Midterm Grade + Final Grade

3- 4 lesson 2: Literary Discuss the different Discussion Learning Module Assignment,

16-1 • Suspense/ Discuss the given Discussion Learning Module As

Lesson 2 Literary Movements 9

Lesson 3 Approaches in the Analysis of Contemporary Literature 15

Lesson 4 Genre of Contemporary Literature 28 Unit 1: Literary Genres of Contemporary

Literature 28 Lesson 5 Popular and Emergent Literature in the Philippines 46

2. The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)

3. Enlightenment/Revolutionary Period (1750-1800) Called the Enlightenment period due to

4. Romanticism ( 1800-1840) Romanticism is a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth

• Formalism and Structuralism. The terms Formalism and Structuralism encompass a

2. Psychoanalytic Criticism. The application of specific psychological principles particularly

5. Phenomenology and Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics sees interpretation as a circular process whereby valid

Phenomenological Reduction- a concept most frequently associated with Edmund Husserl;

Structuralist narratology- "a form of structuralism espoused by Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan

James Boswell’s biography The Life of Samuel Johnson ( 1791) is considered by

2. ChristinaPantoja-Hidalgo has been writing for Philippine newspapers and magazines