Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study of Literature

Intended Learning Outcomes: At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:

1. Define literature and its characteristics such as history, literary standards, and the main
ingredients of literature.

1.1. Introductory Concepts and Review

Purpose:

a. Literature is a way to investigate what it means to be

human. It is also a means of communicating with others
about a wide range of topics and issues
b. Literature assists us in comprehending people, societies,
events, and culture.
c. Literature's purpose is to provide entertainment and vicarious experiences that can
deepen and enrich our lives.

Literature Defined

The Latin word litera, which means "letter," is where the word
"literature" originates. Any written work is considered literature in
the fullest sense.

The word "writing" comes from the Latin word "litaritura," which also
refers to "a writing created with letters," while some definitions also
include spoken or sung writings. Any written work or collection of written works is
referred to as literature in the broadest sense.

A piece of writing that is considered to be an art genre, or any particular piece of writing
that is thought to have artistic or intellectual value and that occasionally uses language in
ways that are different from everyday usage, is referred to as literature. The writing itself
is of literary value.

According to various writers:

Literature is any printed matter written within a book, a magazine or a pamphlet. It is a

faithful reproduction of man’s manifold experiences blended into one harmonious
expression. Because literature deals with ideas, thoughts and emotions of man, literature
can be said to be the story of man.

Literature is man’s love, griefs, thoughts, dreams and aspirations coached in beautiful
language. In order to know the history of a nation’s spirit, one must read its literature.
Hence it is, that to understand the real spirit of a nation, one must “trace the little rills as
they course along down the ages, broadening and deepening into the great ocean of
thought which men of the present source are presently exploring.”
“Literature expresses the feelings of people to society, to the government, to his
surroundings, to his fellowmen and to his Divine Creator.” The expression of one’s
feelings, according to him, may be through love, sorrow, happiness, hatred, anger, pity,
contempt, or revenge”, Brother Azurin
“Literature is anything that is printed, as long as it is related to the ideas and feelings of
people, whether it is true, or just a product of one’s imagination”, Webster

“True literature is a piece of written work which is undying. It expresses the feelings and
emotions of people in response to his everyday efforts to live, to be happy in his
environment and, after struggles, to reach his Creator.” Atienza, Ramos, Salazar and
Nazal, PANITIKING PILIPINO

“Literature raises life to a new level of meaning and understanding, and in the process
restores sanity and justice in an insane and unjust world.” – Cirilo F. Bautista
“Literature is life.” – Unknown

There are two major schools of literature:

1. Oral literature includes ballads, folklore, jokes, and fables that
are passed down by word of mouth.
2. Written literature includes poetry and novels, with subsections
for fiction, prose, myth, short story and novel.

Importance of Literature
In the end, literature is a body of written works created by authors
and academics in a language across several eras and cultures. The
invention of reading indicates an excessive pace for knowledge,
ideas, events, and even sentiments in human civilization.

Why do we study literature?

When students study Literature, they learn to appreciate words and their power. They
travel to other realms and times through the texts they read. They understand about their
own culture and others'. ... Importantly, they learn to consider multiple perspectives and
understand the complexity of human nature.

Approaches and Models of Literature

Literary Approaches
1. Formalistic or Literary Approach
- Literature is viewed intrinsically,
independent of the author, age, or any
other extrinsic factor.
* The study of the selection is more or less
based on “literary elements”.

2. Moral or Humanistic Approach

- Literature is viewed to discuss man and its nature.
- It presents man as essentially rational;
- that is, endowed with intellect and free will;
- or that the piece does not misinterpret the true nature of man.
* The approach is close to the “morality” of literature, to questions of ethical goodness
or badness.
3. Historical Approach
- Literature is seen both as a reflection and product of the times and circumstances in
which it was written.
- It operates on the premise that the history of a nation has telling effects on its
literature and that the piece can be better understood and appreciated if one knows
the times surrounding its creation.

4. Sociological Approach
Literature is viewed as the expression of man within a given social situation which is
reduced to discussions on economic, in which men are somewhat simplistically divided
into haves and haves not, thus passing into the “proletarian approach” hitch tends to
underscore the conflict between the two classes.
* The sociological approach stresses on social “relevance”, social “commitment,”
contemporaneity, and it deems communication with the reader important.

5. Cultural Approach
Literature is seen as one of the manifestations and vehicles of a nation’s or race’s culture
and tradition.
- It includes the entire compels of what goes under “culture” – the technological, artistic,
sociological, ideological aspects; and considers the literary piece in the total cultural
milieu in which it was born.
- The thrust is to make full use of the reciprocal function between culture and literature.
* The approach is one of the richest ways to arrive at the culture of people and one of the
most pleasurable ways of appreciating the literature of people.

6. Psychological Approach
- Literature is viewed as the expression of “personality,” of “inner drives” or “neurosis”.
- It includes the psychology of the author, of the characters, and even the psychology of
creation.
* It has resulted in an almost exhausting and exhaustive “psychological analysis” of
characters, of symbols and images, of recurrent themes, and others.

7. Impressionistic Approach
- Literature is viewed to elucidate “reacting- response” which is considered as something
very personal, relative and fruitful. Unconditioned by explanations and often taking the
impact of the piece as a whole, it seeks to see how the piece has communicated.

1.2 Literature and History

Literature and history

Literature and history are closely interrelated. In discovering the history of a race, the
feelings, aspirations, customs and traditions of a people are sure to be included . . . and
these feelings, aspirations, customs and traditions that are written is literature.
History can also be written and this too, is literature. Events that can be written down
are part of true literature. Literature, therefore, is part of history.
Literature and history, however, also have differences. Literature may be figments of the
imagination or events devoid of truth that have been written down, while history is
made up of events that really happened.

1.3 Functions/Roles of Literature in the Society

 - Entertainment- as “pleasure reading”. In this function, literature is used to entertain
its readers. Literary works are consumed for the sake of one's enjoyment.

- Social/Political- literary works unveil the surrounding social and political constructs.
They portray the state of the people and the world around them.

- Ideological- literary works shape our ideas and ways of thinking based on the ideas
of other people.

- Moral- Literature may impart moral values to its readers. The moral contained ina
literary text, whether good or bad are absorbed by whoever reads it, thus helps in
shaping their personality.

- Linguistic- is the scientific study of language, and its focus is the systematic
investigation of the properties of particular languages as well as the characteristics of
language in general. It helps ensure a proper foundation for analysis by enabling the
literary critic to recognize the systematic regularities in the language of a text.

- Historical- literature reflects the culture and society of the time period in which it
was set, which then assists in shaping the culture of the future by giving us examples
of both the mistakes and victories of our ancestors, which we then learn from.

- Educational- Literature Helps Develop Empathy and Understanding

Besides critical thinking skills, literature also helps students develop empathy and
understanding. Through reading about characters from different backgrounds and
experiences, students can gain a deeper understanding of the world around them.

- Cultural- Literature has also been a tool for preserving culture. Folktales and
legends, passed down through generations, have kept traditions alive, fostered a
sense of community, and provided moral guidance.

1.4 Literary Standards

Literature, as compared to any other forms of

writing, possesses distinct qualities that
separate it from the rest. These include:
1. Universality - Literature appeals to everyone,
regardless of culture, race, gender, and time
which are all considered significant.
2. Artistry – Literature has an aesthetic appeal
and thus possesses a sense of beauty.
3. Intellectual Value – Literature stimulates critical thinking that enriches mental
processes of abstract and reasoning, making man realize the fundamental truths of
life and its nature.
4. Suggestiveness – Literature unravels and conjures man’s emotional power to define
symbolisms, nuances, implied meanings, images and messages, giving and evoking
visions above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and experience.
5. Spiritual Value – Literature elevates the spirit and the soul and this has the power to
motivate and inspire, drawn from the suggested morals or lessons of the different
literary genres.
6. Permanence – Literature endures across time and draws out the time factor:
timeliness, occurring at a particular time, and timelessness, remaining invariable
throughout time.
7. Style – Literature presents peculiar way/s on how man sees life as evidenced by the
formation of his ideas, forms, structures, and expressions which are marked by their
memorable substances.
- The author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence
arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text.
- In literature, style is the way in which an author writes and/or tells a story. It's what
sets one author apart from another and creates the “voice”that audiences hear when
they read.
- Style is also what determines the mood of a piece of literature, so its importance is
huge across all genres.
- Devices include, but are not limited to, point of view, symbolism, tone, imagery,
diction, voice, syntax, and the method of narration.
- The following criteria are suggested and used by literary bards, pundits and critics
around the world to evaluate a literary piece. Be critical. Ask yourself once in a while.
o Does it move you?
o Would it still be read and make a good reference hundreds of years from now?
o Does it tickle your imaginations?
o What does it suggest?
o What moral lessons can be drawn out?
o Does it possess multifaceted natures for all sorts of audience?
o Does the style fascinate you? Is the style used unique or forgery?

1.4 Main Ingredients of Literature

 Subject
- Any work of literature on something and for this reason, it has subject e.i emotion,
object, abstract idea, or event.
- Subject is the topic on which the story has to be written. and theme of the story
is that what you are trying to explain in the story or in words the moral. for
example: subject: dreams.
- Subject is a topic which acts as a foundation for a literary work while a theme is
an opinion expressed on the subject
- For example, a writer may choose a subject of war for his story and the theme of
a story may be writer's personal opinion that war is a curse for humanity.

 Form
 Form is the verbal and artistic structuring of ideas.
- The subject on love may be expressed in a poem, a story, or drama form. In reading
a literary work, one must pay careful attention to its form because the work of art
is in large part and aesthetically shaped structure.
- The most common elements of the narrative structure are: setting, plot, and
theme.
- The parts of narrative plot include – exposition1 (the beginning), rising action,
climax, falling action, and resolution (denouement)
- Poetry is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of
language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, prosaic ostensible
meaning.
- Literature is subdivided into the classic three forms of Ancient Greece: poetry,
drama, and prose.
- Poetry may then be subdivided into the genres of lyric, epic, and dramatic. This
genre is often broken up into five subgenres: fantasy, historical fiction,
contemporary fiction, mystery, and science fiction. Nonetheless, there are more
than just five types of fiction, ranging from romance to graphic novels.
  Structure, or form, is the arrangement of story elements according to purpose,
style and genre. ... While the plot is the events in the story itself, heavily affected
by character, setting and theme, the structure is how these elements are
presented to the reader.

Plot Element Diagram

- The setting and characters are introduced during the exposition, and we usually learn
some background information to help us have a good understanding of the setting and
characters.
- During the rising action, some form of problem or crisis becomes apparent.
- The climax is usually the turning point and includes the highest level of tension.
- During the falling action, we begin to see the characters solving their problems or crises.
- Finally, there is the resolution, in which there is some form of closure. The figure below
is a good visual to remember the parts of the narrative structure.

Climax

Rising Action Falling Action

Exposition Resolution
Freytag's Pyramid

Freytag's Pyramid
- The story begins by revealing exposition upfront, then leads into a long rising action.
The climax falls in the middle of the story, and then the second half is spent on a very
long falling action, followed by a short resolution.
- Freytag's Pyramid is best used for structuring children's books. Adults understand the
cycles of human psychology well enough to know what life is going to be like for the
hero after the climactic conflict.
- Children, on the other hand, are still learning and developing. A longer falling action
will help young readers understand the effects of conflict on a character.
Fichtean Curve
The Fichtean Curve is similar to Freytag's Pyramid, but
it is much better suited for modern young adult and
adult books.
This plot structure is probably the most popular across
all creative writing genres. It's been used time and
time again by novelists, short story writers, and poets because the formula simply works.
The Fichtean Curve begins immediately with rising action, the exposition being scattered
throughout first half of the story. Many crises appear, each followed swiftly by its own
mini falling and rising action. At last, the story reaches its climactic conflict around two-
thirds of the way through the book, leaving the remaining pages for falling action. This is
where loose ends are tied up and a new normalcy is established for the characters.

The Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey is the perfect plot
structure for most fantasy, science
fiction, and horror books. If your hero
is stumbling into a new world, or a new
understanding of the world, then this is
the plot structure for you.
The hero in “The Hero's Journey”
begins in their known world, where
they soon receive a call to adventure.
Often, they ignore that call until a
mentor pushes them to accept it. It is then that they enter into a new world that leads
them into all sorts of trouble as they work to defeat the antagonist.
Eventually, the hero comes to defeat the bad guy, but not without experiencing a literal
or figurative death and rebirth that transforms their view of the world. Now that the hero
has a new mindset, they strive to atone for their past mistakes and eventually return to
the world they once knew to live out their days. The Hero's Journey allows us to live
vicariously through the characters in our book. Besides, who doesn't love a good
adventure?

 Point of view
The angle of vision of the narrator, the one who tells the story from different points
of view:
- In literature, point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the
readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story, poem, or essay.
- Point of view is a reflection of the opinion an individual from real life or fiction has.
Examples of point of view belong to one of these three major kinds:

First Person: a character narrator who tells the story in the “I “ voice, expressing his own
views and in his own words; either a minor or main character.
o The narrator is likely to also be the protagonist. He or she will be saying things such
as, “As I went toward the door, my friends were all peeking out the window at me.”
o The pronouns I, me, mine, we should be used to indicate first-person.
o The narrator could also be an observer who may be close to the protagonist, such as
Nick Carraway, in “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nick becomes Jay’s
confident. Through his eyes, we watch Gatsby, the protagonist, slowly slide toward
his own destruction.
o Example: Hamlet (By William Shakespeare)
“I have of late, — but wherefore I know not,
— lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises;
and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame,
the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory.”
 Hamlet, the protagonist, explains the feeling of melancholy that
afflicts him after his father’s death:
 The use of first-person point of view gives us a glimpse into the real inner feelings of
frustration of the character.
 The writer has utilized the first-person point of view to expose Hamlet’s feelings in a
detailed way.
Second-person point of view is rarely used in fiction, although it might be used in poems.
- Generally, persuasive pieces such as speeches or advertisements will use it to pull in
their audience.
- Second-person is shown through the pronoun you, yours, your.
- In Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” the author is speaking to people in general, giving sage
(wise) advice.
Example: Bright Lights, Big City (By Jay Mclnemey)
“You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at
this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that
the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.”
 Here, the writer illustrates the use of second-person point of view with the use of the
pronoun “you.”
 This technique may be less common, but it has its own strength of hooking the reader
right from the start.

Third-person point of view, use pronouns such as he, she, it, them, they, themselves,
himself, herself, etc.
- Writers like the flexibility of third-person because they can use this perspective in
various ways.
- The use of a limited, omniscient, or limited omniscient narrator allows readers to see
bits of the action, all the action, or all of one character.

Types of Third Person Point of View:

o Omniscient = an all-knowing story teller, who sees the mind of all the characters.
o Limited = a camera technique narrator, who tells only what he can see or hear inside
the world of the story, as he does not reveal what the characters are thinking and
feeling.
o Central = a narrator that limits narration to what the central character thinks, feels,
does, and what and whom the central character observes.
o Editorial = a narrator that comments on the action by telling the readers its
significance or evaluating the behavior of the characters.
Example:
Pride and Prejudice (By Jane Austen)
“When Jane and Elizabeth were alone, the former, who had been cautious
in her praise of Mr. Bingley before, expressed to her sister how very much
she admired him.”
“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she, “sensible, good humoured, lively; and
I never saw such happy manners! — so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”
 These lines demonstrate a fine use of the third-person point of view.
 The excerpt shows the reader two different ways of using third person point of view.
 Jane Austen first presents two leading characters –Jane and Elizabeth – from the third-
person point of view, and then shows us that the two characters are talking about
Bingley from their own third-person point of view.

How do you analyze point of view?

- If the subject is the point of view of a work of fiction, then an analysis would include
breaking down the point of view into its elements, observing how point of view affects
 the story, and then evaluating the relationship between the point of view and the
story.
- What point of view you choose to use in writing depends on how you want the story
directed to the reader.
o If you are telling a story from the writer's perspective, use the first-person point
of view to provide a sense of intimacy.
o To direct the writing at the reader, say, for a recipe or speech, use the second
person as a way to separate the writer from the narrative.
o To tell the story from an outside perspective, with the ability to have an overview
of the piece, use the third person.
* Always be sure to be consistent in your writing and stick with one point of view
throughout. This makes it easier for the reader to understand your angle.

Function of Point of View

- Point of view is an integral tool of description in the author’s hands to portray personal
emotions or characters’ feelings about an experience or situation.
- Writers use a point of view to express effectively what they want to convey to their
readers.

 Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material.

- Broadly speaking, "literature" is used to describe anything from creative writing to
more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to
works of the creative imagination, including works of: poetry, drama, fiction,
nonfiction.
- Literature is basically the art of writing. It has been used by man since centuries. In
fact, Literature is an important expression of the culture of an individual.

Literature has three main components which are as follows:

1. Poetry: Poetry is a composition which is written in verse.
o They rely on imagery, a keen word choice and use of metaphors.

2. Prose: Prose is a kind of literature which does not adhere

to any particular structure except for grammar.
o It is mostly non-poetic in nature.
o It can be divided in essays, fiction and non-fiction
piece of writings.

3. Play/Drama: A play consists of dialogues between the

characters.