LITERATURE: An

Overview
Literature
 Comes from the word “LITERA” which
literally means an acquaintance with
letters.

 It is a body of literary productions,

either oral, written or visual, containing
imaginative language that realistically
portrays thoughts, emotions, and
experiences of the human condition.
Literature
• Literature is language in use that
provides insights and intellectual
stimulation to the reader. As one
explores literature, he likewise
discovers the beauty of language.
Literature
 Literature is a product of a
particular culture that concretizes
man’s array of values, emotions,
actions and ideas. It is therefore a
creation of human experience that
tells about people and their world.
Literature
• Literature is an art that reflects the
work of imagination, aesthetics,
and creative writing which are
distinguished for the beauty of
style or expression as in fiction,
poetry, essay or drama, in
distinction from scientific treatises
and works which contain positive
knowledge.
Importance of
Literature
1 Expanding Horizons
First and foremost, literature opens
our eyes and makes us see more
than just what the front door
shows. It helps us realize the wide
world outside, surrounding us. With
this, we begin to learn, ask
questions, and build our intuitions
and instincts. We expand our minds
Importance of
Literature
2. Building critical thinking skills.
Many of us learn what critical thinking is
in our language arts classes, when we
read, we learn to look between the lines.
We are thought to find symbols, make
connections, find themes, learn about
characters. Reading expands these
skills, and we begin to look at a
sentence with a larger sense of detail
and depth and realize the importance of
hidden meanings so that we may come
to a conclusion.
Importance of
Literature
3. A leap into the past
History and literature are entwined with
each other. History is not just about
power struggles, wars, names, and
dates. It is about people who are
products of their time, with their own
lives. Today the world is nothing like it
was in the 15th century; people have
changed largely. Without literature, we
would not know about our past, our
families, the people who came before
and walk on the same ground as us.
Importance of
Literature
4. Appreciation for other cultures and
beliefs
Reading about history, anthropology, or
religious studies provides a method of
learning about cultures and beliefs other
than our own. It allows you to understand
and experience these other systems of
living and other worlds. We get a view of
the inside looking out, a personal view and
insight into the minds and reasoning of
someone else. We can learn, understand,
and appreciate it.
Importance of
Literature
5. Better writing skills
When you open a book, when your eyes
read the words and you take its
contents, do you ask yourself: How did
this person imagine and write this? Well,
many of those authors, poets, or
playwrights used literature to expand
their writing.
Importance of
Literature
6. Addresses humanity
All literature, whether it be poems, essays, novels, or
short stories, helps us address human nature and
conditions which affect all people. These may be the
need for growth, doubts, and fears of success and
failure, the need for friends and family, the goodness
of compassion and empathy, trust, or the realization of
imperfection. We learn that imperfection is not always
bad and that normal can be boring. We learn that life
must be lived to the fullest. We need literature in order
to connect with our own humanity
 Two Main Divisions of
Literature
Prose Poetry
Form - Written in paragraph - Written in stanza form
form

Language - Expressed in ordinary - expressed in metrical,

form rhythmical and figurative
language
Appeal - To the intellect - To the emotion

Aim - To convince, instruct, - Stir the imagination and

imitate and reflect set the idea of how life
should be
Elements of Fiction
A. Setting
 the time and place in which the events
of a story occur. It consists of the use
of evocative portrayal of a region’s
distinctive ways of thoughts and
behavior or the so-called “local color”
exemplified by the superficial elements
of setting, dialect, and customs.
Elements of Fiction
B. Characters
 the representations of a human being
in a story. They are the complex
combination of both inner and outer
self.
 Characterization – is the method used
by the writer to reveal the personality of
the characters.
Elements of Fiction
B.1 Characters are revealed
according to:
1. Actions of the characters
2. Thoughts of the characters
3. Descriptions of the characters
4. Descriptions of other characters
5. Descriptions of the author
Elements of Fiction
B.2 Kinds of Character
According to Principality:
1. Protagonist is the character with
whom the reader empathizes.
2. Antagonist is the character that
goes against the main character, usually
the protagonist.
Elements of Fiction
B.3 Kinds of character According to
Development:
1. Dynamic is the character that exhibits
noticeable development.

2. Static is the character who exhibits no

changes and development.
Elements of Fiction
B.4 Kinds of character according to
Personality:
1. Round is the character that displays
different/ multiple personalities throughout the
story.
2. Flat is the character that reveals
conventional traits, who remains the same
throughout the story. Its characterization does
not grow.
Elements of Fiction
C. Plot is the sequence of events in the story,
arranged and linked by causality.
Kinds of Plot:
1. Linear Plot moves with the natural sequences of
events where actions are arranged sequentially.
2. Circular Plot is a kind of plot where linear
development of the story merges with an
interruption in the chronological order to show an
event that happened in the past.
3. En Medias Res is a kind of plot where the story
commences in the middle of the action.
Elements of Fiction
Collectively, the three types of plot are
otherwise termed as closed because they
normally follow the pyramid pattern of
development. The aforecited plots form the
skeletal pattern of closed plots:
Climax
Crisis Denouement
Complication Ending
Exposition
Elements of Fiction
C.1 Parts of a Plot:
1. Exposition - sets the scene by introducing the
situation and settings and likewise lays out the
characters by introducing their environment,
characteristics, pursuit, purposes, limitations,
potentials, and basic assumptions.

2. Complication - the start of the major conflict or

problem of the plot.

3. Crisis – establishes curiosity, uncertainty, and tension;

it requires a decision.
Elements of Fiction
4. Climax – the peak of the story which leads
to an affirmation, a decision, an action, or
even a realization. This is the point of greatest
emotional intensity, interest, as well as
suspense.
5. Denouement – the finishing of things right
after the climax, and shows the resolution of
the plot.
6. Ending – brings the story back to the
equilibrium.
Elements of Fiction
Literary Devices
1. Flashback – the writer’s use of interruption of the
chronological sequence of a story to go back to
related incidents which occurred prior to the
beginning of the story.
2. Foreshadowing – the writer’s use of hints or
clues to indicate events that will occur later in the
story. The use of this technique both creates
suspense and prepares the reader for what is to
come.
Elements of Fiction
Conflict as Part of the Plot
Conflict is the opposition of persons or
forces in a story that give rise to the dramatic
action in a literary work. It is the basic tension,
predicament, or challenge that propels a
story’s plot.
Elements of Fiction
Types of Conflict
1. Person vs Person – one character in the story
has a problem with one or more of the other
characters.
2. Person vs. Society – a character has a problem
with some elements of society – the school, the
law, the accepted way of doing things, and so on.
3. Person vs. Self – a character has trouble
deciding what to do in a particular situation.
Elements of Fiction
4. Person vs. Nature – a character has a problem
with some natural happening: a snowstorm, an
avalanche, a bitter cold, or any element common to
nature.

5. Person vs. Fate – a character has to battle with

what seems to be uncontrollable problem. Whenever
the problem seems to be a strange or unbelievable
coincidence, fate can be considered the cause and
effect.
Elements of Fiction
D. Point of View determines the narrator of
the story, the one who tells it from different
points of view.

D.1 Types of Point of View

1. First-Person Point of View is a character-
narrator who tells the story in the “I” voice, expressing
his own views. He is either a minor or main character
that tells the story in his own words.
Elements of Fiction
Types of Point of View
2. Third-Person Omniscient Point of View
The narrator tells the story from an all-knowing point
of view. He sees the mind of the characters.

3. Third-Person Limited Point of View - the narrator

tells only what he can see or hear “inside the world” of
the story. Also known as “camera technique narrator”
as he does not reveal what the characters are thinking
and feeling.
Elements of Fiction
Types of Point of View
4. Third-Person Central Point of View – the narrator
limits narration to what the central character thinks, feel,
does, and what and whom the central character observes.

5. Third-Person Editorial Point of View – a narrator that

comments on the action by telling the readers its
significance of evaluating the behavior of the characters.
Elements of Fiction
E. Theme – a significant truth about life and its
nature which takes place in the illustrations of
the actions, preoccupations, and decisions of
the characters.
Poetry
 a patterned form of verbal or written
expression of ideas in concentrated,
imaginative, and rhythmical terms that
often contain the elements of sense,
sound, and structure.

 considered as the oldest literary form.

Poetry
 has implied meaning/s which is/are evoked in
the carefully selected words

 Often considered as the most difficult and the

most sophisticated of all literary genres.

 One of its distinct characteristics is that it is

briefly written but it suggests many connotations.

 As compared to other literary forms, it is more

musical.
Elements of Poetry
A. Sense of the Poem
1. Denotation vs. Connotation
Denotation is the dictionary
meaning of the word while Connotation
is the suggested meaning/s associated
with the word beyond its dictionary
definition.
Elements of Poetry
A. Sense of Poem
2. Imagery is the use of sensory details
or descriptions that appeal to one or more of
the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste,
and smell. These are otherwise known as
“senses of the mind”.
Elements of Poetry
A. Sense of the Poem
3. Figurative language is a language used for
descriptive effect to convey ideas or emotions which
are not literally true but express some truth beyond
the literal level.

Figures of Speech are specific devices or a

kind of figurative language that uses words, phrases,
and sentences in a non-literal definition but, rather
gives meanings in abstractions.
Elements of Poetry
A. Sense of the Poem

Types of Figures of Speech

1. Allusion
2. Antithesis
3. Apostrophe
4. Hyperbole
5. Irony
6. Litotes
Elements of Poetry
A. Sense of the Poem

Types of Figures of Speech

7. Metaphor
8. Metonymy
9. Onomatopoeia
10. Oxymoron
11. Paradox
12. Personification
13. Simile
14. Synecdoche
Elements of Poetry
B.Sound of a Poem
1. Tone Color – achieved through
repetition.
a. Repetition of Single Sounds
 Alliteration
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Rhyme
Types of Rhyme
1. Internal Rhyme
2. Terminal Rhyme
Elements of Poetry
B. Sound of a Poem
Rhyme Scheme – the pattern of rhyme form that
ends a stanza or a poem. It is designated by the
assignment of a different letter of the alphabet to each
new rhyme.
Example:
Helen, thy beauty is to me a
Like those Nicean barks of yore b
That gently, o’er a perfumed sea, a
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore b
To his own native shore b
Elements of Poetry
B. Sound of a Poem
1. Tone Color
b. Repetition of Words
“My dreams are dreams of thee, fair maid.”
-Rural Maid
c. Repetition of Sentences or Phrases
“I dream that one day our voices will be heard
I dream that one day our hope becomes
worth.”
-Paraiso
Elements of Poetry
B. Sound of a Poem
2. Rhythm – the pattern of beats created by the
arrangements of stressed and unstressed syllables, which
gives musical quality and adds emphasis to certain words
and thus helps convey the meaning of the poem. The
effect is derived from the sounds employed, the varying
pitches, stresses, volumes, and durations.

3. Meter – regular recurrence of stressed and

unstressed syllables that give a line of poetry a more or
less predictable rhythm. Its unit of measure is termed “foot”
which usually contains an accented syllable and one or
two unaccented syllables.
Elements of Poetry
Table of Metrical Feet

Name of Foot Pattern of Accent

Iambic Unaccented, Accented
Trochaic Accented, Unaccented
Anapestic Unaccented, Unaccented, Accented
Dactylic Accented, Unaccented,
Unaccented
Spondaic Accented, Accented
Elements of Poetry
C. Structure of a Poem – the manner in
which words are arranged and parts are
organized to form a whole poem.
1. Word and its Order – the grouping and
choosing of words in verses where more
often, poets arrange them in the unnatural
order to achieve an effect.
2. Syntax – an effect achieved where words
are fractured to have a desired effect.
Elements of Poetry
C. Structure of a Poem
3. Ellipsis – the omission of words or several words
that clearly identify the understanding of an
expression.

4. Punctuation – the use of meaningful symbol/s

that helps provide meaning clues.
Elements of Poetry
Structure also refers to the way the poem is
organized. This corresponds to the different types.
Types of Poetry
1. Narrative – a poem that tells a story
2. Lyric Poem – descriptive or expository in nature
where the poet is concerned mainly with
presenting a scene in words, conveying sensory
richness of his subject, or the revelation of ideas or
emotions.
3. Dramatic Poem – where a story is told through
the verse dialogue of the characters and a
narrator.
Elements of Poetry
Structure also talks about:
Poem Appreciation – achieved not only
when one has comprehended the plain sense
or information communicated by the poem; it
is also achieved if the attitude and feeling
conveyed are captured, together with the
larger meaning of the work, which is only
possible when the tone and symbolic
meanings are discerned.
Elements of Poetry
a. Tone – the writer’s attitude toward his
subject, mood, and moral view. It is the feeling
that the poem has created in the reader. It is
communicated by the writer’s or the speaker’s
attitude toward his subject, his imagined
audience, or hi self. It is the emotional
coloring of the work which is indicated by the
inflection of the speaker’s voice.
Elements of Poetry
b. Symbol – an image that becomes so
suggestive that it takes on much more
meaning than its descriptive value. It urges
the reader to look beyond literal significance
of the poem’s statement of action.: the
connotation of words, repetition, placement, or
other indications of emphasis. It is considered
as the richest and at the same time the most
difficult of all the poetical figures.
Essay
 comes from the French word ESSAI, which means
trial or test.
 a prose composition of moderate length devoted
tom a single topic from a limited point of view.
 explains a provisional composition or appraisal of a
subject and likewise gives details, point of view, or
anything that can be said on a particular subject.
 its purpose is to explain or elucidate a thought, a
theory, an inkling, or a standpoint.
Elements of Essay
1. Introduction
 introduces the topic of the essay
hooks the readers through an anecdote,
a good quotation, a verse, or an event
relevant to the topic.
intends to attract the attention of the
reader.
Elements of Essay
2. Body
 discuss the evidences and arguments
introduced in the thesis statement.

3. Conclusion
 sums up the argument, or concludes the
description, narration, or event.
Essay
General Types of Essay
1. Strict or Impersonal
2. Casual or Familiar
Major Patterns
3. Inductive Pattern
4. Deductive Pattern
Drama
• a composition in prose form that presents a story
told entirely in dialogue and action.
• written with the intention of its eventual performance
before an audience.
Elements of Drama:
1. Setting
2. Character/s
Character Aspects:
a. Physical
b. Social
c. Psychological
d. Moral
Elements of Drama
3. Plot
Types of Plot
a. Natural Plot
b. Episodic Plot

Plot as Framework
a. Beginning
Exposition
Expository Approaches:
a. Unfolding Plot
b. Accretive Plot
Elements of Drama
Plot as Framework:
b. Middle
a. Complications
b. Crisis
c. Obligatory Scene
d. Discovery
c. Ending
4. Theme
5. Style
Drama
Major Dramatic Attitude:
1. Realism
2. Non-realism

Types of Drama
3. Tragedy
4. Comedy
5. Melodrama
6. Farce