FRAMING LITERATURE
sexuality, gender, power and
VISTA 1: Author-centered
 Literature represents life; it holds
up a minor, as it were a mirror to
nature and is thus mimetic.
 Literature reflects the inner soul
rather than the external world of
the writer.
 Literature is a source of
knowledge, insight and wisdom.
 Literature is likely to be more
meaningful when either its milieu
or that of its author is understood.
 Literature must teach morality and
probe philosophical issues.
VISTA 2: Text-centered
 The language of literature
foregrounds poetic effects.
Poeticity renders literature
distinctive and special.
 Literature is best understood
through binary oppositions.
 Literature is an expression of
universal experience across times
and cultures.
 Literature is a symbolic statement
of unconscious fantasies that the
artist (and the reader) could not
otherwise admit.
 Literature must have social
dimension; it exists in time and
space, in history & society.
VISTA 3: Reader-Centered
 Literature, as a discourse, re-
presents and refracts reality.
 Literature is a performing art in
which each reader creates his/her
own possibly unique, text-related
performance.
 Literature mirrors, resists or
reinforces patriarchal male-
entered culture, stereotypes and
oppression of woman.
 Literature must explore issues of
marginalized populations.
 Literature needs to look at issues
of power, economics, politics,
religions and culture, and how
these elements work in relation to
colonial hegemony.
SADNESS COLLECTOR
Author-Dependent
 Award-winning writer Merlinda
Bobis grew up in Albay, Philippines
at the foot of an active volcano.
 As a child, her main interest was
painting but at age ten she began
writing poetry because painting
with words was cheaper.
 She holds post-graduate degrees
from the University of Santo
Tomas and University of
Wollongong and now lives in
Australia.
 Written in various genres in both
Filipino & English, her work
integrates elements of the
traditional culture of the
Philippines with modern
immigrant experience.
1. Tale of the sadness collector
- Divert Rica’s attention
2. How does such tale affect Rica?
- Suppress emotions
3. What could the sadness collector/
big lady satisfy?
- Father – maker of tale
4. Realistic & Magical elements
presents in the narrative:
- OFW mother (R)
- Pag-uwi ng tatay ng lasing (R)
- Big Lady (M)
5. Literary or stylistic devices
- Magical realism – realistic
present the modern world and
add some fantasy
 - Fabulism – element from
mythology
- Frame story – story with a
story
6. “As we feed continually, we also
acknowledge the perennial nature
of our hunger’
- Cycle – human nature of
desiring
7. Advantages & disadvantages are
underscored in the text about
families when some of its
members work overseas.
- Financial stability (Ad)
- Communication (DisAd)
8. How does the story represent the
Filipino family?
- Broken family
Reader-dependent
 Other possible reading or
interpretation
- Sell the love to be permanent
in Paris
- Domestic violence
Theme
 The growth of migration and
diaspora has resulted in broken &
dysfunctional families.
DEVELOPMENT LITERARY EXPLORATION:
THE TIER FROM AUTHOR-TEXT-READER
FRAMEWORK:
Level 1: Author-dependent
- Author
- Milieu
 Highlighting authorial accounts
Level 2: Text-dependent
- Explication
(element exploration)
(genre of material)
- Exegesis
(ability to paraphrase)
 Answering the following question
Level 3: Reader-Dependent
- Horizon of experience
(capitalize on your own
feelings/ truth)
- Reading from other
appropriate theories as lenses
Level 4: End point (THEME)
POEMS
1. Author-Dependent
a. Cirilio Bautista
- Prize-winning poet
- Fictionist
- Critic
- AB Lit UST (1963)
- MA Lit SLU (1968)
b. Paolo Neruda (pen name)
- Ricardo Eliezer Neftali Reyes y
Basolato
- Chilean poet – diplomat &
politician
- Nobel Prize Winner for Lit
(1971)
c. Angela Manalang Gloria
- August 2 – Guagua,
Pampangga
- Lyric poet, pianist & an editor
- AB Philo UP (1929)
d. Mario Eric Gamalinda
- Poet, novelist, playwright &
film maker
- Philippine Centennial Prize
(1998)
2. Text- Related
a. Patalim
 How is love depicted in the poem?
- Love is depicted in the
metaphor of dagger (can cause
pain)
 Why use dagger to represent love?
- Filipino love