21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES

AND THE WORLD UNIVERSITY OF MAKATI

LESSON 1: HIGHER SCHOOL NG UMAK

INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
Time Started : ___________
Time Ended : ___________

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
 write a close analysis and critical interpretation of literary texts and do an adaptation from the learner’s
ability to identify the representative texts and authors from each region (e.g. engage in oral history research
with focus on key personalities from the students’ region/province/town) and
 differentiate Prose and Poetry through analyzing some literary works.

INTRODUCTION/KEY POINTS
Today, there are too many people who believe that literature is simply not important or underestimate its
abilities to stand the test of time and give us great knowledge. There is a stigma in society that implies one who
is more inclined toward science and math will somehow be more successful in life, and that one who is more
passionate toward literature and other art forms will be destined to a life of low-paying jobs and unsatisfying
careers. Somewhere along the line, the world has come to think that literature is insignificant. To me, however,
literature serves as a gateway to learning of the past and expanding my knowledge and understanding of the
world. Literature is a timeless piece of entertainment. As the innovations of technological advancements have
grown, the way we read has revolutionised and evolved. However, the essence of storytelling and the effect it
has on our lives hasn’t wavered. Literature reflects human nature and a way we can learn and relate to others.
By reading through a first-person perspective, we can fully immerse ourselves into a different mindset and figure
out how others think and feel. This is important within today’s society as we’re becoming increasingly detached
from human interaction through iPhones, FaceTime, and social media. Literature is something that will never
change in the way it makes you feel, regardless of whether that’s on paper or as an eBook.

Here are just a few reasons why literature is important.

1. Expanding horizons - 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.

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 taught to find symbols, make connections, find themes,
learn about characters.

3. A leap into the past - Without literature, we would not know about our past, our families, the people who
came before and walked on the same ground as us.
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INTRODUCTION TO 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.

5. Better writing skills - When you open a book, when your eyes read the words and you take in 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.

KNOWLEDGE BOOSTER (CORE CONTENT)

Poetry is the other way of using language. Perhaps in some hypothetical beginning of things it was the
only way of using language or simply was language tout court, prose being the derivative and younger rival.
Both poetry and language are fashionably thought to have belonged to ritual in early agricultural societies; and
poetry in particular, it has been claimed, arose at first in the form of magical spells recited to ensure a good
harvest.

Following is a poetry verse from a popular work of Robert Frost:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

(Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost)

In writing, Prose refers to any written work that follows a basic grammatical structure (think words and
phrases arranged into sentences and paragraphs). This stands out from works of poetry, which follow a
metrical structure (think lines and stanzas). Prose simply means language that follows the natural patterns
found in everyday speech.

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 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE:
INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

Prose Form

Following is the same sentiment written in prose form:

“The woods look lovely against the setting darkness and as I gaze into the mysterious depths of the forest, I
feel like lingering here longer. However, I have pending appointments to keep, and much distance to cover
before I settle in for the night, or else I will be late for all of them.”

The above paragraph is conveying a similar message, but it is conveyed in ordinary language, without a formal
metrical structure to bind it.

PROSE: SAMPLES

1. NOVEL - an invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human
experience through a usually connected sequence of events. A long narrative divided into chapters.

e.g: Moby Dick by Herman Melville,Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen,The Great Gatsby by F. Scott
Fitzgerald.

2. SHORT STORY- a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a
novel. It has one or more characters, one plot and one single impression.

Eg: The ugly duckling, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood

3. PLAYS - is a work of drama, usually consisting mostly of dialogue between characters and intended for
theatrical performance rather than just reading. It is presented on the stage.

Eg: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

4. LEGENDS- Traditionally, a legend is a narrative that focuses on a historically or geographically specific

figure, and describes his exploits. It is fictitious narratives, usually about origins.

Eg. The Legend of Makahiya

5. FABLES - is a literary device that can be defined as a concise and brief story intended to provide a moral
lesson at the end. It consists of animal characters.

Eg. Aesop’s fable,The Lion and the Mouse

6. ANECDOTES - a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident, writer’s

imagination and its goal is to give lessons to the readers.

7. ESSAY- an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or
personal point of view/opinion of the writer towards the specific subject.

8. BIOGRAPHY- is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like
education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events.
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 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE:
INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

9. NEWS - is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education,
work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. It can be everyday
events in society and government.

10. ORATION - a formal speech, especially one given on a ceremonial occasion. It is intended to be spoken in
public in dignified manner.

POETRY: SAMPLES

1. NARRATIVE POETRY- is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making the voices of a narrator and
characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. It can be real life or imaginary.

1a. EPIC - a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and
adventures of heroic, legendary, gods, super natural figures or the history of a nation.
1b. METRICAL TALE - is a narrative poem which is written in verse that relates to real or imaginary events
in simple, straight forward language, ballad or metrical romance.
1c. BALLAD - a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas and considered as the shortest and
simplest.

2. LYRIC - expresses personal emotions through verse.

2a. FOLKSONG - a song that originates in traditional popular culture or that is written in such a style.It is
also a short poems intended to be sung in different emotions (love, despair, grief).
2b. SONNETS - a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English
typically having ten syllables per line.
2c. ELEGY - a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
2d. ODE - a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner
and written in varied or irregular meter.
2e. PSALM- a sound of praising God and contains Philosophy of life.
2f. AWIT- (SONG)- slowly sung accompaniment of a guitar or banduria.
2g. CORRIDO- traditional Mexican style, typically having lyrics that narrate a historical event and recited
to a martial beat(8, octosyllabic).

ASSESSMENT/ACTIVITY
Directions: Read and analyze the given poetry below. Create a prose out of it. You may choose from
following categories: short story, anecdotes, essay, biography, news or oration.

“The Tiger” by William Blake (1757-1827)
(1) Tiger Tiger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
(2) What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
(3) In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
(4) On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
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 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE:
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(5) And what shoulder, and what art, (7) When the stars threw down their spears
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And water’d heaven with their tears:
And when thy heart began to beat, Did he smile his work to see?
What dread hand? and what dread feet? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

(6) What the hammer? what the chain, (8) Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In what furnace was thy brain? In the forests of the night:
What the anvil? what dread grasp, What immortal hand or eye,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp! Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

RUBRIC: PROSE WRITING

NAME: ______________________

NOT MET GOOD EXCELLENT

SCORE
8 PTS 10 PTS 15PTS

The writer includes some The writer provides a

irrelevant content. The variety of types of
writer wanders off the The writer focuses content appropriate for
topic. The writer uses primarily on relevant the task, such as
words and concepts which content. The writer generalizations, details,
CONTENT are inappropriate for the sticks to the topic. The examples and various
knowledge and writer adapts the forms of evidence. The
experiences of the content in a general writer adapts the
listener (e.g., slang, way to the listener content in a specific
jargon, technical and the situation. way to the reader and
language) situation

The message is overtly

The message is
organized. The speaker
organized. The
helps the reader
reader has no
The organization of the understand the
difficulty
message is mixed up and sequence and
understanding the
random. The listener must relationships of ideas
ORGANIZATION sequence and
make some assumptions by using organizational
relationships among
about the sequence and aids such as announcing
the ideas in the
relationship of ideas the topic, previewing
message. The ideas in
the organization, using
the message can
transitions, and
outlined easily.
summarizing

Little or no variation; Some originality Very original

material presented with apparent; good presentation of
CREATIVITY
little originality or variety and blending material; captures the
interpretation of materials / media. audience’s attention.

ABM & LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE:
INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

SELF-CHECK (SELF-ASSESSMENT)/ INSIGHT

Directions: Read and understand the quotation below. In five sentences or more, write your reflection about
it.

“Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure
can be acquired by art.”

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ASSIGNMENT
1. What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction?

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2. Write at least three examples of written works on fiction and non-fiction.

FICTION NON- FICTION

REFERENCES
 https://www.costercontent.co.uk/blog/writers-corner-importance-literature
 https://literarydevices.net/prose/
 https://classicalpoets.org/2016/01/07/10-greatest-poems-ever-written/
 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/the-tyger

ABM & LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT