Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

“It always seems impossible

until it’s done.”
- Nelson Mandela

Standards and Classifications

1
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

Definition and Meaning Three Points of Literature

Three Kinds of Definition
1. Intentional Definition is the dictionary meaning
2. Extensional Definition is the use of other words that fall under the
umbrella of the word being defined.
3. Ostensive Definition gives examples in reality.
Meaning
● It is intended to communicate something that is not directly expressed.
● It is not interchangeable with Definition.
● Literature portrays human experience.
● Authors interpret these human experiences.
● It is an art form and a style of expression.
Ultimately, we derive meaning from literature.
In the Academic field deriving meaning is carried out through the use of Literary
Theory.
Literary Genres

Literature
● Broadly speaking, it is anything that can be read. It encompasses any
written or spoken material.
● Specifically, these are works that utilize the creative imagination of a
person.

Influence of the reader is so powerful that it overrides the critic, the

scholar, and the writer.

Literature represents a language and a people as well as its culture and

traditions. Traditionally...
● Literature is a body of written works. ● An example of performed narrative is video games
● Literature originated from oral traditions. ● An example of lyric poetry is a song because it focuses on the rhythm.
● Literature is made up of imaginative works.
● Literature deals with stories and poetry.
● Literature is dependent on the author. Narrative

2
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● It involves a story that is handpicked by the narrator or the writer.

● It is a spoken or written account- the choice of which events in a story to Freytag's Triangle (1863)
relate and in what order to relate them depending on certain factors such
as who is being told the story, and what medium utilized
● While a story is a description, either true or imagined, of a connected
series of events.
● A story can involve many things. Thus, a narrative is important to
streamline these details so that it is better received by the reader.

Narreme
● It is the basic unit of a story.
○ Example. "He picked the flower."

Episode
● It is a group of action units consisting of three parts. [A] Introduction or Exposition
1. Exposition - "He picked the flower." ● Introduction the primary characters and the setting
2. Complication - "And he pricked his finger on the thorns of the flower." ● Exposes the important aspects of the story
3. Resolution - "He put band-aid on the wound."
[B] Inciting Incident or Conflict
● Man versus Man
● Man versus Nature
● Man versus Himself
● Man versus Society

[B to C] Rising Actions
● These are the resulting events of the inciting incident.
● It may include events that intend to remedy, change, solve, or complicate
the story.
Narrative Structure [C] Climax or Turning Point

3
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● It's at this point when you realize where the story is going to go. Literary Perspectives

[C to D] Falling Actions These are the different points of view in analyzing works in Literature
● These are the resulting events of the climax or turning point.
1. Reader Response- The reader believes that the text has no inherent
[D] Resolution or Denouement meaning instead supplies the meaning.
● Denouement means untying or unraveling 2. Archetypal- The reader finds a recognizable pattern or model such as
tropes.
Bremond Cycle (1970) 3. Formalist- The reader finds structure, conventions, and accepted
practices.
4. Character- The reader focuses on the character's psychology and internal
motivations.
5. Biographical- The reader draws conclusions based on the author's life.
6. Historical- The reader takes into consideration the social, political,
economic, cultural, and climate of the time.
7. Social Class- The reader takes into consideration different social classes
to understand circumstances in different ways.
8. Gender- The reader focuses on the differences between the sexes.
9. Deconstruction- The reader questions the very assumptions one brings
to analysis.

● A story can begin in two places: the State of Deficiency and Satisfactory
State.
○ Example. The Three Little Pigs
● It is a narrative structure that was made popular because of the existence
of fanfictions
○ Example. 50 Shades of Grey; a fanfiction of Twilight

4
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

Educating The Literary Taste

Intentional Definitions
1. Critical judgement, discernment, or appreciation
2. Manner or aesthetic quality indicative of such discernment or
appreciation
Background of the Writer
Paz Latorena (1908-1953)
● She was born in Boac, Marinduque, Philippines in 1907.
● She was one of the accomplished female writers in English during the
pre-war era.
● She finished her education degree in 1930 with the University of Santo
Tomas (UST), where she would eventually be invited to teach after she
achieved her doctorate.
● Before fully committing as a short story writer, she was a columnist at
Philippines Herald (newspaper) upon the invitation of her mentor, Paz
Marquez Benitez.
● Mina Lys was her poetry pseudonym or alias.
○ From the term lusis which means to loosen or dissolve.
● In 2000, UST published her only collection of short fiction, Desired and
Other Stories. This publication came 47 years after she died.
● Her most popular story A Small Key was deemed third best by a
renowned poet and critic Jose Garcia Villa in his famous rankings.
Baltazar Gracian
● He was a Spanish thinker and moralist in the 17th century.
● He is the first to utilize 'taste' in relation to discernment.
● He used hombregusto meaning a man of taste.
Jean de La Bruyere
● He is a French moralist and philosopher.
● Taste was used in art centering on good and bad taste.
Joseph Addsion
● He is a British intellectual.
● wrote in his daily publication, The Spectator, that Literary Taste is the
discernment and appreciation of that which is fundamentally excellent in
literature.
● In another essay, he defined it as a faculty which discerns the beauties of
literature with pleasure but also added that imperfections would be met
with dislike.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
● He is an English poet and critic.
● Literary taste is a rational activity but still subjectively biased.

Content John Ruskin

5
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● He is an English art critic. Criteria for Judging

● He defined Literary Criticism and Literary Taste.
○ Literary Criticism is a formal action of the intellect, a deliberate Value of Literature
search for perfections and imperfections by the application of ● To enrich mental life
universally accepted standards to a literary composition. ● No need for the profound
○ Literary Taste is the instant, almost instinctive preferring of one ● Truth is the most important to achieved
literature to another, apparently for no other reason except that ○ “Truth is neither completely ascribed by the details of physical
the first is more proper to human nature. existence nor entirely given to dream.”
● It means that truth is not blatant rather it has a sense of fiction.
“To have literary taste, therefore from the foregoing definition and distinctions, is ● However, fiction must be governed by limitations presented through
to have a feeling and an inclination for what is fine and beautiful in literature, to weaknesses.
savor and to appreciate it, and to dislike and reject what is vulgar and tawdry in ● Through weaknesses, one can easily connect because it is a human
it” quality.

“If they have no developed taste, a person's sense of literary values runs the risk of Emotional Value of Literature
being falsified.” ● Its appeal to emotions; pleasant and unpleasant.
○ “Literature takes the unpleasant and the painful from life and so
- Paz Latorena represents them that pleasure and not pain is the resulting emotion
of the reader.”
Sir Joshua Reynolds ● Sympathy that leads to being ennobled.
● He is an English painter. ● Recognition of one's humanity.
● He said that taste can be taught through good models or ideal examples ● People are not black or white.
● There are good pleasures and bad pleasures.
● The appreciation of authors and the works they produce is important not Ethical Value of Literature
because of themselves but because of their function to refined taste so ● Its positive influence.
that when you go out into the world, pleasure of the spirit can be ● Its purpose and aim of the writer and in his emphasis.
achieved. ● “Great writers have presented vice as attractive but they have also
presented the ashes into which attractiveness turns, if we yield to its lure.”

6
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

What is a Classic? What is Classical Literature?

Background of the Writer ● Classic is considered to have set a high quality standard in its respective
genre.
Charles Augustine Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869) ● Classical is traditional or having been present for a significant time.
● He was a Romantic poet.
○ Romanticism is to look towards the past with an emphasis on
emotion and individuality.
● He was once great friends with Victor Hugo, the author of Les Miserables.
However, Sainte-Beuve had an affair with his wife, Adèle Foucher
● He became a Literary Critic.

Content
1. An author who has enriched the human mind, increased its treasure, and
caused it to advance a step.
2. An author who has discovered some moral and not equivocal truth, or
revealed some eternal passion in that heart where all seemed known and
discovered.
3. An author who has expressed his thought, observation, or invention, in no
matter what form, only provided it be broad and great, refined and
sensible, sane and beautiful in itself.
4. An author who has spoken to all in his own peculiar style, a style which is
found to be also that of the whole world, a style without neologism, new
and old, easily contemporary with all time.

7
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

Dante’s Inferno
Background of the Writer
Type of Literature
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
● Dante's inferno is considered as Late Medieval Literature.
● Dante finished shortly before his death in 1321 AD ➔ 1265 - Dante was born in Florence; The Alighieri are a middle class
● It is originally written in the Italian vernacular. family.
● It was not common during that time to write using the vernacular ➔ 1274 - According to Vita Nouva, Dante meets and falls in love with
because it was considered as vulgar. Beatrice Portinari.
● Latin was considered the language of the learned ◆ Dante met Beatrice twice in his life.
○ Divine indicated the subject matter. ◆ When he was 9 years old and 18 years old.
○ Comedy indicated style of poem. ◆ Dante's love for Beatrice was unrequited.
■ Comedy means a narrative has a happy ending. ● Dante meets Beatrice at Ponte Santa Trinita
● It is not written in an elevated style, such as that of Homer's Illiad or
Virgil's Ahead.

Part of The Divine Comedy

● Latin: Divina Comedia

● Dante's Inferno is an epic poem
○ Epic poetry is a lengthy narrative poem that is usually about
heroic deeds and events that are significant to the culture of the
poet.
● Quest is a journey to achieve a prize or knowledge or wisdom.
➔ 1283 - Dante marries Gemma Donati; They have four children.
➔ 1289 - Dante fights with the Guelf League and defeats the Ghibellines of
Arezzo.
➔ 1290 - Beatrice dies. She was only 25 years old.
➔ 1292 - Dante writes the Vita Nuova; it is a collection of sonnets and odes
inspired by his love for Beatrice.

8
Literature 1
➔ 1295 - Dante joins a guild of apothecaries for the purpose of entering
public life.
➔ 1300 - Dante became prior for two months; it is one of the six highest
magistrates in Florence.
➔ 1302 - The Black Guelphs seize power in Florence. Dante is banished
from the city for two years and forever excluded from public office.
➔ Pope Boniface VIII was the head of both temporal and spiritual worlds
supported by Black Guelfs. White Guelphs opposed this
➔ 1304 - Dante writes De vulgari eloquentia, his path breaking history and
rhetoric of vernacular literature.
➔ 1306 - Probably the year in which Dante interrupts the Convivio, also
known as the Banquet, and begins writing the Divine Comedy.
◆ The Convivio is similar to an almanac.
◆ Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice.
➔ 1314 - Publication of Inferno
➔ 1315 - Dante works on Purgatorio and Paradiso, and composes the
Questio de acque et terra.
➔ 1319 - Dante moves to Ravenna, where he is the guest of Guido Novello
da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna.
➔ 1321 - Dante falls ill on his return from Venice where he had been sent as
ambassador by Guido Da Polenta. He eventually died.
Prelims Reviewer
Dante's Inspiration
● Dante's love for Beatrice inspired him to write sonnets and odes in Vita
Nouva.
● Dante pledged when he felt he was able to write a great piece of literature
that he would dedicate it to Beatrice's memory. Thus, the Divine Comedy
was written for her.
● Dante and Beatrice never had anything more than an emotional
relationship.
○ They had what they call courtly love; an unrequited love between
knights and fair maidens.
Structure
● Numbers were extremely important in Medieval Society
○ 100 is the square of 10, and is therefore considered the perfect
number.
○ The number 3 was associated with the Trinity.
○ Thus, 9 was important as the square of 3.
○ Since Dante wrote that he met Beatrice when he was 9 years old
and 18 years old, it could be because both numbers are divisible
by 3.
● Dante's Inferno contains three great divisions
○ Each cantica contains thirty-three cantos or sections with an
additional canto in Inferno serving as a prologue.
1. Cantica One: Hell in Inferno
2. Cantica Two: Purgatory in Purgatorio
3. Cantica Three: Paradise in Paradiso
● There are 100 cantos in total.
● Dante varied the lengths of the individual cantos for a purpose.
9
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

○ The canto length in the Inferno is chaotic, this parallels the chaos
between souls and God.
○ The canto length becomes more standardized in Purgatorio, this
parallels the state of the soul and God.
○ The canto length in Paradiso is uniform, this parallels the
harmony between the souls and God.
Allegory
● It is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are
described in terms of characters, figures, and events.
● It is used to tell a story, with the purpose of teaching or explaining an idea
or principle.
● Its objective is to teach a moral lesson.
● In an allegory the characters, setting and plot have a hidden or symbolic
meaning beyond their literal meaning.
❖ The setting of the story is during Good Friday
❖ Dante is in a dark wood where he weeps because he has lost his way and
is blocked from progressing by three savage beasts in a dark wood.
➢ The leopard represents Malice and Fraud
➢ The lion represents Violence and Ambition
➢ The wolf represents Incontinence
❖ Virgil rescues him and becomes his guide.
❖ Dante, guided by Virgil, heads down into the Inferno.
➢ Hell is an inverted cone, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.
❖ Dante and Virgil travel through Hell and Dante recounts the sights of
sinners being punished in ways that symbolically fit the sin.

Main Characters

● Dante represents every human in Inferno**

● The journey represents rejection of sin in Hell, the redemption of the soul
in Purgatory, and finally the unification between soul and God in Heaven.
● The journey mirrors Medieval Catholic theology
● Virgil represents Reason, which can take Dante only through Hell and
Purgatory.
● Beatrice, or Beatific Vision, must take Dante through Heaven.
Rivers of Hell
● These are four rivers present in Inferno from Greek Mythology
The Beginning ● Except Lethe, The River of Forgetfulness, is placed in purgatory.

10
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

1. Acheron, The River of Woe, separates the world from the underworld.
2. Styx, The River of Oaths, where one swears to make a binding agreement. 1. Sin of Paganism (Circle 1)
3. Phlegethon, The River of Fire 2. Sins of Incontinence (Circles 2-6)***
4. Cocytus, The River of Lamentation ● Sins of incontinence are irrational sins against God
● Sins in which people give into physical and emotional urges
Structure of Dante's Vestibule of Hell without regard to rational thought or moral consequences.
● There are 9 concentric circles in Hell 3. Sins of Violence (Circle 7)
● Hell is geographically divided into Upper Hell and the Lower Hell by the 4. Sins of Fraud (Circles 8-9)
Walls of Di.
● Lower Hell contains sins that have been taught of; rational sins.

Four Areas of Hell, Four Types of Sin. Vestibule

● It is also called opportunism.
Hell is theologically divided into four sections ● It is the sin of choosing neither right nor wrong, heaven nor hell.
● Those who have not received the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
Vestibule

11
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● Sinners float around outside Heaven, Hell and Purgatory chasing a banner
being stung by bees.
○ Banner represents opportunity while the bees represent
conscience or guilt
● Gates of Hell says “Abandon all Hope, ye who enter here”.
★ Side Character - Charon
○ Charon is the ferryman who brings sinners across Acheron.
○ It is so willed there where is power to do.
○ Dante faints on his way to the first circle
Upper Hell
❖ Limbo
➢ It is the first circle of hell.
➢ It is the sin of not knowing Jesus Christ.
➢ Sinners have the emotional torment of never knowing God or
experiencing Heaven.
➢ Sinners have no hope.
➢ Sinners included great thinkers before the arrival of Jesus Christ
such as Plato, Aristotle, and Saladin.
★ Side Character - Minos
○ Before a sinner enters the lower levels of Hell, one meets King
Minos for judgement
○ Minos has a tail that he wraps around his body to signify the circle
of hell where that sinner is located.
❖ Lust
➢ It is the second circle of hell.
➢ Sinners' souls float around in a whirlwind.
➢ It represents one's giving into sexual desires.
➢ Dante sees Francheska da Rimini.
★ Side Character - Cerberus
○ Cerberus is a three-headed hound
○ It is the guardian of the third circle.
○ Virgil threw filth at Cerberus to eat so that they will be able to
pass.
❖ Gluttony
➢ It is the third circle of hell.
➢ It is the sin of giving into one's physical desires to eat and drink
regardless of consequences.
➢ Sinners are bloated and mired in filth, while filth rains down from
the sky.
➢ A sinner named Ciacco recognized Dante and told him that he
predicted the expulsion of the White Guelphs and mocked him.
➢ Ciacco is apparently a nickname for the poet's gluttonous friend--
could be a shortened form of Giacomo or perhaps a derogatory
reference to "hog" or "pig" in the Florentine dialect of Dante's day.
★ Side Character - Plutus

12
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

○ Plutus was formerly known as the God of Wealth in Greek

Mythology. The City of Dis
○ He is the guardian of the fourth circle. ● Fallen Angels guard the walls of the City of Dis.
○ He cursed Dante and Virgil as they passed ● It separates Upper Hell and Lower Hell.
■ “Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe.” ● Dante and Virgil are unable to pass.

❖ Avarice & Prodigality ★ Side Characters - The Erinyes

➢ It is the fourth circle of hell. ○ They are also known as The Furies
➢ It is the sin of hoarding or wasting without thought to ○ They are the Deities of Vengeance
consequence. ■ Alecto embodies anger.
➢ Sinners of Avarice push rocks into the rocks pushed by Sinners of ■ Tisiphone embodies murder.
Prodigality. ■ Megaera embodies jealousy.
➢ Spendthrifts is another word for the Sinners of Prodigality. ○ The Gorgon, Medusa, is also here.

★ Side Character - Phlegyas Dante's Miracle

○ Phlegyas was formerly known as the King of the Phlegians.
○ He tried to destroy the entire Greek civilization
○ He is the guardian and ferryman of the fifth circle
○ Dante and Virgil crossed Styx, The River of Oath
○ People are punished in the river for their anger.
❖ Anger
➢ It is the fifth circle of hell.
➢ It is the sin of refusing to welcome the light of God into their
hearts.
➢ Sinners are immersed in the filthy river, Styx, and constantly tear
at one another.
➢ Sinners are forever buried underneath Styx, never seeing light.
➢ Dante and Virgil ride Phlegyas’ Boat.
● An angel sent from Heaven secures entry for the poets, opening the gate
by touching it with a wand, and rebukes those who opposed Dante.
Lower Hell
❖ Heresy
➢ It is the sixth circle of hell.
➢ Sinners are those who denied the idea of immortality.
➢ They thought that the soul died with the body.
➢ Sinners exist eternally in graves in the fiery morgue of God's
wrath.
➢ Dante encounters the soul of Epicurus.
★ Side Character - Minotaur

13
Literature 1
○ Minotaur is the guardian of the seventh circle of hell.
○ Minotaur of Crete chases them.
○ It greeted Dante and Virgil with ferocity.
❖ Violence
➢ It is the seventh circle of hell.
➢ Its area is divided into three separate rounds, each round is an
area in which specific groups of sinners are punished.
➢ Three Rounds of Violence
■ Round One are those Violent Against Neighbors.
● It is located at the River of Fire, Phlegethon.
● Sinners are murderers, war-makers, plunderers, and
tyrants.
● Sinners are submerged in the river of boiling blood
and fire.
● A sinner is submerged depending on the severity of
one's sin.
● Chiron and Pholus Centaurs shoot arrows on
whoever rises above their level.
■ Round Two are those Violent Against Themselves.
● It is located at the Wood of Suicides.
● Sinners are those who attempted or committed
suicide.
● Sinners are transformed into gnarled, thorny trees
and then fed upon by Harpies.
◆ Harpies are hideous clawed birds with the
faces of women.
● Dante broke off their branches so that he'll be able
to talk to them.
Prelims Reviewer
● There are also those who run through the woods.
Wanton spendthrifts are those who are hunted
forever by dogs.
◆ Spendthrifts in the fourth circle spend in
order to destroy themselves.
■ Round Three are those Violent Against God, nature, and
art.
● It is located at the Plain of Burning Sand.
● Sinners are blasphemers, sodomites, and users.
● Those who are blasphemers are violent against God,
sodomites are violent against nature, and users are
violent against art.
◆ Blasphemers are stretched on their back.
◆ Sodomites run in circles.
◆ Users are crouch huddled and weeping.
● Dante met Brunetto Latini who served as a
guardian to him after the death of his father.
Great Cliff
● A waterfall blocks Dante's way downward.
● Dante on Virgil's instruction removes a cord affixed to his waist and a
creature comes to aid them.
★ Side Character - Geryon
○ Geryon is the Monster of Fraud.
○ Geryon possesses a face of a just and honest man but a body of
poison stinger or reptilian.
○ Dante and Virgil rode his back to go to the eight circle.
14
Literature 1
❖ Fraudulent & Malice
➢ It is the eight circle of hell.
➢ It consists of ten bolgias or pockets.
➢ They are often referred to as malebolges or pockets of evil.
➢ Each bolgia or pocket is where a group of specific sinners are
punished.
➢ Ten Malebolges of the Eight Circle
■ Panderers and Seducers
● Sinners who abuse and corrupt language to play
upon others' desires and fears.
● Sinners march quickly in opposite directions while
being whipped by horned demons for eternity.
■ Flatterers
● Sinners who play upon others' desire and fears.
● Sinners are steeped in excrement as they howl and
fight.
● It is representative of the false flatteries they told on
earth
■ Simoniacs
● Sinners who sell ecclesiastic favors and offices.
● Sinners are placed head-downwards in round, tube-
like holes with flames burning the soles of their feet.
◆ Round, tube-like holes represent the pouches
passed in the offertory.
■ Fortune Tellers and Diviners
● Sinners have their heads twisted around on their
bodies.
Prelims Reviewer
● These sinners are compelled to backwards for
eternity.
◆ Contrapasso which translates literally as
counter-penalty.
◆ Sinners are punished according to the nature
of their sin, so that their punishment fits their
crime.
■ The Grafters
● Sinners are barrators or corrupt politicians.
● Sinners are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch or
tar.
● It represents the sticky fingers and dark secrets of
their corrupt deals.
● Sinners are guarded by demons called Malebranche
it means Evil Claws
◆ Malebranche forces the sinners to stay under
the surface of a boiling lake of pitch.
■ The Hypocrites
● Sinners are mostly composed of priests.
● Sinners walk around a narrow track for eternity,
weighted down by leaden robes that shine brightly.
● Caiaphas is a High Priest of Israel, every passing
sinner must walk upon him.
■ The Thieves
● Sinners are pursued and bitten by snakes and
lizards.
● They lose their very identity
■ The Evil Counselors
● Sinners who advised others to be fraudulent.
15
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● Sinners are consumed by flame. ❖ Sinners are trapped in the ice, according to his guilt, are punished sinners
● Ulysses, also known as Odysseus, and Diomedes is guilty of treachery against those with whom they had special
seen here relationships.
■ The Sowers of Discord ➢ It includes four concentric areas called rounds.
● Sinners who are troublemakers in society that cause ➢ Four Rounds of Treachery
disunity. ■ Round One is Caina
● Sinners hacked and mutilated by a large demon ● Sinners are those who are treacherous to kin.
wielding a bloody sword. ● Cain who murdered his brother Abel.
● Muhammad, founder of Islam, is seen here. ● Sinners have their necks and heads out of the ice
■ The Falsifiers and are allowed to bow their heads.
● Sinners who falsify people and money such as ■ Round Two is Antenora
perjurers. ● Sinners are those who are treacherous to the
● Sinners are afflicted with diseases country.
● Antenor betrayed the Trojans.
Central Well Malebolge ● Sinners have their heads above the ice but they
● Giants were the guardians of the well. cannot bend their necks.
■ Round Three is Ptolomaea
★ Side Character - Nimrod ● Sinners are those who are treacherous to guests and
○ Nimrod was the instigator of the Tower of Babel hosts.
○ When Dante talked to Nimrod, he couldn't understand what the ● Ptolemy was a host to the leader of the Maccabees
giant was saying. Because Nimrod spoke in various languages all at whom he killed.
once. ● Sinners lie on their back in the ice while their tears
freeze in their eye sockets.
❖ Treachery ■ Round Four is Judecca
➢ It is the ninth circle of hell. ● Sinners are those who are treacherous to their
➢ It is located in the Frozen Lake. masters.
● Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ.
The Frozen Lake ● Sinners are fully encapsulated in ice.
Center of Hell

16
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

Treachery against God

● Dis or the Devil.
● Satan has three faces, red face on the middle, pale yellow on the right,
black on the left.
● Each face chews those who betrayed God.
○ Marcus Junius Brutus
○ Gaius Cassius Longinus
○ Judas Iscariot.

Dante Emerges from Hell

● Dante views Satan and proceeds to climb his spiny back to emerge on
Earth, not far from the nine ledges of the Mountain of the Purgatory.
● It symbolizes that salvation is near.

Bhagavad Gita

● Bhagavad Gita means The Song of God

It is the Story of Indian Civilization Itself

● It stems from the counsel of Krishna to Arjuna in the Battle of

Kurukshetra when he had doubts in the face of his enemies; Padavas,
the five brothers and Kauravas, their cousins.
● The essence of Vedic thought; meaning knowledge.

17
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

○ Vedas are books of knowledge. 1. Ultimate Reality is Brahman

● As exclusively known in full by the Rishis with their interpretation and
teaching reaching the masses.
○ Rishis were considered as holy men..
● 4000 years ago they composed in written form the Rig Veda anthology of
1000 hymns to various gods.
○ It was focused on celestial beings. Human are not given
prominence.
○ It is the oldest and foremost collection of ancient Hindu scriptures.
● Sama Veda presents music and dance tradition.
● Yayur Veda is a 'prayer book' which consists of liturgies and repetition of
Rig Veda but contains many original prose formulas.
● Atharva Veda is the primary source for information about Vedic culture,
the customs and beliefs, the aspirations and frustrations of everyday
Vedic life.
○ It is the song that vibrates through all that exists.
2. Individual Soul is identical within and without. Man achieves freedom
and emancipation from illusion knowledge of the real self.
○ Atman is an individual soul that became separated from Brahma
because of one's desires.
○ Nirvana is to return to Brahma.
3. The Trinity of Hindu Gods is known as the Devas
○ Brahma is the Creator
○ Vishnu is the Preserver
○ Shiva is the Destroyer
Recalling the Samsara (the Cycle of Birth, Death, and Rebirth)

Parts of a Vedas Written and Spoken Literature

● Samhitas contains mantras and benedictions. ● Literature is written in Sanskrit language originally using the Brahmi
● Aranyakas contains text on rituals , ceremonies. Script writing system
● Brahmanas contains commentaries. ● Texts were produced about the 16th century BC by people known as
● Upanishads focuses on the human aspect which contains meditation, Aryans who were cattle herders who were originally nomadic.
philosophy, and spiritual knowledge. ● They established kingdoms in North India.
● Imprinting the Vedic ideas in the human mind,
Dharma means the duty of an individual
Yuga
Upanishads ● It means ages or moments in Hinduism

18
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● 2,000 mahayugas make up the basic cosmic cycle, the *kalpa*.

● The Four Yugas or the Mahayuga meaning the Great Yuga.
○ Krita
○ Treta
○ Dvapara
○ Kali
● Sin, untruth, disease, and war increase with each succeeding Yuga.
● Krita means it perfection.
● In Krita, man lives up to 100,000 years.

Caste System ● Brahman were scholars ang priest

● It is also known as Varna meaning color ● Kshatriya were warriors
● Vaishya were merchants.
● Shudra were laborers.
● Untouchables were outcasts.

The Devas

Brahma, The Creator

19
Literature 1
● He is the uncreated creator with four bearded red faces and four arms.
● The number four is significant in Hindu; four Yugas, four Varnas.
● His hands hold the Rig Veda, an alms bowl, lotus flower, and prayer
beads.
○ The lotus flower symbolizes purity and divinity
● His wife, Sarasvati, goddess of learning and the arts
● ● It is a story within a story of a story also known as a Frame Narrative.
Vishnu, The Preserver
● He is often reincarnated on earth as a human; also known as an avatar.
● He has four hands that hold a club for war, a conch, lotus flower, and
chakra.
○ The club for war is also called a gada.
○ The chakra is an astra; it is a holy weapon.
● His wife, Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and good fortune
● wife. Later on, sperm came out of him.
Shiva, The Destroyer
● He has three eyes and wears a garland of snakes.
● He has four hands that hold drums, fire.
● He was considered as the Lord of Dance
● His wife, Parvati, goddess of power.
● She is also known as Shakti
● One of the most well-known gods in Hinduism.
Mahabharata
● Mahabharata means Great Warrior.
● It is also known as Jaya which means History
● Bhagavad Gita can be found in the Mahabharata.
● It is attributed to Vyasa as the author of the Mahabharata
● It is written by the god of literature, the arts, and learning; Ganesha
Prelims Reviewer
● It is divided into 18 books or sections with a 100,000 couplets
● It is often called the Fifth Veda.
● It showcases the Tenets of Hinduism such as the importance of dharma
and the fact that philosophy and religion are inseparable.
● The philosophical work of the Bhagavad Gita and the play Shakuntala are
additions to the Epic that further enhanced its significance.
○ A story in which another story is enclosed or embedded
Content
❖ The story begins with a boy looking around the palace and finds a
mysterious cave and encounters Vyasa and Ganesha.
❖ Vyasa started telling the story of a king who was hunting. The king
longed for his wife. He rested by the river banks and dreamed about his
❖ The king asked a bird to bring his sperm to his wife so that she can bear a
child. However, on the way, the bird was attacked by another bird and the
sperm fell into the river. The sperm was swallowed by a fish.
❖ The fish was caught by a fisherman. However when the fisherman
opened up the fish, he found a baby girl. Eventually, he would name her
Satyavati.
❖ Satyavati smelled of fish so she struggled on finding a husband. One day, a
hermit told her that if she would let him have sex with her, he could make
her fragrant.
❖ They had sex and they had a son named Vyasa.
➢ Thus, it is a story of how the author was born.
❖ King Bharata wanted to marry Satyavati because he was looking for a
second wife. King Bharata had a son from his first wife named Bhishma.
20
Literature 1
❖ Satyavati would marry King Bharata, if their own son would inherit the
kingdom of Hastinapura.
❖ Bhishma promised that he would never take the throne from his half-
brother as well as marry and have children
❖ The gods were impressed by his sacrifice that he was rewarded with a gift
that he can dictate the time, place, and manner of his death.
❖ King Bharata and Satyavati wed. However, their son, the prince, was a
weakling.
❖ As time passed, the weakling prince needed to take a wife. But in order
for a prince to take a wife, he needed to be involved in a tournament to
win the hand of a wife. These tournaments are called Swayamvara
❖ Instead, Bhishma participated in the tournament on his behalf wherein he
won three wives named Ambika, Ambalika, and Amba.
❖ Amba already loved someone else; King Salwa. She begged Bhishma that
she wanted to come back to her lover. Bhishma agreed however when
King Salwa did not accept her out of fear of Bhishma.
❖ Amba came back to Bhishma and asked him to marry her but he refused
because of his promise. She felt dejected and swore revenge on Bhishma.
❖ The weakling prince died. His wives, Ambika and Ambalika, became
Vyasa's.
❖ Vyasa made love to both of them despite being unwashed.
❖ Ambika closed her eyes when they were making love because of this their
son was born blind; he was named Dhritarashtra, the Blind
❖ Ambalika grew pale when they were making love because of this their
son was born pale; he was named Pandu, the Pale
❖ As time passed, both princes needed to take a wife.
➢ Dhritarashtra's wife is Ghandari.
■ It was only on their wedding night when she found out that
his husband was blind. She asked one of her servants to
Prelims Reviewer
cover her eyes with a piece cloth that will never be
removed so that she will never spite her husband. They will
be blind together.
➢ Pandu has two wives named Kunti and Madri.
■ Unfortunately, Pandu was hunting in the forest when he
came across two deer making love. He took the opportunity
kill both of them at once. However, turns out it was a Rishi
making love to a woman; they were hidden as a deer. The
Rishi cursed him that, if Pandu were to make love to any of
his wives, he too would die.
❖ Pandu abandoned the kingdom and journeys to the Himalayas and
becomes a hermit.
❖ Kunti was a great servant of a holy man. She told Pandue that she was
rewarded with a gift that allowed her to call a god through her mantras.
Through this, she was able to call on a god to give her a child.
❖ Kunti confessed that tested her gift before. She called Suria, the god of the
sun. Kunti was then given a son named Karna. However, Kunti was
without a husband during this time and was not ready to have a child. She
placed Karna in a basket and let him take the river.
❖ Pandu agreed to use Kunti's Gift
➢ He instructed her to call Dharma, god of death and justice. Her
first born was named Yudhishthira.
➢ He instructed her to call Vayu, god of the wind, Her second child
was named Bhima.
➢ He instructed her to call Indra, god of thunder and lightning, Her
third child was named Aruna.
❖ Pandu's other wife, Madri, also wanted to have children. Madri asked
Kunti if she can share her mantra so that she have children also.
21
Literature 1
➢ She called the twin gods Ashwin. She had two sons named Nakula
and Sahadeva.
❖ The sons of Kunti and Madri, Yudhishthira, Bhima, Aruna, Nakula and
Sahadeva, became known as The Five Pandavas or the sons of Pandu.
❖ Dhritarashtra's wife, Ghandari, also became pregnant because she was
worried the sons of Pandu would take over the kingdom.
❖ Ghandari asked one of her servants to strike her in the stomach with an
iron bar and a ball of flesh fell out from her stomach.
❖ Ghandari was sad so she asked the servant to throw it away. However,
Vyasa stopped that from happening and asked the servant instead to cut
the flesh into a hundred pieces and put them into a hundred jars.
❖ Out of these one hundred jars would come out one hundred sons.
❖ Ghandari has 100 sons. Her eldest Duryodhana, and his second child
Dushashana, along with 98 other children. They are known as the
Kawravas; the enemy of the Pandavas.
❖ The Five Pandavas would lose their father, Pandu, because he made love
to his wife, Madri.
❖ Madri committed suicide after Pandu's death.
❖ The Kawravas and the Pandavas were educated by Drona.
❖ The Five Pandavas married one woman named Draupadi. Arjuna won
her in a tournament. Unfortunately, Kunti told Arjuna to share his wife
with her brothers.
❖ The Five Pandavas encountered Krishna; an avatar of the god Vishnu.
❖ Eventually, the Kawravas and the Pandavas became rivals.
❖ Arjuna was first given a choice between Krishna's army and weapons or
Krishna alone beside him.
❖ Krishna does all he can avoid going to war
❖ The Kawravas try to capture Krishna but they fail.
❖ Karna's past is revealed to Arjuna.
Prelims Reviewer
❖ The Rules of the War was negotiated
➢ Never strike a man in the back or who is unarmed, or has
withdrawn.
➢ Never strike a man on the legs of the thigh.
➢ Never fight during night.
❖ All of these rules were violated by both sides.
❖ Drona will only lay down weapons when a Man of Truth lies.
❖ Arjuna hesitates and Krishna teaches him that it is only duty which
matters in the Bhagavad Gita.
There are different meanings to the Gita but with a simple message.
1. Our world is one of infinite variety and change.
2. Life does not last but neither does death.
3. We see the world as we are.
4. We create meaning by giving shape to emptiness and by creating
boundaries to contain the infinite.
5. One must follow a path to navigate the world.
Karma Yoga- It is the path of action and acceptance
Bhakti Yoga- It is the path of devotion and surrender
Jnana Yoga- It is the path of knowledge and understanding
Analects of Confucius
22
Literature 1
Sayings of Confucius that are recorded by his students.
Ancient China
● The nation of China has had numerous historical incarnations.
● The ancient Chinese civilization, one of the world's earliest, flourishes in
the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China plain.
● China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as
dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Hsia of the Yellow River
basin and ending with the fall of the Qing or Manchu Dynasty in 1911
● Since 221 BC, when the Ch'in or Q'in Dynasty first conquered several
states to form a Chinese empire, the country has been expanded,
fractured and been reformed numerous times.
Confucius (551-479 BC)
● He is also known as Zong Zi
● He was born during the Warring States period; China was not united yet.
● He is educated unlike soldiers and military generals.
● Seeing unrest of people educate themselves and cultivate morality then
society will become peaceful
● His analects is an anthology; it is a published collection compiled by his
disciples.
Analects
● It is also known as ***Lun Yu*** which literally translates to "Selected
Sayings"
● It is a prescription on how a gentlemen should behave.
● The collection of sayings and ideas attributed to the Chinese philosopher
Confucius and his contemporaries
● All in all, there are 20 Books and 512 Confucian sayings
Prelims Reviewer
Confucianism is not a religion. Rather it is a behavior or code of ethics.
Main Precepts of the Analects
● Zhao means Filial Piety
○ It is how children should act towards parents, grandparents, or
elders.
Six Principles of Confucius
1. Ren means Benevolence
○ Education is the key to refining oneself.
○ Cultivating benevolence is a key to addressing societal unrest.
○ Ren has the idea of humaneness, goodness, benevolence, or man-
to-manness.
○ Ren is the golden rule, the rule of reciprocity; that is to say, do not
do anything to others that you would not have them do to you.
2. Chun-Tzu or Junzi means Superior Person
○ It can be translated variously as the gentleman, true manhood, the
superior man, and man-at-his-best.
○ The teachings of Confucius were aimed toward the gentleman, the
man of virtue.
3. Zhengming means Rectification of Names
○ Examples. Father to son, Elder brother to younger, Husband to wife,
Ruler to subject, and Friend to friend.
○ It teaches how one is supposed to behave in different contexts.
○ Confucius believed everyone must act his proper part.
Consequently, a king should act like a king, a gentleman like a
gentleman.
23
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

4. Te Or De means Moral Character

○ The word Te literally means power, but the concept has a wider
meaning
○ The power needed to rule, according to Confucius, consists of
more than mere physical might.
○ It is necessary that leaders be men of virtue who can inspire their
subjects to obedience through example.
5. Li means Natural Law
○ One of the keywords used by Confucius is Li. The terms have a
variety of meanings, depending upon the context.
○ It can mean proprietary, reverence, courtesy, ritual or the ideal
standard of conduct.
6. Wen means Arts of Peace
○ The concept of Wen refers to the arts of peace, which Confucius
held in high esteem.
○ These include music, poetry, and art. Confucius felt that these arts
of peace, which came from the earlier Chou period, were symbols
of virtue that should be manifested throughout society.
○ Confucius condemned the culture of his day Wu because he
believed it lacked any inherent value.
“What we know is what we know, what we don't know, we don't know, and Tradition and The Individual Talent
understanding that is true knowledge.” - Confucius
T.S. Eliot (1804-1869)
● His full name is Thomas Stearns Eliot
● He is an American born, British poet, essayist, literary critic, and editor
for poetry with works The Love Song of Alfred Jay Prufrock, about
unrequited love, and The Waste Land.
● Dante Alighieri influenced some of his works
● His works are the result of deliberated action or intellect.

24
Literature 1
● He contributed techniques, theories, and terms utilized in literary studies.
○ Objective Correlative- it is when a set of objects, situation, or
chain events invokes a particular emotion.
○ Theory of Impersonality- it is a concept of impersonal
relationship between a man as a poet and as a general man.
○ Dissociation of Sensibility- it is a separation of thought from
feeling which he held to be first manifested in poetry of the later
seventeenth century.
The Conflict between Tradition and Individual Talent
● This essay discusses the relationship between the poet or writer and the
literary tradition that came before them.
● Tradition represents a Simultaneous Order.
○ A historical timelessness, fusing past and present.
○ It gives a sense of the temporality of the present.
○ Temporality means one is or subject to time.
● Recognizing this tradition or sense means the audience perceives the
resemblance of a piece of literature to the past works and of its past
works presence in current times.
● Poets or writers realize an Ideal Order established from the literature
that preceded the poet or the writer and they had read.
○ It means nothing is truly original. As new work builds upon the
past and alters the way the past is seen
● The writer does not reveal his own unique and novel emotions, but
rather, by drawing on ordinary ones and channeling them through the
intensity of poetry.
Theory of Impersonality
Prelims Reviewer
● Honest criticism and appreciation should be directed not on the poet but
on the poetry.
● Impressions and experiences which are important for the writer may not
take place in the work and those in the work may be quite an ignorable
part of the writer, the personality. The work itself may serve as an escape
from the mundane life of the author.
● Talent for the arts is therefore not something innate but something
acquired through careful study of the craft itself.
What then must a writer do?
● Good art is impersonal and therefore also judgement of that art.
● The writer cannot reach the impersonality without surrendering himself
wholly to the work to be done.
● The writer is not likely to discover what work is to be done unless they
realize that they must live in not merely the present, but the past
manifesting in the present.
● The writer must be conscious that these past things are dead but they are
still living and will live beyond them.
Literary Awards
Are Literary Awards a proof of greatness?
The Idea of an Award for Literature
● Awards are structured with one organization, usually a non-profit
organization, as the presenter and public face of the award, and another
organization as the financial sponsor or backer, who pays the prize
25
Literature 1
remuneration, such as cash and kind, and the cost of the ceremony and
public relations.
● Many awards are dedicated to a certain genre of non-fiction writing such
as science fiction or politics.
● These are also awards dedicated to works in individual languages.
○ Example. Palanca Awards
“Hate, conceit, and jealousy are no less human attributes than wisdom, judgement,
and knowledge."
- Richard Flanagan
Booker Prize for Fiction
● It is formerly known as the Booker-McConnell Prize or the Man Booker
Prize.
● It is awarded each year for the best novel written in the English language.
● They've long prided themselves on their common man approach to
choosing the prize.
● Since its inception, the prize was awarded only to books published
originally in the United Kingdom or former domains of Great Britain, but
in 2014 the scope was widened to include any book originally published
in English.
● Crankstart (charitable foundation) will sponsor the award for 5 years
(2019-2023)
Man Asian Literary Prize
● It was an annual literary award between 2001 and 2012, given to the best
novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into
English, and published in the previous calendar year.
Prelims Reviewer
● It is awarded to writers who are citizens or residents of one of the
following 34 Asian countries.
● Miguel Syjuco 2008 for Illustrado (Philippines)
Pulitzer Prize for Literature
● The Pulitzer Prize board annually awards this prize (21 categories) for
distinguished fiction published in book form by an American author.
● Preference is given to works dealing with American life. The jurors don't
consider all works published in a given year, but only those that have
officially entered. There is a 75 dollars entrance fee.
● For Letters and Drama the categories are Fiction, Drama, History,
Biography, or Autobiography, Poetry, General Non-Fiction. One would
have to be an American citizen to be considered in this category.
● Entrants and nominated finalists are not the same.
● The cash prize for winning is 15,000 dollars.
● There has been some controversy that the Pulitzer Prize board are
liberals or leftists.
Nobel Prize
● Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an
author from any country who has produced "in the field of literature the
most outstanding work in an ideal direction." - Alfred Nobel
● Alfred Nobel's invention was dynamite.
● At times, it is awarded to someone based on political situations; political
in practice.
● Alfred Nobel stipulated in his last will and testament that his money be
used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit
26
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and

literature; promulgated on November 27, 1895.
● The Literature Prize is typically awarded to recognize a cumulative
lifetime body of work rather than single achievement.
● The preference for the Nobel Prize for Literature is relatively unknown
pieces of literature; regional work
● In 2018, there was no Nobel Prize awarded in Literature due to an alleged
scandal.
● On 5 March 2019, it was announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature
would once again be awarded, and laureates for both 2018 and 2019
would be announced together.
● Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 "for having
created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."

Tricks

Waiting for What Ifs?

Alice Munro
● Her first collection of stories was published as a Dance of the Happy
Shades (1968)
● Her work Lives of Girls and Women (1971) was conceived as a novel but
developed into a series of interrelated coming-of-age stories.

27
Literature 1
● Her work In Runaway (2004) Munro explores the depths of ordinary lives
through the use of temporal shifts and realistically rendered
reminiscences.
● Munro had begun writing stories as a teenager, and she persevered in her
attempt to establish herself as a writer despite years of rejection from
publishers and the limitations imposed on her career by the
responsibilities of marriage and motherhood.
Style
● Her style of fiction captures the social and cultural milieu of her native
southwestern Ontario, Canada.
● Munro embraced the mystery, intimacy, and tension of the ordinary lives
of both men and women, rooted in the uncharted and ambivalent
landscape of what affectionately came to be known as Munro country.
Key Literary Term
● Motif - it is any recurring element that has a symbolic significance in a
story through the use of imagery, structure, and language, and other
elements throughout literature
● Theme - it is a central idea or message.
○ Motifs are used to explain or elaborate on Theme
● Time Skip- it is a device in the motion picture, novel, etc., by which a
future event or scene is presented as contiguous to the chronological
order of the story.
Characters & Characterization
● Robin
○ She is the main character, a twenty-six year old who has so far led
a life that has mostly consisted of waiting.
Prelims Reviewer
○ She works as a nurse in a small Canadian town, where she spends
much of her time caring for and catering to the querulous
demands of her thirty-year-old- asthmatic invalid sister, Joanne.
○ She travels by train to watch Shakespearean plays in Stratford,
Ontario.
● Danilo Adzic
○ He is an immigrant clockmaker from Montenegro, located in
Southern Europe.
○ He is mysterious, exotic.
○ He gives Robin money for the train when she loses her purse,
makes her dinner at his home, while they wait.
○ He asks Robin to meet him again after a year in the same dress
with the same hair.
What If? showcases a dilemma on the side of the audience and sometimes
enunciated by characters in the story.
Causality is the relationship between cause and effect.
The English Patient
Love in a time of adversity.
Michael Ondaatje
● He was born in 1943 at Ceylon to a Burgher family of Dutch- Tamil-
Sinhalese- Portuguese origin, in 1954 moved to England with his mother.
● He became a Canadian citizen in 1962
28
Literature 1
● He received his BA from the University of Toronto and his MA from
Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
Style
● His writing style is non-linear, creating a narrative by exploring many
interconnected snapshots in great detail; flashbacks
Key Literary Terms
● The story contains many warnings or indications of a future event also
known as foreshadowing
● People in the story as well as other things exhibit contradictory
characteristics; paradox
Background of the Novel
● It is a1992 novel by Sri Lankan Candian novelist. Winner of the Booker
Prize for Literature
● It was recently crowned the best work of fiction from the last five decades
of the Man Book Prize (The Golden Man Booker Prize)
● A story about gradually revealed histories of a critically burned man, his
Canadian nurse, a Canadian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British
Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian villa
The bedouins are nomadic Arab people from North Africa
A cartographer is a person who compiles geographic data and creates maps.
A sapper is a combat engineer.
Main Characters
❖ Almasy or The English Patient
Prelims Reviewer
➢ He is a slipper, cryptic character. Someone who is not adept at self-
examination.
➢ He lacks any identification, serving a sort of black canvas onto
which the other characters project their wishes; healing wounds.
➢ Ironically, he is Hungarian not an English man.
➢ Rejecting nationalism, so can be forgiven for his actions (e.g.,
helping Germans spy across the desert)
❖ Hana
➢ She is entirely paradoxical.
➢ She suffers from an internal wound from losing her father to an
accident where he was burned beyond recognition. Her lover also
died during the war.
➢ She appears as someone young; seen as someone playing
hopscotch in the villa and seeing the patient as a noble hero who is
suffering
➢ She also appears as someone mature; seen as a professional nurse
treating patients but immediately detaching from them once they
are dead; She has a particular affinity for death
➢ She chains herself to the English Patient for atonement; seeing
Almasy as saint-like and with the hip bones of Christ; falling in love
with him in a purely non-sexual way.
➢ She projects her own romanticized images onto the blank slate of
the patient, forming a sort of fairytale existence of herself.
➢ She falls in love with Kip; Almasy urges her to find that fire within
and kindle it.
❖ Kip
➢ He is the most conflicted character.
➢ He is uncomfortable with his own race; being part of a culture that
was subservient to the British.
29
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

➢ He is emotionally withdrawing due to racial discrimination.

➢ Through Hana, he regains confidence and a sense of community.
➢ He is a Sikh.
■ Sikhism is religion wherein the disciples of the religion
cannot cut their hair and eat Halal meat.
■ Guru Gobind Singh was the tenth and last of the human
form Gurus of Sikhism. He molded the Sikh religion into its
present shape
■ Five Articles of Faith in Sikhism
● Kirpan (steel sword, dagger)
● Kesh, (uncut hair)
● Kara (steel bracelet)
● Kanga (wooden comb)
● Kaccha, (cotton underwear)
❖ Caravaggio
➢ He is named after a Baroque painter
➢ He is a Canadian thief and long-time friend of Hana’s father in the
original novel.
➢ His two thumbs were amputated that made him lose his nerve The Color Purple
➢ He is not capable of stealing, physically and mentally.
➢ He came to the villa to try to get Hana to leave, but eventually Communicating with God
falling in love with her
❖ Katherine Alice Walker
➢ She is an Oxford-educated firebrand ● She was born in 1994 at Eatonton, Georgia.
➢ She is stubborn and feisty ● She studied in Spelman College (1961-1963) and Sarah Lawrence College
➢ She is the one who leads Almasy to sensuality through her (1963-1965)
readings about Herodotus ● She married Melvyn R. Leventhal in 1967, at the age 23
➢ She breaks off the affair because of a sense of guilt. ● She divorced 9 years later, 1976
● She won the Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple, 1983

30
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

● Her father, who was, in her words, "wonderful at math but a terrible
farmer," earned only $300 a year from sharecropping and dairy farming.
● Her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid. She
worked 11 hours a day for USD $17 per week to help pay for her to attend
college.
● Living under Jim Crow Laws, Walker's parents resisted landlords who
expected the children of black sharecroppers to work the fields at a young
age.
● She became interested in the U.S. civil rights movement at Spelman
College. Continuing the activism that she participated in during her
college years.
● She returned to the South where she became involved with voter
registration drives, campaigns for welfare rights, and children's programs
in Mississippi.
Main Characters
❖ Celie- She is very much submissive but changes as story progresses
❖ Nettie- She is a faithful sister, separated from Celie because of
circumstances
❖ Sofia- She is a headstrong woman who won't take abuse from husband,
broken by prison
❖ Harpo- He is fearful of his wife, Sofia. He is caring and understanding to
his wife than his father, Albert.
❖ Shug Avery- She is an independent woman, mistress of Mister, inspires
Celie
❖ Samuel and Corrine- They take in Nettie, missionaries in Africa
❖ Mister- He is also known as Albert Johnson, the abusive husband of Celie

The Garden of Evening Mists

Style
● She focuses on the problems of personal relation of men and women and Guilt and Loss
sought to understand rather than excuse or ignore them.
● She tackles internalized racism; devaluation of your own race. Tan Twan Eng
● He was born in 1972 at Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from Chinese
Key Literary Terms Descent (Peranakans)
● Epistolary is a literary work in the form of letters; Coming from 'Epistles' ● His work delves into historical fiction primarily with the time of the
which are formal letters to a group of people. Japanese occupation of Perang.
● Feminism tackles concepts of 'gender' and cultural constructs, affected ● Gift of Rain (2007) was long listed for the Man Booker Prize.
by the omnipresent patriarchal biases of our civilization. ● The Garden of Evening Mists (*2012), his second novel that eventually
won the Man Booker for 2012.

31
Literature 1 Prelims Reviewer

❖ Nakamura Aritomo- He is former Japanese Imperial gardener

Style ❖ Yoshikawa Tatsuji- He is a Japanese historian that wants to shed light on
● His work tends to concentrate on a single character's point of view to Japanese atrocities
create a limited, imperfect narrative. ❖ Magnus Pretorius and Frederik Pretorius- They are South African
● The intention of such a technique is usually so that the audience can put expats, now tea growers in Penang.
themselves in the shoes of the protagonist and experiences the twists of
the story as the character does, heightening the sense of discovery and
the shock of emotional development.

Key Literary Term

● The author chooses who tells the story by determining the Point of View.
● Post-Colonialism is a historical period or state of affairs representing the
aftermath of Western colonialism. Where those who were once colonized
rethink on their colonization.
● Historical Fiction is a literary genre where the story takes place in the
“It always seems impossible
past.
● Historical novels capture the details of the time period as accurately as until it’s done.”
possible for the authenticity, including social norms, manners, customs,
and traditions - Nelson Mandela
● Many novels in this genre tell fictional stories that involve actual
historical figures or historical events.
● There are also subgenres such as Historical Fantasy and Alternate
History.

Main Characters

❖ Judge Teoh Yun Ling- She is the protagonist who wishes to build a
Japanese garden in memory of her sister.
❖ Teoh Yun Hong- She is Yun Ling's little sister. She is older in the book.

32