ASEAN LITERATURE The Literary Standards

1. Universality
What Is Literature?
• The word literature is derived from the latin word
“litera” which means letter or words.
• Literature is the total of preserved writings/spoken
words belonging to a given language or people.
• Literature interprets the meanings of nature and life
(thoughts, emotions/feelings) in words of charm and
power, touched with the personality of the author, in
artistic forms of permanent interests.
• Literature expresses significant human experiences.
• Literature can generally be divided into two types:
( based on structure and based on content)
It appeals to everyone regardless of culture, race,
sex, and time which are considered significant.
2. Permanence
It endures across time and draws out the time
factor: TIMELINESS, occurring at a particular
time, and TIMELESSNESS, remaining invariably
throughout time.
3. Artistry
It has an aesthetic appeal to everyone and thus
possesses a sense of beauty.

Based on Structure 4. Intellectual Value

Prose Non-prose (poetry) It stimulates critical thinking that enriches the mental
1. Novels 1. Narrative Poetry processes of abstract reasoning, making and
2. Short Story • Epic realizes the fundamental truths of life and its nature.
3. Plays • Metrical
4. Legends Tale 5. Suggestiveness
5. Fables • Ballads It unravels and conjures man’s emotional power to
6. Anecdotes 2. Lyric Poetry define symbolism, nuances, implied meanings,
7. Essay • Folk images and message, giving and evoking visions
8. Biography Songs above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and
9. News • Sonnets experiences.
10. Oration • Elegy
• Ode 6. Spiritual Value
• Psalms It elevates the spirit and the soul and thus have the
• Awit power to motivate and inspire, drawn from the
• Corridos suggested morals or lessons of the different literary
3. Dramatic Poetry genres.

7. Style
It presents peculiar ways on how man sees life as
evidenced by the formation of his ideas, forms,
structures, and expressions which are marked by
their memorable substance.

Literary Devices
- refers to the typical structures used by writers in their
works to convey his or her message(s) in a simple
manner to his or her readers.
BASED ON CONTENT - Literary Devices have two aspects. They can be
1. Fiction or “literature of power” treated as either Literary Elements or Literary
✔ Myths Techniques.
✔ poems
Literary Elements have an inherent existence in literary
✔ short stories
piece and are extensively employed by writers to
✔ novels
develop a literary piece.
✔ Plays
2. Non-fiction or “literature of knowledge” 1. Plot
✔ Biographies 2. Setting
✔ News 3. Protagonist
 4. Antagonist
5. Point of View Examples:
6. Conflict a. The room was dark and gloomy. -The words
7. Mood “dark” and “gloomy” are visual images.
8. Tone b. The river was roaring in the mountains. – The
9. Theme word “roaring” appeals to our sense of hearing.

7. Simile And Metaphor

Literary Techniques are structures usually a word s or
phrases in literary texts that writers employ to achieve
not merely artistic ends but also readers a greater
understanding and appreciation of their literary works.
1. Symbolism
It refers to using an object or action that means
something more than its literal meaning.
Examples:
a. Pink - the fight against breast cancer
b. The Statue of Liberty – freedom
c. Roses stand for romance
2. Flashback
- tells an interjected scene of the story that takes it back
in time from the current point in the story and often used
to tell the events that happened before another important
event
3. Flash Forward
- tells a scene that takes the narrative to a future time
from the current point of the story
Both compare two distinct objects and draws similarity
between them.
The difference is that Simile uses “as” or “like” and
Metaphor does not.
Examples:
a. “My love is like a red rose” (Simile)
b. He is an old fox very cunning. (Metaphor)
8. Personification:
attribution of human qualities to something that is non-
human like objects and animals.
Example:
a. The flowers are dancing beside the lake.
b. Have you seen my new car? She is a real beauty!
c. My clock yelled at me in the morning.
9. Hyperbole
It is deliberate exaggeration of actions and ideas for the
sake of emphasis.
Example:
a. I’m so sad that I’m drowning in tears!
b. I have got a million issues to look after!

4. Cliffhanger
- tells and abrupt ending which places the main Literary Approaches
characters in a perilous situation with no resolution FEMINISM
 Feminist literature is often associated with
5. Foreshadowing literary pieces written by women that deal with
Important hints that an author drops to prepare the women in the society.
reader for what is to come, and help the reader  This approach gives an impact to the voice of
anticipate the outcome . women.
Example: FORMALISM OR NEW CRITICISM
a. A pipe is going to burst, but before it does, the author  The formalists’ interpretation of work of art is
writes a scene where the family notices a small dark formulated by the information and details of the
spot on the ceiling, but ignores it. piece itself.
 Formalists focus is on rhetorical and logical
6. Imagery connections within the writing.
It is the use of figurative language to create visual
representations of actions, objects and ideas in our
mind in such a way that they appeal to our different 7 TYPES OF CONFLICT
senses i.e: There are two basic kinds of conflict: EXTERNAL and
▪ taste(gustatory imagery) INTERNAL
▪ sight(visual imagery)
▪ smell(olfactory imagery) External Conflicts
▪ touch(tactile imagery) It pits the character against some exterior force or world-
▪ hear(aural imagery) view and happens outside the character’s body.
1. Person vs. Person
Also called man vs. man and protagonist vs.
antagonist, this is the most common type of external
conflict. It is clear and universally understood as a good
vs. evil story in which an unambiguous challenger
opposes the main character.
2. Person vs. Nature
This type of conflict counters a character against some
force of nature, such as an animal or the weather.

3. Person vs. Society

When a novel sets a character against a tradition, an
institution, a law, or some other societal construct, it is a
Person vs. Society story.

4. Person vs. Technology

When science moves beyond human control, conflicts of
Person vs. Technology develop. 

5. Person vs. Supernatural

Vampires, werewolves, aliens, and ghosts – any typically
unbelievable, supernatural, or inexplicable phenomena

INTERNAL CONFLICTS
The two remaining types of conflicts are internal – ones
that happen inside the character’s mind or heart. 

6. Person vs. Self

A character battling inner demons, one who has an inner
moral conflict, or is simply striving to become a better
person 

7. Person vs. Destiny (Fate/Luck/God)

This is an ambiguous conflict type. Sometimes aspects
of it get split up and parsed out among the other
categories.