✩ 21st Century Literature → WEEK 1 : writing close analysis & interpretation and themes in literature !

────── ❛ notes ni rai ‧₊˚✧ || STEM 11 – A ──────

i. close reading ⌗ 3 idiots

⤻ reading — a widely used approach to enhance reading
comprehension.
⤻ process of finding as much information as you can in
order to form as many questions as you can
⤻ needed for the students to be able to engage in the
reading of complex texts.
⤻ method of analyzing literary works which gives focus on
the particular details of a passage or text in order to
have a precise and deep understanding of the text :
→ its form, meaning and even the author’s style
of writing.
⤻ deep analysis of how a literary text works
⤻ both a reading process and something you include in a
literary analysis paper, though in a refined form.
⌗ fiction writers and poets
ー build texts out of many central components, including
subject, form, and specific word choices.
⌗ literary analysis
ー involves examining these components, which allows us
to find in small parts of the text clues to help us
understand the whole.
ii. critical analysis
⤻ a careful examination and evaluation of a text, image,
or other work or performance.
⌗ steps to do the close analysis and critical
interpretation of literary text :
→ step 1 : read the passage, take note as you read
→ step 2 : analyze the passage
→ step 3 : develop a descriptive thesis
→ step 4 : construct as argument about the passage
→ step 5 : develop an outline based on your thesis
ー a 2009 Indian Hindi Language coming-of age
comedy-drama film.
ー follows the friendship of three students at an Indian
engineering college and is a satire about the social
pressures under an Indian education system.
⌗ crazy rich asians
ー a satirical 2013 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan,
highlights and ridicules the lifestyle of upper class Asian
families and society.
⌗ parasite
ー a 2019 South Korean black comedy thriller film directed
by Bong Joon-ho.
ー follows a poor family who scheme to become employed
by a wealthy family and infiltrate their household by
posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals.
⌗ your name
ー depicts a high school boy in Tokyo and a high school
girl in the Japanese countryside who suddenly and
inexplicably begin to swap bodies.
⌗ doll house
ー a troubled lead singer of a rock band sets out to
rekindle the relationship he never had with his long-lost
daughter.
⤻ 7 continents of the world
─ asia, africa, europe, north america, south america,
antarctica, australia.
─ different societies have different cultures.
continents : are composed of countries forming their
own society and celebrating culture.
culture : represents beliefs and practices of a group
society : represents the people who share those beliefs
and practices.

iii. world literature

⤻ March 25th iv. 21st century representative texts and authors

─ tolkien reading day is celebrated and it’s organized by
The Tolkien Society. ⌗ asia !
─ promotes the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading
passages from his books. title authors nationality
─ this date was chosen because it coincides with the date
Three Sisters Bi Feiyu Chinese
of the downfall of Sauron and the fall of Barad-dûr in
the Lord of the Rings. I do Eileen Tabios Filipino

Serious men Manu Joseph Indian

→ barad-dûr : is the fictional tower from which Sauron rules
Mordor. In the books, this happens on March 25, 3019 when the The changeling Kenzaburō Ōe Japanese
Ring falls into the Cracks of Doom
The thing about Tabish Khair Indian
thugs

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 ⌗ north america ! ■ with her 2008 book "Infidel," Ayaan Hirsi Ali
became a feminist voice for the rights of
title authors country of origin abused Muslim women and religious freedom.
It Is Important To Joshua Jennifer California, USA
Be Something Espinoza ⌗ history and memory !
ー explores the notion of multiplicities of truth and
Twin Study Stacey Richter Arizona, USA acknowledges that history is filtered through human
perspective and experience.
The Bully Roger Dean Kiser California, USA
examples :
Mango Poem Regie Cabico Fil-Am | NYC, USA
■ "The March" by E.L. Doctorow
This is America Donald Glober African-American |
Georgia, USA → fictionalizes yet still depicts the realities of
General Sherman’s famous march during the
A Gentle Hell Autumn Christian California, USA U.S. Civil War
→ how people of the South were slaughtered,
⌗ europe ! giving a slightly different perspective of how
the North is usually depicted.
title authors country of origin ■ other works :
→ The Boy in Striped Pajamas, Pearl Harbor, The
Machines Like Me Ian Russell Aldershot, England
McEwan Book Thief, Jojo Rabbit.

Changing My Zadie Smith, London, England ⌗ technology !

Mind (Sadie Smith) ー explore what it means when all of humanity’s
David Stephen Worcestershire, experiences are filtered through technology.
Cloud Atlas
Mitchell England
examples :
The History Boys Allan Bennet Yorkshire, England
■ "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline
Harry Potter Joanne Kathleen → depicts a futuristic world where everyone
England
Series Rowling escapes reality by plugging into a virtual
utopia.
■ other works :
v. themes in 21st century literature → Transformers, The Matrix, Marvel and DC
⤻ literature in the 21st century — the crossroads of movies and shows, Free Guy.
literature.
⌗ intertextuality !
⤻ contemporary writers often consciously draw
ー recognize a piece of work as being one among many
inspiration and ideas from the writers who have come
throughout history.
before them.
ー many writers purposely include acknowledgements,
⤻ as a result many work of 21st literature grapple with the
references or parallels to other works of fiction,
events, movements, and literature of the past in order
recognizing their place in a larger, broader
to make sense of the present.
conversation, context and body of work.
⤻ technological advancements of the 21st century : have
ー some intertextual themes go as far as to poke fun at a
led other writers to hypothetically write about the future
work’s own lack of originality or the clichés that it
→ usually to comment on the present and evoke
seemingly cannot escape.
introspection.
⤻ themes in literature : examples :

⌗ identity ! ■ "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by

ー intersections of cultures and more vocal discussions of Junot Diaz
women’s rights and LGBT rights. → references many comics, movies and other
books in order to describe events.
examples :
■ other works :
■ Sam Clay in "The Amazing Adventures of → Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and
Kavalier and Clay" by Michael Chabon the Wardrobe, Harry Potter, Shrek, The School
→ struggles to come to terms with his for Good and Evil.
homosexuality. The novel, which is about young
comic book collaborators during the World War
II era, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2001.
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vi. representative texts and authors from asia
⌗ three sisters
⤻ author : Bi Feiyu
⤻ set in rural China in the 1970s
⤻ tracks the lives of three sisters - Yumi, Yuxiu and Yuyan,
the book is divided into three parts, each centering on
one of the three women.
⤻ the narrative begins in 1971 with the birth of the first
boy after 7 girls.
⌗ i do
⤻ author : Eileen R. Tabios
⤻ provides us the perspective of a female worker that
knows how to speak English but is treated as inferior.
⤻ the narrator of the poem is a. female OFW that tells of
her life being treated inferior by her employer
⌗ serious men
⤻ author : Manu Joseph
⤻ a 2010 drama fiction novel that follows Ayyan Mani, a
middle-aged Dalit working as an assistant to a Brahmin
astronomer at the Institute of Theory and Research in
Mumbai.
⤻ lives in slum with his wife and a son, furious at his
situation in life, Ayyan develops an outrageous story
that his 10-year-old son is a mathematical genius – a lie
which later gets out of control.
⌗ the changeling — torikae ko (chenjiringu)
⤻ author : Kenzaburō Ōe
⤻ the first book of a trilogy that was translated into
English by Deborah Boliver Boehm and published in the
United States by Grove Press.
⤻ a filmmaker named Goro Hanawa commits suicide.
Goro had appeared happy before his suicide.
⤻ his best friend, a novelist named Kogito Choko,
discovers the suicide via an audiotape recorded by
Goro; he had sent forty tapes to Kogito. Chikashi
Choko, Goro's sister and Kogito's wife, also learns that
Goro died.
⤻ to learn why Goro had killed himself, Kogito listens to
the tapes.
⤻ Scott Esposito of the Los Angeles Times said that :
→ "What he finds is a rambling series of discourses on
everything from the friendship they've shared since
they were teens in the 1950s to Goro's ideas about
art and life, their shared admiration for Rimbaud and
a few secrets from the past.”
⌗ the thing about thugs
⤻ author : Tabish Khair
⤻ an odd confection of a novel, set mostly in what looks
like late-Victorian London; the streets are gaslit.
⤻ the underworld teems with the flotsam of empire:
lascars, Irishmen and so on, the undesirables of many
nations.
⤻ the city is overwhelmed with crime and prostitution and
an influx of immigrants.
⤻ opium dens abound and a serial killer is on the loose.
vii. representative texts & authors from north america
⌗ it is important to be something
⤻ author : Joshua Jennifer Espinoza (transwoman)
⤻ talks about the LGBTQ+ community, they believe that
they have to be something in order to be accepted by
the society.
⌗ the bully
⤻ author : Roger Dean Kiser
⤻ about how he forgave his bully when he was young and
how he helped his bully when he saw him in a
wheelchair.
⌗ twin study
⤻ author : Stacey Richter
⤻ richter writes with volatile energy, hurtling through her
stories while flitting seamlessly between the unusual
and the mundane.
⤻ she shows the repercussions of bad parenting, the
loneliness of forgotten children, the struggles of the
smallest creatures, and the frailty of age.
⤻ while her observations may sometimes sting, Richter is
never afraid to up her characters' antes.
⤻ often scathing, sometimes disturbing, and just as
frequently funny, her stories occasionally wend off into
the surreal — they are populated by Neanderthals,
bong-sucking Bat Boys, and a long-suffering woman
raising a clone of herself as a replacement part.
⤻ ultimately, Richter's flights of fancy are about pain,
human and real and unrelenting, and very, very subtly,
about humanity itself.
⌗ mango poem
⤻ author : Regie Cabico
⤻ the first poem spoke of how the taste of mango served,
for Cabico's family, as a literal taste of home—the
connection to a homeland even after migrating to a
new country, and the ways in which tasting a familiar
food can spark memories and comfort.
⤻ mango — represents the philippines.
⌗ this is america
⤻ author : Donald Glover
⤻ musical stage name : Childish Gambino
⤻ addresses the wider issue of gun violence in the United
States, the high rate of mass shootings in the United
States, along with other social issues that are presumed
to be aftereffects of historically prevalent systemic
racism and discrimination.
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 ⌗ a gentle hell
⤻ author : Autumn Christian
⤻ comprised of five dark speculative stories of quiet
tension and uncomfortable nostalgia, written for
deformed children and girls that dream of demons.
⤻ They Promised Dreamless Death — a salesman sells
sleep with the promise of a better life, but what dreams
lurk beneath the substrate of consciousness for those
who take it are stranger than they ever imagined.
⤻ Your Demiurge is Dead — while the world adjusts to
the death of God and the new reign of the Triple
Goddess, Charles hunts for an Oklahoma murderer and
is forced to confront his religious ideals when he
encounters a new prophet.
⤻ The Dog That Bit Her — is the story of a neurotic
young woman who gains freedom from her
codependent marriage with the bite of a rabid dog.
⤻ The Singing Grass — the artist and the writer
converge at a meadow haunted by a carnivorous deer
and the burnt monsters that show them the
consequences of an artistic life (semi-autobiography).
⤻ The Bad Baby Meniscus — exclusive to the print
version, a precocious young girl is treated for her
developmental disorder with nanite technology;
however, with a cure comes the death of the self, and
her body begins to reject the treatment.
vi. representative texts and authors from europe
⌗ cloud atlas
⤻ author : David Stephen Mitchell
⤻ combines metafiction, historical fiction, contemporary
fiction and science fiction, with interconnected nested
stories that take the reader from the remote South
Pacific in the 19th century to the island of Hawai'i in a
distant post-apocalyptic future.
⌗ the history boys
⤻ author : Allan Bennet
⤻ opens in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional
boys' grammar school in the north of England.
⤻ set in the mid-late 1980s
⤻ the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for
the Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations
under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin,
and Lintott) with contrasting styles.
⌗ infographics
⤻ are graphic visual representations of information, data,
or knowledge intended to present information quickly
and clearly.
⤻ they can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to
enhance the human visual system's ability to see
patterns and trends.

⌗ machines like me
⤻ author : Ian McEwan ⌗ end of week 1 ⌗
⤻ the 15th novel by the English author Ian McEwan
⤻ novel is set in the 1980s in an alternative history
timeline in which the UK lost the Falklands War, Alan
Turing is still alive, and the Internet, social media, and
self- driving cars already exist.
⤻ story revolves around an android named Adam and
its/his relationship with its/his owners, Charlie and
Miranda, which involves the formation of a love triangle.

⌗ changing my mind
⤻ author : Zadie Smith
⤻ collection of essays
⤻ split into five sections
→ reading
→ being
→ seeing
→ feeling
→ remembering
⤻ finds Zadie Smith casting an acute eye over material
both personal and cultural.