GREAT WORKS FINALS PERIOD
Quiz 1:
• Types of World Literature
• Themes in World Literature
• Tradition of Excellence and Recognition
o May Day Eve
o A very Old Man with Enormous Wings
WORLD LITERATURE & THE TRADITION OF
EXCELLENCE: CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS
• JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
o Welt Literatur
o “National literature is now a rather
unmeaning term; the epoch of world
literature is at hand, and everyone
must strive to hasten its approach.”
• CANON
o Canon= rule/ measuring rod
o In literature, refers to the list of works
that represent a particular cultural/
national group
o Works included in the canon are said
to be imbued with artistic, cultural,
and intellectual value= best
• CANON FORMATION
o The canon developed over time
o Slowly shifting
o Despite the absence of universal
consensus, the canon is manifested in
school syllabuses/ course outlines,
literature programs/ BA Literature
degrees colleges, literature textbooks,
publications of academic printing
houses, journal articles in literature
• ISSUES WITH THE CANON
o The predominance of the European
tradition
o The previous canon of Philippine
literature/ Philippine Literary Studies
was said to be manila centric and
EuroCentric
o In the advent of the closing of the 20th
century (and the opening of the 21st
century), the canon was made to be
more Inclusive.
o The invisible rubric of race, class and
gender was slowly abandoned.
o Disrupttexts
▪ “Critically intervene in a way
that challenges and changes”
– bell hooks
WORLD LITERATURE: LITERATURE & WORLD
• JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
o Welt Literatur
o “National literature is now a rather
unmeaning term; the epoch of world
literature is at hand, and everyone
must strive to hasten its approach.”
• DAVID DAMROSCH
o World Literature
o “all literary works that circulate
beyond their culture of origin, either
in Translation or in their original
language.”
THREE VIEWS OF WORLD LITERATURE (DAMROSCH,
2003)
I. Classics
a. A cultural force
b. Of great value to civilization
c. Connected to Greek and Roman
Traditions
d. Canon is fixed
II. Masterpieces
a. De- emphasizes the Classical Greek
and Roman traditions
b. Includes fairly recent works
c. Another term for the classics
d. Canon is slowly adjusting
III. Windows to the World
a. Literatures from foreign countries are
placed together in canonical works
b. The purpose of world literature is to
introduce readers to the cultures of
the world
COMMON THEMES IN THE LITERATURES OF THE
WORLD
• AMERICAN AND CANADIAN LITERATURE IN
THE CONTEMPORARY AGE
o Deals with social issues (gender,
freedom, human rights, (in)tolerance)
o Chic literature, speculative fiction and
Young Adult literature are popular
o Literatures mediated by the internet:
fanfiction, and wattpad
o Popularity of TV series (employing
techniques from literature)
• AFRICAN LITERATURE IN THE CONTEMPORARY
AGE
o preoccupation with the recovery of
the African identity after years of
colonial slavery
 o lamentations on violence
o cry for recovery
• ASIAN LITERATURE IN THE CONTEMPORARY
AGE
o Conflict in Tradition and Modernity
o Acceptance of Western forms
o In the case of Japanese Literature,
synthesis of indigenous, traditional,
and western forms is evident (e.g.
Anime and Manga)
o Gender issues and religious conflict
• EUROPEAN LITERATURE IN THE
CONTEMPORARY AGE
o Multiculturalism and the quest for the
self
o Politics and the individual
o Experimentations in form and content
• LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE IN THE
CONTEMPORARY AGE
o Politics and the individual
o Experimentations in form and
content
o Popularization of the testimonio
LITERARY AWARDS AND THE TRADITION OF THE
CANON
• The canon was determined by institutions–
academic, political, cultural
• While literary awards were given as early as
the classical age, such recognitions became
more imperative in the modern times
• Cultural productions undergo “quality
control”
• Literary merit is now in need of validation=
cultural capital
NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
• Given by the Nobel Foundation since 1901
• Awarded to people in “the field of literature
[with] the most outstanding work in an ideal
direction”
• A Literature Nobel Prize laureate earns a gold
medal, a diploma bearing a citation, and a
sum of money (In USD 1,100,000)
o MO YAN
▪ Won the 2012 Nobel Prize for
his use of hallucinatory
realism
o ERNEST HEMINGWAY
▪ American journalist, former
soldier, and ambulance driver
▪ “for his mastery of the art of
narrative, most recently
demonstrated in The Old Man
and the Sea, and for the
influence that he has exerted
on contemporary style”
o WILLIAM FAULKNER
▪ Came from an affluent family,
wrote extensively on the
genre of fiction
▪ Won the Nobel “for his
powerful and artistically
unique contribution to the
modern American novel”
o GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
▪ A novelist, journalist and
screen play writer
▪ Won the Nobel “for his novels
and short stories, in which the
fantastic and the realistic are
combined in a richly
composed world of
imagination, reflecting a
continent’s life and conflicts”
o LUIGI PIRANDELLO
▪ Came from a rich family, and
wrote extensively in the light
of Italian fascism
▪ Won the Nobel “for his bold
and ingenious revival of
dramatic and scenic art”
o ALICE MUNRO
▪ Won the Nobel for being the
“Master of the Contemporary
Short Story”.