Literature

From the Greek word litera meaning letter

defined as the total of creative, imaginative, durable writings belonging to a
given language or people of the past and of the present
faithfully expresses and reproduces life in an artistic manner by focusing on the
significant human experience
all the best that has been thought or said in this world Matthew
Arnold (English poet)
writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent
and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry,
romance, history, biography, essays, etc

Knowledge about Literature

accumulating facts about:

o literary contexts
o dates authors
o titles of texts
o names of conventions literary terms

Knowledge of Literature

better expressed in termsof pleasure and enjoyment rather than in terms of

the accumulation of facts, however valuable those facts may sometimes be.
Questions in Literature
Low-order questions

High-order questions

Open questions
Closed questions

retrieve factual information, literal

meanings, or the basic propositions or
content of a text
involve the learners own responses,
inferences,knowledge, and experience
of the world
open to exploration and probing
investigation
require above all an accurate,
information-based response

Closed low-order questions focus on the factual content of a text; open, highorder questions focus on the imaginative or symbolic content of a text or the
content of meaning which it generates.
General Divisions of Literature
Prose
o unit of thought expressed in a sentence and a group of thoughts
expressed in a paragraph

does not consider the use of rhythm

appeals more to our reason and intellect.

Poetry
o

unit of thought expressed in a verse and a group of thoughts

o
o

expressed in a stanza
presents regular rhythm (rhyme and meter)
appeals more to our emotions and passions

Types of Prose

Fiction
o

composed of works of imaginative narration in prose form

characters and incidents wholly or partly imaginary

Non-Fiction
o composed of works of narrative prose dealing with or offering
opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality.
o primary purpose is to disseminate information or express an idea in
a direct manner
Kinds of Fiction
Short Story

a prose narrative of limited length,

usually shorter than a novel

Novel

a fictitious prose narrative of

considerable length and complexity

Fable

a short tale conveying a moral or a

principle of behavior, often with animals
or inanimate objects as characters

Legend

a nonhistorical or unverifiable story

handed down by tradition from earlier
times and popularly accepted as
historical

Parable

a short allegorical story designed to

convey some truth, religious principle, or
moral lesson

Mythology

a body of myths that belong to particular

people or culture and tell about their
ancestors, heroes, gods, and other

supernatural beings and history

Fairy Tale

a prose narrative with supernatural and

magical event in which there is always a
happy ending

Kinds of Non-fiction
History

a recorded narrative of past events as

relating to a particular people, country,
period, person, etc.

Diary

a daily record of the writers own

experiences, activities,
observations, attitudes, and feelings

Letters

written or printed communication usually

sent by mail

Essay

a short, analytic, descriptive, or

interpretive piece of literary
or journalistic prose dealing with a
specific theme or subject

Biography
Autobiography

a written account of another persons life

an account of a persons life written by
himself

Travelogue

a lecture or piece of writing describing

travels, usually illustrated by
photographs, exhibited items, etc.
Types of Poetry

Narrrative
o tells a story following a sequence of events
Lyric
o expresses the emotions and feelings of a poet
o has the form and musical quality of a song
Dramatic
o presents in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast
of character
o intended to be acted on the stage

Kinds of Narrative Poetry Epic

Ballad

Metrical Tale
Metrical Romance

a majestic poem centered upon a

hero, in which a series of great
achievements or events is narrated
continuously and at length in
elevated style
a simple narrative poem of popular
origin or traditional style that tells a
story in a number of short regular
stanzas
relates real or imaginary events
about ordinary people
centered on adventure which often
shows the ideal virtues and the fight
between good and evil

Kinds of Lyric Poetry

Simple Lyric
Sonnet

Song
Ode

Elegy

includes all those lyric poems which

do not properly belong to any of the
other types of lyric poetry
lyric poem of fourteen lines with a
formal rhyme scheme
Shakespearean or English sonnet
divided into three quatrains and a
couplet and has a rhyme scheme of
abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Petrarchan or Italian sonnet
consists of an octave and a sestet
and has a rhyme scheme of
abbaabba, cdecde or cdcdcd
a short metrical composition
intended or adapted for singing; has
a particularly melodious quality
a lyric poem typically of elaborate or
irregular metrical form and
expressive of exalted or enthusiastic
emotion
a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive
poem, especially a funeral song or a
lament for the dead
Kinds of Dramatic Poetry

Comedy

Tragedy

a dramatic poem of light and

humorous character with a happy or
cheerful ending; the central motif is
the triumph over adverse
circumstance, resulting in a
successful or happy conclusion
a dramatic composition dealing with
a serious or somber theme, typically
that of a noble person whose
character is flawed by a single
weakness, as pride, envy, etc., which
causes him to break a divine law or
moral precept and which leads
inevitably to his downfall or
destruction

Why do we study Literature?

To benefit from the insights of others

To open our minds to ambiguities of meaning
To explore other cultures and beliefs
To appreciate why individuals are the way they are To expand our grasp
of the machinations of history To exercise our brains
To teach us to see individual bias
To encourage us to question accepted knowledge
To help us see ourselves as others do
To appreciate the contributions it made to history
To see the tragedy
To further our mastery of language
To explore ethical complexities
To recognize language devices and appreciate their emotional power
To see the admirable in everyday life
To learn better ways to behave
To know we are not alone
To refine our judgment
To develop empathy for those who are unlike us
To expand our vocabularies
To learn to support our points of view and trust our own interpretations