Literature, most generically, is any body of written works.

More restrictively, literature refers to

writing considered to be an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual
value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.

Its Latin root literatura/litteratura (derived itself from littera: letter or handwriting) was used to
refer to all written accounts. The concept has changed meaning over time to include texts that are
spoken or sung (oral literature), and non-written verbal art forms. Developments in print
technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works,
culminating in electronic literature.

Literature is classified according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction, and whether it is poetry or

prose. It can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel, short story or
drama; and works are often categorized according to historical periods or their adherence to
certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre).

Literature
 It came from the Latin word "litera" which means letters.
 Is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature" is used to
describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most
commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama,
fiction, and nonfiction.
 It represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is more important than
just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. We learn
about books and literature; we enjoy the comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and
we may even grow and evolve through our literary journey with books.
 It deals with ideas, thoughts and emotions of a man – thus it can be said that literature is the story
of man.
 It is the best way to understand human nature fully and to know a nation completely. It is one of
the seven arts ( i.e music, dance, sculpture, painting, theater, and architecture) is a product of
creative work, the result of which is form and beauty.

Two Divisions of Literature

PROSE
POETRY

Form Written in paragraph

form Written in stanza or verse form

Language Expressed in ordinary

form Expressed in figurative language
Appeal To the
intellect To the emotion
Aim To
convince Stir the imagination and set
an
idea how life should be.

Types of Prose
1. Prose Drama – a drama in prose form. It consists entirely dialogues in prose, and is meant to be act
on stage.

2. Essay – a short literary composition which is expository in nature. The author shares his thoughts
feelings, experiences, or observations on some aspects of life that has interested him.

3. Prose Fiction – something invented, imagined, or feigned to be true)

1. Novel – a long fiction narrative with a complicated plot. It may have one main plot
and one or more sub plots that develop with the main plot. It is made up of chapters.

2. Short Story – a fictitious narrative compressed into one unit of time, place and
action. It deals with single character interest, a single emotion or series of emotions
called forth by a single. It is distinguished from the novel by its compression.
4. Biography and Autobiography

1. Biography – a story of a certain person’s life written by another who knows the
subject well.

2. Autobiography – a written account of man’s life written by himself.

5. Letter – a written message which displays aspects of an author’s physiological make-up not
immediately apparent in his more public writings. It is a prose form which by the force of its
style and the importance of its statements becomes an object of interest in its own right.

6. Diary – a daily written record of account of the writer’s own experiences, thoughts, activities
or observations.

7. Journal – a magazine or periodical especially of serious or learned nature. It is the reflection,

opinion of a read material.
Types of Poetry
 Narrative Poetry – a poem that tells a story.


1. Epic – a long narrative poem of the largest proportions. Epic is a tale mainly about a hero concerning
the beginning, continuance, and the end of events of great significance on tribal or national
significance.
2. Metrical Poem – a narrative poem that tells a story of adventure, love and chivalry. The Typical hero
is a knight on a quest.
3. Metrical Tale – a narrative poem consisting usually a single series connective events
that are simple, and generally do not form a plot. Examples of these are simple idylls
or home tales, love tales, tales of the supernatural or tales written for a strong moral
purpose in verse form.

4. Ballad – the simplest type of narrative poetry. It is s short narrative poem telling a
single incident in simple meter and stanzas. It is meant to be sung.
5. Popular ballad – a ballad of wide workman ship telling some simple incidents of
adventure, cruelty, passion, or superstition, an incident that shows the primary
instincts of man influenced by the restraint of modern civilization.
6. Modern or artistic – created by poet in imitation of the folk ballad, makes use of many
of its devices and conventions.
 7. Metrical Allegory – an extended narrative that carries a second meaning along worth
the surface story.
 Lyric Poetry – a poem that is very personal in nature. It expresses the author’s own thoughts,
feelings, moods and reflections in musical language. It derived its name from the musical
instrument, the lyre.

1. Ode – a lyric poem of some length, serious in subject and dignified in style. It is most
majestic of the lyric poems. It is written in a spirit of praise of some persons or things.

2. Elegy – a poem written on the death of a friend of the poet. The ostensible purpose is
to praise the friend. But in the end of the poem, however, we can expect that poet will
have come to terms with his grief.

3. Song – a lyric poem in a regular metrical pattern set to music. These have twelve
syllables and slowly sung to the accompaniment of a guitar or banduria.

4. Sonnet – a lyric poem containing four iambic pentameter lines, and a complicated
rhyme.

Two divisions of literature

The two divisions of literature are prose and poetry. While prose is written in a straightforward
manner to appeal to the reader's intellect, poetry has a more rhythmic, imaginative tone used to
awaken the reader's emotion.

Prose is written in paragraph form and is meant to reflect common, everyday language. The chief
objectives of prose are to inform or educate the reader, or instruct the reader to do something.
Examples of prose include a novel, essay, letter or biography.

Poetry is written in verse form, with the express intent to appeal to the reader's emotion. It relies
heavily on the use of metaphors and abstract language to encourage the readers to use their
imagination. Examples of poetry include a ballad, an epic, a sonnet or a song.

Philippine Literature under Spanish

Colonialism (1565-1897)
From Notes on Philippine Literature: A History and Anthology by Bienvenido Lumbera

 Spanish monarchy, Roman Catholic religion, feudalism

 pueblos – Taga-bayan; hispanized
 hinterlands – Taga-bukid, Taga-bundok; indio, brutos salvages
 Filipino – Spaniards born in the Philippines
 Parish Priest – only Spaniard who had direct contact with Filipinos
 Doctrina Christiana (1593) – 1st book published in the Philippines
 May Bagyo Ma’t May Rilim – Francisco Blancas de San Jose; 1st literary work printed
in Tagalog published

o Memorial de la Vida Christiana (1605)
 Ladinos – latinized, able to read and write in one of the Latin languages
o Pedro Bukaneg – published Lam-ang
o Tomas Pinpin – Ang Librong Pag-aaralan ng mga Tagalog ng Wikang Castilla
o Fernando Bagongbata – Memorial de la Vida Christiana
 Gaspar Aquino de Belen – 1st Filipino literary artist
o Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon Natin – Christian narrative
poem intended to replace epic poems of the pagan past
 pasyon, sinakulo
 Christ – model of humility and submissiveness to religious and secular authority
 Missionaries – literary patrons of the day then
 ability to affect the manners and mores of the Spaniard – sign of a higher socio-economic
status

 komedya – highborn warriors and their colorful adventures for lore and fame, glimpse of
an idealized European society
 2 types of narrative poems (sung/chanted):
1. awit – monoriming dodecasyllabic lines
2. korido – four monoriming octosyllabic lines
 Francisco Baltazar (1788-1862)
o Florante at Laura (Pinagdaanang Buhay ni Florante at Laura) – awit
o Orosman at Zafira – komedya
o Mahiganting Langit – 1st celebrated soliloquies
 Modesto de Castro – native priest, sermons in Tagalog
o Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at Feliza
 Royal decree in 1863 – complete educational system
 Pedro Paterno
o Sampaguitas (1880) – collection, marked the beginning of national consciousness
among the Filipino intelligentia
o Ninay – nationality
 Jose Rizal
o Noli Me Tangere – 1st time realism as a literary concept
o El Filibusterismo
o A las Flores de Heidelburg – conversational, pain of the exile
o Mi Ultimo Adios – sonorous and incantatory
 The Propaganda Movement (1872-1896)
 La Solidaridad (1889-1895)
 Marcelo H. Del Pilar
o duplo – poetic jousting
o Sagot ng Espanya sa Hibik ng Pilipinas ← Hibik ng Pilipinas sa Inang Espanya
 Spanish to Tagalog → revolution
  Andres Bonifacio
 Emilio Jacinto – editor of Kalayaan
o Liwanag at Dilim
 Apolinario Mabini
o La Revolucion Filipina
 Leona Florentino – Ilokano poet
 Gregoria de Jesus

Conclusion: At the close of the 19th century, the body of written Philippine Literature was in
general largely religious, consisting of poems and homiletic essays printed in Catholic pamphlets
and newspapers. Philippine Literature has become aware of its distinctness as the product of
colonized people struggling against the rule of foreign power.

Literature under the spanish period (1565 1897) - To The Flowers of Heidelberg

1. 1. Go to my country, go, O foreign flowers, sown by the traveler along the road, and under that
blue heaven that watches over my loved ones, recount the devotion the pilgrim nurses for his
native sod! Go and say say that when dawn opened your chalices for the first time beside the icy
Neckar, you saw him silent beside you, thinking of her constant vernal clime. Say that when
dawn which steals your aroma was whispering playful love songs to your young sweet petals,
he, too, murmured canticles of love in his native tongue; that in the morning when the sun first
traces the topmost peak of Koenigssthul in gold and with a mild warmth raises to life again the
valley, the glade, the forest, he hails that sun, still in its dawning, that in his country in full zenith
blazes. And tell of that day when he collected you along the way among the ruins of a feudal
castle, on the banks of the Neckar, or in a forest nook. Recount the words he said as, with great
care, between the pages of a worn-out book he pressed the flexible petals that he took. Carry,
carry, O flowers, my love to my loved ones, peace to my country and its fecund loam, faith to its
men and virtue to its women, health to the gracious beings that dwell within the sacred paternal
home. When you reach that shore, deposit the kiss I gave you
2. 2. Waking up early morning he walked along the old town and the confluence of the Neckar
River, it was early spring and flowers had sprung and blooming along the path. He remembered
their beautiful garden in Calamba and became inspired to write a poem entitled “To the Flowers
of Heidelberg”.
3. 3.  The Poem is a reflections of a Rizal’s feelings based on his experiences.  While in
Heidelberg he is experiencing the feeling of nostalgia for his parents and his country.
4. 4.  It is a free verse  It shows no significant pattern or rhythm  Less proof symbolism at all
5. 5.  The Poem is simple but powerful. More or less literal in meaning and in quality and offers a
little depths in the implicative content.  There is a strong emphasis in sense of emotion (like
the Homesickness) and the resounding imagination which dominated the very lines of its verses.
6. 6.  Rizal’s Interaction with nature creates a vital experience of profound awe in the beauty of
all creation especially that of nature and his deep thought of homesickness or missing of the
family and motherland who are oppressed during this times are the primary aspects that shapes
the poem. Critical Analysis
7. 7.  The poem manifest also a reality of connectedness between man and nature, as well as
man and society. Reminiscing wonderful memories begets inspiration that reminds us about the
beauty of life and the deep bonds of connection that people have with each other.
8. 8.  Like most of the other writers in history, Rizal’s motivation in writing this poem simply
recalls the idea of Sigmund Freud that … “Writers or Poets write simply to express a repress
emotions.”
9. 9.  In some point-of-view, Rizal’s manner of writing the poem can be describe as defense
mechanism as his way of coping up or displacing his psychological and social melancholy of
those things he valued the most.
10. 10.  Moreover, beyond the notion of homesickness and despite the apparent beauty that the
poem is uttering for, apparently, underneath it all, there is a shards of remorse that the Author,
Rizal, is experiencing, reason why he came with the vibrant idea of writing such poem.
11. 11.  Rizal’s poem also reflects a flavor of aesthetic quality of Sublime similar to notable
Romantic Poets like, Wordsworth (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, 1888), Lord Byron (She Walks
in Beauty), and more or less like that of the lake poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1636-1693) .
12. 12.  Love of the Family • Agape – Love of the Motherland • Valuing the Beauty of Nature •
Self-Sacrifice
13. 13.  Read more: http://www.ehow.com/about_5385205_different- approaches-literary-
criticism.html#ixzz2pIDHP0sA  Different Approaches of Literary Criticism by Pamela Mareghni,
eHow Contributor. Retreived January 3, 2014 from www.ehow.com