Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WRITTEN ENGLISH
LITERATURE
Introduction to English
Literature
Literature
May be described as the record in
words of what people have thought
and felt from ancient past to the
present day.
More exactly, literature is good
writing that helps us understand that
human beings in all times and places
have much in common.
Written Literature
Written literature is divided into two
broad classes:
FICTION and NONFICTION.
FICTION
Something that the writer invents or
imagines.
It aims to stir our feelings and
imaginations by describing moods of
joy or sadness, by telling us exciting
stories, and by introducing us to
characters whose emotions we may
all understand and share.
Fiction can be: PROSE, DRAMA,
POETRY.
NONFICTION
The kind of writing we turn to when we want to
learn the facts of science and history.
This kind of writing may enter the realm of
literature when the ideas are beautifully
expressed in language that gives added
pleasure.
Examples: Great works of religion and
philosophy, biographies, autobiographies,
diaries, essays (an informal essay a short
piece of prose discusses a subject from a
personal point of view)
PROSE ANALYSIS
INTRINSIC ELEMENTS:
plot, narrator & point of view,
character & characterization, theme,
setting, etc.
EXTRINSIC ELEMENTS:
the biography of the author, the
social/political/psychological/religious
backgrounds of the story, readers
response, and the like.
DRAMA ANALYSIS
INTRINSIC ELEMENTS:
plot, narrator & point of view, character
& characterization, theme, setting,
conflicts, etc.
EXTRINSIC ELEMENTS:
the biography of the author, the
social/political/psychological/religious
backgrounds of the story, readers
response, and the like.
POETRY ANALYSIS
INTRINSIC ELEMENTS:
narrator/the supposed speaker of the poem,
theme, rhyme, rhyme scheme,
rhythm/meter, figurative languages/figures
of speech, etc.
EXTRINSIC ELEMENTS:
the biography of the author, the
social/political/psychological/religious
backgrounds of the story, readers response,
and the like.