What is Literature?

Literature broadly is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed.

In literature, symbols are often characters, settings, images, or other motifs that stand in for bigger ideas. Authors often use symbols (or “symbolism”) to give their work with more meaning and to make a story be about more than the events it describes.

• Any printed matter written within a book, magazine or pamphlet.

• Faithful reproduction of man’s manifold experiences blended into one harmonious expression.

• Man’s loves, griefs, thoughts, dreams, & aspirations coached in beautiful language

• Story of man

• Significant human experience

Reasons for Studying Literature

• To better appreciate our literary heritage.

• To trace the rich heritage of ideas handed down to us by our fore fathers.

• To understand the great and noble tradition of the different races of the world.

• As Filipinos, to take pride in our own culture and manifest deep concern for our own literature.

Types of Literature

• Novel is a long narrative divided into chapters. The events are taken from true-to-life stories and spans a long period of time.
• Short Story is a narrative involving one or more characters, one plot and one single impression.
• Plays can present on stage divided into acts and each act has many scenes.
• Legends are fictions, narratives, and usually about origins.
• Fables are stories about animals and inanimate things that speak and act like people and their purpose is to enlighten the minds of children to events that can mold their ways and attitudes.
• Anecdotes is a product of the writer’s imagination and the main aim is to bring out lessons to the reader.
• Essay expresses the viewpoint or opinion of the writer about a particular problem or event- best example is the editorial page of a newspaper.
• Biography deals with the life of a person which maybe about himself or that of others.

• Narrative story or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional or fictional. Narratives can be presented through a sequence of written or spoken words, still or moving images, or any combination of these.

  • • Epic is an extended narrative about heroic exploits often under supernatural control.

    • Tales are stories about supernatural beings.

    • Ballads are short poems, adapted for singing, simple in plot and metrical structure.

• Lyric is a type of poetry that expresses emotions and feelings of the poet and usually short, simple and easy to understand.

  • • Folksongs (Awiting Bayan) a song originating among the people of a country or area, passed by oral tradition from one singer or generation to the next, often existing in several versions, and marked generally by simple, modal melody and stanzaic, narrative verse.

    • Sonnet is a poetic form which originated in the Italian poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in Palermo, Sicily. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini are credited with the sonnet's invention for expressing courtly love. This has 14-line poem dealing with emotions, feelings or ideas.

    • Elegy is a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead.

    • Ode is a type of lyrical stanza. It is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode.

    • Psalms a sacred song or hymn, in particular any of those contained in the biblical Book of Psalms and used in Christian and Jewish worship.

    • Awit is a type of Filipino poem, consisting of 12-syllable quatrains. It follows the pattern of rhyming stanzas established in the Philippine epic Passion. It is similar in form to the corrido.

    • Corrido is a popular narrative metrical tale and poetry that forms a ballad. The songs are often about oppression, history, daily life for criminals, the vaquero lifestyle, and other socially relevant topics.

• Dramatic Comedy

• • • Tragedy involves the hero who struggles mighty against dynamic forces until he meets death.

    • Comedy is coming from the Greek word “komos” meaning festivity or revelry, purpose, amusement or happy ending. is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, TV, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.

    • Melodrama is a dramatic work wherein the plot, which is typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to the emotions, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue, which is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action.

    • Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable.