Module 1 ASEAN LITERATURE

Introduction to Literature

Character

a person, animal, being, or creature in a story.

Characterization

• a writer’s tool, or “literary device” that occurs any time the author uses details to teach us about a person.

• is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character

Types of Characterization

1. DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION- the author tells us straight out, by exposition or analysis, what a character is like, or has someone in the story tell us what he is like

2. INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION- refers to the way a writer shows a character’s traits through dialogue and action

Setting

The time and place of the story.

Point of View

• also known as viewpoint; narrative convention which tells from whose perspective is the story told.

• may be a character, first-person point of view; third-person narrator, telling the story by an impersonal narrator not affected by story situations; and unreliable narrator, telling the story by an insincere narrator, misleading the readers;

• stream of consciousness, exposing the character’s mind to the readers through his monologue

Narrative Conventions in Writing Fiction

1. Exposition

2. Rising Action

3. Climax

4. Falling Action

5. Resolution

Backstory

tells the events of the story that happened before the present story

Chekhov’s Gun

tells of an inherent object inserted in the narrative

In Medias Res

the narration that starts in the middle of the story

Narrative Hook

tells a catchy story opening to hook the attention of the readers

Hypo diegesis

tells a story within a story

Deus Ex Machina

tells a good character in a bad situation and ensures the character wins with an unexpected or implausible use to resolve the situation

Plot Twist

tells a surprise ending

Poetic Justice

tells a reward to the good characters and punishes the bad characters

Cliffhanger

tells an abrupt ending that places the main characters in a perilous situation with no resolution

Flashback

tells an interjected scene of the story that takes it back in time from the current point in the story and is often used to tell the events that happened before another important event

Flash Forward

tells a scene that takes the narrative to a future time from the current point of the story

Foreshadowing

indicates or hints something is coming in the latter part of the story

Emotional Appeal

moves the emotion of the reader or audience. It is a way or method used by the author to create an emotional response among his reader or audience.

Use of Sensory Detail

forms mental images of scenes using descriptive words

Dramatic Visualization

presents an object or character with much description or gestures and dialogues making scenes vivid for the audience

Leitwortstil

repeats on purpose the words that usually express a motif or theme important to the story

Figures of Speech

words or expressions that are not meant to be read literally

Simile

a comparison between two essentially unlike things using words “such as,” “like,” and “as.”

Metaphor

the direct comparison of dissimilar things to create more vivid imagery or understanding.

Personification

assigning human attributes to nonhuman things.

Hyperbole

a deliberate exaggeration that adds emphasis, urgency, or excitement to a statement.

Euphemism

a way to say something in an understated manner, often to avoid difficult topics—like money, death, or sex.

Litotes

use a double negative to create a positive.

Oxymoron

joins two opposite ideas in a sentence

Theme

• underlying message or the central idea.

• about life that the author is conveying in the story which is universal in nature

• is about the human experience

• entwined in the story which is reflected in the character’s words and actions, events, and other elements

Tone

• refers to the methods by which writers and speakers reveal attitudes or feelings – toward the material, toward their readers, and toward the general situation that they are describing or analyzing.

• The authors’ attitude or attitude toward the subject matter and toward the readers may be deduced by reading the selection carefully.

Feminism Approach

• uplifts women’s goals by defining and establishing equality in the family, civil, social, political, and economic arena.

• associated with literary pieces written by women that deal with women in society. It also involves characters or ideas that chide the common gender norms dominated by masculinity

• gives an impact on the voice of women

New Historicism Approach

• deals with the cultural context during the writing of the piece of literature

• interprets literature for its meaning or idea in a particular socio-historical atmosphere

• needs an understanding of the author’s milieu and the cultural context during its production.

Formalism Approach

• Also called new criticism

• This uses a close reading of a piece of literature. This means that the formalists’ interpretation of a work of art is formulated by the information and details of the piece itself. Formalists do not interpret a work based on matters that are outside the confines of the work like history, politics, society, time, or even the author.

• They see it autonomously and can be gauged through

  internal structure and language. Considered are form,

  structure, and technical features as more important

  than the content and context.

Biographical Approach

• sees a literary work as a reflection of the author’s life

• Critics using this school of thought investigate how the plot details, settings, and characters of the work reflect or are representative of events, settings, and people in the author’s life

Reader-Response Theory

• a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.

• Each generation has different experiences, values, issues, etc. Therefore, each generation will read a work differently.

Psychological Criticism

• frequently addresses human behavior- at conscious and/or unconscious level-as well as the development of characters through their actions.

• It also requires that we investigate the psychology of the characters and their motives in order to figure out the work’s meanings.

Moralistic Approach

• judges literary work by ethical teachings

• The purpose of literature is to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues

Poetry

literature that is written in verse and emphasizes a rhythmic use of words to create

Lines

• similar to a sentence, except that writers aren’t obliged to use periods to end each

• his functions as a natural pause to signal a break in the flow.

• considered to be a tool that controls the rhythm of your piece

Stanza

a series of lines grouped together and separated by an empty line

Imagery

a figurative language used to represent a certain action, object, and idea in a way that would appeal to the five senses

Theme

-s a general idea that a poet wants his or her readers to grasp

Symbolism

the art or practice of using conventional or traditional objects and signs as a method of revealing or suggesting ideas, ideals, truths, or otherwise intangible states.

Alliteration

repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Consonance

the repetition of consonant sounds close to each other within a line in a poem

Assonance

repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry

Onomatopoeia

• a sound device that represents the exact sound of something in the poem.

• The poet forms a word to imitate the sound made by the object in the poem

Rhythm

refers to a pattern of rhymes that is created by using words that produce the same, or similar sounds

Rhyme

the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound and any succeeding sounds in two or more words.

Internal Rhyme

occurs within a line of poetry

End Rhyme

occurs at the end of line

Rhyme Scheme

the pattern of end rhymes that may be designated by assigning a different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme.

Poetic Meter

the number of feet used in each line

Poetic Foot

unit of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

Lyric Poetry

• refers to a short poem

• often with song like qualities that express the speaker's personal emotions and feelings.

Narrative Poetry

form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters

Descriptive Poetry

mainly describes the subject — whether it be a person, an animal, or an inanimate object

Sonnet

is a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, employing one of several rhyme schemes, and adhering to a tightly structured thematic organization.

Haiku

a short, unrhymed poem that adheres to a specific three-line, seventeen-syllable.

Elegy

a form of poetry in which the poet or speaker expresses grief, sadness, or loss

Limerick

- a silly poem with five lines. They are often funny or nonsensical

Ballad

• one of the oldest poetic forms in English

• a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music. English language ballads are typically composed of four-line stanzas that follow an ABCB rhyme scheme.

Ode

• Originating in ancient Greece, ode poems were originally performed publicly to celebrate athletic victories. Later, this poetic form was favored among English romantic poets, who used odes to express emotions using rich, descriptive language

• describe any outpouring of praise, and modern ode poems have evolved to include various styles and form

Epic

is a long, often book-length, narrative in verse form that retells the heroic journey of a single person, or group of persons