JOHN KYLE E.

BANDIAN
11- ABM C

21ST CENTURY 2ND QUARTER REVIEWER

Lesson 1 and 2: Context and Critical Approaches

Critical Approaches
- Lenses a new angle on how we view things.
- Allows us to interpret a literary text.

Literary Theory
- Principle that is used to study the nature of a literary work.

Types of Criticism
Formalist Criticism // text itself, fixed meaning
- Text itself lang, disregarding author’s ointment, author’s bg, context or anything else
outside the work itself.
- Fixed meaning, Greatest literary text are timeless, and universal.

1. Biographical Criticism // author’s life

- Literary criticism method that analyzes the author’s life.

2. Mythological Criticism // archetypes (common themes)

- Investigates the 'universal' features of human life/common themes.
- Text meanings shaped by cultural and psychological myths using images, symbols,
and even patterns.

3. Historical Criticism // time

- Literary works are a product of their time.
- Helps readers comprehend how texts were interpreted during their period.
- Literary books reflect the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes of the time in which they were
created.

4. Psychoanalytic Criticism // human brain or characters

- Views work thru the lens of psychology
- Psychological motivations of the characters and authors
- Characters reflect the author himself

5. Deconstructionist // no fixed meaning

- There is NO SINGLE MEANING OF ANY TEXT
- All text has multiple meanings
- Reader’s interpretation will always be different from how the author interprets the text

6. Reader Response Approach // subjective, reader’s interpretation

- Reader’s interpretation changes over time
- Readers from diff generation has different interpretation (parents and child gano’n)
- Meaning of the text relies on the reader
7. Sociological Criticism // social context
- Social Contexts must be considered in analyzing

8. Feminist Criticism // female, equal rights

- Role, position, influence of WOMEN in a literary text
- Argue that gender determines everything

9. Marxist Criticism // class struggles (Proposed by Karl Marx)

- Series of struggle between the oppressed and the oppressing

10. Gender Criticism // queer community, gender equality

- Influence by socially constructed gender roles
- Gender roles are created by PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY

11. Postcolonial Criticism // has been colonized

- Literary texts produced in places that has been colonized.

Lesson 3: Fiction

Fiction
- Based on your imagination
- Not realistic
- Latin Word is fictio = the art of making/molding

Nick Joaquin (Nicomedes Joaquin)

- National Artist for Literature (1976)
- Historian of the Brief Golden Age of Spain in the PH
- Proofreader in the Philippine Free Press

Elements of Fiction
1. Characters - Driving force of the plot
2. Setting - Time, place, atmosphere, period, context, and etc.
3. Plot - Order of Events

Freytag’s Pyramid (Gustav Freytag)

 4. Conflict - Struggles EX. Man vs. Man, Nature, Society, Himself
5. Theme - Underlying truth/universal
6. Symbolism - Adds Meaning

Symbolism
- Simile - Direct Comparison
- Metaphor - Indirect Comparison
- Allegory - Comparison using Religion
- Archetype - Recurring Theme (Concepts that don’[t go away. EX. Demon = Evil)
- Myth - Cultural Beliefs/Legends

Importance of Symbolism
• Visualize Complex Concepts
• Relate Big Ideas
• Critical Thinking
• Adds emotion
• Conceals Controversial Themes

Lesson 2: World Literature

• Considered as global text.
• Refers to the total sum of the world’s national literature and the circulation of work
into the wider world beyond the country’s origin.

Representative Texts and Authors from Asia and Africa:

East Asia

1. China
• World’s cradle of civilization.
• Started since the 14th century.
• Kept the Chinese literary tradition prosperous.
• Tang Dynasty (618–907) was the finest era of Chinese Literature.

Famous Figures and Works:

1. Du Fu
- Known as the greatest Chinese poet of all time
- Wrote The Ballad of the Army Cats.

2. Mo Yan
- A fictionist who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature.
- Wrote Red Sorghum

2. Korea
• Has China’s cultural dominance (4th century).
• Hangul, writing system, and national alphabet.
• Literature focuses on alienation, conscience, disintegration, and self-identity.
Famous Figures and Works:
1. Ch’oe Nam-Seon
- Historian, poet, and publisher.
- Leading member of the modern literary movement.
- Wrote The Ocean to the Youth.

2. Yi Kwang-Su
- Launched the modern literary movement.
- Wrote The Heartless

3. Japan
• Known for the world-renowned poetic genre called Haiku (5-7-5).
• Noh (one of the oldest theatrical forms) and Kabuki (popular drama with singing and
dancing).
• Known for simple yet complex literary themes.

Famous Figures and Works

1. Abe Kobo
- Novelist and playwright.
- Wrote Tomadachi, a story with dark humor about human relationships.

2. Kimitake Hiraoka (Mishima Yukio)

- Most important Japanese novelist of the 20th century.
- Received the 1963 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Middle East
• Arabic literary tradition flourished in the Middle East.
• Islam became the foundation of culture, contributing to the growth of Arabic literature.

Famous Figures and Works:

1. Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad
- Egyptian poet, journalist, and literary critic.
- Innovator of 20th-century Arabic poetry and criticism.
- Wrote Abqariyat Series (7-book compilation about the life of seven Sahabah).

2. Ali Ahmad Said Esber (Adonis)

- Award-winning Syrian-born Lebanese poet.
- Won the Goethe Prize (2011) and PEN/Nabokov Award (2017).
- Wrote First Poems and Leaves in the Wind

3. Taha Hussein
- Egyptian novelist, essayist, and critic.
- Known as the Dean of Arabic Literature.
- Wrote The Days, a novelized autobiography about his childhood.

4. Etgar Keret
- Israeli writer known for short stories and screenwriting.
 - Won Sapir Prize for Literature (2019).
- Wrote Fly Already and Glitch at the Edge of the Galaxy.

South & Southeast Asia

• South and Southeast Asian literature reflects influences of Buddhism, Thai, and
English cultures.
• Malaysian and Indonesian literature incorporates elements of Sanskrit and Islam.

India
• Cultural giant of South Asia.
• Veda, Brahmanas, and Upanishads are the roots of Indian literature.
• Literature began in 1500 BCE.
• Kalidasa is known as the Hindu Shakespeare.

Famous Figures and Works:

1. Rabindranath Tagore
- Poet, short story writer, composer, playwright, essayist, and painter.
- Known as the Bard of Bengal.
- First non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913) for Gitanjali.

2. Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (Prem Chand)

- Famous Indian author
- Adapted Indian themes to Western literary styles.
- Wrote Godaan (The Cow Donation).

Central Asia
• Literature revolves around different characteristics and political influences.

Famous Figures and Works:

1. Abdulla Qodiriy
- Known as Julqunboy.
- Uzbek writer of the 20th century.
- Wrote O’tgan Kunlar (Days Gone By), the first Uzbek full-length novel.

2. Wole Soyinka
- First black African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1986).
- Wrote A Dance of the Forests, a play for Nigeria’s independence celebration

Contemporary Writers and Their Works

Authors and Their Literary Contributions:

1. Charlson Ong
- Literary Work: Banyaga: A Song of War
- What It Is All About
- An epic novel narrating the plight of Chinese-Filipino boys and the hardships in their
country.
2. Khaled Hosseini
- Literary Work: A Thousand Splendid Suns
- What It Is All About:
Set in Afghanistan, it tells the story of two women placed in a situation where they have
no choice but to depend on each other.

3. Haruki Murakami
- Literary Work: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- What It Is All About: A story of a man searching for something and his tales of
another world.

4. Chinua Achebe
- Literary Work: Things Fall Apart
- What It Is All About: Chronicles a tribe in Africa, highlighting its societal issues and
battles against outside colonizing forces.

Sumerian Literature (3000 BC–100 BC)

● The earliest known written corpus (collection of written text) of literature.
● Includes religious writings, stories, and other texts.
● Sumerians invented Cuneiform Writing, the oldest form of writing.
● Gilgamesh: The oldest known epic poem in the world, written in Cuneiform.

Indian Literature:
Significance: Reflects the cultural, intellectual, and spiritual legacy of India, contributing
significantly to global literary canon.

1. Sanskrit: The ancient language of India commonly used in religious writings and
ceremonies.
2. Rig Veda: A collection of 1,028 hymns composed by different authors at different times
for their Indian gods.
3. Mahabharata: Meaning “The great tale of the Bharata dynasty,” it is the world’s longest
epic.
4. Panchatantra: A collection of folktales and fables in Indian literature, known as The Five
Books or The Five Strategies.Notable Indian Writers:

1. Rabindranath tagore
- Wrote Gitanjali, a collection of poetry published in 1910.
- First non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

2. Kalidasa
- A renowned Sanskrit poet and dramatist, considered India’s greatest poet and
playwright.
- Authored Shakuntala.

3. Valmiki
- Known as Ādi Kavi (the first poet) and the author of Ramayana, the first epic poem.
- The Ramayana originally consists of 24,000 shlokas and seven cantos.