21 Century Literature

st

from the Philippines

and the World
Quarter 1 – Module 2:
Conventional and 21st Century
Genres

What I Need to Know

This module is a standalone section that you can use based on your needs
and interests to enhance your competency on how to differentiate the
various 21st century literary genres and the ones from the original genres,
citing their elements, structures and traditions.
After going through this module, you are expected to:
1. differentiate the 21st century literary genres, and the one’s from the
original genres;
2. enumerate the elements, structures and traditions of each genre;
3. appreciate the unique features of each genre.

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 Lesson

1 21st Century Literary Genres

21st Century Literature

21st Century Literature refers to new literary work created within the
last decade. It is written by contemporary authors which may deal
with current themes/ issues and reflects a technological culture. It
often breaks traditional writing rules.

21st Century Reader

A 21st Century Reader grew up using technology as a primary

learning tool. He is capable of navigating and interpreting digital
formats and media messages. He also possesses literacy skills, which
include technological abilities such as keyboarding, internet
navigation, interpretation of technological speak, ability to
communicate and interpret coded language and decipher graphics.

What’s New

Directions: Look for the conventional literary genres in the puzzle

below and, on a separate sheet of paper, answer the questions
that follow.

W F H I O M B O Z I
A E C D R A M A A O
P T S U P B W P F L
U O T H U N D I I K
L I E S W R F Y C F
K F L T Q T W T T I
G X P M R A S K I C
H N W N L Y E V O T
D J R V A E R B N I
X Y J C U I U Y E O
N O N F I C T I O N

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 1. What are the four conventional literary genres have you found in the
puzzle?

2. What are their unique features?

Let’s recall the major literary genres!

POETRY- is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through

meaning, sound and rhythmic language choices to evoke an emotional
response. It has been known to employ meter and rhyme. The very nature of
poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly
impossible to define.
DRAMA- is a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or
pantomime a story involving conflict more contrast of character, especially
on intended to be acted on a stage: a play. It may be any situation or series
of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting or striking interest.
FICTION- is literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact,
though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in
the fiction include the novel, short story and novella.

NON-FICTION- is based on facts and the author’s opinion about a subject.

The purpose of non-fiction writing is to inform and sometimes to persuade.
Its examples are biographies, articles from textbooks and magazines and
newspapers.

What is It

You have rediscovered the conventional literary genres. This part of the
module would let you learn modern literary genres presently used by 21 st
century writers.

21st Century Literature Genres

ILLUSTRATED NOVEL
• Story through text and illustrated images
• 50% of the narrative is presented without words

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 • The reader must interpret the images to comprehend the story
completely.
• Textual portions are presented in traditional form.
• Some illustrated novels may contain no text at all.
• Span all genres.
• Examples include The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
and The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

DIGI-FICTION
• Triple Media Literature
• Combines three media: book, movie/video and internet website
To get the full story, students must engage in navigation, reading, and
viewing in all three forms.
• Patrick Carman’s Skeleton Creek and Anthony Zuiker’s Level 26 are
examples.

GRAPHIC NOVEL
• Narrative in comic book formats
• Narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using a
comic form.
• The term is employed in broadly manner, encompassing non-fiction
works and thematically linked short stories as well as fictional stories
across a number of genres.
• Archie Comics by John Goldwater and illustrator, Bob Montana, is a
good example.

MANGA
• Japanese word for comics
• It is used in the English-speaking world as a generic term for all comic
books and graphic novels originally published in Japan.
• Considered as an artistic and storytelling style.
• Ameri-manga- sometimes used to refer to comics created by American
artists in manga style.
• Shonen- Boy’s Manga (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece)
• Shojo- Girl’s Manga (Sailormoon)
• Seinen- Men’s Manga (Akira)
• Josei- Women’s Manga (Loveless, Paradise Kiss)
• Kodomo- Children’s Manga (Doraemon, Hello Kitty)

DOODLE FICTION
• Literary presentation where the author incorporates doodle writing,
drawings and handwritten graphics in place of the traditional font.

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 • Drawing enhances the story, often adding humorous elements
• Examples include The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney and
Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis.

TEXT-TALK NOVELS
• Blogs, email and IM format narratives
• Stories told almost entirely in dialogue simulating social network
exchanges.

CHICK LIT or CHICK LITERATURE

• It is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often
humorously and lightheartedly.
• Chick Lit typically features a female protagonist whose femininity is
heavily thermalizing in the plot.
• Scarlet Bailey’s The night before Christmas and Miranda
Dickinson’s It started with a Kiss are examples of this.

FLASH FICTION
• Is a style of fictional literature of extreme brevity
• There is no widely accepted definition of the length and category. It
could range from word to a thousand.

SIX-WORD FLASH FICTION

• Ernest Hemingway: For sale: baby socks, never worn.
• Margaret Atwood: Longed for him. Got him, Shit.

CREATIVE NON-FICTION
• Also known as literary non-fiction or narrative non-fiction
• A genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create
factually accurate narratives.
• Contrasts with other non-fiction, such as technical writing or
journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily
written in service to its craft.
• As a genre, creative non-fiction is still relatively young and is only
beginning to be scrutinized with the same critical analysis given to
fiction and poetry.
• 1000 Gifts by Ann Voscamp and Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine
de Saint-Exupery are examples.

SCIENCE FICTION

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 • Is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts
such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel,
faster than light travel, a parallel universe and extra-terrestrial life.
• Often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other
innovations and has been called a “literature of ideas”.
• Examples include Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay and Sarah Maas’
Kingdom of Ash.

BLOG
• A weblog, a website containing short articles called posts that are
changed regularly.
• Some blogs are written by one person containing his or her own
opinions, interests and experiences, while others are written by
different people.

HYPER POETRY
• Digital poetry that uses links and hypertext mark-up
• It can either involved set words, phrases, lines, etc. that are presented
in variable order but sit on the page much as traditional poetry does,
or it can contain parts of the poem that move and transform.
• It is usually found online, through CD-ROM and diskette versions
exist. The earliest examples date to no later than the mid-1980’s.

What’s More

After learning about different conventional and modern genres of literature,

you are now ready to explore more about these concepts by answering the
activities that follow.

Activity 1
Direction: Analyze the content of the text below and identify its
literary genre.

The Janitor in Space

by Amber Sparks | July 1, 2014

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The janitor makes her way through the hallway with purpose, suctioning space dust and
human debris from crevices of the space station. She is good at her job. She can push off
from the walls in a steady trajectory without even looking; her eyes are always on the windows
and the impossibly bright stars beyond.

The astronauts are good but unclean, thinks the space janitor. Like the astronaut who left
liquid salt floating in little globs all over the kitchen today. Like the lady astronauts who leave
bloody tampons unsecured and spill bits of powder into the air. Like the male astronauts who
leave their dirty underwear drifting around their cabin modules, their worn-through tube socks
smelling of cheese and old syrup. And the dead skin flakes—so many flakes she wonders how
any skin could be left to wrap all that muscle and bone. Of course she rarely sees the
astronauts, so while she assumes they still have skin, it is entirely possible they have shed
their skin entirely, that they have, like strange insects, exchanged their soft, outside layers for
hard, black, shining exoskeletons instead.

She almost never sees anyone except the night watchman, who is an elderly mute and who
spends most of the night watching porn in the security office. She wouldn’t say anything,
though. She wouldn’t even know who to say it to. She supposes the astronauts watch porn,
too. Or maybe not; good people don’t watch such things, she remembers from her time on
earth.

The janitor knows that being good is not the same as being clean. She, for instance, is very
clean, but she is not very good. She is still traveling on her way toward that. She told her
pastor that she was coming up here to be closer to God, but really she just wanted to get away
from Earth. She was tired of waiting to be recognized, waiting for someone to hear her name
and turn, eyes too big, full of questions and sideshow curiosity.

People will think you’re prideful, wanting to go up in space, her only friend said. He worked in
the state-owned liquor store where she bought a case of Miller Lite every Tuesday morning
after her shift at the hospital ended. She always worked nights; fewer waking bodies around,
less human chaos. She never much liked talking, and after the close crowds of the jail, she
liked to be far from the hum and buzz.

The space station staff liked her when they interviewed her – she seemed polite and quiet and
incurious. That was important. One of the astronauts, a bearded Russian with kind eyes,
asked her a question: Will you be lonely in space? She looked at the faint lines scrawled
around his eyes and forehead, and she supposed he had a family somewhere, maybe small
children. Yes, she said, but I have always been lonely. The astronaut nodded, and she could
see he understood. She could see his aquiline profile as he turned to someone off screen, and
she knew she would get the job.

The astronauts occasionally get up during the night, and the janitor tries then to be a shadow,
a grey bird. She ducks out of sight, floats to the ceiling in rooms where they wander, terrified
they will appear different during the artificial night of space; sure she, too, will be different.
Sure that starlight will strip away the years, will fall upon a thirteen-year-old girl alone on a dirt
road, a bruise on her face and the mop clenched painfully in her broken fist. The things, the
nightmare things fear could claim you for. The dark hurts in the veins, the heart-deep hurts in
the buried parts of the body. The faces that chase her, even now, even in the farthest fields of
space where nothing grows, nothing whispers, nothing lives or dies but the first things that
ever got made in the universe. She isn’t sure whether she believes in God or not, though she
always told her pastor she did. She isn’t sure any woman ought to believe in God.

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In the lockup, most of the women didn’t. They were on her side, they said. They said the name
of God and the name of certain men and spat, teeth pressed together in a kind of crooked,
inward anger. She learned to push a mop and broom in prison, learned to be useful. It was a
good thing to be of some use in this world. Or, she revised, in this universe. It was hard
sometimes, to get used to this new way of thinking, to bobbling round the earth like a second
moon. She felt free, free of all the accumulated debris of a lifetime in sin and sacrifice, free of
the burden of people for the first time in her whole flat life. She felt small and bright and
diamond hard, a little star in the firmament.

The light was so bright here, always, despite the darkness of the spaces in between. The
fluorescents scattered throughout the station, the milky white light of the nebulae. The
twinkling reds and greens and yellows of the instrument panels. The soft blue glow of the earth
over her shoulder. It was comforting, like a street on earth at Christmastime: a sleepy rainbow
glow over these travelers straying so far from home.

Light of my life, he sang to her while he had her on his knee. She was just a baby, broad-
faced and raw. And if nobody ever loved you, it was easy for somebody to tell you such pretty
things. It was easy for you to sit by while they did such un-pretty things. She suctions up drops
of urine and thinks about how it felt to hold a gun, how that boy and girl never even looked at
her face while she held it. She dropped it like a snake; it felt like a dishonest thing, something
so solid but, really, a dirty hollow pair of barrels. He laughed at her and picked it up, like he
was made to hold it. His hands slid all over that steel and wood just like they did all over her.

She scrubs the fingerprints from the instrument panels, watches the lights flicker and dim. She
wonders how many rags she’ll go through, how many surfaces have to get clean before she
can finally empty herself of the past. She doesn’t know about metaphors but she knows that
even the smallest human vessel has boundless storage for sorrow. Was there a right way to
take in so much sorrow it burned clean through the lungs and heart? Was there a right way to
atone?

There is, she thinks, a good kind of atonement in hard, honest work. And so each night she
suctions, sweeps, mops, waxes, shakes out rugs, cleans and stocks the bathrooms, launders
and changes the bedding, collects and disposes of trash, replaces lights, polishes the smooth
metal, and washes the walls and ceilings. She cleans lint, dust, oil, and grease from their
machines, cleans the glassware and lab equipment, soaps down sinks and sterilizes
microscopes. She refills and labels tubes and bottles in her careful, neat handwriting. She
keeps the station clean and shiny as the future.

She feels at home beyond the skies. She lied and said she came here to be close to God, but
she feels further away from Him than ever. God was everywhere in the fields and farms of her
childhood; God was on everybody’s lips and in their books and on their walls. God was the fire
and the twisted face and the crippled-up preacher. God rose from the steam off the fields,
crystallized in the oil puddles at the service station, was the cold stones in the neighbor’s pond
after his boy died of polio. God was the iron lung around those family farms, squeezing,
squeezing, and everybody dying inside.

She feels happiest near the deep green shadows pooled in the corners of the station, listening
to the low hum against the endless silence of the stars. This feels safer than God. It feels
honest. It feels removed from any human notion of heaven.

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One night, she and the watchman are playing Blackjack on his laptop when the bearded
Russian comes floating around the corner, pajama bottoms trailing and sleep-crusted eyes
nearly shut. She and the watchman push back into the shadows, close the computer, try hard
to be invisible. But the Russian doesn’t even look their way; he glides past them to the wide
wall of windows and puts his face to the glass like a child. Gde vy, he murmurs, and she
doesn’t know what the words mean, but she understands. The pastor once said death was the
gift of a wise god—and she wondered whether he really believed that. To her death seems the
opposite of wisdom, the opposite of mystery, the opposite of being out here in this vast
wondrous place. Death is the opposite of lonely, and lonely is the only thing the janitor owns. It
is the only thing that’s hers. And that makes it beautiful, out here among the cold and bright
beginnings.

Activity 1
Directions: Compare and contrast these modern literary genres using
the Venn diagram

What I Have Learned

You have tried your hands in discovering the characteristics of the literary
genres discussed in this module. Reflect on what you have learned by
answering the questions that follow.

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 1. What are the conventional literary genres?
2. What are the common characteristics of conventional literary genres?
3. What are the different 21st century literary genres?
4. What are the common characteristics of modern literary genres?
5. What is the difference between conventional and modern literary
genres?

What I Can Do

My brother Kiko once had a very caught one of them by the leg. It
peculiar chicken. It was peculiar struggled and squawked. Kiko finally
because no one could tell whether it was held it by both wings and it became still.
a rooster or a hen. My brother claimed it I ran over where he was and took a good
was a rooster. I claimed it was a hen. We look at the chicken.
almost got whipped because we argued “Why, it is a hen,” I said.
too much. “What is the matter with you?” my
The whole question began early one brother asked. “Is the heat making you
morning. Kiko and I were driving the sick?”
chickens from the cornfield. The corn “No. Look at its face. It has no comb or
had just been planted, and the chickens wattles.”
were scratching the seeds out for food. “No comb and wattles! Who cares about
Suddenly we heard the rapid flapping of its comb or wattles? Didn’t you see it in
wings. We turned in the direction of the fight?”
sound and saw two chickens fighting in “Sure, I saw it in fight. But I still say it is
the far end of the field. We could not see a hen.”
the birds clearly as they were lunging at “Ahem! Did you ever see a hen with
each other in a whirlwind of feathers spurs on its legs like these? Or a hen
and dust. with a tail like this?”
“Look at that rooster fight!” my brother “I don’t care about its spurs or tail. I tell
said, pointing exactly at one of the you it is a hen. Why, look at it.”
chickens. “Why, if I had a rooster like The argument went on in the fields the
that, I could get rich in the cockpits.” whole morning. At noon we went to eat
“Let’s go and catch it,” I suggested. lunch. We argued about it on the way
“No, you stay here. I will go and catch home. When we arrived at our house
it,” Kiko said. Kiko tied the chicken to a peg. The
My brother slowly approached the chicken flapped its wings and then
battling chickens. They were so busy crowed.
fighting that they did not notice him. “There! Did you hear that?” my brother
When he got near them, he dived and exclaimed triumphantly. “I suppose you
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are going to tell me now that hens crow gray hair. So my brother untied the
and that carabaos fly.” chicken and we took it to the chief.
“I don’t care if it crows or not,” I said. “Is this a male or a female chicken?”
“That chicken is a hen.” Kiko asked.
We went into the house, and the “That is a question that should concern
discussion continued during lunch. only another chicken,” the chief replied.
“It is not a hen,” Kiko said. “It is a “My brother and I happen to have a
rooster.” special interest in this particular
“It is a hen,” I said. chicken. Please give us an answer. Just
“It is not.” say yes or no. Is this a rooster?”
“It is.” “It does not look like any rooster I have
“Now, now,” Mother interrupted, “how ever seen,” the chief said.
many times must Father tell you, boys, “Is it a hen, then?” I asked.
not to argue during lunch? What is the “It does not look like any hen I have ever
argument about this time?” seen. No, that could not be a chicken. I
We told Mother, and she went out look have never seen like that. It must be a
at the chicken. bird of some other kind.”
“That chicken,” she said, “is a binabae. “Oh, what’s the use!” Kiko said, and we
It is a rooster that looks like a hen.” walked away.
That should have ended the argument. “Well, what shall we do now?” I said.
But Father also went out to see the “I know that,” my brother said. “Let’s go
chicken, and he said, “Have you been to town and see Mr. Cruz. He would
drinking again?” Mother asked. know.”
“No,” Father answered. Mr. Eduardo Cruz lived in a nearby
“Then what makes you say that that is a town of Katubusan. He had studied
hen? Have you ever seen a hen with poultry raising in the University of the
feathers like that?” Philippines. He owned and operated the
“Listen. I have handled fighting cocks largest poultry business in town. We
since I was a boy, and you cannot tell me took the chicken to his office.
that that thing is a rooster.” “Mr. Cruz,” Kiko said, “is this a hen or a
Before Kiko and I realized what had rooster?”
happened, Father and Mother were Mr. Cruz looked at the bird curiously
arguing about the chicken by and then said:
themselves. Soon Mother was crying. “Hmmm. I don’t know. I couldn’t tell in
She always cried when she argued with one look. I have never run across a
Father. chicken like this before.”
“You know very well that that is a “Well, is there any way you can tell?”
rooster,” she said. “You are just being “Why, sure. Look at the feathers on its
mean and stubborn.” back. If the feathers are round, then it’s
“I am sorry,” Father said. “But I know a a hen. If they are pointed, it’s a rooster.”
hen when I see one.” The three of us examined the feathers
“I know who can settle this question,” closely. It had both.
my brother said. “Hmmm. Very peculiar,” said Mr. Cruz.
“Who?” I asked. “Is there any other way you can tell?”
“The teniente del Barrio, chief of the “I could kill it and examined its insides.”
village.” “No. I do not want it killed,” my brother
The chief was the oldest man in the said.
village. That did not mean that he was I took the rooster in my arms and we
the wisest, but anything always carried walked back to the barrio.
more weight if it is said by a man with

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Kiko was silent most of the way. Then he their left legs. Everyone wanted to bet
said: on the red gamecock.
“I know how I can prove to you that this The fight was brief. Both birds were
is a rooster.” released in the centre of the arena. They
“How?” I asked. circled around once and then faced each
“Would you agree that this is a rooster if other. I expected our chicken to die of
I make it fight in the cockpit and it fright. Instead, a strange thing
wins?” happened. A lovesick expression came
“If this hen of yours can beat a into the red rooster’s eyes. Then it did a
gamecock, I will believe anything,” I love dance. That was all our chicken
said. needed. It rushed at the red rooster with
“All right,” he said. “We’ll take it to the its neck feathers flaring. In one lunge, it
cockpit this Sunday.” buried its spurs into its opponent’s
So that Sunday we took the chicken to chest. The fight was over.
the cockpit. Kiko looked around for a “Tiope! Tiope! Fixed fight!” the crowd
suitable opponent. He finally picked a shouted.
red rooster. Then a riot broke out. People tore
“Don’t match your hen against that red bamboo benches apart and used them as
rooster.” I told him. “That red rooster is clubs. My brother and I had to leave
not a native chicken. It is from Texas.” through the back way. I had the chicken
“I don’t care where it came from,” my under my arm. We ran toward the
brother said. “My rooster will kill it.” coconut groves and kept running till we
“Don’t be a fool,” I said. “That red lost the mob. As soon as we were safe,
rooster is a killer. It has killed more my brother said:
chickens than the fox. There is no “Do you believe it is a rooster now?”
rooster in this town that can stand “Yes,” I answered.
against it. Pick a lesser rooster.” I was glad the whole argument was over.
My brother would not listen. The match Just then the chicken began to quiver. It
was made and the birds were readied for stood up in my arms and cackled with
the killing. Sharp steel gaffs were tied to laughter. Something warm and round
dropped into my hand. It was an egg.

You have learned the different conventional and modern literary genres.
Retell the Filipino short story above using one of the genres below. Use the
rubric as your guide.

A. 30-word flash fiction

B. 4-panel comic
C. One-page doodle fiction

15 13 11 9
Structure
Presents all Exhibits at least Exhibits at least two Does not present elements and
elements and three elements and elements and correct structure of the chosen
correct structure of correct structure of correct structure of genre
the chosen genre the chosen genre the chosen genre

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Creativity
The story is The story is The story is in The story is not communicated in
communicated in communicated in interesting ways, surprising and interesting ways
amazing and interesting ways but not related to
unusual ways the topic

Mechanics
No errors in One to two errors in Three to five errors Six or more errors in punctuation,
punctuation, punctuation, in punctuation, capitalization, and spelling errors
capitalization, and capitalization, and capitalization, and
spelling spelling errors spelling errors

Assessment
Choose the letter of the best answer. Write the
chosen letter on a separate sheet of paper.

1. A story told using a combination of text and illustrations or without

text at all.
a. Digi-Fiction c. Illustrated Novel
b. Doodle Fiction d. Creative Non-Fiction

2. A site of collected posts or articles written by one or more people and

updated regularly.
a. Blog c. Hyper Poetry
b. Flash Fiction d. Digi-Fiction

3. Brief stories told in a thousand words or less.

a. Blog c. Hyper Poetry
b. Flash Fiction d. Digi-Fiction
4. Tales are written and presented using dialogues in social media
applications.
a. Chick Lit c. Hyper Poetry
b. Digi-Fiction d. Text-Talk Novel

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5. A factual story is written using literary devices and techniques.
a. Digi-Fiction c. Illustrated Novel
b. Doodle Fiction d. Creative Non-Fiction

6. Drawings enhance stories in this form where illustrations and

handwritten graphics are incorporated.
a. Digi-Fiction c. Illustrated Novel
b. Doodle Fiction d. Creative Non-Fiction

7. The genre of speculative fiction dealing with concepts of time, travel,

parallel universe, extra-terrestrial life, and futuristic technology.
a. Digi-Fiction c. Science Fiction
b. Doodle Fiction d. Creative Non-Fiction

8. It is a collection of stories presented in comic book formats.

a. Digi-Fiction c. Illustrated Novel
b. Doodle Fiction d. Graphic Novel

9. Literature that uses hypertext mark-up (HTM) to connect to other

parts of the piece.
a. Blog c. Hyper Poetry
b. Flash Fiction d. Digi-Fiction

10. In English-speaking countries, these are stories with illustrations

published in Japan.
a. Manga c. Graphic Novel
b. Digi-Fiction d. Illustrated Novel

11. A 700-word story like Angels and Blueberries by Tara Campbell is a

one-shot fiction that falls under this literary genre.
a. Blog c. Hyper Poetry
b. Flash Fiction d. Digi-Fiction
12. Christopher Ford’s Stickman Odyssey, which tells the story through
text and handwritten graphics, is an example of this literary genre.
a. Digi-Fiction c. Illustrated Novel
b. Doodle Fiction d. Creative Non-Fiction

13. Before it was adapted into an anime, Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x

Hunter is a comic book series from Japan that falls under this
literary genre.
a. Manga c. Graphic Novel
b. Digi-Fiction d. Illustrated Novel

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14. Batman: The Dark Knight by Frank Miller is a popular example of
this literary genre where the story is written in comic book format.
a. Manga c. Graphic Novel
b. Digi-Fiction d. Illustrated Novel

15. Sophie Kinsella’s Confessions of a Shopaholic, which revolves

around a woman’s shopping addiction and her journey to overcoming
it, is an example of this literary genre.
a. Chick Lit c. Hyper Poetry
b. Digi-Fiction d. Text-Talk Novel

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