MODULE: OLLITE001– PHILIPPINE LITERATURE

LITERARY GENRES

A. Distinguish the similarities and differences of varied literary genres;

B. Explain the texts in terms of literary elements, genres and traditions;
C. Use critical reading strategies to make sense of literary meanings in context.

Poetry is derived from a Greek word poesis meaning "making or

creating." Poetry is a kind of language that says it more intensely than
ordinary language does. Apparently, we have to remember five things
about poetry. (Baritugo, 2004, p.)

1. Poetry is a concentrated thought.

2. Poetry is a kind of word-music.
3. Poetry expresses all the senses.
4. Poetry answers our demand for rhythm.
5. Poetry is observation plus imagination.

Poetry is as varied as the nature of man-unique in some sense along with man's eccentricities, yet
clings if appreciated or if deeply imbibed by the reader.
(Aguilar, 1997, p.1)
SOME OF THE BEST DEFINITIONS OF POETRY:
1. Gemino Abad contends that "A poem is a meaningful organization of words."
2. T.S. Eliot categorized poetry as "The fusion of two poles of mind, emotion and thought."
3. Manuel Viray states that "Poetry is the union of thoughts and feelings."
4. William Wadsworth says, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recorded
in tranquillity."
5. Edgar Allan Poe thinks, "It is the rhythmic creation of beauty."
6. Percy B. Shelly states, "It is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and
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best minds."
7. Jaime G. Ang posits, "Poetry is the 'essence' of the creative imagination of man."

ELEMENTS OF POETRY

1. Sense - is revealed through the meaning of words, images and symbols.

a. diction - denotative and connotative meanings/ symbols.
b. images and sense impression - sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, motion, and emotion.
c. figure of speech - simile, metaphor, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, synecdoche,
hyperbole, irony, allusion, antithesis, paradox, litotes, oxymoron, onomatopoeia.
2. Sound - is the result of a combination of elements.
a. tone color - alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, repetition, anaphora.
b. rhythm - ordered recurrent alteration of strong and weak elements in the flow of the sound
and silence: duple, triple, running or common rhyme.
C.meter - stress, duration, or number of syllables per line, fixed metrical pattern, or a verse
form: quantitative, syllabic, accentual and accentual syllabic.
d. rhyme scheme - formal arrangement of rhymes in stanza or the whole poem.
3. Structure - refers to (1) arrangement of words, and lines to fit together, and (2) the organization of
the parts to form a whole.
a. word order - natural and unnatural arrangement of words
b. ellipsis - omitting some words for economy and effect
c. punctuation - abundance or lack of punctuation marks
d. shape - contextual and visual designs: jumps, omission of spaces, capitalization, lower case.

TYPES OF POETRY
1. Narrative Poetry
a. Epic - a long narrative poem of the largest proportions. A tale centering about a hero
concerning the beginning, continuance, and the end of events of great significance - war,
conquest, strife among men who are in sucha position that their struggles take on tribal or
national significance.
Example: BIAG-Ni-Lam-Ang by Pedro Bukaneg
b. Metrical Romance - a narrative poem that tells a story of adventure, love and chivalry.
The typical hero is a knight on a quest.
c. Metrical Tale - a narrative poem consisting usually of a single series of connective events
that are simple idylls or home tales, love tales, tales of the supernatural or tales written for a
strong moral purpose in verse form.
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d. Ballad - the simplest type of narrative poetry. It is a short narrative poem telling a single
incident in simple meter and stanzas. It is intended to be sung.
e. Popular Ballad - a ballad of wide workmanship telling some simple incidents of adventure,
cruelty, passion, or superstition, an incident that shows the primary instincts of man influenced
by the restraint of moder civilization.
f. Modern or Artistic - created by a poet imitation of the folk ballad, makes use (sometimes
with considerable freedom) of many of its devices and conventions.
g. Metrical Allegory - an extended narrative that carries a second meaning along with the
surface story. Things and actions are symbolic.
2. Lyric Poetry
a. Ode - a lyric poem of some length serious in subject and dignified in style It is the most
majestic of the lyric poems. It is written in a spirit of praise d some persons or things.
Example: Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind"
b. Elegy - a poem written on the death of a friend of the poet. The oten death sa is ta praise
the friend, but the death prompts the wrier toast? enath can intervene, so cruelly in life, what
is to point in e with the poem, however, we can expect that poet wil have comet tene with his
grief.
Example: The Lover's Death by Ricardo Demetillo
c. Song - a lyric poem in a regular metrical pattern set to music. These have twelve syllables
(dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the accompaniment of a guitar or banduria.
Example: Florante at Laura by Franciso Balagtas
d. Corridos (kuridos) - these have measures of eight syllables (octosyllabic) and recited to
a material beat.
Example: Ibong Adarna by Jose Dela Cruz (Huseng Sisiw)
e. Sonnet - a lyric poem containing fourteen iambic lines, and a complicated rhyme.
Example: Santang Abad by Alfonso P. Santos

1. Figures of Speech

Simile - consists of comparing two things using the words like or as.
Example: Your face is as big as a seed, But you do not bear fruit...
(Lines from A Secret by Carlos Bulosan)

Metaphor - uses direct comparison of two unlike things or ideas.

Example: Dear Lord:
Let thou be the street-cleaner
Whilst I be the read
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(Prayer by NVM Gonzales)

Personification - gives human traits to inanimate objects or ideas.

Example: The bullet said to the heart:
From now on we shall never part
(Lines from Communion by Gerson M. Mallillin)

Apostrophe - is a direct address to someone absent, dead, or inanimate.

Example: Little sampaguita
With the wandering eye
Did a tiny fairy
Drop you where you lie?
(Lines from The Sampaguita by Natividad Marquez)

Metonymy - substitutes a word that closely relates to a person or a thing.

Examples:
1. The pen is mightier than the sword.
2. He lives through the bottle.
3. I have read all of Shakespeare.
4. By the sweat of our brow, you will earn your food.
Synecdoche - uses a part to represent the whole.
Example: No busy hand provoke a tear.
No roving foot shall crush thee here.
Hyberbole - makes use of exaggeration.
Example: I know not what to name thy charms,
Thou art halfhuman, half divine;
And if I could hold thee in my arms, I know both heaven and earth were mine.
(Lines from The Rural Maid by fernando M. Maramang)
Irony - says the opposite of what is meant.
Example: Ifall these men whose heads are with the stars, Who dream unceasingly of
blazing royalty, Will only strive to be like you.
A dweller of the sod with the heart of loyalty!
(Lines from To A Dog by Florizel Diaz)
Allusion - refers to any literary, biblical, historical, mythological, scientific
event, character or place.
Example: The pendulum
Is a thing of thread
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To nervous persons like me
It reminds one of swaying Iscariot-Suspended from a tree.
(Lines from After Palanan by Rene A. Iturralde)

Antithesis - involves a contrast of words or ideas.

Example: 1. "Love is so short... Forgetting is so long."
2. you." "You may be through ith the past but the past isn't through with slavery.
Man proposes, God disposes. They promised freedom and provided

Paradox - uses a phrase or statement that on surface seems contradictor, but

makes some kind of emotional sense.
Example: My dear, canst thou resolve for me
This paradox of love concerning thee
Mine eyes, when opened, with thy beauty fill - But when they're closed they see thee better
still.
(Lines from Paradox By A.E. Litiatco)

Litotes - makes a deliberate understatement used to affirm by negating its

opposite.
Example: War is not healthy for children And other living things

Oxymoron - puts together in one statement two contradictory terms.

Examples:
1.resident - alien
2. silent scream
3. living dead
4. clearly misunderstood
5. butt head

Onomatopoeia - the formation or use of words which imitate sounds, but the
term is generally expanded to refer to any word whose sound is suggestive of
its meaning whether by imitation or through cultural inference.
Examples:
1. Whisper
2. Buzz
3. Boom
4. Bang
5. Crackle
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ESSAYS
▪ Is a prose composition of moderate length usually expository in nature, which aims to
explain or clear up an idea, a theory, an expression, or point of view.
▪ Is the most popular form of literature.
▪ Is any written text that is not a poem, is not a novel and is not a drama.

1. Theme and Content - what is the main point of the essay?

✓ Trivial, common place, unusual, controversial

✓ Appraise, criticize, expand, comment, lament, celebrate
✓ Human nature, social conditions, manners, politics, attitudes, art
✓ Creating a single impression or producing a single effect with the work
✓ Present ideas, describe events, interpret experiences
2. Form and Structure - how are ideas ordered to achieve a single effect?

✓ Unity, of expression, coherence and cohesion

✓ Orderly, systemic, logical manner
✓ Three basic parts: introduction, main body, conclusion
✓ Two major patterns: inductive and deductive
✓ Expository devices: definition, description, narration, analogy
3. Language and Style - what makes the essay literary?
✓ Mode or tone, attitude, sensibility of the essayist.
✓ Whimsical, humorous, matter-of-fact, satirical, serious, optimistic
✓ Diction choice of topics, personal bias or attitude

1. Formal or Impersonal Essay - deals with serious and

important topics like philosophy, theology, science and
politics. It has an authoritative and scholarly style and shows
the writer's masterful grasp of the topic. Its formal tone echoes
a detached, objective, clear straight forward expression.
Mainly, its purpose, its purpose is to teach and instruct.
2. Informal or Familiar Essay - covers the light, ordinary, even common place subjects through a
bubbling, casual, conversational, friendly, often, humorous but equally insightful, stance as the formal
essay. The familiar essay appeals more to the emotion than to intellect, touching the sensitivity first,
then the mind. Often, the personality of the author is revealed through a fluid style and light treatment
of the topic.
The modern essay was derived from the combination of these two general types. A number of specific
types such as the following:

a. Reflective - serious in tone and dignified in style, this type is mainly aphoristic. Its
short and sharp "quotable quotes" or choice maxims cut deep into memory
observation, like a proverb or an adage. The subject matter spurs thinking and
rouses keen
b. Narrative - uses an accident or event, not for the sake of the story but to shape the theme.
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Narration is often used more to make the idea clear and endearing than to present a plodding plot.
c. Descriptive - adds vividness, reality and animation to the narrative essay:
Iisaplyial portrays characters or sketches of life, not simply chronicling or individual is emphasized.
This is also known as character essay.
d. Speculative - theories or poses some questions in an interesting subject or it problems.
may just ramble along aimlessly, merely speculating and prying into some
e. Biographical - portrays characters or sketches of life, not simply chronicling it.
It is analytical and interpretative, depending upon which side of the character or individual is
emphasized. This is also known as character essay.
f. Nature - aims to picture the world of trees, flowers, birds, mountains, animals, and plants. It
may either be pictorial or reflective or both depending upon the mood and aim of the writer. It always
possesses the human touch and sensitiveness to the beauty of the outdoor life.
g.Critical - includes biography, literary criticism, book reviews and other prose compositions
that aim at analytical judgement upon literature.
h. Didactic - enforces a moral lesson. It is serious and has the tone of a teacher concentrates
wholly on driving a lesson. Explaining or trying to convince. It does away with moods and fancies but
Scientific - contains excellent logic, clarity of expression and organized presentation of the sequence
of ides. It is purely expository in nature, objective in method, a system that practically leaves no room
for the exposition of the writer's personality.

➢ Comes from the Greek word "dran" which means to do.

➢ Like fiction, it is the art of make-believe, it consists in part of acting
out events that happened or that are imagined happening.
➢ Aristotle defines drama as "the imitation of an action.
➢ Drama imitates life.
➢ Drama is not the same as play production, drama is the literary
text, when performed, it is called a play.

KINDS OF THEATER

1. Arena - is the theatre style of early Greeks. The actors are

surrounded on all sides by the audience and they make exits
and entrances though the aisles.
This type of arrangement brings the audience into a special kind
of intimacy.
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2. Medieval - is the theatre which uses playing areas called mansions

inside the churches and portable wagons wheeled about outside the
churches. In some performances, the actors came into the audience,
breaking the sense of distance or the illusion of separation. Their
drama was integrated with their religion and both helped them express
their sense of belonging to the church and the community.
3. Elizabeth - is the theatre which
was a wooden structure providing an enclosed space around a
country open sky. The enclosed structure generated intimacy and
involvement between actors and audience. Actors were in the habit
of speaking directly to members of the audience, and the audience
rarely kept polite silence.

4. Proscenium - was the stage of the nineteenth century. This type

of stage distances the audience from the play, providing a clear frame
behind which the performances act out their scenes. The audience is
a silent observer witnessing an action, while the actors are in the world
of their own, unaware of the audience's presence.
5. Theatre of Cruelty - was developed in France. This type of
theatre closes the gap between the actor and audiences. Its
purpose was to confront the members of the audience individually
to make them feel uncomfortable and force them to deal with the
primary issues of the drama itself.

1. Tragedy - a serious drama in which

the protagonist, traditionally of noble position, suffers a series of unhappy events that lead to a
catastrophe such as death or spiritual breakdown.
Aristotle suggested that plot was the heart and soul of tragedy and that character came second. The
tragic hero/heroine is more magnanimous, more dragging and larger than life than the average person.
She experiences hamartia, the wrong act that leads people to a tragic end. This tragedy is a result or
peripeteia which specifics that the desires of the tragic characters sometimes lead them to a reversal,
that is they get what they want, but what the want turns out to be destructive.
2. Comedy - a type of drama intended to interest and amuse the audience rather than to make them
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deeply concerned about the events that happen. The characters experience difficulties, but the always
overcome their ill fortune and find happiness in the end.

➢ Comedy of Humors or Old Comedy - resembles farce and often pokes fun at individuals
who think of themselves as very important. The characters' disposition are exaggerated
and stereotyped.
➢ Comedy of Manners or New Comedy - is realistic and satirical is concerned with the
manners and conventions of high society.
3. Tragicomedy - a play that does not adhere strictly to the structure of tragedy.
This is usually a serious play that also has some of the qualities of comedy. It may be a commentary
on the society's raucous behaviour that draws laughs and ends happily, yet there is a sense of
discomfort in the sardonic humor, thus, leaving the audience wondering how they can laugh at
something that is ultimately frightening. An example is the theatre of the absurd which presents the
human condition as meaningless, absurd and illogical.

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

1. Plot - a term for the action of drama. The function of the plot is to give
action a form that helps the audience understand the elements of the
drama in relation to one another. The plot depends largely on the conflict
of the characters.

2. Characters - as the conflict unfolds, so are the characters

revealed. In many plays, the entire shape of the action derives
from the character's strengths and weaknesses thus, they create
their own opportunities and problems.
Characters are revealed through their own words, their
interaction with other characters, their expression of feelings,
and their presence on stage expressed in movement and gesture.
3.Setting - as it is fiction, setting refers to the time and place in which the action occurs. It also refers
to the scenery and physical elements that appear on stage to vivify the author's stage directions. Some
plays make use of very elaborate settings, while others make use of simplified settings, even an empty
stage in absurdist play.
4. Dialogue - the speeches that the characters use to
advance the action. Since there is no description or
commentary on the action, as there is in fiction, the
dialogue must tell the whole story. A highly efficient
dialogue reveals the characters, unfolds the action and
introduces the themes of the play.
Soliloquy - a speech in which an actor, usually alone on stage, utters his or her thoughts aloud,
revealing personal feelings.
Aside - a short speech made by a character to the audience which, by convention, the other
characters onstage cannot hear.
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5. Movement - in the Greek tragedies, the chorus danced in a ritualistic fashion from one side of the
stage to the other. Their movement was keyed to the structure of their speeches. In reading a play,
the stage directions give information as to where the characters are, when
they move, and perhaps even the significance of their movement. The stage
directions enhance the actor's interpretations of the character's action.
6. Music -is an occasional dramatic element in a play. This may either be sung
live by the characters or provided as background during the performance.
7. Theme - is the message, the central action, or what the play is about. Many
plays contain several rather than just a single theme.

➢ Guttierrez-Ang, J. (2012). Philippine Literature: A Course Reader.