LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

CREATIVE WRITING 12
Quarter 4 - Week 6

Title: The Creative Work in the Literary and/or Sociopolitical Context

Introduction
Welcome! This lesson will expose you to more creative works, this time focusing on the
literary and/or sociopolitical contexts. These contexts will help you not only to understand
creative works better but also to relate them in the lives of humanity. This module will also
discuss the several orientations of creative writing where you will be expected to produce
a craft essay on your personal creative process deploying a consciously selected orientation
of creative writing.

At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

1. situate a creative work in sociopolitical contexts; and
2. write a craft essay demonstrating awareness of and sensitivity to the different
literary and/or socio-political contexts of creative writing.

Multiple Choice: To measure your knowledge of the concepts that this module will develop,
answer the following questions. Write only the letter of your answer.

1. Which critical approach is multidisciplinary as it includes the perspectives of

humanistic disciplines such as literature, art, and social and behavior sciences?
A. Cultural
B. Feminist
C. Marxist
D. New Historical

2. What approach uses to this question in interpreting a work of literature? “To what
extent are the lives of the characters influenced or determined by the social, political,
and economic forces”.
A. Cultural
B. Feminist
C. Marxist
D. New Historical

3. What non-literary evidence can be used to establish the historicity of a story written
centuries ago?
A. Blogs
B. Periodicals
C. Social media
D. Websites
1
4. What word is similar to the meaning of “milieu” in the study of literature?
A. Context
B. Conflict
C. Plot
D. Theme

5. Literary pieces is being compared to what critical approach?

A. Books
B. Imaginations
C. Lenses
D. Maps

6. What lens can interpret the following lines from Mahasweta Devi’s Dhowli, “…about her
wedding she could not recall much because she must have been very small at the time.
She was sent to live with her husband when her body blossomed. Her father had to
take a large loan from the Misras for her wedding and sending off, and he had to pay
back the loan with his labor until he died. She remembered nothing nice about her
husband. He used to beat her?”
A. Cultural
B. Feminist
C. Historical
D. Marxist

7. What general themes can be classified under the Cultural Approach?

A. Arranged marriages
B. Inequality in society
C. View of women as objects
D. Lender-borrower /rich-poor relationship

8. What is the similarity between Marxism and Feminism as literary theories?

A. Interest in history
B. Power struggles
C. Closeness to reality
D. Relationship between nations

9. Which is of least interest to a literary critic using Feminism?

A. Abuse
B. History
C. Inequality
D. Slavery

10. What literary theory also studies the members of the opposite sex and the roles they
assume and perform?
A. Cultural
B. Feminist
C. Historical
D. Marxist

2
Defining critical approaches

What common critical approaches do we use in studying any given creative/literary work?
Identify these approaches/theories below and put a check (√) mark before the ones that
we employ in our study of literature.

⎕ 1. Behavioral
⎕ 2. Cultural
⎕ 3. New Historical
⎕ 4. Biblical
⎕ 5. Personal
⎕ 6. Environmental
⎕ 7. Marxist
⎕ 8. Elitist
⎕ 9. Feminist
⎕ 10. Naturalist

By now, you must have learned that literature is multi-dimensional as it encompasses

many aspects of society such as its culture, beliefs, and ideology. This is so because its
creator, the creative person, writes from specific experiences and contexts.

It has been emphasized by our previous lessons that appreciating a creative work, most
especially works of literature, entails a skill that may be developed through repeated
experience and constant practice. Moreover, this regular savoring of the beauty of literary
works can be taken to another level when you want to partake in the enlightening critical
conversations among your teachers and fellow students about works of literature
especially the ones that tackle issues found in your society.

To develop this skill, you must learn a few critical approaches that you can use to interpret
literature. Some of these have been used in our previous analysis on poetry, fiction, and
drama/play. To make sure that you will be able to use these approaches in our succeeding
lessons, we will discuss some commonly used ones taken from the book of Habib (2008).

After each definition and description, sample questions are given as guide questions in
analyzing a piece of literature using a particular critical approach. Finally, sample literary
pieces that can be analyzed through the lens of the previously discussed critical approach
are also enumerated.

Common Critical Approaches in Analyzing Literary Pieces

A. Cultural Studies – It is a multi-disciplinary approach which includes the

perspectives of humanistic disciplines such as literature and art and the social and
behavioral sciences such as anthropology, economics, and psychology.
3
As a critical perspective, it contests the older definition of culture and looks not at the
stable coherences of a society or a civilization’s history but its dissensions and conflicts.

Sample Critical Question:

1. What kinds of gender identify, behavior, and attitudes are reflected in the work?
2. Is there any overtly or covertly expressed view of same-sex unions or relationships?

Literary pieces that can be studied using Cultural Studies include the following:
1. Blue Blood of the Big Astana by Ibrahim Jubaira
2. Surveyors of the Liguasan Marsh by Antonio Enriquez
3. We Filipinos Are Mild Drinkers by Alejandro Roces

B. New Historical Perspectives – It is an approach in studying literature which

provides a context or background information on how literary works were perceived
in their time. This approach also shows how literary works reflect ideas and
attitudes of the time in which they were written. A newer approach, New Historicism,
still considers the contexts of literary works but this time emphasizes on analyzing
historical documents with the same amount of interest afforded to the literary works
to be interpreted.

Sample Critical Question:

How do power relations reflected in the literary work manifest themselves in the cultural
practices and social institutions prevalent during the time the work was written and
published?

Literary pieces that can be studied using the New Historical Perspectives/ New Historicism
include the following:
1. Samboangan: The Cult of Warby Antonio R. Enriquez
2. Spots on Their Wings by Antonio R. Enriquez
3. Cave and Shadows by Nick Joaquin

C. Marxist Perspective – It is an approach that examines literature for its reflections

of how dominant elites exploit subordinate groups, how people become “alienated”
from each other, and how middle class values lead to the control and suppression
of the working classes. It sees literature’s value in promoting social and economic
revolution and considers the literary work as a “product” in relation to the actual
economic and social conditions that exist at the time of the work’s composition or
the time and place of the action it describes.

Sample Critical Question:

To what extent are the lives of the characters influenced or determined by the social,
political, and economic forces?

Literary pieces that can be studied using the Marxist Perspectives include the following:
1. Progress by F. Sionel Jose
2. Dhowli by Mahasweta Devi
3. Poor Folk by I.V. Mallari

4
 D. Feminist Perspective – It is an approach that typically sees literature as an arena
in which to contest for power and control and thus an agent for social
transformation. Like Historicism and Marxism, this approach also examines the
social, economic, and cultural aspects of literary works especially for what those
works reveal about the role, position, and influence of women.

Sample Critical Question:

How are the relations between men and women, or those between members of the opposite
sex, presented in the work? What roles do men and women assume and perform and with
what consequence?

A. Identifying socio-political contexts in a short story

Read the excerpt of the short story entitled Dhowli, by Mahasweta Devi; identify the
cultural, historical, Marxist, and feminist contexts found in it.

Dhowli
An excerpt (Taken from drlouisapicard.files.wordpress.com)

She thought a lot, while tending the goats alone in the woods. She thought about
everything she could remember from her childhood—going to the fair, perched on her
father’s shoulders; spending the day looking at all the shops with their expensive things,
and then coming home happy with a paisa worth of sesame candy. Of her marital home,
all she remembered where the two rooms, the days of work at the farm of the moneylender
to whom they were indebted, and her mother-in-law making the gruel at the end of the
day, for the men to eat first before the women ate what was left over.

About her wedding she could not recall much because she must have been very small at
the time. She was sent to live with her husband when her body blossomed. Her father had
to take a large loan from the Misras for her wedding and sending off, and he had to pay
back the loan with his labor until he died. She remembered nothing nice about her
husband. He used to beat her. He died of a fever. After he died, her mother-in-lawasked
her to stay on.

“You have to work at your mother’s place too in order to eat. Do the same here.”

Dhowli knew that much: she could spend the rest of her life there, working all day, clad in
the widow’s borderless sari, coarse and short, working every day from sunrise to sunset
either on the creditors threshing floor or as some farmers’ laborer or levelling the layer of
brick pieces with a mallet making some road or other, and then falling asleep by the side
of her mother-in-law after eating whatever was there to eat. But her husband’ elder brother
came there and started eyeing her. Her mother-in-law then turned against her and Dhowli
left.

5
Context/s of Situating Literature:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________.

The Unseen War

An excerpt from Enriquez (1996)

That very second the first volley burst from the 80 canons of the Spanish armada, Senor
Capitan Esteban de Murga, Maestre de Campo General Felipe Macombong, Battalion
Commander Santiago the Handsomer, the guide Orancaya Sofocan, and the musketeers,
lancers, bowmen, artillery men, and foot soldiers, sprang from waiting behind Sultan
Kudarat’s stronghold.

They would have rushed up like soldiers do smelling certain victory but for the thick
bushes, thickets, woody trees, and rough land; instead they marched or tramped quickly,
fast, northeastward; the infidel Moros, however, were aware only of the Spanish Armada
facing them at the bay, not of the forces behind them on land; which, meticulously and
systematically, started burning everything in sight; cottas, sitios, and villages of the
heathen Moros.

Context/s of Situating Literature:

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________.

B. Directions. Write a creative CRAFT essay using the titles below. Pick only one title.
Choose the best paragraph organization method applicable. Refer to the rubric
below for the grading system.

CREATIVE
FOCUS CONTENT ORGANIZATION CONVENTIONS MECHANICS

Controlling Specific Sophisticated Precise, use of Evident control of

point made and/or arrangement of the orientations grammar and
about a illustrative content with evident of creative mechanics
single topic content and/or subtle writing like
demonstrating transitions word, structure,
strong visual, and
development audible crafts
of ideas

Apparent Sufficiently Functional Generic use of Sufficient control

point made developed arrangement of the orientations of grammar and
about a content with content that sustains of creative mechanic
single topic adequate logical order with writing like
elaboration some transitions word, structure,
visual, and
audible crafts

6
 No Limited Confused Limited use of Limited control of
apparent content with arrangements of the orientations grammar and
point but inadequate content without of creative mechanics
evidence of elaboration or attempts at writing like
a specific explanation transitions word, structure,
topic visual, and
audible crafts

Minimal Superficial Minimal control of Minimal use of Minimal control

evidence of and/or content arrangement the orientations of grammar and
a topic minimal of creative mechanics
content writing like
word, structure,
visual, and
audible crafts

a. Flying with a Firefly

b. If I Had an Eighth Day of the Week

Please read the questions below and answer the questions that follow. Write only the
letter of choice.

1. What cultural practice can be inferred from the following lines, “About her wedding she
could not recall much because she must have been very small at the time. She was
sent to live with her husband when her body blossomed”?
A. Education
B. Fixed marriage
C. Prostitution
D. Poverty

2. What could have been Dhowli’s experience after the wedding as revealed by the
following lines, “But her husband’s elder brother came there and started eyeing her.
Her mother-in-law then turned against her and Dhowli left”?
A. Boring
B. Contented
C. Happy
D. Miserable

7
3. What era in Philippine history is shown in the following lines from Unseen War, “That
very second the first volley burst from the 80 canons of the Spanish armada…the
musketeers, lancers, bowmen, artillery men, and foot soldiers, sprang from waiting
behind Sultan Kudarat’s stronghold”?
A. Martial Law
B. Japanese era
C. American regime
D. Spanish conquest

4. What perspective contests the older definition of culture and looks not at the stable
coherences of a society or a civilization’s history but its conflicts?
A. Cultural
B. Feminist
C. Historical
D. Marxist

5. What approach considers the literary work as a “product” in relation to the actual
economic and social conditions that exist at the time of the work’s composition?
A. Cultural
B. Feminist
C. Historical
D. Marxist

8
 1.b 2. d 3.d 4.a 5.d

Post-test

conquest
b. Historical – Conflicts between the Spanish and the Filipino natives during the Spanish

a. Cultural – Negative views of non-Muslims on Muslims

Context/s B:

Misras
d. Marxism – Lender-borrower /rich-poor relationship between Dhowli’s father and the

c. Feminism – View of women as objects

b. Historical – Inequality in society

a. Cultural – Arranged marriages

Context/s A.:

Activity

Motivation Question 1. 2.√ 3.√ 4. 5. 6. 7.√ 8. 9.√ 10.

What I Know 1.a 2.b 3. b 4.a 5.c 6. b 7.a 8.b 9.b 10. b

References

Cantular, F. (2011). Perspectives: A world literature reader. XU Press, Cagayan de Oro

City.
Devi, M. (1990). Bardhan, K. (Ed.). (Trans.) University of California Press. Retrieved
fromhttps://drlouisapicard.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/dhowli mahasweta-
devi.pdf
Enriquez, A. (1996). The unseen war and other tales from Mindanao. Giraffe Books,
Quezon City.
_________ (2006). Samboangan: The cult of war. UP Press, Quezon City.
Habib, M.A.R. (2008). A history of literary criticism and theory: From Plato to the
present. Blackwell Publishing, USA.

Prepared by:

MICHAEL VINCENT N. ASUNCION

SST-II Mangagoy NHS

Checked and Reviewed by:

RHODA B. DELOS SANTOS

Education Program Supervisor in English
9