CONTEMPORARY,

POPULAR,
AND
EMERGENT
LITERATURE

LEARNING MODULE
 PREFACE

Contemporary, Popular and Emergent Literature Learning Module for

Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English is a product of a concerted
effort of the researchers who were tasked to come up with an instructional
material specifically, a learning module to facilitate easy teaching and learning
process.
The need to come up with this learning module arises due to the lack of
books and other references that can be used in teaching the said course.
Education is said to be the birthright of every Filipino, each student
deserves quality education well provided for by the state. With this in mind, the
researchers brainstormed on different avenues and techniques in presenting the
lesson to fill the knowledge craving mind of the 21st century learners.
This module contains learning tasks in line with the syllabus taken from
various sources and media. These tasks are geared towards the correct
accumulation of concepts and ideas to prepare them to the next ladder of
education.
It is our fervent hope that fellow educators would take advantage of this
effort by the researchers by using this module which was duly developed by the
scholarly mind, book and online resources of the different identified
personages. Hopefully, students and teachers would enjoy teaching and
participate in discussion using this learning module.

THE RESEARCHER
MODULE DESCRIPTION
The K to 12 Transition Program has brought about significant changes in the
English Education courses of the Higher Education Institutions (HEI). This learning
module entitled “Contemporary, Popular and Emergent Literature” is in accordance
with the provision of Commission on Higher Education Memorandum Order (CMO) No.
75, series of 2017.
This course provides students with opportunities to acquire extensive reading
backgrounds in literature and allied fields needed in the understanding and evaluation
of critical issues in contemporary and popular literature and genres. This course allows
them to demonstrate their research-based content knowledge and its relevance in the
teaching learning process using various methods of literary analysis.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:
A. discuss research-based content knowledge and critical issues on contemporary,
popular, and emergent literature and its relevance in the teaching-learning process;
B. explain the development of a given genre of popular literature from its beginning to
its contemporary practice through a historical timeline; and
C. use various methods of literary analysis, such as formal, psychological, and /or
feminist analysis in writing a response paper.

TEACHING, LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

The teaching – learning strategies enumerated below (but not limited to) shall
be used to achieve the learning outcomes of the course:
 Lecture – Discussion on Fiction
 Literary Analysis
 Inductive and Deductive
Method  Interpreting and evaluating a story
 Paper and Pencil Test/Google  Performance-based Assessment
docs

Assessment Strategies
Students will be assessed using a combination of rubrics and guide questions,
written examination, recitation, group activities, assignments and exercises.
Disclaimer:
This learning module is a compilation of works written by other
writers. The researchers of this module do not claim originality of all the
works presented.
 CHAPTER I:
CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
Introduction
Contemporary literature reflects existing developments in
society and culture. This chapter will tackle about fiction and how
it can be interpreted and evaluated. It will also discuss the
different types and elements of fiction. The students will develop
a sense of comprehension about the issues and challenges in
contemporary literature.

1
LESSON 1: INTERPRETING AND EVALUATING FICTION
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Explain the characteristics, types and elements of fiction; and
b. Interpret and evaluate fiction.

Fiction: The Story and the Moral

Fiction is subjective and evocative. It is "made up," and indirect in its communication. A
work of fiction may evoke:
• the thrill of imagining impossible or unavailable experiences
• intrigue with playing out "what if" or" if only" scenarios
• feelings and perceptions of another historical period, or simply observations on
the human condition
We thus read fiction not to gain new information so much as to experience the ideas
and feelings a story inspires within us.
Readers have different expectations from fiction and nonfiction. Proof is a major issue
with nonfiction; emotional involvement is a major issue with fiction. We expect a story
(fiction) to grab us, an essay (nonfiction) to convince us. We will suspend belief when
reading a romance novel or science fiction, but demand reason and evidence from
nonfiction.
For passing time or sheer enjoyment, of course, simply reading the story can be
satisfaction and reward enough. We do not have to analyze everything we read. The
point is to be able to interpret when we want to—or have to.
Both fiction and nonfiction can be subjected to analysis and interpretation. These two
forms of expression are, however, examined somewhat differently. One analyzes a
nonfiction text
• to discover underlying themes and perspectives, as well as
• to realize how choices of content and language shape the reader's perception
and encourage the reader's acceptance.
Analyzing Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, for instance, we can recognize not only
remarks on the dedication of a cemetery, but comparisons between images of the
living and dead, between what has been done and what must be done.
We analyze fictional works for recurring themes that reflect on the broader human
experience. People do not really tell nursery rhymes so that children will know about a
girl named Cinderella or about pigs who built houses. The stories have deeper,
unstated meanings: virtue rewarded (Cinderella) or the folly of a lack of industry (The
Three Little Pigs). We respond to
both the story and an underlying message.
On the surface, Melville's Moby Dick, for instance, might be seen as an adventure
story about a man hunting a whale. On closer analysis and interpretation, the novel
might be seen as a depiction of man's battle to subdue nature or of a battle between
good and evil. Since fiction is indirect, fiction can require a significant degree of
analysis and interpretation if one is to get beyond simply following the story.

Fiction is Subjective
Fiction is, by definition, subjective. A novel, story, drama, or poem is the expression of
an author's imagination. The characters and situations are "made up." Readers expect
fiction to reflect the real world; they do not expect it to portray the real world. And yet
fiction can seem very real without being factual. Poems can capture feelings or images
to perfection. Events depicted in movies such as Schindler's List , Amistad , or Titanic
can appear just as they might have in real life.
Fiction can be true, however, only in the sense that the actions or behaviors "ring true"
with what we know of the world. The sentiment may be real, but the characters and
incidents are the fruits of the author's imagination. And author and directors—as in the
movies referred to above
—often use "dramatic license" to distort history for dramatic effect.

Fiction is Evocative: Images and Symbols

Fiction conveys meaning indirectly (other than, of course, through morals at the ends
of fables). The specifics are not significant. We draw meaning from the types of
actions. This principle lies behind the fact that television crime series follow essentially
the same plot line, week after week. It does not matter whether a crime victim is a
socialite, a prostitute, a drug dealer, or politician, whether the crime is murder,
extortion, or robbery. The message that the police always catch the criminal remains
the same.
Fiction evokes ideas and feelings indirectly by triggering emotional responses and
mental pictures. Fiction commonly communicates through images and symbols. Color
is often symbolic, as with the red passion of the Scarlet Letter in the novel of that title.
Sunlight often conveys truth or reason. In Willa Cather's short story "Death Comes to
the Archbishop" the development of the Bishop's garden is a metaphor for the
expansion of Catholicism in the New World. And then there is the politically incorrect
use of white and black for good and bad, as in
old Western movies.
Readers must be open to associations and reflection, creative in their understanding
and interpretation. They must recognize a richness of figurative language and
concomitant element of ambiguity. The more evocative a text, the more the reader
must do the work of finding meaning within the text.
Interpretation: A Personal Understanding
The meaning of fictional works is more personal than that of nonfiction texts. With
nonfiction texts, we assume any two readers will come away with pretty much the
same understanding of what the text states. While we may not agree with someone
else's interpretation, we should be able to follow their analysis.
With fiction, the meaning is dependent on the perceptions, imagination, and feelings of
the reader. In both cases, however, we demand that an interpretation be based on
evidence on the page. And in both cases, part of understanding is understanding one's
own interests, values, and desires and how they affect what one looks for and how one
thinks about what one finds.

Analyzing and Interpreting Fiction: Perspectives

The discussion of nonfiction texts focused on the analysis of choices of content,
language, and structure. The same focus is useful for the analysis of fiction--with some
adjustments. The discussion examines:
• the general perspective on each of the three major genres: novels (stories),
drama, and poetry
• the application of the notions of content, language, and structure for each genre
Fiction, we saw above, is mostly about telling stories and expressing feelings. The
content of fiction may take the form of the events of a story, especially in novels and
short stories, spoken remarks, especially in drama, or images and symbols, especially
in poetry. All three elements appear to varying degrees in all forms of fiction.

Commercial Fiction
 Intended solely to entertain
 Legal thrillers, romance novels
 Escapist
 Formulaic
Literary Fiction
 Written with serious artistic intentions by someone who hopes to enable readers
to broaden understanding of life and to empathize with others
 Literary writers are more like explorers who take us out into the midst of life,
show us the props and mirrors and seek to dispel the illusions.
 Provides keener awareness of our humanity in a friendly and hostile world.
 Usually need to read twice.
 Plot: the sequence of events through which an author constructs a story.
Structure: usually chronological or cause/effect, however, a complex structure is often
required to convey complex meanings, so it may be more experimental and
unpredictable.
LESSON 2: TYPES AND ELEMENTS OF FICTION
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Explain the characteristics, types and elements of fiction; and
b. Interpret and evaluate fiction.

ELEMENTS OF FICTION
Conflict: a clash of actions, ideas, desires, or will.
 Man vs. Himself
 Man vs. Man
 Man vs. External Force (physical nature, society, or “fate”)
 Man vs. Nature (environment)
 Protagonist: central character in a conflict, sympathetic or unsympathetic
 Antagonist: any force against protagonist\
Suspense
 Mystery: an unusual set of circumstances for which the reader craves an explanation
 Dilemma: a position in which he or she must choose between two courses of
action, both undesirable
Ending
Is it logical within the story’s own terms and does it afford a full, believable revelation?
 Surprise Ending: a sudden, unexpected turn or twist, and furnishes meaningful
illumination, not just a reversal of expectation
 Happy Ending: more common in commercial fiction.
 Unhappy Ending: more common in literary fiction because it more closely
mirrors real life and forces readers to contemplate the complexities of life.
 Indeterminate Ending: no definitive conclusion is reached, but need not be in
terms of a resolved conflict.

Artistic Unity
 There must be nothing in the story that is irrelevant.
 Nothing that does not advance the central intention of the story.
Plot Manipulation: unjustified turn in the plot by the situation or the characters.

Deus ex machina: Latin for “god from a machine”—the protagonist is rescued at the
last moment from some impossible situation by a god descending from heaven.
Chance: the occurrence of an event that has no apparent cause in previous events or
in predisposition of character.
Coincidence: the chance occurrence of two events that may have a peculiar
correspondence. Consider the function of plot in trying to understand the relationship
of each incident to the larger meaning of the story.

Example: focus on its central conflict or examine the way incidents and scenes are
connected as a way of testing the story’s plausibility and unity.
Characterization
Direct Presentation: readers are told straight out what the characters are like, or they
have another character in the story describe them. Little emotional impact
Indirect Presentation: the author shows us the characters through their actions; we
determine what they are like by what they say or do. In good fiction, characters are
dramatized.

Principles of Characterization
1. Characters are consistent in their behavior unless there is a clear reason for the change
2. Character’s words and actions spring from motivations the reader can understand
and believe.
3. Characters must be plausible or lifelike, not perfectly virtuous or monsters of evil;
nor can they have some impossible combination of contradictory traits. The character
could have existed, so we have the illusion the person is real.
 Flat Characters: usually have only one or two predominant traits; they can be
summed up in a sentence or two.
 Round Characters: complex and many sided; they have the three-dimensional
quality of real people.
 Stock Characters: type of flat character; stereotyped figures who have
recurred so often in fiction that we recognize them at once: silent sheriff, mad
scientist, brilliant detective.
 Static Character: does not change during the story.
 Dynamic Character: (developing) undergoes distinct change of character,
personality, or outlook. Usually experiences an epiphany which is a moment of
spiritual insight into life or into the character’s own circumstance. This epiphany
usually defines the moment of the dynamic character’s change.
Theme
 The controlling idea or central insight
 The unifying generalization about life stated or implied by the story
 Gives the story its unity
 What view of life does the author want readers to support?
 The theme should be expressible in the form of a statement with a subject and
a predicate.
 NOT JUST “motherhood” or “loyalty”
 Theme must be a statement about the subject.
 The theme should be stated as a generalization about life.
 It is the central and unifying concept of a story.
 There is not one way of stating the theme of a story.
Avoid reducing the theme to some familiar saying that we have heard all our lives: “You can’t
judge a book by its cover.”
Example:
Motherhood sometimes has more frustrations than
rewards. Loyalty to country often inspires heroic self-
sacrifice.

This is a great thesis written by one of my students:

Frankenstein is a prime example of English Romanticism because of the way that
Shelley portrays the importance of good parenting through traits of romantic literature.
Shelley emphasizes the individual, portrays man’s love of nature, and values emotion
over reason to contribute to the theme’s idea that the role of parents is vital to raising
responsible offspring.
This is a “not so great” thesis . . .
Frankenstein is an example of English Romanticist fiction because Mary Shelley uses
Nature, Individualism, and Freedom to contribute to the Romantics view of Nature.
Point of View
 Who tells the story and how much do they know about the thoughts of the characters?
 Omniscient: the story is told in first person by a narrator whose knowledge and
prerogatives are unlimited.
 Third Person Limited: from the viewpoint of one character in the story. No
knowledge of what other characters are thinking or feeling.
 First Person: the author disappears into one of the characters, who tells the
story in the first person. This may be either a minor or major character,
protagonist, or observer, and it will make a considerable difference whether the
protagonist tells the story or someone else tells it. Shares the limitations of the
third-person limited point of view.
 Objective Point of View: (dramatic POV) the narrator disappears into a kind of
roving sound camera. This camera can go anywhere but can record only what is
seen and heard. It cannot comment, interpret, or enter a character’s mind.
Symbol: something that means more than what it suggests on the surface. It may be
an object, person, situation, action or other elements.
Name Symbolism: Adam, Phoenix
Object Symbolism: flag, wedding ring, red, quilts
Action Symbolism: journey
Setting Symbolism: landscape, railway station
Clues for identifying symbols:
 The story itself must furnish a clue that a detail is to be taken symbolically usually by
emphasis, repetition, or position.
 The meaning of the literary symbol must be established and supported by the
entire context of the story.
 A symbol may have more than one meaning—a cluster of meanings.
1. Allegory: a story that has a second meaning beneath the surface adding significance.
2. Fantasy: nonrealistic story and transcends the bounds of known reality.
3. Humor: appears in the many serious works, usually conveyed through irony
4. Irony: a technique used to convey a truth about human experience by exposing
some incongruity of a character’s behavior or a society’s traditions. Irony helps to
critique the world in which we live by laughing at the many varieties of human
eccentricity and folly.
Both evoke responses that are intellectual and emotional once.
Verbal Irony: simplest kind, sarcasm, word play
Dramatic Irony: the contrast between what a character says or thinks and what the
reader knows to be true.
Situational Irony: the discrepancy is between appearance and reality, expectation and
fulfillment, or what is and what would seem appropriate
“Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with
my reading.” –To Kill a Mockingbird
Sentimentality: contrived or excessive emotion

Uncle Tom’s Cabin vs. Beloved

Editorialize: Sentimental writers often try to make words do what the situation
faithfully presented by itself will not do. They comment on the story and, in a manner,
instruct us how to feel. Or they overwrite and poeticize–use an immoderately
heightened and distended language to accomplish their effects. Also, they excessively
use detail which all point one way, toward producing emotion rather than conveying
truth. Dying child always happy, never moody or crying.

5. Style – The author’s type of diction (choice of words), syntax (arrangement of

words), and other linguistic features of a work.
6. Theme(s) – The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work. The term
also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art.

Exploring the Different Types of Fiction

 By Sarah Parsons Zackheim, Adrian Zackheim
Fiction is a general term used to describe an imaginative work of prose, either a
novel, short story, or novella. Recently, this definition has been modified to include both
nonfiction works that contain imaginative elements, like Midnight in the Garden Of Good
and Evil by John Berendt (Random House, 1994) and Dutch by Edmund Morris (Random
House, 1999), and novels consisting largely of factual reporting with a patina of
fictionalization, such as Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (Knopf, 1997). However, in
the truest sense, a work of fiction is a creation of the writer’s imagination.
The two main types of fiction are literary and commercial.
Commercial fiction attracts a broad audience and may also fall into any subgenre,
like mystery, romance, legal thriller, western, science fiction, and so on. For example, The
Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (Warner, 1992) was a hugely
successful commercial novel because the book described the fulfillment of a romantic
fantasy that is dear to the heart of millions of readers. Written in a short, easy-to-read
style, the book was as mesmerizing to 15-year-olds as it was to 100-year-olds. Other
blockbuster commercial fiction authors include John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle
Steele, and Jackie Collins.
Literary fiction tends to appeal to a smaller, more intellectually adventurous
audience. A work of literary fiction can fall into any of the subgenres described in the
following sections. What sets literary fiction apart, however, is the notable qualities it
contains — excellent writing, originality of thought, and style — that raise it above the
level of ordinary written works. A recent work of literary fiction that enjoyed wide popularity
was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997). Other popular
authors of literary fiction include Toni Morrision, Barbara Kingsolver, John LeCarre, and
Saul Bellow.
Mainstream fiction is a general term publishers and booksellers use to describe
both commercial and literary works that depict a daily reality familiar to most people.
These books, usually set in the 20 th or present-day 21st century, have at their core a
universal theme that attracts a broad audience. Mainstream books deal with such
myriad topics as family issues, coming of age initiations, courtroom dramas, career
matters, physical and mental disabilities, social pressures, political intrigue, and more.
Regardless of original genre or category, most of the novels that appear on the bestseller
list are considered mainstream, whether the author is Sue Grafton, Arundhati Roy,
Michael Crichton, or David Guterson.
Mystery
Mystery is a popular genre, boasting a huge established audience. All mysteries
focus on a crime, usually murder. The action tends to center on the attempts of a wily
detective-type to solve the crime. And the climax usually occurs near the end, in a
leisurely setting where all the elements of the mystery are neatly assembled for the
reader’s convenience. The solution, complete with surprises, is then delivered to the
characters and the reader alike.
Mystery subgenres include spy, detective, and crime stories. You can find a vast
network of mystery writers associations, conventions, and conferences, as well as
publications to help mystery writers pursue their craft. For information, contact Mystery
Writers of America.

Great practitioners in this genre include Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond

Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Earle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason.
Present day giants include Carl Hiaason, James Ellroy, Robert Parker, James Lee
Burke, and Elmore Leonard.

Romance
Romance is a huge category aimed at diverting and entertaining women. In
romance novels, you have elements of fantasy, love, naïveté, extravagance,
adventure, and always the heroic lover overcoming impossible odds to be with his true
love. Many romances, especially the gothic romance, have an easy-to-follow formula
— a young, inexperienced girl living a somewhat remote existence is courted or
threatened by an evil man and then rescued by a valiant one.
Other sub-genres include historical, contemporary, fantasy romance, and
romantic suspense. If historical detail and settings interest you, try writing a regency or
historical romance. If you enjoy a dash of mystery or intrigue, then romantic suspense
novels are for you. However, if you’re interested in more modern stories with sexual
candor, then consider writing a contemporary romance.

Certainly, you have lots of opportunity in the field of romance writing, which is
the largest, most diverse, and most popular of the commercial genres. And
romance writers’ organizations can provide exact writing guidelines. To receive a set of
guidelines, contact Romance Writers of America.
First-class romance writers include Jude Deveraux, Victoria Holt, Judith
McNaught, Daphne Du Maurier, Jennifer Greene, and Nora Roberts.

Women’s fiction
It’s common knowledge in the publishing industry that women constitute the
biggest book-buying segment. So, it’s certainly no accident that most mainstream as
well as genre fiction is popular among women. For that reason, publishers and
booksellers have identified a category within the mainstream that they classify as
Women’s Fiction. And its no surprise that virtually all the selections of Oprah’s Book
Club are in this genre.
From a writer’s perspective, some key characteristics of these books include a
focus on relationships, one or more strong female protagonists, women triumphing
over unbearable circumstances, and the experiences of women unified in some way.
The field includes such diverse writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford, Anne Rivers
Siddons, Alice McDermott, Judith Krantz, Anne Tyler, Rebecca Wells, and Alice
Hoffman

Science fiction/fantasy
 Science fiction/fantasy novels depict distant worlds and futuristic technologies
that whirl readers far away from the here and now and yet provoke contemplation of
contemporary issues. Imaginative, thoughtful, and other-worldly, this robust category is
made even more popular by the Star Wars and Star Trek series. Leading science
fiction and fantasy writers include Ray Bradbury, Arthur Clarke, Isaac Asimov, C.S.
Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as the current, multi-best-selling, young adult author
J.K. Rowling.

Suspense/thriller
Suspense novels and thrillers are tense, exciting, often sensational works with
ingenious plotting, swift action, and continuous suspense. In this genre, a writer’s
objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of
impending doom that propels the reader forward. Unlike mysteries, thrillers are
dominated by action in which physical threat is a constant companion, and a hero
(James Bond, for example) is pitted against a nefarious villain.

This genre includes the great espionage writers, including John Le Carre, Len
Deighton, Ian Fleming, Clive Cussler, and Frederick Forsythe. It also includes the
police procedurals of Patricia Cornwell, Tony Hillerman, and Lawrence Sanders, as
well as the courtroom bestsellers of Scott Turow, Richard North Patterson, Steve
Martini, and John Grisham, and the military thrillers of Tom Clancy and Stephen
Koontz.
Western
Known simply as westerns, these novels about life on America’s post-Civil War
western frontier usually involve conflicts between cowboys and outlaws, cowboys and
Native Americans, or Easterners and Westerners. While this category still has a mass-
market audience and a thriving regional market, it’s not the popular genre it was 25
years ago. If you’re interested in writing a western, contact the Western Writers of
America. Zane Grey and Louis Lamour, both deceased, are still among the popular
western writers.
Horror
Filled with gut-wrenching fear, this popular genre keeps readers turning the
blood-filled pages. From a writer’s perspective, the defining characteristic is the
intention to frighten readers by exploiting their fears, both conscious and
subconscious: fears of supernatural forces, alien visitations, madness, death,
dismemberment, and other terrifying notions.
Tracing its roots back to the classic tales of Edgar Allan Poe, the horror genre
today is dominated by Stephen King, whose vast output of bestsellers under his name
as well as his alter-ego Richard Bachman has dominated the bestseller lists for nearly
25 years.
 Other major horror writers include Mary Shelley, Roald Dahl, Clive Barker, Peter
Straub, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice. While horror isn’t science fiction, the SFWA
provides a great deal of information and community services aimed at horror writers.
To obtain its professional assistance, contact the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers
of America.

Young adult
This genre includes any type of novel with a protagonist in the 12 to 16 age
range that speaks to the concerns of teenagers. Currently, J.K. Rowling and her
amazing Harry Potter (Scholastic Press) books are dominating the field. Rowling’s
accomplishment — a truly universal story, brimming with magic and fantasy as well
as likable characters that readers identify with — is an amazing feat.
Watch out for all the Harry Potter wannabes in the coming year. Success stories
in this genre share many of the qualities evident in the Harry Potter books: a
memorable voice (J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Little Brown, 1951), believable
characters (Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Perigee, 1959), and a willingness to write about
the disturbing subjects that preoccupy teens and preteens (Are You There God, It’s Me,
Margaret by Judy Blume, Dell Yearling, 1972, or Holes by Louis Sachar, FSG, 1998).
 LESSON 3: INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
1950- PRESENT

“This literary era defines a time period but it also describes particular style and
quality of writing.”
What is Contemporary Literature?
The literature of the contemporary period not only refers to a quality/style of
writing but also to poetry and prose, which includes works of fiction such as: novels,
novellas, essays, and dramatic works.
Characteristics of the Contemporary Style
 Reality-based stories
 Believable story-line, sometimes portraying a harsher reality or degradation of society
 Current, modern setting
 “Well-defined, realistic, highly developed” and strong character (s).
 Well-structured
 Writing is “more character driven than plot driven”
Historical Events during this period
January 1, 1953 The national Library is established in Ottawa.
September 3, 1962 The Trans-Canada Highway opens.
February 15, 1965 Canada gets a new red-and-white maple leaf flag.
April 2, 1975 The CN Tower in Toronto becomes the world’s tallest free-
standing structure.
July 17, 1976 The Olympic Games are held in Montreal.
June 27, 1980 Canada is officially adopted as Canada’s national anthem.
April 12, 1980 Terry Fox begins his “Marathon of Hope”, cross country run.
1989 One dollar bills stop being produced and are fully replaced by
the loonie.
June 25, 1993 Kim Campbell becomes the first female prime minister of
Canada.
January 4-9, 1998 The most destructive and disruptive ice storm in Canadian
history occurs.
Genres of the period, and topics that were written about in literature were largely
influenced by the historical events which were taking place at the current time. A
notable genre of the contemporary period, which is still popular today is Young Adult or
YA.
GENRES OF CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
Genres of this time included novels and poetry. Flash fiction, short stories, slam poetry,
plays, memoirs, and autobiographies were also popular.

Authors found inspiration in the events of the time period. They often wrote about the
realities and experiences that had occurred, no matter how brutal they may have been.
“The literary innovations of this period were largely influenced by the surroundings and
the changes that were occurring in it…”

I. STORY

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

a. Acquaint themselves with styles and concerns of contemporary stories.

WHAT IS A STORY?
A story or narrative is a connected series of events told through words (written
or spoken), imagery (still and moving), body language, performance, music, or any
other form of communication. You can tell a story about anything, and the events
described can be real or imaginary; covering both fiction and nonfiction; and leaving no
topic, genre, or style untouched. There are stories about all things and all times; past,
present and future. Whenever you’re telling somebody about a series of events, you
are telling a story, no matter what the subject nor when they occurred. As such, stories
are of great value to human culture, and are some of the oldest, most important parts
of life.
Aside from being a part of every single type of literature, stories are at the foundation
of creativity and part of just about everything we do, particularly when it comes to
entertainment, recording, and reporting of any form. So, they are shared in all different
ways—from oral and written storytelling or journalism; to TV, film, and radio; to fine
arts, stage performance and music; and so on.
In one form or another, stories have been a part of human culture and society for
thousands of years—likely since man has existed! They’re found in the past and
present of people from every culture, religion, and ethnicity; in every region and
language. So, all of that considered, the concept of a story is actually a bit difficult to
fully cover or describe. Some would say that life is made up of a series of never-ending
stories. From a simple commute to school or work, to all the events of our lives,
everything has a story.
  EXAMPLES OF STORY
Here are a few examples of the same story told different ways.
You can sometimes tell a story in just one line:
The girl met the love of her life and lived happily until the day she died.

Or, it could be more detailed:

When the girl was 22, she met the love of her life. It was her last day of college,
and when she saw him, she knew he was the one she was going to be with forever—
and the boy knew the same. After graduation, the boy and the girl ran away together to
elope. They lived together happily for the rest of their days.
Now really, even the second example is just a tiny story. We can tell it in all kinds of
ways and of all different lengths, from one line to a series of novels. After all, if the
couple lived an entire lifetime together, there would be countless events that together
make up the story of their life.

 TYPES OF STORIES
The range of types of stories is pretty much endless. For that reason, this article will
divide stories into two very broad categories—fiction and nonfiction. Within each there
are a huge number of possibilities in terms of subject matter, genre, type of delivery
(oral, written, performance), narrative style, and so on.

Fiction stories
Fiction stories are based on made-up or imaginary events. There are dozens
upon dozens of types of fiction stories and genres, including but not at all limited to:

 Fairy tales  Historical fiction

 Folklore  Fantasy
 Mythology  Science-fiction
 Legends  Love stories

32  Epics  Horror stories

 Dramas  Ghost stories
 Adventure stories  Bedtime stories
Non-fiction stories
Non-fiction stories can cover any kind of real-life event or experience. But, they
often fall into these kinds of categories:
 Historical events
 News and current events
 Biographies/ autobiographies
 Memories and experiences
 Cultural history
 Crime and justice
 Science
 Love
 Family
 Trave stories
 Survivor stories
 War stories

 IMPORTANCE OF STORY
Stories are, have been, and always will be an absolutely essential part of human
culture. Stories are how we learn about each other, our past, and our cultures.
Whether they are created for entertainment or to recount a real-life event—new stories
are literally being lived, told, and created every second of every day. So, even if there
was only one story for every person who ever lived, that would still be billions of stories
in the world; it would be impossible to measure how many have existed.

 EXAMPLES OF STORY IN LITERATURE

As literature is, first and foremost, written storytelling, there are limitless examples
of stories in literature; across every style and genre of writing. We’ve been writing
down stories for thousands of years—truth be told, written stories have taught us most
of what we know about mankind’s history and culture! That said, here are a few
examples:
Example 1
Author Shel Silverstein is known for the quirky and memorable stories he tells
through poetry. Here is “Masks” from his collection of poems Everything On It:
She had bluskin.
And so did he.
He kept it hid
And so did she.
They searched for
blue Their whole life
through, Then passed
right by— And never
knew.
As you’ve just read, Silverstein tells a whole story in just eight short lines of
poetry. Tons of poems do the same in even fewer lines. Either way, you can see that a
story definitely doesn’t have to be lengthy.

Example 2
A fairy tale is a classic type of story about imaginary events. When we want to
tell a fairy tale, we often start with the famous words “Once upon a time,” which adds a
more whimsical feel to what we are about to share. Here’s an example from Rapunzel
of Grimm’s Fairy Tales:
Once upon a time there was a man and a woman who had long, but to no avail,
wished for a child. Finally, the woman came to believe that the good Lord would fulfill
her wish. Through the small rear window of these people’s house they could see into a
splendid garden that was filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden
was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared enter, because it belonged to a
sorceress who possessed great power and was feared by everyone.
The fairy tale’s intro is just a small part of the story, telling us about the
beginning and a bit about the characters who will be the focus.
Example 3
Of course, newspapers and magazines are filled with stories. As you know, a
news story reports on real events that have happened. Here’s a passage from a CNN
Tech article:
There’s no other shopping bonanza quite like Alibaba’s Singles Day, which has
once again smashed records. The tech giant reported $17.8 billion in sales during this
year’s frenzy, breaking the record of $14.3 billion set in 2015. That’s more than Black
Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
Reading a news story gives you an update on events that are happening
throughout the world. Here, Tech Crunch writes about China’s 11.11 Singles’ Day, the
world’s biggest shopping event. The story specifically reports on the money that Alibaba
made in their latest Singles’ Day event.
  EXAMPLES OF STORY IN POPULAR CULTURE
Stories are a part of every type of today’s media, from TV, film, and radio; to
what gets shared on social media platforms; music; stage performance; art exhibitions,
celebrity magazines—you name it, and you’ll find stories. But here are a few examples
of stories in popular film and TV culture, told through performance, music, and
animation.
Example 1
Cult-classic fantasy film The Never-ending Story is about a story that goes on
as long as time exists. It unfolds in real time as the reader is reading it, who in this
case is a boy named Bastian. But it’s soon revealed that he has more of a stake in the
story than he ever imagined…
The Never-ending Story (9/10) Movie CLIP – Call My Name (1984) HD

Bastian finally realizes that he’s a part of the story he’s been reading, so in a way, it’s
actually about him. So long as he keeps reading, the story will continue.
Example 2
Everybody knows Will Smith’s retro anthem “Prince of Bel Air,” the theme song
to the hit ’90s sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel Air. In the show’s intro, Smith uses this rap to
fill the audience in on his backstory:
The fresh prince of Bel Air theme song [short version]
The song quickly reviews the story of his past, which serves as an intro to what
the show is about. He recounts the events that led to his life being turned “upside
down”; the story of how he became the Prince of Bel Air.
Example 3
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione reads the story of the Three
Brothers, which is part of the wizarding world.
The Story of the Three Brothers is actually a story within a story—Harry Potter’s story.
Rowling tries to make the wizarding world seem as real as possible, and adding background
is a big part of that. By sharing stories that her characters read, she is giving evidence of
the wizarding world’s storytelling and literary culture…and perhaps even some history.

 CONCLUSION
Stories are a major part of every aspect of our lives, from what we read to what
we do to what we talk and think about. They’re also crucial to our understanding of
history and culture, and have been recorded and passed on since man’s earliest days.
Stories have always been and will always be at the core of not only literature, but life!

II. POETRY

Objectives:
WHAT IS A POETRY?

Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of words and rhythm. It often
employs rhyme and meter (a set of rules governing the number and arrangement of
syllables in each line). In poetry, words are strung together to form sounds, images,
and ideas that might be too complex or abstract to describe directly.
Poetry was once written according to fairly strict rules of meter and rhyme, and each
culture had its own rules. For example, Anglo-Saxon poets had their own rhyme
schemes and meters, while Greek poets and Arabic poets had others. Although these
classical forms are still widely used today, modern poets frequently do away with rules
altogether – their poems generally do not rhyme, and do not fit any particular meter.
These poems, however, still have a rhythmic quality and seek to create beauty through
their words.
The opposite of poetry is “prose” – that is, normal text that runs without line
breaks or rhythm. This article, for example, is written in prose.

ELEMENTS OF POETRY
(Structure, Sound, Imagery, Figurative Language, Elements of Fiction, Poetic Forms)

A. STRUCTURE
1-. Poetic Line – the words that form a single line of poetry.
Example: “‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house” is the
wellknown first poetic line of “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore.

2. Stanza – a section of a poem named for the number of lines it contains.

Example: A couplet is a stanza of two lines. The first stanza from “Barbara Frietchie”
by John Greenleaf Wittier is a couplet:
Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September morn,

3. Enjambment – when there is no written or natural pause at the end of a poetic line,
so that the word-flow carries over to the next line.
Example: the following lines from “Knoxville, Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni contain
enjambment: and listen to gospel music outside at the church

4. Placement – the way words and poetic lines are placed on the page of a poem.
Example: The following are creatively-placed lines from a poem by E.E. Cummings: in
Justspring when the world is mudluscious the little lame ballonman whistles far and
wee.
5. Verse – a line in traditional poetry that is written in meter.

Example: In “When I do count the clock that tells the time” from Shakespeare’s
“Sonnet Number Twelve,” the underlined syllables are accented, giving the line a
metric pattern known as an iambic pentameter (see Meter).

6. Capitalization and Punctuation – In poetry, rules of capitalization and

punctuation are not always followed; instead, they are at the service of the poet’s artistic vision.
Example: in our backyard we plant Tomatoes is the first stanza from “Laughing
Tomatoes” by Francisco X. Alarcón. Notice the lack of capitalization and punctuation.

B. SOUNDS
1. Rhythm – the basic beat in a line of a poem.
Example: “Whose woods these are, I think I know” is the first line from “Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. Notice that the accented words
(underlined) give the line a distinctive beat.

2. Meter – a pattern of stressed and unstressed (accented and

unaccented) syllables (known as a foot) in a line of poetry.
Example: In an iambic pentameter, the pattern is five iambic (unaccented + accented)
feet in each line (see Verse).

3. End Rhyme – same or similar sounds at the end of words that finish different lines.
Example: The following are the first two rhyming lines from “The King of Cats Sends a
Postcard to His Wife” by Nancy Willard: Keep your whiskers crisp and clean, Do not let
the mice grow lean,

4. Internal Rhyme – same or similar sounds at the end of words within a line.
Example: A line showing internal rhyme (underlined) from “The Rabbit” by Elizabeth
Maddox Roberts: When they said the time to hide was mine,

5. Rhyme Scheme – a pattern of rhyme in a poem.

Example: A quatrain – a stanza of four lines in which the second and fourth-
lines rhyme – has the following rhyme scheme: abcb (see Quatrain).
 6. Assonance – the repetition of vowel sounds within words in a line. Example: A line
showing assonance (underlined) from “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” by Clement Clarke
Moore: The children were nestled all snug in their beds

7. Consonance – the repetition of consonant sounds within words in a line.

Example: A line showing consonance (underlined) from “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”
by Clement Clarke Moore: Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

8. Alliteration – the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

Example: Notice the alliteration (underlined) in “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not
Take the Garbage Out” by Shel Silverstein.

9. Onomatopoeia – words that sound like their meaning.

Example: buzz, swish, hiss, gulp.

10. Repetition – sounds, words, or phrases that are repeated to add emphasis or
create rhythm. Parallelism is a form of repetition.
Examples: Two lines from “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll showing
parallelism: Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Read the poem “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe and listen to the way the repetition of
the word “bells” adds rhythm and creates an increasingly ominous and morbid mood.

11. Refrain – a line or stanza repeated over and over in a poem or

song. Example: In “Jingle Bells,” the following refrain is repeated after
every stanza: Jingle Bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way!
Oh, what fun it is
to ride In a one-
horse open
sleigh!
12. Word Play – to play with the sounds and meanings of real or invented
words. Example: Two lines from the poem “Synonyms” by Susan Moger:
Claptrap, bombast, rodomontade,
Hogwash, jargon, and rant.
Two lines from the poem “Antonio” by Laura E. Richards:
Antonio, Antonio,
Was tired of living alonio.

C. IMAGERY (see also Imagist Poetry)

1. Precise Language – the use of specific words to describe a person, place, thing,
or action. Example: Notice how Paul B. Janeczko uses proper nouns in his poem
“Reverend Mona”: When the elders said she was too old,
Reverend Mona surrendered her tabernacle
next to Fast Frankie’s Pawn Shop

2. Sensory Details – the use of descriptive details that appeal to one or more of the
five senses. Example: Notice the sensory details in the following lines from “The Sea”
by James Reeves: The giant sea dog moans, Licking his greasy paws.

D. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
1. Simile – a comparison of two unlike things, using the words like or as.
Example: “I read the shoreline like an open volume.”
2. Metaphor – a comparison of two unlike things, not using the words like or as.

Example: “Ribbons of sea foam / wrap the emerald island.”

3. Personification – to ascribe human traits to non-human or non-living things.
Example: “The unfurled sailboat glides on / urged by wind and will and brilliant bliss.”

4. Symbolism – a person, place, thing, or action that stands for something else.
Example: In “From Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes, a set of stairs symbolizes life.

5. Hyperbole – the use of exaggeration to express strong emotion

or create a comical effect.
Example: “I’m so hungry I could eat a hippo.”

6. Verbal Irony or Sarcasm – when you mean the opposite of what you say.
Example: “My darling brother is the sweetest boy on Earth,” she muttered sarcastically.

7. Situational Irony – when the outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected.
Example: After many years of trying, Mr. Smith won the lottery -- and immediately died
of a heart attack.
8. Pun – a humorous phrase that plays with the double meaning or the similar sounds of words.
Examples: “Tomorrow you shall find me a grave man,” said the duke on his deathbed.
The cookbook Lunch on the Run by Sam Witch is awesome.

9. Allusion- a reference to a familiar person, place, or event.

Example: The following two lines from the poem “My Muse” contain an allusion to
Pandora’s Box: hunched over from carrying that old familiar Box

10. Idiom - a cultural expression that cannot be taken literally.

Examples: She is the apple of his eye. He drives me up the wall.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION (Poems may contain some or all elements of
fiction. For example, a narrative poem (a poem that tells a story) may
contain all elements.)
1. Setting – the time and place where a story or poem takes place.

2. Point of View / Narrative Voice – the person narrating a story or poem (the
story/poem could be narrated in first person (I, we), second person (you), or third
person limited or omniscient (he/she, they).

3. Characterization – the development of the characters in a story or poem (what they

look like, what they say and do, what their personalities are like, what they think and
feel, and how they’re referred to or treated by others).

4. Dialog or Dialogue – the conversation between the characters in a story or poem.

5. Dialect or Colloquial Language – the particular style of speaking of the narrator

and the characters in a story or poem (according to their region, time period, and
social expectations).

6. Conflict – the problem or situation a character or characters face in a story or poem.

7. Plot – the series of events in a story or poem.

8. Tone and Voice – the distinctive, idiosyncratic way a narrator has of telling a story
or poem (tone and voice depend on the intended audience, the purpose for writing,
and the way the writer or poem feels about his/her subject).

9. Style – the way a writer uses words to craft a story or poem.

10. Mood – the feelings and emotions the writer wants the reader to experience.
11. Theme and Message – the main topic of a story or poem, and the message the
author or poet wants to convey about that topic.
TWENTY POETIC FORMS
1- Acrostic – a poem in which the first letter of each word forms a word – usually a
name – if read downward.
Example: “A Rock Acrostic” by Avis Harley.
2- Couplet – two lines of poetry that rhyme and usually form one complete idea.
Example: The poem “Catch a Little Rhyme” by Eve Merriam is written in couplets.
3- Haiku - a Japanese three-line poetic form – usually about nature – with lines of
three, seven, and five syllables, respectively.
Example: I call to my love on mornings ripe with sunlight. The songbirds
answer. 4- Quatrain – a stanza made up of four lines, often containing a
rhyme scheme.
Example: “The Toaster” by William Jay Smith.

5- Cinquain – a five-line untitled poem, where the syllable pattern increases by two for
each line, except for the last line, which ends in two syllables (2,4,6,8.2).
Example: The cinquain that begins with “Oh, cat” by Paul B. Janeczko.

6- Limerick – a humorous rhyming poem written in five lines and having a particular
meter. It often begins with “There once was a…”
Example: Limericks by Edward Lear.

7- Sonnet – a poem that is 14 lines long, generally written in iambic pentameter.

Example: “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare.

8- Free Verse – a poem that does not follow a predictable form or rhyme scheme or
metric pattern.
Example: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.

9- List or Catalog Poem – a poem in the form of a list, that uses sensory details and
precise language to persuade the reader to take notice of what is being listed.
Example: “Things To Do If You Are a Subway” by Robbi Katz.
10- Villanelle – a challenging poetic form that includes five tercets (aba rhyme)
followed by a quatrain (abaa rhyme) and a pattern of repetition of lines 1 and 3 of the
first stanza.
Example: “Is There a Villain in Your Villanelle?” by Joan Bransfield Graham.

11- Ode – a poem that celebrates or praises something.

Example: “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes” by Gary Soto.

12- Lyric Poetry – poetry that expresses a poet’s personal experience, feelings, and emotions.
Example: “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth.

13- Blank Verse – a poem written in iambic pentameter, but with no rhyme.
Example: Verses in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

14- Blues Poem – poems that – like blues songs – deal with personal or world issues.
Example: “Evening Air Blues” by Langston Hughes.

15- Nonsense Poem – a fun, usually rhyming poem that makes no sense, focusing
instead on the sounds and the rhythm of the poem.
Example: “The Jumblies” by Edward Lear.

16- Concrete Poem – a poem that uses words to form the shape of the subject of the
poem (also known as a “shape poem”).
Example: “Concrete Cat” by Dorth Charles.

17- Narrative Poem – a poem that tells a story.

Example: “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel).

18- Ballad – a poem that tells a story, usually written in four-line stanzas.
Example: “The Wreck of the Hesperus” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
19- Epic Poem – a long and heroic narrative poem.
Example: “The Odyssey” by Homer.

20- Imagist Poetry – poems that contain precise visual images.

Example: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams.

 EXAMPLES AND EXPLANATION

Example 1
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker
than man. (Homer, The Odyssey)
The Greek poet Homer wrote some of the ancient world’s most famous literature. He
wrote in a style called epic poetry, which deals with gods, heroes, monsters, and other
large-scale “epic” themes. Homer’s long poems tell stories of Greek heroes like Achilles
and Odysseus, and have inspired countless generations of poets, novelists, and
philosophers alike.
Example 2
Poetry gives powerful insight into the cultures that create it. Because of this, fantasy
and science fiction authors often create poetry for their invented cultures. J.R.R.
Tolkien famously wrote different kinds of poetry for elves, dwarves, hobbits, and
humans, and the rhythms and subject matter of their poetry was supposed to show
how these races differed from one another. In a more humorous vein, many Star Trek
fans have taken to writing love poetry in the invented Klingon language.

 IMPORTANCE OF POETRY
Poetry is probably the oldest form of literature, and probably predates the origin of
writing itself. The oldest written manuscripts we have are poems, mostly epic poems
telling the stories of ancient mythology. Examples include the Epic of Gilgamesh and
the Vedas (sacred texts of Hinduism). This style of writing may have developed to help
people memorize long chains of information in the days before writing. Rhythm and
rhyme can make the text more memorable, and thus easier to preserve for cultures
that do not have a written language.

Poetry can be written with all the same purposes as any other kind of literature –
beauty, humor, storytelling, political messages, etc.
  EXAMPLES IN POETRY LITERATURE
Example 1
I think that I shall never see --
> A a poem lovely as a
tree…--> A
poems are made by fools like me,--
> B but only God can make a
tree.--> B (Joyce Kilmer, Trees)

This is an excerpt from Joyce Kilmer’s famous short poem. The poem employs a fairly
standard rhyme scheme (AABB, lines 1 and 2 rhymes together and lines 3 and 4
rhymes together), and a meter called “iambic tetrameter,” which is commonly
employed in children’s rhymes.
Example 2
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning
for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo
in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up
smoking… (Alan Ginsberg, Howl)

These are the first few lines of Howl, one of the most famous examples of modern
“free verse” poetry. It has no rhyme, and no particular meter. But its words still have a
distinct, rhythmic quality, and the line breaks encapsulate the meaning of the poem.
Notice how the last word of each line contributes to the imagery of a corrupt, ravaged
city (“madness, naked, smoking”), with one exception: “heavenly.” This powerful
juxtaposition goes to the heart of Ginsburg’s intent in writing the poem – though what
that intent is, you’ll have to decide for yourself.
Example 3
In the twilight rain,
these brilliant-hued
hibiscus – A lovely sunset

This poem by the Japanese poet Basho is a haiku. This highly influential Japanese
style has no rhymes, but it does have a very specific meter – five syllables in the first
line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line.
 EXAMPLES OF POETRY IN POPULAR CULTURE
Example 1
Rapping originated as a kind of performance poetry. In the 1960s and 70s, spoken
word artists like Gil Scott-Heron began performing their poems over live or synthesized
drumbeats, a practice that sparked all of modern hip hop. Even earlier, the beat poets
of the 1950s sometimes employed drums in their readings.
Example 2
Some of the most famous historical poems have been turned into movies or inspired
episodes of television shows. Beowulf, for example, is an Anglo-Saxon epic poem that
has spawned at least 8 film adaptations, most recently a 2007 animated film starring
Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins. Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven has also inspired
many pop culture spinoffs with its famous line, “Nevermore.”
III. DRAMA

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Examine theatrical structures of contemporary drama; and
b. Trace the changes and development of contemporary drama.

DRAMA
Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It is
one of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type of
a play written for theater, television, radio, and film.
In simple words, a drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story in
pantomime or dialogue. It contains conflict of characters, particularly the ones who
perform in front of audience on the stage. The person who writes drama for stage
directions is known as a “dramatist” or “playwright.”

TYPES OF DRAMA
Let us consider a few popular types of drama:

• Comedy – Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary works, and provide a
happy conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience
laugh. Hence, they use quaint circumstances, unusual characters, and witty remarks.
• Tragedy – Tragic dramas use darker themes, such as disaster, pain, and
death. Protagonists often have a tragic flaw — a characteristic that leads them to their
downfall.
• Farce – Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which often
overacts or engages slapstick humor.
• Melodrama – Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is sensational and
appeals directly to the senses of the audience. Just like the farce, the characters are of
a single dimension and simple, or may be stereotyped.
• Musical Drama – In musical dramas, dramatists not only tell their stories
through acting and dialogue, but through dance as well as music. Often the story may
be comedic, though it may also involve serious subjects.

DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
The structure is how the plot or story of a play is laid out, including a beginning, a
middle and an end. Plays may also include subplots, which are smaller stories that
allow the audience to follow the journey of different characters and events within the
plot. Plays also feature an element of conflict, which does not necessarily mean a fight
or argument but instead an obstacle that needs to be overcome.
A typical dramatic structure is linear, with events occurring chronologically. This might
include:
exposition - introduces background events and characters
rising action - a series of events that create suspense in the narrative climax - the part of
the story where the suspense reaches its highest part falling action - the main conflict
starts to resolve
resolution - the conclusion of the story where questions are answered and loose ends are
tied up
A graph showing how dramatic tension changes during a theatre performance, from the
exposition through rising action, dramatic climax and falling action, ending in a resolution.
Structures can also be non-linear, with the action of the play moving forwards and back in
time. This is done through the use of flashbacks and flashforwards, to help make the play
more exciting or to highlight points through contrast and juxtaposition.

Alternatively, plays may follow a cyclical structure, with the play ending at the same
time as it began. This can be exciting for the audience as they try to work out how the
character ended up in the position they see at the start of the play.
Traditionally, plays use acts and scenes to help define particular moments in time, and
a new scene will show the audience that the action is taking place in a different
location.

EXAMPLES OF DRAMA IN LITERATURE

Example #1: Much Ado About Nothing (By William Shakespeare)
Much Ado About Nothing is the most frequently performed Shakespearian comedy in
modern times. The play is romantically funny, in that love between Hero and Claudio is
laughable, as they never even get a single chance to communicate on-stage until they
get married.
Their relationship lacks development and depth. They end up merely as caricatures,
exemplifying what people face in life when their relationships are internally weak. Love
between Benedick and Beatrice is amusing, as initially their communications are very
sparky, and they hate each other. However, they all of sudden make up, and start
loving each other.
Example #2: Oedipus Rex (BySophocles) Tragedy:
Sophocles’ mythical and immortal drama Oedipus Rex is thought to be his best
classical tragedy. Aristotle has adjudged this play as one of the greatest examples of
tragic drama in his book, Poetics, by giving the following reasons:
• The play arouses emotions of pity and fear, and achieves the tragic Catharsis.
• It shows the downfall of an extraordinary man of high rank, Oedipus.
• The central character suffers due to his tragic error called Hamartia; as he
murders his real father, Laius, and then marries his real mother, Jocasta.
• Hubris is the cause of Oedipus’ downfall.

Example #3: The Importance of Being Earnest (By Oscar Wilde)

Farce:

Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a very popular example
of Victorian farce. In this play, a man uses two identities: one as a serious person, Jack
(his actual name), which he uses for Cesily, his ward, and as a rogue named Ernest for
his beloved woman, Gwendolyn.

Unluckily, Gwendolyn loves him partially because she loves the name Ernest. It is
when Jack and Earnest must come on-stage together for Cesily, then Algernon comes
in to play Earnest’ role, and his ward immediately falls in love with the other “Ernest.”
Thus, two young women think that they love the same man – an occurrence that
amuses the audience.

Example #4: The Heiress (By Henry James)

Melodrama:
The Heiress is based on Henry James’ novel the Washington Square. Directed
for stage performance by William Wyler, this play shows an ungraceful and homely
daughter of a domineering and rich doctor. She falls in love with a young man, Morris
Townsend, and wishes to elope with him, but he leaves her in the lurch. The author
creates melodrama towards the end, when Catherine teaches a lesson to Morris, and
leaves him instead.
FUNCTION OF DRAMA
Drama is one of the best literary forms through which dramatists can directly
speak to their readers, or the audience, and they can receive instant feedback of
audiences. A few dramatists use their characters as a vehicle to convey their thoughts
and values, such as poets do with personas, and novelists do with narrators. Since
drama uses spoken words and dialogues, thus language of characters plays a vital
role, as it may give clues to their feelings, personalities, backgrounds, and change in
feelings. In dramas the characters live out a story without any comments of the author,
providing the audience a direct presentation of characters’ life experiences.
LESSON 4: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Identify issues and challenges in contemporary literature; and

b. Explain the development in genres in contemporary

literature.

Eighteen Challenges in Contemporary Literature

1. Literature is language-based and national; contemporary society is globalizing and polyglot.
2. Vernacular means of everyday communication "” cellphones, social networks,
streaming video "” are moving into areas where printed text cannot follow.
3. Intellectual property systems failing.
4. Means of book promotion, distribution and retail destabilized.
5. Ink-on-paper manufacturing is an outmoded, toxic industry with steeply rising costs.
6. Core demographic for printed media is aging faster than the general population.
Failure of print and newspapers is disenfranchising young apprentice writers.
7. Media conglomerates have poor business model; economically rationalized "culture
industry" is actively hostile to vital aspects of humane culture.
8. Long tail Balkanizes audiences, disrupts means of canon-building and fragments
literary reputation.
9. Digital public-domain transforms traditional literary heritage into a huge, cost-free,
portable, searchable database, radically transforming the reader's relationship to belle-
lettres.
10. Contemporary literature not confronting issues of general urgency; dominant best-
sellers are in former niche genres such as fantasies, romances and teen books.
11. Barriers to publication entry have crashed, enabling huge torrent of sub literary
and/or nonliterary textual expression.
12. Algorithms and social media replacing work of editors and publishing houses;
network socially-generated texts replacing individually-authored texts.
13. "Convergence culture" obliterating former distinctions between media; books becoming
one minor aspect of huge tweet/ blog/ comics/ games / soundtrack/ television / cinema /
ancillary- merchandise pro-fan franchises.
14. Unstable computer and cellphone interfaces becoming world's primary means of
cultural access. Compositor systems remake media in their own hybrid creole image.
15. Scholars steeped within the disciplines becoming cross-linked jack-of-all-trades
virtual intelligentsia.
16. Academic education system suffering severe bubble-inflation.
17. Polarizing civil cold war is harmful to intellectual honesty.

18. The Gothic fate of poor slain Poetry is the specter at this dwindling feast.
 CHAPTER II:
POPULAR
LITERATURE
Introduction
Popular literature contains writings that are intended for
the masses and those that find favour with large audiences. In
this chapter, the students must acquaint themselves with the
nature, appeal and social functions of popular literature. It will
also talk about the characteristics and the different issues and
challenges of popular literature.
LESSON 5: INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR LITERATURE
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Acquaint themselves with the nature, appeal, and social functions of popular literature.

UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE, FUNCTION, AND VALUE OF LITERATURE

HOW DR. ELLIS DESCRIBES ‘LITERATURE’

 Dr. Rod Ellis- known as the “Father of Second Language
Acquisition” (ASL)
(1989:30) defines literature as:
1. The verbal expression of human imagination and
2. One of the primary means by which a culture transmits itself.

I. NATURE
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF LITERATURE?
 Literature can be defined as an expression of human feelings, thoughts, and
ideas whose medium is language, oral and written.
 It is not only about human ideas, thoughts, and feelings but also about
experiences of the authors.
 It can be medium for human to communicate what they feel, think, experience
to the readers.
‘LITERATURE’ BASED ON DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEWS
 Literature is art,
 Literature is language,
 Literature is aesthetic,
 Literature is fictional,
 Literature is expressive, and
 Literature is affective.
Literature is everything in print.
 It means any writing can be categorized as literature.
LITERATURE AS ART FORM
1. IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE
 Is highly ‘connotative’ which means words that used in literary works have feeling and
shades of meaning that words tend to evoke.
 Imaginative literature or “literature of power” includes poems, short stories, novels, and
plays. It interprets human experience by presenting actual truths about particular events.
2. NON-IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE
 Means that the words refer to meaning in dictionary.
 Non-Fictional Literature or “literature of knowledge” includes biographies, and essays
which presents actual facts, events, experiences and ideas.
TWO CATEGORIES OF LITERATURE ACCORDING TO KLEDEN
 Kleden (2004:7-8) states that literature can be differentiate based on the kind of
meanings that exist in a text.
A. LITERARY TEXT consists of textual meaning and referential meaning and;
B. NON-LITERARY TEXT only consists of referral meaning.
The TEXTUAL MEANING is the meaning that is produced by the relationship of text itself.
REFERENTIAL MEANING it is produced by the relationship between internal text and
external text (world beyond the text).

LITERATURE DIFFER FROM ORDIANRY SPOKEN OR WRITTEN LANGUAGE

 Literature uses special words, structures, and characteristics. Primarily the language of
literature differs from ordinary language in three ways:
1.) Language is concentrated and meaningful.

2.) Its purpose is not simply to explain, argue, or make a point but rather to give a sense of
pleasure in the discovery of new experience, and

3.) It demands intense concentration from the readers. It indicates that the language of
literature has originality, quality, creativity, and pleasure.
 LITERARY FROM THE USE OF LANGUAGE AND THE EXISTENCE
 From the use of language and the existence of meaning in literary works, it can
be concluded that poetry, prose and drama are put in literary works article, journalism,
news, bibliography, memoir, and so on can be categorized as non-literary works.

II. APPEAL
 Something that makes the viewers or readers attracted and interested in the
literary piece.

III. SOCIAL FUNCTION

FUNCTION OF LITERATURE ENTERTAINMENT FUNCTION
Known as, “pleasure reading”. In this function, literature is used to
entertain its readers. It is consumed for the sake of one’s enjoyment.

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL FUNCTION

Literature shows how society works around them. It helps the reader
“see” the social and political constructs around him and shows the state of the people
and the world around him.

IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTION
Ideological function shapes our way of thinking based on the ideas of
other people. Literature also displays a person’s ideology placed in the text
consciously and unconsciously.

MORAL FUNCTION
Literature may impart moral values to its readers. The morals contained in
a literary text, whether good or bad are absorbed by whoever reads it, thus helps in shaping
their personality.

LINGUISTIC FUNCTION
Literature preserves the language of every civilization from where it
originated. They are also evidences that a certain civilization has existed by recording
the language and preserving it through wide spans of time.
CULTURAL FUNCTION
Literature orients us to the traditions, folklore and the arts of our ethnic
group’s heritage. It preserves entire cultures and creates an imprint of the people’s
way of living for others to read, hear and learn.
EDUCATIONAL FUNCTION
Literature teaches us of many things about the human experience. It is
used to portray the facets of life that we see, and those that we would never dream of
seeing. Literature therefore, is a conduct for the chance to experience and feel things
where we can learn things about life.
HISTORICAL FUNCTION
Ancient texts, illuminated scripts, stone tablets etc. keeps a record of
events that happened in the place where they originated. Thus, they serve as time
capsules of letters that are studies by scholars and researchers of today.

IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
 It entertains you and provides useful occupation in your free time.
 It makes you a wiser and more experienced person by forcing you to judge,
sympathize with, or criticize the characters you read about.
 Literature improves your command of language.
 It teaches you about the life, cultures and experiences of people in other parts
of the world.
 It gives you information about other parts of the world which you may never be
able to visit in your lifetime.
 It helps you compare your own experiences with the experiences of other people.
 It gives information which may be useful in other subjects, for example, in
Geography, Science, History, Social Studies and so on.

IMPORTANCE OF LITERARY CRITICISM

 As a tool in literary studies, critic plays an important role in doing studies or
analysis about literary work.
 Applying criticism make our focus on certain aspect or element of literary work
sharper than reading as usual.

 The reader can focus on an aspect as his interest toward the literary work.
UNIVERSAL CHARACTERISTIC OF LITERATURE
1. Timelessness
2. Eternity
3. Universality
4. Permanence

LITERATURE is a permanent expression in words of some thought or feelings or idea

about life and the world.

LITERARY CRITICISM AND ITS PURPOSE

 Literary criticism refers to analysis and judgment of works of literature.
 It tries to interpret specific works of literature, and also helps to identify and
understand different ways of examining and interpreting them.
 Study of literary criticism contributes to maintenance of high standards of literature.
 It is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.
 Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the
philosophical discussion of literature’s goals and methods.
FUNCTIONS OF LITERARY CRITICISM
 The modern understanding of criticism is regarded as having two different
functions which helps to achieve the main purposes of criticism.
 Criticism is the process of analysis and description and interpretation of literary
works for the purpose of increasing understanding and raising appreciation.

HOW DO YOU DO LITERARY CRITICISM?

 Method to Applying Advanced Critical Techniques
 Read the work of literature critically.
 Evaluate as you read.
 Brainstorm which aspect to write about.
 Formulate a thesis statement.
 Create an outline.
 Select quotes and patterns that support your thesis.
 Find other criticism to support your thesis.

TYPES OF LITERARY CRITICISM

 Such analysis may be based from a variety of critical approaches or
movements, such as:
1. Archetypal Criticism
2. Cultural Criticism
3. Feminist Criticism
4. Psychoanalytic Criticism
5. Marxist Criticism
6. New Criticism (Formalist/Structuralism)
7. New Historicism
8. Post-Structuralism, and
9. Reader-response Criticism
ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM is a critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on symbols,
images, and character types in literary works that is used to discuss in plot, character
or situation. It recognizes conscious and unconscious symbols that relates to emotions,
values, feelings to specific images. It encourages the readers to examine basic beliefs,
fear, and anxieties.

CULTURAL CRITICISM focuses on the elements of culture and how they affect one’s
perceptions and understanding of texts.
FOUR ASSUMPTIONS:
Ethnicity, religious beliefs, social class, etc. are crucial components in
formulating plausible interpretation of text.
While the emphasis is on diversity of approach and subject matter, Cultural
Criticism is not the only means of understanding ourselves and our art.
 An examination or exploration of the relationship between dominant cultures
and the dominated is essential.
When looking at a text through the perspective of marginalized peoples, new
understandings emerge.
FEMINIST CRITICISM is a product of the feminist movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
It is the representation of women in literature as an expression of the social norms
about women and their social roles and as a means of socialization. It focused on the
images of the women in books by male writers to expose the patriarchal ideology and
how women characters are portrayed.
PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM based on Sigmund Freud ID, ego and superego, the
author’s own childhood effects the book and character. It is a type of criticism that uses
theories of psychology to analyze literature. It focuses on the author’s state of mind or
the state of the mind of fictional character. Psychoanalytic criticism uses two different
approaches; psychoanalysis of the author and psychoanalysis of the character.
MARXIST CRITICISM applies political science and economics to the study of
literature. Grew out of writings of Karl Marx, who was highly critical of the capitalist
system of economics and politics. It concerned with the issues of class conflict and
materialism, wealth, work, and the various ideologies that surrounds these things. It
connotes higher class do control arts, literatures, and ideologies.
Marxism As Compared To Feminist and New Historicism
Like feminist critics, it investigates how literature can work as a force for social
change or as a reaffirmation of existing conditions.
Like New Historicism, it examines how history influences literature; the difference
is that Marxism focuses on the lower class.

How to do Marxist Reading

1. Look for examples of oppression, bad working conditions, class struggles and
other related issues.
2. Search for the “covert” meaning underneath the “overt” which is about class
struggles, historical stages, and economic conditions.
3. Relate the context of a work to the social-class status of the author.
4. Relate the literary work to the social conditions of its time period.
5. Explain an entire genre in terms of its social period.
6. Show how literature is shaped by political, economic, labor, and class conditions.
NEW CRITICISM (FORMALISM/STRUCTURALISM) New criticism was a formalist
movement in literary theory that dominated in American literary criticism in the middle
decades of the 20th century which emphasized close reading particularly of poetry, to
discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential
aesthetic object.
FORMALISM refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the
inherent features of a text. These features include not only the grammar and syntax
but also literary devices such as a meter and figures of speech. It reduces the
importance of a text’s historical biographical and cultural context.
NEW HISTORICISM was first developed in 1980 by the American critic Stephen
Greenbelts. It is based on the idea that literature should be studied and interpreted
within a wide context examining both how the author’s time, in turn recognizing that
current cultural contexts color that critic’s conclusion.
POST-STRUCTURALISM offers a way of studying how knowledge is produced and
critiques structuralism premise. It rejects the idea of a literary text having a single
purpose, a single meaning, or one singular existence. It argues to understand an
object (e.g. a text), it is necessary to study both the object itself and the systems of
knowledge that produced the object.
POST-STRUCTURALISTIC CRITIC must be able to utilize a variety of perspectives to
create a multifaceted interpretation of a text, even if these interpretations conflict with
one another.
It is particularly important to analyze how the meanings of a text shift in relation
to certain variables, usually the identity of the reader.

READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM (RR) critic believes that a reader’s interaction with

the text give its meaning. The text cannot exist without the reader. It focuses on the
reader or audience and the experience of a literary work rather than the author or the
context and form of work. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear, does
it make a noise? If a text sits on the shelf in a bookstore and no one is around to read
it, does the text have meaning?
ROLE OF THE READER RESPONSE CRITICISM
The role of the reader is pivotal in the understanding of literature – they can use
a psychoanalytical, structural, feminist, etc. approach to formulate their criticism
(anything goes).
Readers are active in the reading process. They cannot read literature passively
but must react and therefore bring meaning to the text.
 LESSON 6: POPULAR LITERATURE GENRES

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Describe the characteristics of popular literature; and
b. Differentiate popular from contemporary literature genres.

POPULAR LITERATURE GENRES:

1. Romance
2. Science Fiction
3. Detective Story
4. Comic Books
5. Comic Strip

I. ROMANCE

 WHAT IS A ROMANCE?
In the strictest academic terms, a romance is a narrative genre in literature that
involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where the focus is on a quest
that involves bravery and strong values, not always a love interest. However, modern
definitions of romance also include stories that have a relationship issue as the main
focus.

 EXAMPLES OF ROMANCE
In the academic sense, an example of a romance is a story in which the main
character is a hero who must conquer various challenges as part of a quest. Each
challenge could be its own story and can be taken out of the overall story without
harming the plot.

Example 1
 A knight who wishes to prove himself by recovering a stolen heirloom from an
enemy may find himself attempting to make his way through a dangerous wood filled with
thieves.
 Once he has accomplished this challenge, he may find himself climbing a tall
mountain on which a group of people are in trouble. He would save the group somehow,
and then move on.
 Then the final stage: the enemy’s kingdom. There may be a fair maiden whom
he meets and somehow helps or rescues, or perhaps she helps him.
But the fair maiden is not the focus of the story – his quest is the focus. Each story can
be taken out, yet each builds the hero’s strength to face his final quest. These stories
tend to be serious rather than humorous and touch on strong values.
Example 2
A modern romance would include:
 The story of a character who keeps meeting the wrong type of people in his or
her relationships or has run into a problem with a current love relationship.
 The story would focus on the struggles the character faces while finding Mr. or
Mrs. Right. The whole focus would be the relationship, although the character may also
be dealing with other struggles, such as losing a job, handling difficult parents, etc.
These stories may be funny, sad, tragic, serious, or a mix. The obvious resolution to
the conflict would be finding the right person or saving the present relationship.

 TYPES OF ROMANCE

a. GOTHIC
In Gothic romance, the settings are usually in distant regions and the stories
feature dark and compelling characters. They became popular in the late 19th century
and usually had a sense of transcendence, supernatural, and irrationality. Popular
Gothic novels still read by many high school students today are classics such as:
 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

b. HISTORICAL

Historical romance takes place in times long past and appears romantic due to
the adventure and wildness of the time. This also provides value and meaning to the
lifestyle of the characters. The following novels fit in this sub-genre:
 The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
 Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott.
c. CONTEMPORARY/MODERN
Contemporary romance focuses on a love relationship and has a happy ending.
There are two ways these romance novels are written: as a series or category
romance (the author writes a succession of books that fit a theme or follow a storyline)
or as a single-title romance.
Even more so, within the sub-genre romance, and as seen in many movies, there can be:
 comedy-romance
 tragic-romance
 satire-romance
 serious romance
Playwrights and poets also treat romance with various tones.

 THE IMPORTANCE OF ROMANCE

Romance is a natural human emotion. Sad love songs and poems when one is
recovering from a broken heart can help express unspoken feelings. Happy romantic
movies and plays help people feel optimistic that someday they will also find true love.
However, there is some criticism that many modern romantic stories make people
develop unrealistic views about real relationships, as they expect love to be like it is in
the movies.
Barbara Cartland was a British writer who wrote 723 romance novels before her
death in 2000. While her novels were mainly historical in context, Cartland’s simple
format for love stories and success opened a whole new publishing field, specifically
with companies such as Harlequin Romance and Bantam. The plot lines she used
focused on a simple model: handsome stranger, innocent and pure female, and a
conflict that required trust and dependence. The couple usually didn’t get along at
first, or they had a misunderstanding. Yet, the stories always ended in marriage and
complete happiness. As a result, more modern writers began filling the niche and the
romance novel evolved on different levels.
II. SCIENCE FICTION

 WHAT IS A SCIENCE FICTION?

Science fiction, often called “sci-fi,” is a genre of fiction literature whose content is
imaginative, but based in science. It relies heavily on scientific facts, theories, and
principles as support for its settings, characters, themes, and plot-lines, which is what
makes it different from fantasy.
So, while the storylines and elements of science fiction stories are imaginary, they are
usually possible according to science—or at least plausible.
Although examples of science fiction can be found as far back as the Middle Ages,
its presence in literature was not particularly significant until the late 1800s. Its true
popularity for both writers and audiences came with the rise of technology over the
past 150 years, with developments such as electricity, space exploration, medical
advances, industrial growth, and so on. As science and technology progress, so does
the genre of science fiction.
 EXAMPLES OF SCIENCE FICTION
Read the following short passage:
As the young girl opened her window, she could see the moons Europa and
Callipso rising in the distance. A comet flashed by, followed by a trail of stardust,
illuminating the dark, endless space that surrounded the spacecraft; the only place she
had ever known as home. As she gazed at Jupiter, she dreamed of a life where she
wasn’t stuck orbiting a planet, but living on one. She envisioned stepping onto land,
real land, like in the stories of Earth her father had told her about. She tried to imagine
the taste of fresh air, the feel of a cool, salty ocean, and the sound of wind rustling
through a tree’s green leaves. But these were only fantasies, not memories. She had
been born on the ship, and if they didn’t find a new inhabitable planet soon, she would
surely die there too.

The example above has several prime characteristics that are common in
science fiction. First, it is set in the future, when humans no longer live on Earth.
Second, it takes place on a spacecraft that is orbiting Jupiter. Third, it features real
scientific information—Europa and Callipso are two of Jupiter’s moons, and as Jupiter
is a planet made of gas, it would not be possible for humans to live there, explaining
why the ship is currently orbiting the planet rather than landing on it.
  TYPES OF SCIENCE FICTION
Science fiction is usually distinguished as either “hard” or “soft.”
1. Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction strictly follows scientific facts and principles. It is strongly
focused on natural sciences like physics, astronomy, chemistry, astrophysics, etc.
Interestingly, hard science fiction is often written by real scientists, and has been
known for making both accurate and inaccurate predictions of future events. For
example, the recent film Gravity, the story of an astronaut whose spacecraft is
damaged while she repairs a satellite, was renowned for its scientific accuracy in
terms of what would actually happen in space.
2. Soft science fiction
Soft science fiction is characterized by a focus on social sciences, like
anthropology, sociology, psychology, and politics— in other words, sciences
involving human behavior. So, soft sci-fi stories mainly address the possible scientific
consequences of human behavior. For example, the Disney animated film Wall-E is
an apocalyptic science fiction story about the end of life on Earth as a result of man’s
disregard for nature.
In truth, most works use a combination of both hard and soft science fiction. Soft
sci-fi allows audiences to connect on an emotional level, and hard sci-fi adds real
scientific evidence so that they can imagine the action actually happening. So,
combining the two is a better storytelling technique, because it lets audiences
connect with the story on two levels. Science fiction also has a seemingly endless
number of subgenres, including but not limited to time travel, apocalyptic,
utopian/dystopian, alternate history, space opera, and military science fiction.

 IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE FICTION

Many times, science fiction turns real scientific theories into full stories about
what is possible and/or imaginable. Many stories use hard facts and truths of
sciences to:suggest what could really happen in the future to explore what could
happen if certain events or circumstances came to be or suggest consequences of
technological and scientific advancements and innovation.
Historically it has been a popular form for not only authors, but scientists as
well. In the past 150 years, science fiction has become a huge genre, with a
particularly large presence in film and television—in fact, the TV network “SciFi” is
completely devoted to science fiction media. It is a particularly fascinating and mind-
bending genre for audiences because of its connection to reality.
III. DETECTIVE STORY

Detective story, type of popular literature in which a crime is introduced and

investigated and the culprit is revealed.
The traditional elements of the detective story are:
(1) the seemingly perfect crime;
(2) the wrongly accused suspect at whom circumstantial evidence points;
(3) the bungling of dim-witted police;
(4) the greater powers of observation and superior mind of the detective; and (5) the
startling and unexpected denouement, in which the detective reveals how the
identity of the culprit was ascertained.
Detective stories frequently operate on the principle that superficially
convincing evidence is ultimately irrelevant. Usually it is also axiomatic that the clues
from which a logical solution to the problem can be reached be fairly presented to
the reader at exactly the same time that the sleuth receives them and that the sleuth
deduce the solution to the puzzle from a logical interpretation of these clues.
The first detective story was “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan
Poe, published in April 1841. The profession of detective had come into being only a
few decades earlier, and Poe is generally thought to have been influenced by the
Mémoires (1828–29) of François-Eugène Vidocq, who in 1817 founded the world’s
first detective bureau, in Paris. Poe’s fictional French detective, C. Auguste
Dupin, appeared in two other stories, “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1845) and
“The Purloined Letter” (1845). The detective story soon expanded to novel length.
The French author Émile Gaboriau’s L’Affaire Lerouge (1866) was an
enormously successful novel that had several sequels. Wilkie Collins’ The
Moonstone (1868) remains one of the finest English detective novels. Anna
Katharine Green became one of the first American detective novelists with The
Leavenworth Case (1878). The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886) by the Australian
Fergus Hume was a phenomenal commercial success.
The greatest of all fictional detectives, Sherlock Holmes, along with his loyal,
somewhat obtuse companion Dr. Watson, made his first appearance in Arthur (later
Sir Arthur) Conan Doyle’s novel A Study in Scarlet (1887) and continued into the
20th century in such collections of stories as The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
(1894) and the longer Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). So great was the appeal of
Sherlock Holmes’s detecting style that the death of Conan Doyle did little to end
Holmes’s career; several writers, often expanding upon circumstances mentioned in
the original works, have attempted to carry on the Holmesian tradition.
 Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

Sherlock Holmes (right) explaining to Dr. Watson what he has deduced from a pipe
left behind by a visitor; illustration by Sidney Paget for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's “The
Adventure of the Yellow Face,” The Strand Magazine, 1893.
Photos.com/Jupiterimages
The early years of the 20th century produced a number of distinguished detective
novels, among them Mary Roberts Rinehart’s The Circular Staircase (1908) and
G.K. Chesterton’s The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) and other novels with the
clerical detective. From 1920 on, the names of many fictional detectives became
household words: Inspector French, introduced in Freeman Wills Crofts’s The Cask
(1920); Hercule Poirot, in Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920),
and Miss Marple, in Murder at the Vicarage (1930); Lord Peter Wimsey, in Dorothy
L. Sayers’ Whose Body? (1923); Philo Vance, in S.S. Van Dine’s The Benson
Murder Case (1926); Albert Campion, in Margery Allingham’s The Crime at Black
Dudley (1929; also published as The Black Dudley Murder); and Ellery Queen,
conceived by Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, in The Roman Hat Mystery
(1929).
In a sense, the 1930s was the golden age of the detective story, with the detectives
named above continuing in new novels. The decade was also marked by the books
of Dashiell Hammett, who drew upon his own experience as a private detective to
produce both stories and novels, notably The Maltese Falcon (1930) featuring Sam
Spade. In Hammett’s work, the character of the detective became as important as
the “whodunit” aspect of ratiocination was earlier. The Thin Man (1934), with Nick
and Nora Charles, was more in the conventional vein, with the added fillip of
detection by a witty married couple. Successors to Hammett included Raymond
Chandler and Ross Macdonald, who also emphasized the characters of their tough
but humane detectives Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer, respectively. At the end of
the 1940s, Mickey Spillane preserved the hard-boiled crime fiction approach of
Hammett and others, but his emphasis on sex and sadism became a formula that
brought him amazing commercial success beginning with I, the Jury (1947).
 The Maltese Falcon
(From left) Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre,
Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet in The
Maltese Falcon (1941), directed by John
Huston.
© 1941 Warner Brothers, Inc.
The introduction of the mass-produced
paperback book in the late 1930s made
detective-story writers wealthy, among them
the Americans Erle Stanley Gardner, whose
criminal lawyer Perry Mason unraveled
crimes in court; Rex Stout, with his fat, orchid-
raising detective Nero Wolfe and his urbane
assistant Archie Goodwin; and Frances and Richard Lockridge, with another bright
married couple, Mr. and Mrs. North. In France, Georges Simenon produced novel
after novel at a rapid- fire pace, making his hero, Inspector Maigret, one of the best-
known detectives since Sherlock Holmes. Other writers who carried out the tradition
of Holmes or broke new ground included Nicholas Blake (pseudonym of the poet C.
Day-Lewis), Michael Innes, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Carter Dickson (John
Dickson Carr), and P.D. James. After 1945, writers such as John le Carré adapted
the detective-story format to the spy novel, in which he addressed the mysteries and
character of the Cold War.
The Mystery Writers of America, a professional organization founded in 1945 to
elevate the standards of mystery writing, including the detective story, has exerted
an important influence through its annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards for excellence.
IV. COMIC BOOK
A magazine that presents a serialized story in the form of a comic strip,
typically featuring the adventures of a superhero. A comic is bound collection of comic
strips, usually in chronological sequence, typically telling a single story or a series of
different stories.

Benefits of a Comic Book:

Reading
Comics provide narrative experiences for students just beginning to read and
for students acquiring a new language. Students follow story beginnings and
endings, plot, characters, time and setting, sequencing without needing sophisticated
word decoding skills. Images support the text and give students significant
contextual clues to word meaning. Comics act as a scaffold to student
understanding.
As Stephen Cary, a second language learner specialist and author of Going
Graphic: Comics at Work in the Multilingual Classroom, says: “Comics provide
authentic language learning opportunities for all students…. The dramatically
reduced text of many comics make them manageable and language profitable for
even beginning level readers.”
Also, according to Cary, comics motivate reluctant readers. They engage
students in a literary format which is their own. Comics speak to students in a way
they understand and identify with. Even after students learn to be strong readers
comics give students the opportunity to read material which combines images with
text to express satire, symbolism, point of view, drama, puns and humor in ways not
possible with text alone.

Writing

Many students read fluently, but find it difficult to write. They complain that
they don’t know what to write. They have ideas, but they lack the written language
skills to create a beginning, follow a sequence of ideas and then draw their writing to
a logical conclusion.
Students frequently ask if they may draw a picture when they’re writing. They
are reaching for images to support their language ideas. Allowed to use words and
images they will resolve problems of storytelling which they would not otherwise
experience using words alone. Like reading, comics provide a scaffolding so that
students experience success in their writing. Students transfer specific elements
directly into text-only writing. For example, students learn that whatever text found in
a word balloon is put inside quotes in their text-only writing.
Using Comic Life students have a new publishing medium. Comic Life
documents can be printed, emailed to parents or posted as a website very easily.

Key benefits of using comics in education

• A great visual Representation of Knowledge
• Presents what is essential
• Easier to remember a visual graphic containing key information
• Engaging through thinking, creating and writing.
• Perfect avenue for writing dialogue
• Incites students with low interest in writing
• Helps organization through storytelling and storyboarding
• Using visual images convey meaning to a story or topic
• Develops creative and higher level thought processes
• Develops composition techniques through visual-verbal connections
• Enriches reading, writing, and thinking
• Serves as and assessment and evaluation tool
• Sequencing promotes understanding

Example of comic strips:

V. COMIC STRIPS / STORY BOARD

A sequence of drawings, either in color or black and white, relating a comic
incident, an adventure or mystery story, etc., often serialized, typically having
dialogue printed in balloons, and usually printed as a horizontal strip in daily
newspapers and in an uninterrupted block or longer sequence of such strips in
Sunday newspapers and in comic books.
Series of adjacent drawn images, usually arranged horizontally, that are designed to
be read as a narrative or a chronological sequence.
From extraordinary superheroes saving the day to everyday adventures with a big
orange cat, comic strips can capture the imagination like no other medium. It’s a
popular art form that not only entertains but also educates because of how it can
show or explain complex stories and concepts using images and dialogue.
Comic strips and cartoons are two effective instructional tools to use in class
with students from different grades. They are effective because they engage
students in meaningful learning experiences where they get to practice key skills
such as writing, reading, speaking and communicating.
 By definition, a comic strip is "an open-ended dramatic narrative about a
recurring set of characters told in a series of drawings, often including dialogue in
balloons and a narrative text, published serially in newspapers"
Story board is a visual representation of a film sequence and breaks down
action into individual panels. It is a series of ordered drawings, with camera direction,
dialogue or other pertinent details. It sketches out how a video will unfold, shot by
shot.
Why use comic strips /story board in your teaching:
Here are some of the reasons why you might want to include comic strips/story
board in your classroom instruction (see the list of sources at the bottom of this post
to learn more)
• Comics are fun, interesting and motivating.
• Comics promote a wide variety of skills: cognitive, intellectual, social, and cultural.

• Can be used with students in different school grades.

• Can be used to teach different school subjects.
• Can help students develop higher-order thinking skills (sequencing,
predicting, inferring, synthesizing, analyzing, evaluating...etc).
• Enhance students engagement with multimodal texts.
• Make students aware of the multimodal means through which meanings are
constructed and communicated.
• Ideal teaching tools for teaching a target language
• Visually illustrated content is much easier to process, understand and remember.
• Can be used to teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.
Uses of comic strips in class
There are different ways you can integrate comic strips in your classroom. Here is an
abbreviated list of ideas we put together based on various sources (see list at the
bottom of this post).
• Digital storytelling: students (in small groups or individually) create a
narrative storyline and illustrate it with relevant graphics.
• Students use comic strips to visually retell a story they have read.
• You can use comic strips to introduce a topic and have students brainstorm ideas
• Provide students with pre-designed comic strip with missing panels and ask
them to fill in the blanks to complete the story. (writing activity)
• Provide students with blanked out comic strip and ask them to write a story
based on the illustrated characters. (writing activity, promote predicting skills)
• Use comic strips to raise students awareness to topics such as racism,
 bullying, digital citizenship…etc.
• Use comic strips in language learning to teach vocabulary, grammar,
communication (use of language in contextual situations), writing, and reading.
• Use comics to improve students speaking skills by asking them to act out
comics they created. Alternatively, you can engage students in oral discussions
about the content of the comics.
LESSON 7: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN POPULAR LITERATURE

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. React on issues and challenges in popular literature; and
b. Conduct a critical analysis between contemporary and popular literature.

CHALLENGES FACING POPULAR LITERATURE

Literature is in crisis. Perhaps not many of my Profs would agree with me on
this premise, but they are immersed in a literary world where Virginia Woolf
conferences are a big deal and debates over the existence of spondees are heated.
People don’t read anymore. There are a few hangers-on, but even we read less than
others used to.
I freely and gladly acknowledge that change in inevitable; the question is,
what changes are good, and which are to be fought? Literature is worth fighting for,
but the literati are contributing to their own demise in many significant ways. Here
are some factors and causes of the literary crisis I’ve noticed:
1. Post-modernism.
“Whoah, whoah!” the English prof will argue, “if anything, pmism caused a
proliferation of texts. There are thousands and millions of works produced in the pm
era, many of which have literary merit.” Indeed, but that isn’t the problem. I assert
that pm literature and theory have assisted in its decline mainly because
postmoderns argue that text and meaning are inherently separate—can’t get there
from here. It’s all subjective. It doesn’t mean. “All writing is lying.” Upon hearing
these statements made by the very people who study and produce literature, the
common reader will say, “All right, I believe you. Think I’ll watch some TV.” Segue…
2. Mass media.
There is a lot more to do in our free time than read, most of which is easier
than reading. Reading is a task that requires time and effort (usually); you can’t pitch
convenience or speed to someone when discussing literature. Movies are more
action-packed (though usually watered- down); TV entertains; video games excite;
the internet always has a myriad of things to do. Why read? Sure, people in the
1800s and early 20th Century read far more than we do, but they had fewer
diversions.
3. Lots of books are bad.
They just are. Sadly, it’s usually the brain candy that sells because it’s so
sweet (and that’s fine), but it won’t satisfy. Bad works of literature negatively affect
the works that have lasting merit; people who have had a bad experience reading
rarely try again to enjoy it.

4. Rise of other academic subjects.

English is a major in decline in most places (I don’t have the stats to back this
up, but I think I’m right), partly for reason #1, and partly because there are a lot more
options for a scholar these days. International Relations, Biology, Art, Poli-Sci,
Philosophy, Languages, Women’s Studies, et al. I’m quite pleased that there are so
many other courses for people to pursue, but it is taking its toll on lit.
5. No automatic connection to a job after college.
This one really troubles me. College, at its core, is NOT JOB-TRAINING!! Go
to college to learn, young student, and become a better person. Money is only
money. If you graduate and don’t have a job right away, that’s fine. You will find one
if you apply yourself during school. The disciplines that have an automatic field
ready-made for the graduate are few. Sadly, I would posit that parents play a major
role in this category with the obligatory “What are you going to do with that major?”
question. If college is not the time in one’s life when one can feel free to explore,
learn and grow by trying out a variety of things and find our who one is without
worrying about benefits or salary, when is?
6. Inaccessibility.
This debate is one I’ve touched on before: if a work of literature is dazzlingly
brilliant but no one can understand it, is it good? This is the question raised by books
like Ulysses (not to mention Finnigans Wake), The Sound and the Fury, Gravity’s
Rainbow and lesser works like The Black Envelope. I don’t have a good answer–a
balance is too much to ask perhaps. However, when the artist writes above the
common reader’s ability to comprehend, readers will be alienated.
7. Overly-academic language.
This is the sister of problem #6. Academics have invented complicated
terminology for everything. This is not necessarily something bad–terminology often
aids specificity and education; however, when academic vocabulary gets out of hand
(and it can), then a piece loses its utility. I find this all the time in literary criticism.
Yes, one must write intelligently and engage the concepts, but what I too frequently
find is pedanticism run wild. Critics like to condescend to their readers. The
arrogance of this is outrageous and wrong-headed. Critics, your very job is to
educate those few who bother to read the meager words you put down; make it
worth their while. Make your points, enlighten where you can, and shut up.
8. Death of aesthetics.
This problem became glaringly obvious thanks to Kyle’s post on the
Washington Post story about Joshua Bell playing in a Metro station. People–or
should I say Americans?–do not
appreciate art. We are business people. Straight-forward, earn a buck, get it done,
work on the weekends, open 24 hours, overtime, few holidays, work till you die
people. Why does art of any kind matter? Well, what else aside from art slows us
down? What else shows us beauty, beauty so amazing and alarming that we have to
appreciate it? From where do we gain insight into existence? Art does all these
things, and its decline will mean the decline of America in one way or many.
Is there a solution to all these problems? Yes, and it’s quite simple, as most
good answers are: literature itself. The very best thing a literary scholar or professor
can do is get out of the way of the works. So many books I’ve read have changed
my life. There are multitudes of brilliant novels, short stories, and poems out there to
be read, and not all of them are long or complex. The purpose of the literati is to
make literature clearer, more profound, and more able to be grasped.
And for heaven’s sake, we ought to make literature fun because…(gasp!)…
the reason we like to read is IT’S FUN! It’s enjoyable! If it’s not these things, one can
just as easily find something else that is fun. Perhaps this too is what is happening to
literature, but the cure is only one book, story, poem (or even painting, sculpture,
musical piece, or song) away.
 CHAPTER III:
EMERGING
LITERATURE
Introduction
Emerging literature is an integration of a traditional and
technological driven form of literature. This chapter will tackle
about the different emerging genres of literature in the 21 st
century, the issues and challenges in emerging literature and the
interrelationship of contemporary, popular and emergent
literature.
LESSON 8: INTRODUCTION TO EMERGING LITERATURE
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Determine new emerging genres of literature; and
b. Discuss the elements and characteristics of these genres.

1. CREATIVE NON-FICTION
The New Emerging Genres of Literature
I. Creative Nonfiction
Also known as literary non-fiction or narrative non-fiction. It is 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. It is a rich
mix of flavors, ideas and techniques, some of which are newly invented and
others as old as writing itself. Creative nonfiction can be an essay, a journal
article, a research paper, a memoir, or a poem; it can be personal or not.

The creative nonfiction writer produces a personal essay, memoir, travel piece,
and so forth, with a variety of techniques, writing tools, and methods. He/she is
required to use the elements of nonfiction, literary devices of fiction, and what Lee
Gutkind called “the 5 Rs of Creative nonfiction.” The following is a brief explanation
of each:

Characteristics of Creative Nonfiction as

a
The creative nonfiction writer often incorporates several elements of nonfiction when
n
writing a memoir, personal essay, travel writing, and so on. The following is a brief
int
explanation of the most common elements of nonfiction:
er
1. Fact. The writing must be based on fact, rather than fiction. It cannot be made vi
up. e
w
2. Extensive research. The piece of writing is based on primary research, such
or
personal experience, and often secondary research, such as gathering
information from books, magazines, and newspapers.
 3. Reportage/reporting. The writer must be able to document events or personal
experiences.
4. Personal experience and personal opinion. Often, the writer includes
personal experience, feelings, thoughts, and opinions. For instance, when
writing a personal essay or memoir.
5. Explanation/Exposition. The writer is required to explain the personal
experience or topic to the reader.
6. Essay format. Creative nonfiction is often written in essay format. Example:
Personal Essay, Literary Journalistic essay, brief essay.

Elements of Creative Non-fiction

The main elements of creative nonfiction are setting, descriptive imagery, figurative
language, plot, and character. The overarching element or requirement that
distinguishes creative nonfiction from any other genre of writing is that while other
literary genres can spring from the imagination, creative nonfiction is, by definition,
true. As you complete the assigned readings in this chapter, keep track of the following
elements as they arise in your readings: see if you can identify each of them. Learning
these elements now will form a solid foundation for the rest of the class.

1. Setting
Each story has a setting. The setting is the place where the story takes place.
Usually, an effective story establishes its setting early in the story: otherwise readers
will have a difficult time visualizing the action of the story. Below is an example of how
a writer might establish setting in a way which immerses the reader: by showing rather
than telling.
Example:
I went to the lake. It was cool. My breath escaped in ragged bursts, my quadriceps
burning as I crested the summit. The lake stretched before me, aquamarine, glistening
in the hot August afternoon sun. Ponderosa pines lined its shores, dropping their spicy-
scented needles into the clear water. Despite the heat, the Montana mountain air
tasted crisp.
Which of the above lakes would you want to visit? Which one paints a more immersive
picture, making you feel like you are there? When writing a story, our initial instinct is
usually to make a list of chronological moments: first I did this, then I did this, then I did
that, it was neat-o. That might be factual, but it does not engage the reader or invite
them into your world. It bores the reader. Ever been stuck listening to someone tell a
story that seems like it will never end? It probably was someone telling you a story
rather than using the five senses to immerse you.
 In the example above, the writer uses visual (sight), auditory (sound), olfactory
(smell), tactile (touch), or gustatory (taste) imagery to help the reader picture the setting
in their mind. By the final draft, the entire story should be compelling and richly detailed.
While it's fine to have an outline or first draft that recounts the events of the story, the
final draft should include dialogue, immersive description, plot twists, and metaphors to
capture your reader's attention as you write.

2. Descriptive Imagery
You have probably encountered descriptive imagery before. Basically, it is the
way the writer paints the scene, or image, in the mind of the reader. It usually involves
descriptions of one or more of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. For
example, how would you describe a lemon to a person who has never seen one
before?

Example:
Imagine you are describing a lemon to someone who has never seen one before. How
would you describe it using all five senses?

One might describe a lemon as yellow, sour-smelling and tasting, and

with a smooth bumpy skin. They might describe the sound of the lemon as a thump on
the table if it is dropped, or squelching if it is squished underfoot. By painting a picture
in the reader's mind, it immerses them in the story so that they feel they are actually
there.

Figurative. Figurative language can also take the form of simile: "aunt Becky's attitude
was as sour as a lemon." By comparing an abstract concept (attitude) to an object
(lemon), it imparts a feeling/meaning in a more interesting way.

3. Plot
Plot is one of the basic elements of every story: put simply, plot refers to the
actual events that take place within the bounds of your narrative. Using our rhetorical
situation vocabulary, we can identify “plot” as the primary subject of a descriptive
personal narrative. Three related elements to consider are scope, sequence, and
pacing.
 4. Scope
The term scope refers to the boundaries of plot. Where and when does the story begins
and ends? What is its focus? What background information and details does the story requires?
I often think about narrative scope as the edges of a photograph: a photo, whether of a vast
landscape or a microscopic organism, has boundaries. Those boundaries inform the viewer’s
perception.
The way we determine scope varies based on rhetorical situation, but I can say generally
that many developing writers struggle with a scope that is too broad: writers often find it
challenging to zero in on the events that drive a story and prune out extraneous information.
Consider, as an example, how you might respond if your friend asked what you did last
weekend. If you began with, “I woke up on Saturday morning, rolled over, checked my phone,
fell back asleep, woke up, pulled my feet out from under the covers, put my feet on the floor,
stood up, stretched…” then your friend might have stopped listening by the time you get to the
really good stuff. Your scope is too broad, so you’re including details that distract or bore your
reader. Instead, focus on the most exciting or meaningful moment(s) of your day: "I woke up
face-down to the crunch of shattered glass underneath me. When I wobbled to my feet, I
realized I was in a large, marble room with large windows overlooking the flashing neon lights of
the Las Vegas strip. I had no idea how I got there!" Readers can expect this story will focus on
how the storyteller arrived in Las Vegas, and it is much more interesting than including every
single detail of the day.
5. Sequence
The sequence of your plot—the order of the events—will determine your reader’s
experience. There are an infinite number of ways you might structure your story, and the shape
of your story is worth deep consideration. Although the traditional forms for a narrative
sequence are not your only options, let’s take a look at a few tried-and-true shapes your plot
might take.
Freytag's Pyramid: Chronological
A. Exposition: Here, you’re setting the scene, introducing characters, and preparing the reader
for the journey.

B. Rising action: In this part, things start to happen. You (or your characters) encounter
conflict, set out on a journey, meet people, etc.

C. Climax: This is the peak of the action, the main showdown, the central event toward which
your story has been building.
D. Falling action: Now things start to wind down. You (or your characters) come away
from the climactic experience changed—at the very least, you are wiser for having had
that experience.

E. Resolution: Also known as dénouement, this is where all the loose ends get tied
up. The central conflict has been resolved, and everything is back to normal, but
perhaps a bit different.

6. Nonlinear Narrative
A nonlinear narrative may be told in a series of flashbacks or vignettes. It might
jump back and forth in time. Stories about trauma are often told in this fashion. If using
this plot form, be sure to make clear to readers how/why the jumps in time are
occurring. A writer might clarify jumps in time by adding time-stamps or dates or by
using symbolic images to connect different vignettes.

7. Pacing
While scope determines the boundaries of plot, and sequencing determines
where the plot goes, pacing determines how quickly readers move through the story. In
short, it is the amount of time you dedicate to describing each event in the story.
I include pacing with sequence because a change to one often influences the
other. Put simply, pacing refers to the speed and fluidity with which a reader moves
through your story. You can play with pacing by moving more quickly through events,
or even by experimenting with sentence and paragraph length. Consider how the “flow”
of the following examples differ:
The train screeched to a halt. A flock of pigeons took flight as the conductor
announced, “We’ll be stuck here for a few minutes.”
Lost in my thoughts, I shuddered as the train ground to a full stop in the middle of an
intersection. I was surprised, jarred by the unannounced and abrupt jerking of the car. I
sought clues for our stop outside the window. All I saw were pigeons as startled and
clueless as I.
8. Characters
A major requirement of any story is the use of characters. Characters bring life
to the story. Keep in mind that while human characters are most frequently featured in
stories, sometimes there are non-human characters in a story such as animals or even
the environment itself. Consider, for example, the ways in which the desert itself might
be considered a character in "Bajadas" by Francisco Cantú.
 Characterization
Whether a story is fiction or nonfiction, writers should spend some time thinking
about characterization: the development of characters through actions, descriptions,
and dialogue. Your audience will be more engaged with and sympathetic toward your
narrative if they can vividly imagine the characters as real people.
Types of Characters:
Round characters – are very detailed, requiring attentive description of their traits
and behaviors.
Your most important characters should be round: the added detail will help your reader
better visualize, understand, and care about them.

Flat characters – are minimally detailed, only briefly sketched or named.

Less important characters should take up less space and will therefore have less
detailed characterization.

Static characters – remain the same throughout the narrative.

Even though all of us are always changing, some people will behave and appear the
same throughout the course of your story. Static characters can serve as a reference
point for dynamic characters to show the latter’s growth.

Dynamic characters – noticeably change within the narrative, typically as a result of

the events.
Most likely, you will be a dynamic character in your personal narrative because such
stories are centered around an impactful experience, relationship, or place. Dynamic
characters learn and grow over time, either gradually or with an epiphany.

9. Point of View
The position from which your story is told will help shape your reader’s
experience, the language your narrator and characters use, and even the plot itself.
You might recognize this from Dear White People Volume 1 or Arrested Development
Season 4, both Netflix TV series. Typically, each episode in these seasons explores
similar plot events, but from a different character’s perspective. Because of their
unique vantage points, characters can tell different stories about the same realities.
This is, of course, true for our lives more generally. In addition to our differences
in knowledge and experiences, we also interpret and understand events differently. In
our writing, narrative position is informed by point-of-view and the emotional valences I
refer to here as tone and mood.
A Non-Comprehensive Breakdown of POV
FIRST PERSON POINT OF VIEW – Narrator uses 1st person pronouns (I/me/mine or
us/we/ours)
Can include internal monologue (motives, thoughts, feelings) of the narrator. Limited
certainty of motives, thoughts, or feelings of other characters.
Example:
 I tripped on the last stair, preoccupied by what my sister had said, and felt my
stomach drop.
SECOND PERSON POINT OF VIEW – Narrator uses 2nd person pronouns
(you/you/your).
Speaks to the reader, as if the reader is the protagonist OR uses apostrophe to speak
to an absent or unidentified person
Example:
 Your breath catches as you feel the phantom step.
 O, staircase, how you keep me awake at night.
THIRD PERSON LIMITED – Narrator uses 3rd person pronouns (he/him/his,
she/her/hers, they/they/theirs).
Sometimes called “close” third person. Observes and narrates but sticks near one or
two characters, in contrast with 3rd person omniscient.
Example:
 He was visibly frustrated by his sister’s nonchalance and wasn’t watching his
step.
THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT – Narrator uses 3rd person pronouns (he/him/his,
she/her/hers, they/they/theirs).
Observes and narrates from an all-knowing perspective. Can include internal
monologue (motives, thoughts, feelings) of all characters.
Example:
 Beneath the surface, his sister felt regretful. Why did I tell him that? she
wondered.
STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS – Narrator uses inconsistent pronouns, or no pronouns
at all. Approximates the digressive, wandering, and ungrammatical thought processes of
the narrator.
Example:
 But now, a thousand empty⎯where? ⎯and she, with head shake, will be fine⎯AHH!

Typically, you will tell your story from the first-person point-of-view, but personal
narratives can also be told from a different perspective; I recommend “Comatose
Dreams” to illustrate this at work. As you’re developing and revising your writing, try to
inhabit different authorial positions: What would change if you used the third person
POV instead of first person? What different meanings would your reader find if you told
this story with a different tone—bitter instead of nostalgic, proud rather than
embarrassed, sarcastic rather than genuine?
Furthermore, there are many rhetorical situations that call for different POVs.
(For instance, you may have noticed that this book uses the second-person very
frequently.) So, as you evaluate which POV will be most effective for your current
rhetorical situation, bear in mind that the same choice might inform your future writing.

10. Dialogue
The communication between two or more characters. For example:
"Hate to break it to you, but your story is boring."
"What? Why do you say that?" he stuttered as his face reddened. "Because you did not
include any dialogue," she laughed.

Think of the different conversations you’ve had today, with family, friends, or
even classmates. Within each of those conversations, there were likely pre-established
relationships that determined how you talked to each other: each is its own rhetorical
situation. A dialogue with your friends, for example, may be far different from one with
your family. These relationships can influence tone of voice, word choice (such as
using slang, jargon, or lingo), what details we share, and even what language we
speak.
Good dialogue often demonstrates the traits of a character or the relationship of
characters. From reading or listening to how people talk to one another, we often infer
the relationships they have. We can tell if they’re having an argument or conflict, if one
is experiencing some internal conflict or trauma, if they’re friendly acquaintances or
cold strangers, even how their emotional or professional attributes align or create
 Often, dialogue does more than just one thing, which makes it a challenging tool
to master. When dialogue isn’t doing more than one thing, it can feel flat or
expositional, like a bad movie or TV show where everyone is saying their feelings or
explaining what just happened. For example, there is a difference between “No thanks,
I’m not hungry” and “I’ve told you, I’m not hungry.” The latter shows frustration, and
hints at a previous conversation. Exposition can have a place in dialogue, but we
should use it deliberately, with an awareness of how natural or unnatural it may sound.
We should be aware how dialogue impacts the pacing of the narrative. Dialogue can
be musical and create tempo, with either quick back and forth, or long drawn out
pauses between two characters. Rhythm of a dialogue can also tell us about the
characters’ relationship and emotions.

The 5’Rs of Creative Nonfiction

Lee Gutkind, who is a writer, professor, and expert on creative nonfiction, wrote an
essay called “The Five R’s of Creative Nonfiction.” In this essay, he identified five
essential elements of creative nonfiction. These include:
1. Creative nonfiction has a “real life” aspect. The writer constructs a personal
essay, memoir, and so forth, that is based on personal experience. He also
writes about real people and true events.
2. Creative nonfiction is based on the writer engaging in personal “reflection” about
what he/she is writing about. After gathering information, the writer needs to
analyze and assess what he/she has collected. He then must evaluate it and
expression his thoughts, views, opinions. Personal opinion is permissible and
encouraged.
3. Creative nonfiction requires that the writer complete research. The writer needs
to conduct research to learn about the topic. The writer also needs to complete
research to discover what has been written about the topic. Even if a writer is
crafting a personal essay, he will need to complete secondary research, such as
reviewing a personal journal, or primary research, such as interviewing a friend
or family member, to ensure that the information is truthful and factual.
4. The fourth aspect of creative nonfiction is reading. Reading while conducting
research is not sufficient. The writer must read the work of the masters of his
profession.
5. The final element of creative nonfiction is writing. Writing creative nonfiction is
both an art and craft. The art of creative nonfiction requires that the writer uses
his talents, instincts, creative abilities, and imagination to write memorable
creative nonfiction. The craft of creative nonfiction requires that the writer learn
and deploy the style and techniques of creative nonfiction in his/her work.
 Types of Creative Nonfiction
Creative nonfiction is about fact and truth. The truth can be about a personal
experience, event, or issue in the public eye. There are many categories or genres to
choose from, such as the personal essay, memoir, and autobiography. The following is
a list of the most popular types of creative nonfiction:
1. Personal Essay. The writer crafts and essay that is based on personal
experience or a single event, which results in significant personal meaning or a
lesson learned. The writer uses the first person “I.”
2. Memoir. The writer constructs a true story about a time or period in his/life, one
that had significant personal meaning and a universal truth. The writer
composes the story using the first person “I.”
3. Literary journalism essay. The writer crafts an essay about an issue or topic
using literary devices, such as the elements of fiction and figurative language.
4. Autobiography. The writer composes his/her life story, from birth to the
present, using the first person “I.”
5. Travel Writing. The writer crafts articles or essays about travel using literary
devices.
6. Food writing. The writer crafts stories about food and cuisine using literary
devices.
7. Profiles. The writer constructs biographies or essays on real people using
literary devices.
Guidelines for Writing Creative Nonfiction
Not only must the aspiring writer of creative nonfiction learn the techniques, but
he/she also requires a good understanding of the guidelines. The following are 12
guidelines for writing any type of creative nonfiction:
 Research the topic. Both primary (interview, personal experience, or participant
observation) and secondary research (books, magazines, newspaper, Web)
 Never invent or change facts. An invented story is fiction.
 Provide accurate information. Write honestly and truthfully. Information should be
verifiable.
 Provide concrete evidence. Use facts, examples, and quotations.
 Use humor to make an important point.
 Show the reader what happened, don’t tell them what happened. To do this,
dramatize the story.
 Narrate the story. A story has an inciting incident, goal, conflict, challenges,
obstacles, climax, and resolution.
 Write about the interesting and extraordinary. Write about personal experiences,
interesting people, extraordinary events, or provide a unique perspective on everyday
life.
 Organize the information. Two common techniques are chronological or logical order.
 Use literary devices to tell the story. Choose language that stimulates and
entertains the reader, such as simile, metaphor, imagery.
 Introduce the essay or other work with a hook. Its purpose is to grab the readers’
attention and compel them to reader further. Popular hooks include a quotation,
question, or thought-provoking fact.
 End the creative nonfiction piece with a final, important point. Otherwise the
reader will think, “So what!” “What was the point? It was an interesting story, but how
does it apply to me or my life?”

II. HYPER POETRY

Hyper poetry is a form of digital poetry
that uses links using hypertext mark-up. It is a
very visual form, and is related to hypertext
fiction and visual arts. The links mean that a
hypertext poem has no set order, the poem
moving or being generated in response to the
links that the reader/user chooses. It can either
involve 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 / or
mutate. It is usually found online, though CD-
ROM and diskette versions exist. The earliest
examples date to no later than the mid-1980s.
Description:
Hypertext poetry, is a subgenre of digital poetry. Digital poetry is sometimes referred to
as e- poetry, electronic poetry, and cyberpoetry. The genre mostly falls into two
subgenres: interactive poetry and hypertext poetry (Poetry Beyond Text).
Hypertext poetry utilizes the components of hypertexts. Hyperlinks are embedded,
throughout, or in some cases "each word, phrase or line." Each link brings the reader
to another page "that defines or expands on the idea represented by the text of the
poem" (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction). The links most often stem from the "primary
text. However, some hypertext poems that do not have a primary text. In these works,
the reader of the poem choose the way he navigates the poem through the amount
and pattern he chooses with the hyperlinks (Montecino).
Example of Hyper Poetry:
Do You Believe?

I was that kid who has read a lot of fairy tale books Princess
with glass slippers, peter pan who fights captain hook
Fascinated, I remember each story my mom read to me I
believed one day; they will appear for me to see.

We all knew a lady who glows in a white silky dress The

one with pretty wings and a gentle caress
I eagerly wait for her looking out my window,
But she always exchanges my teeth with coins under the
pillow.

A big, chubby, good, old man in red The one who gives us
gifts riding his sled
Along with the help of his elves and reindeers The time for
enjoyment is here, let go of your fears!

Now who could’ve forgotten this man with and hourglass?

Nope, he doesn’t come when we sleep in class. He guards
us in our sleep to avoid nightmares
Like the ones with zombies, witches or grizzly bears.

Lastly, the cute little guy who loves a good hunting game
Colorful eggs, baskets… You know him and his name!

In the time of the year called “Easter” He’s the first one you
will remember.

As the years pass, their story becomes untold Sweet old

myths that’s good as gold
Tooth fairy, Santa Claus, Sandman, and the Easter bunny
Do you believe in them? Do you believe like me?
Elements of Hyper Poetry:
1. Kairos
With the digital revolution, there is a growing number of writers using electronic
media to create and publish their works (Kendall). Many writers in using electronic
format expanded to include the format of the hypertext, which is interactive in nature.
Writers are able to break away from the restrictions of paper (Kendall) and use content
and features to create nonlinear poems that are associated with the medium. The
hypertext also allows writers to experiment with elements like hyperlinks, images,
sounds, and video (Kendall).

2. Audience
The audience plays an interactive role in the navigating and reading a hypertext
poem. Astrid Ensslin argues hypertext poetry, which she terms hyperpoetry, is the
"most creative and trans-artistic genre" out of all the hypertext genres because it offers
the most "multisensory textual experience." She argues this because it incorporates
"nomadism" and brings the reader away from the "verbal narrative” (Ennslin).
Hypertext Poetry is on the trend to become increasingly more popular in the upcoming
years, as more and more writers use digital media to create and publish their works.
The genre attracts users who want to be involved in the reading experience (Picot).

3. Content
Hypertext poems can include the traditional components of a poem which are:
words, lines, and stanzas. Most are in the form of free verse. However, the genre also
includes other multimedia components including: sounds, visual images, and three-
dimensional letters, which makes it hard to identify most of the formal poetic
conventions (Hypertext Poetry And Fiction).
 4. Formal Features
Hypertext poems include "hypertextual features" which are mostly composed of
hyperlinks that lead to a nonlinear reading of the text (Ensslin).
Hypertext poetry also includes hypermedia poetry. It moves beyond linking text to
other websites, and adds features such as, "image, sound, video and animation"
(Millan). An example of these features could be a sound "of a lawn mower" with words
like "'mowing', 'stop', 'Sunday' and 'morning'" in succession across the readers screen
(Hypertext Poetry And Fiction). These types of features, or multimedia elements, make
it hard to link hypertext poetry to any formal poetry conventions (Hypertext Poetry And
Fiction).

5. Ancestral Genres
One ancestral genre to hypertext poetry is the hypertext. Hypertexts allow a
nonlinear reading of the text in which an audience is able to have an interactive
experience with the text through the use of hyperlinks, which when clicked on, bring
the reader to another website (Christopher Funkhouser). Hyperlinks, are often referred
to as simply links, and utilize URLs, HTTPs, and HTMLs, (What are Hyperlinks?).
Usually hyperlinks are in the form of highlighted or "underlined" (Montecino) words
within the text, which when clicked bring the viewer to another website that provides an
expansion on the concept (What are Hyperlinks?). Christopher Funkhouser expands
on the audience's interactive role with the hypertext, and how based on his, "interest,
engagement, and curiosity" he can control his navigation of the text.
Hypertext also functions as a collaborative text by blurring the roles of author and
reader become (Keep). Hypertexts are seen as electronic texts but Christopher Keep
argues that hypertexts are not restricted to "technology, content, or medium" (Keep).
Oral poetry shares the nonlinear shape of hypertext poetry. With each reading of an
oral poem it changes shape, which relates to how hypertext poetry changes for each
reader that reads the poem because of the nonlinear interactive navigation of the text
(Ennslin).

Notable Examples of Hypertext Poetry:

 Penetration: Is a well-known example of a hypertext poem. The poem is from
the collection The Seasons, which was published in 2000 by Eastgate. The
collection consists of two poems: Dispossession and Penetration. The poem is
set up so that the reader has choice to begin the poem through different
perspectives. For example, by clicking on "daylight" the poem is in the
perspective of the daughter (Di Rosario). Then the path of the poem is dictated
by the what the reader chooses after each passage, by clicking on one of the
series of choices below the passage (Di Rosario).
  Low Probability of Racoons : Is a website set up by Peter Howard, a well-
known digital poet, for some of his works, some of which includes hyperlinks his
own hypertext poetry.

III. CHICK LIT / CHICK LITERATURE

It consists of heroin-centered
narratives that focus on the trials and
tribulations of their individual
protagonists. It often addresses issues
of modern womanhood – from romantic
relationships to female friendships to
matters in the workplace – in humorous
and lighthearted ways.
There are certain elements all chick lit novels have in common.
 They all feature a woman in her twenties or thirties as a protagonist
 The novels are mostly set in urban environments, most notably New York or
London.
 The protagonists are career-women
 The protagonists are often single although they usually all end up with
someone.
 Fashion often plays a big role in a chick-lit novels. The characters can either be
obsessed with it or the plot itself can be centered around fashion industry.
 The book covers often reflect this trend - they may feature articles of clothing,
martinis, parties and other symbols of a glamorous lifestyle.

III. ILLUSTRATED NOVEL

Generally, 50% of the narrative is presented without words. The reader must
interpret the images in order to comprehend the complete story. Textual portions are
presented in traditional form. Some illustrated novels may contain no text at all.
Illustrated novels span all genres.
Elements of Illustrated Novel:
1. Panel - A distinct segment of the comic, containing images and text

2. Frame - The lines and borders that contain the panels

3. Gutter - The space between framed panels
4. Bleed - An image that extends to and/or beyond the edge of page
5. Captions - Boxes containing a variety of text elements (setting, description)
6. Speech Balloon - Enclose dialogue that comes from a specific speaker's
mouth and can vary in size, shape and layout
7. External Dialogue - Dialogue between two or more characters
8. Internal dialogue - Thought enclosed by a balloon that has a series of dots or
bubbles leading up to it
9. Special-effect lettering - Lettering that draws attention to text; often highlights
onomatopoeia and impact words (wow, bang)
10. Closure - The reader's completion of meaning between panels
11. Long shot - Images that show objects fully from top to bottom
12. Extreme long shot - Images that show images or characters in a really small
scale
13. Close-Up - Images shown in a large view
14. Extreme close-up - Image shown in a very large view
15. Splash page - A panel that takes up the whole page of a comic
16. Splash panel - A panel that takes up the space of several panels in a comic
17. Palette - The colors used in a comic
18. Emanata - Text or icons that represent what is going on in the character's head
19. Spread - Two facing pages in a printed book
20. Inset - A panel contained within a larger panel
21. Speed lines - Lines that represent motion
22. Reverse - Images in the opposite position from the previous panel
23. Signs - Text labels written on objects in comics
24. Voice over - A narratory block in which a narrator or character shares special
information with the reader.
 IV.GRAPHIC NOVEL

Graphic novels use a sequence of illustrations to tell a story.

They use the same text bubble and image panel format that we find in
comics, but unlike comics which are serialized, graphic novels are
published in book format, and usually tell a stand-alone, complete
story. This again makes them different from comic books which are
usually just a bound collection of comic strips which were previously
published as a periodical serial. Graphic novels, are also very diverse
because they are a format – so they
can cover any genre and any topic.
In the past, graphic novels in any form were generally dismissed as
inferior literature – “not proper reading”! As a school librarian you may
come across teachers and parents who still feel this way about
them. At best, they regard graphic novels as something to be tolerated in the
hope that eventually their child will “move on” to more “quality literature.” But at the end of the
day reading is reading and it is a well-known fact that children who read for fun and find
pleasure in reading become lifelong readers.
In fact, graphic novels rightfully have a place alongside novels, picture books and
audiobooks as they offer a huge range of reading experiences. Their rich and complex texts
also require readers to examine, decode and combine multiple elements to acquire meaning.
Elements such as:
 linguistic (written language)
 visual (mood through colours, shading, composition etc.)
 gestural (body and facial language)
 spatial (panels, layout …)
 symbolic (icons, balloons, visual representations and emanata).
So, it may actually be argued that the reader of a graphic novel has to work much harder
than someone reading a novel! Best of all, studies have shown that readers benefit from greater
information retention because they have to decode so many different elements using multiple
literacies. This is why graphic novels are increasingly being used in classrooms, and even in
tertiary education.
In addition, graphic novels contain precise and rich language. They demand the authors
to be concise. They don’t have long paragraphs and the constraints of the page demand that
the dialogue is kept to a minimum. As with a picture book no word can be wasted, which forces
the writer to be incredibly precise with the written word. This models excellent writing and offers
rich vocabulary because every word matters. As an English teacher noted, among all the fun
and silliness of Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas, just one page featured the words ‘shun’,
‘redundancy’, ‘eschew’, ‘reiteration’ and ‘recapitulation’!
Advantages of reading graphic novels include:
 They engage those readers, particularly reluctant boys, who can read but haven’t yet
been hooked!
 Provide scaffolding for ESL students.
 Increase reading comprehension and vocabulary.
 Serve as a bridge between low and high levels of reading.
 Provide an approach to reading that embraces the multimedia nature of today’s culture
 Serve as an intermediary step to more difficult disciplines and concepts.
 Present complex material in a way that makes it easier to understand
 Develop skills such as inference and deduction which play a vital part in the reading
experience
 Develop analytical and critical thinking skills.
 Offer another avenue through which students can experience art
In summary, graphic novels are an excellent resource for use in schools. They attract
readers with their visuals and actually encourage reading because they don’t seem as daunting
as a whole book filled with words. They are generally fast paced, and the word-to-picture
correlation provides an easy way for children to expand their vocabularies. The visual elements
help early readers to decode text and derive meaning whilst the relative speed and immediate
enjoyment that the children receive when reading these books also helps build reading
confidence. More importantly, comics extend the reading for advanced readers with the
interaction of the written and visual narratives adding complex layers of meaning. Another plus:
the number of titles is expanding rapidly every year, so there’s something for every child’s
interests. Last, but not least, graphic novels positively impact on children’s visual literacy skills,
which are more essential than ever in a digital age.
Consequently, it is possible to build a graphic novel collection which challenges the good
reader whilst also supporting those less enthusiastic. This is the key strength of the graphic
novel in a school library setting. They can be acquired simply to broaden current leisure reading
material, or used to support specific areas within the curriculum. In this way graphic novels and
comics have a definite educational role.
V. TEXT TALK NOVELS
The story is through social media websites, and exchange by chat or using any.
Stories told almost completely in dialogue simulating social network exchanges.
Characteristics of a Text-talk Novel:
1. Cliff hangers are common.
2. Vowels are not written in SMS slang.
3. Plots are usually about love and passion.
4. There are times that you need to pay for the next episodes.

VI. MANGA
In Japan, Manga art is highly respected for its
ability to create distinctive characters and imaginative
stories. It is a pop culture phenomenon that has spun off
from simply art and comic stories to Anime fairs,
merchandise, and movies. The characteristics of Magna
characters have made all this possible. From the faces
and hair to the clothing, accessories, and over
exaggerated emotions, Manga is in a world all to its own.

Types of Manga
 ShÔnen- Boy’s Manga (Pronounced Show-Nen)
 ShÔjo- Girl’s Manga (Pronounced Show-Joe)
 Seinen- Men’s Manga (Pronounced Say-Nen)
 Josei- Women’s Manga (Pronounced Joe-Say)
 Kodomo- Children’s Manga (Kow-Dow-Mow)

Elements of a Manga:
1. Face
The face is the first characteristic you notice on a Manga character. With
oversized eyes, an almond-shaped face, and a very small mouth, the face stands out
over the rest of the body. With the rapid switch from distance to close-up shots, the
face is key to drawing you into the character and keeping you in the emotion of the
story.
 2. Hair
A Manga character's hair is a key characteristic, and therefore needs to be
elaborate and eye-catching. It is not uncommon for the character's hair to be long with
many lines and of an abnormal color. This is the look of traditional Japanese Magna
characters and creates a visual dynamism that separates these characters from
mainstream animation that comes out of the United States.

3. Clothing and Accessories

The way a Manga character dresses and accessorizes represent who and what
they are. For example, if the character is of a spiritual nature, then they might wear a
cloak or a piece of cloth that floats to represent the spiritual plane. This represents who
they are. For Magna warrior characters, accessories are what define the character.
Swords, spears and other weapons represent what they are. These details are
important and should not be ignored.

4. Exaggerated Emotions
Manga characters are known for their over exaggerated emotions. When a
cartoon character cries, visible tears fall from their face, but when a Magna character
cries, it rains down in buckets. Eyes reduce in size, and the mouth either reduces in
pain or expands if the character cries out. The same can be said for anger. Magna
evokes intense color in the face and steam coming off the body. Magna characters
become consumed by emotion.

VII. DIGI FICTION

Digi-fiction is a literary experience that combines three media; book, movie/video,

and Internet website. In order to get the full story, students must engage in navigation,
reading, viewing, in all three formats.

Why did digi-fiction emerge?

1. People’s attention span was becoming shorter and shorter and that it was
important to give people more options on how they consumed entertainment
and books.
 2.There has been a technological paradigm shift (from sit back media to lean
forward media).
What do we need to know?
1. It can mean that the entire book can only be found online.
2. Sometimes works include passcodes so that there will access to more information.

VIII. DOODLE FICTION

A literary presentation where the author incorporates

doodle drawings and hand written graphics in place of
traditional font. Drawings enhance the story, often
adding humorous elements that would be missing if
the illustrations were omitted.

Characteristics of a Doodle fiction:


Simple drawings that can have
concrete representational meaning or may just
be composed of random and abstract lines.
 Doodling engages the brain's “executive resources” - processes that help us
plan, multi- task and concentrate.
 It also acts as a mediator between the spectrum of thinking too much or thinking
too little and helps focus on the current situation.
Mathematicians and scientists use doodles to explain complex theories and equations.
Business people use doodles to map business plans and strategies. Across the globe,
people from all walks of life are doodling to help them communicate – to give visual
representation and meaning to their ideas and to help others.
Elements of a doodle fiction:
1. Plot – in fiction, the structure of interrelated actions, consciously selected and
arranged by the author.
2. Characters – is a person in a narrative work of art (such as a novel, play,
television series, or movie). The character can be completely fictional or based
on a real-life person.
3. Setting – the setting is both the time and geographic location within a narrative
or within a work of fiction.
 4. Person Point of View – is essentially the eyes through which a story is told. It
is the narrative voice through which readers follow the story's plot, meet its
characters, discover its setting, and enter into its relationships, emotions, and
conflicts.
5. Theme – in works of fiction, a theme is the central idea or ideas explored in the story.
6. Style – doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational
meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines, generally
without ever lifting the drawing device from the paper, in which case it is usually
called a "scribble".

IX. FLASH FICTION

Flash fiction goes by many names,
including micro-fiction, micro-stories, short-
shorts, short-short stories, very short stories,
sudden fiction, postcard fiction and nano-
fiction. While it can be difficult to pinpoint an
exact definition of flash fiction based on word
count, consideration of several of its features
can help provide clarity, like its brevity, length,
background and purpose.

What Are the Rules of Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction is the modern term given to a very short story, usually one under
500 words in length. There is no standard definition and some people argue the term
only applies to stories of less than 300 words and others say that any story under
1,000 words qualifies. Whatever the agreed length of flash fiction, it should still contain
all the elements that you would expect to find in a longer story.

Elements of Flash Fiction Explained:

 Flash fiction must have a beginning, middle and an end.
 For the story to have impact there should be some change in action or
motivation of the protagonist.
 The reader needs to feel that there is some kind of resolution by the end of the
story.
 Writing to such a tight brief is difficult. It is a different skill to that of writing a
novel. Flash fiction requires brevity.
 An author needs to convey character and plot in a succinct manner and make
every word count.
 The Essentials of Flash or Micro Fiction
1. The story is short in length. This could be as brief as 6 words, or as long as 1,000.
2. The tale must engage with a reader's emotions. Your characters must be fully
developed and not cardboard cut-outs.
3. Good fiction includes a surprise or plot twist. The ending should be unexpected
and not predictable.
4. The story should mark a change or epiphany for the main character. This could
be a physical change, or a change of mind that has lifechanging impact.

Characteristics of a flash fiction:

If you’re writing a flash fiction story, it’s important to know how they are similar—
and different—to longer stories. Flash fiction is shorter, but it should not feel too short.
Here are some traits of strong flash fiction stories.
1. Story Structure: A flash fiction story is not the shortened version of a longer
story; it still follows the elements of plot, including a beginning, middle and end,
as well as a conflict and satisfying resolution.
2. Setting: Most flash fiction stories take place in one setting, as moving between
locations uses up too much space. It allows the writer and reader to focus on
the plot.
3. Characters and Backstory: Flash fiction pieces are plot-driven and include no
more than three or four characters. They may include some character
development, but too much backstory can use valuable space.
4. Description: One may think that flash fiction stories are short on description to
save space. However, a strong piece can balance vivid descriptions with a
quick-moving plot. Stories that lack description are not satisfying to read, and a
flash fiction piece should feel complete.

XI. SIX WORD FLASH POETRY

Six-Word Stories are especially challenging
to write. They have no beginning, middle, or end,
but tell an entire story in only six words. The most
famous example of a six-word story is attributed to
Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: Baby shoes, never
worn.”
 With Hemingway’s example, the story structure manages to establish character,
conflict, and tone without direct exposition. Readers are left to their own tragic
interpretation when it comes to the words that are not present.
There are four elements that every flash fiction piece needs to have if you want
it to be good. And if you mix them just right, your flash fiction might even end up great.
1. Realistic Characters/Settings
The obvious concern in flash fiction is “how do I make my characters and
setting real in 1,000 words or less?” I have a few suggestions for you.
 Show us things about your characters/settings that make them unique. In other
words, skip the boring stuff—your readers can fill that in on their own.
 Keep your number of characters and settings low. One major or supporting
character per every 300-500 words is a good metric, and most flash fiction
stories only have one setting.
 Stick with one-character point of view if possible, or maybe two.
 Whenever possible, write dialogue that both advances the story and reveals character.
2. Solid Plot/Structure
“My story can only be 1,000 words long. Do I even need story structure?” Of
course, you do, perhaps now more than ever. A solid percentage of the stories
Splickety rejects are for one reason: nothing is happening. Adding story structure and
having a recognizable plot can help you get published instead of rejected.

Here are some ideas on how you can do that better:

 Establish a recognizable beginning, middle, and end. Your story can begin in
the middle of something, but the conflict and characters have to develop in the
middle. We also need some kind of resolution at the end, even if it’s somewhat
obscure.
 In your beginning, start with a gripping hook (just like in a novel) to pull us into
the story.
 Your end line should also pack significant punch.
 Remember: above all else, something has to happen.
3. Gripping Conflict/Tension
If you haven’t heard by now, great fiction of any length needs both conflict and tension
in order to drive the characters and the plot. There are two kinds of conflict under
which all other kinds fall: internal and external. Both are useful tools for motivating your
characters and moving the story along by creating tension.
Here’s how:
 In general, conflict means that something opposes your character.
 Internal conflict means that something within your character opposes him. Ask
him questions to figure out what it is. Is it a hidden disease? A hurt from his
past? A dark secret? Self-doubt?
 External conflict comes from outside the character, usually from one of three
sources: other characters (antagonists), the setting, or events.
 Combine the two types of conflict against your character and he’s in for a rough
ride— which means your readers can expect a compelling story.
Not all conflict in your story has to be resolved in the traditional sense. It’s okay
to let the reader wonder how things worked out as long as you plant clues that give
them an indication. If you’ve ever seen the movie Inception, you know what I mean.
4. An Excellent Editor
Yes, you need to pay your flash fiction the same respect you’d pay your novel
by ensuring that it is well-edited. Some of us are capable editors on our own, but that
doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get help here.
For example, I run a flash fiction magazine, have written six unpublished novels, and
also hawk my own services as a freelance editor. Of anyone in the world, I should be
the most likely person to not need an editor for my own flash fiction, right?
Wrong. Though I combed through my most recent flash fiction piece (set to debut in
the holiday issue of Splickety Magazine) with unparalleled obsession, I sent it to two
authors whom I trust for their review as well.
Guess what? They both found errors and places where I could improve the story.
No matter how good of a writer you think you are (or actually may be), you need to
have another set of eyes read and edit your piece before you submit it, especially if it’s
to Splickety. We even included that provision in our submission guidelines.
Here are the practical editing strategies that will help you make sure your piece is
virtually perfect:
 Remember that every word cut is to your benefit. You never know when you
may have to add more content later on.
 Utilize others: critique groups and partners, test readers, or hire a professional.
 Make sure that you follow all submission guidelines. That’s something
that publishers really want you to do.
X. SCIENCE FICTION

It is often called “sci-fi,” it is a genre of fiction

literature whose content is imaginative, but based
in science. It relies heavily on scientific facts,
theories, and principles as support for its settings,
characters, themes, and plot-lines, which is what
makes it different from fantasy.

Characteristics of a Science fiction:

1. Non-Human Characters
It's a cliché that sci-fi fiction and film are full of aliens. There's a reason that
cliché exists—it's because it's true. Aliens are among the non-human characters that
we'll find in sci- fi. But sci-fi isn't just about aliens. It's about robots, for example, or
people who are just a little bit more (or less!) than human, like Frankenstein's monster.
Sci-fi, in other words, is very much about exploring the limits of being human. What
exists beyond us regular folk living on earth? Suppose there are "extraterrestrial"
creatures. Would they be like us or would they be different from us? And what about
machines? Can't they have feelings, too? By focusing not only on human, but non-
human characters, sci-fi writers force us to consider what we even mean by the
"human."

2. Allegory
Sci-fi works may be set in fantastic locations far away from where we mere
mortals live, but that doesn't mean that they have nothing to do with us. That's
because even when sci-fi writers write about distant worlds, they're really often writing
about our own world.
Sci-fi tends to be allegorical: the best sci-fi works often have a hidden meaning,
because they work as a commentary on our own world and our own social and political
systems. These sci-fi writers are a pretty sneaky bunch. They transport us to distant
worlds only to get us thinking about the way that we live in this world.
3. Science and Technology

Maybe it's a bit of a no-brainer to say that science is a big part of science fiction.
We'll also add technology to the mix, because science and technology are big in this
genre. Hey, just because it's obvious (we hear you saying "Technology in sci-fi?!
Really, now?!") doesn't mean it's not true.
What makes sci-fi works sci-fi is the fact that their settings, their plots, their
characters, their conflicts, all center around science and technology in some sense.
After all, we wouldn't have all of those great Sci-fi works set in outer space if it weren't
for the fact that science and technology allow characters to travel to outer space in the
first place.

4. Time Travel
Often, the whole plot of a Sci-fi work is set in a distant time, usually in the future.
Sci-fi writers are obsessed with exploring times that are very different from ours. This,
again, is one of the defining characteristics of the genre. If we're reading a book where
things are taking place in the distant future, odds and good that it's a sci-fi book. And,
because it's a sci-fi book, the goods are also pretty odd.

5. Journey
We'll find lots and lots of journeys in sci-fi. People are traveling all over the
place. They might zip from galaxy to galaxy, or from time to time. If the whole universe
were your oyster, wouldn't you be jumping from one place to the next too?
So, journeys are another recurring theme in sci-fi. If we pay close attention, we'll find
that there's hardly a sci-fi text that doesn't include some kind of voyage. This is often
one of the structuring devices in works of sci-fi.

6. Dystopia
Sci-fi writers like talking about our world by pretending to talk about another world.
They're sneaky and nuanced like that.
And one of sci-fi writers’ favorite ways to do this is to depict dystopia. Some of
us may have heard the word before, but for those of us who haven't, dystopia is the
opposite of utopia. A utopian society is wonderful: people are free and happy and the
sun's shining and everything's just dandy. In a dystopia people are oppressed, they're
miserable, and everything they do is controlled by some authority.
Some of the most famous sci-fi works—like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
and George Orwell's 1984—are futuristic depictions of dystopia. Sci-fi writers love
warning us: "If we continue down this road our society will look like this in a hundred, or
a thousand years. And it ain't pretty."
7. Age of Reason
The roots of sci-fi really go back—way back—to the Age of Reason. That's
the 18th century we're talking about, when the Enlightenment changed the world as
we know it.
During this time, philosophers and scientists emphasized the use of reason
over superstition. More and more of the world was being explored and mapped, and it
was around this time that authors began writing texts speculating about the future, and
focusing their stories on scientific endeavor.

8. Advances in Science and Technology

The Scientific Revolution, which got going in the 16th century in Europe,
had a huge (like, phenomenally large) impact on our understanding of the world.
Scientists and mathematicians like Galileo and Isaac Newton made discoveries that
continue to impact us to this day (heard of calculus? Yeah, we have Newton to thank
for that).
Advances in science and technology really revved up in the late 18th/early 19th
century, and these advances made sci-fi possible as a genre. During this time, we
learned a lot—and we mean a lot—about nature. And thanks to the industrial
revolution, beginning at the end of the 18th century, technology also developed at a
very speedy pace.

9. Sci-Fi Magazines
The golden age of sci-fi coincided with an explosion of magazines that
published science fiction. In fact, some of the most popular sci-fi works were first
published in magazines that released work in serial format.

The important elements of science fiction:

1. Speculation
The speculative question "what if?" is the starting point for all science fiction.
Many scholars list Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" as one of the first science
fiction books. Shelley's book gave an answer to the question of what would happen if a
scientist, Victor Frankenstein, used electricity to reanimate a corpse. Other science
fiction stories answer questions about what would happen if first contact with aliens
occurred or if humans achieved faster-than-light space travel.
2. Science Impact

Science fiction frequently includes stories about the impact of scientific or

technological change on people. For example, H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine"
explored the consequences of building a machine that could carry its occupant far into
the future. The "Star Trek" television shows and films portray a future "Federation of
Planets" that couldn't "boldly go" anywhere without the warp drive that allows the
Enterprise to travel between the stars.
 3. Setting
Science fiction stories often take place in the future or in alternate universes. The "Star
Wars" films, for example, contain many futuristic elements, even though they feature events that
happened "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." If they are set closer to the present day,
they include scientific speculation that differs from ordinary daily life -- as in "The Running Man"
book and film, which tell the story of a cop framed for a crime he didn't commit who must survive
a deadly TV game show.
4. Related Genres
Horror is one of the most closely related genres to science fiction. Most people consider
"Frankenstein" to be both a horror and a science fiction story. Zombie stories are one of the
most popular current types of horror; some have a supernatural explanation, but others do not.
For example, the post-apocalyptic world of the television series "The Walking Dead" is the result
of a zombie virus. The "Alien" films include gruesome, horrifying alien monsters alongside less-
frightening science fiction elements such as cloning and space travel.

XI. BLOG
A blog is an online journal or informational website
displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with
the latest posts appearing first. It is a platform where a writer
or even a group of writers share their views on an individual
subject.

Blogging Sites
 WordPress
 Google Blogger
 TypePad Is
 Movable Type
 Drupal
Ten characteristics of a blog:
1. A Blog Must Always Be Dynamic
A common question about a blog is how it relates to a website – are these two
essentially the same, or are there any differences between them? While websites are
mainly presentational, blogs are always intended to engage. A website is therefore
static, as opposed to a blog that must be dynamic.
The information offered by websites is presented on static pages, in the form of an
evergreen content that doesn’t require any updates. Blog posts, on the other hand, are
like diary entries; they include a publishing date and meta tags. New entries and
regular updates are key to running any kind of blog.

2. Posts Are Displayed in Reverse Order

Unlike with a personal diary written in a notebook, blog entries are displayed in
reverse chronological order – the newest posts being on top. The latest ones push
previously published ones down the list until they completely disappear from the
landing page. Older posts are usually archived on the following pages, but they can
also be organized by the month or year when they were first published.

3. Most Blogs Have the Same Structure

First comes a header with the menu or navigation bar to declutter the page and
make a great first impression. It’s followed up by the main content area on which blog
posts appear either by order of publishing or by relevance. Down below are contact
pages, privacy policies, and relevant links, neatly arranged in a footer. A sidebar
highlights favorite entries and displays social profiles and call-to-actions.

4. The Blog’s Leading Star Is Its Content

Different blogs publish different types of posts, though a majority of them relies on
the power of the written word. Depending on the author’s intention, an article is
typically an opinion piece, an instructional guide, or a news post. Monotonous chunks
of text are separated with images or videos.
 A blog post can also be a picture with little or no text. It’s a common trend in fashion
and travel blogs, though it’s also not rare for business-related niches to publish
infographics instead of instructional articles. But regardless of the medium, a blog is
always defined by the quality of its published content.
5. Headlines Should Be Attention Grabbers
Naming a blog post is an art by itself. There’s a whole philosophy behind writing
article headlines – a compelling one can truly silence the noise, instantly generating
clicks, driving traffic, and enticing a reader to read on. Nowhere in the online universe
are titles given the same kind of attention as here.

6. One Rule Applies to All Blogs: Relevancy

Though every engaging content must be relevant, this rule especially applies to
blogs posts. They might differ in types, mediums, formats, and styles; in order to
arouse interest or evoke debate, they have to be original and unique; but to be read at
all, blog posts must always deliver upon their promise.

7. Blogs and Links Go Hand in Hand

As a promotional strategy, link building is not limited to blog posts, but it definitely is
a characteristic that all decent blogs share. Blogs and links go hand in hand even
when marketing isn’t the goal. Internal linking, for instance, ensures intuitive navigation
between mutually relevant posts, thus providing an exceptional reading experience. It’s
about the flow and facilitation of knowledge transfer.

8. A Blog Is Founded on Personal Touch

The word “blog” derives from an earlier version “weblog”, which initially referred to
personal online journals. Before blogs became political in the early 2000s, they were
merely means to make private thoughts and opinions public. The personal touch,
however, remains their vital characteristic to date.
Even with today’s universal topics, the recommended interpretative approach is the
one that implies uniqueness. If the subject matter requires utmost objectivity, the
personal touch is accomplished through an individualistic writing style. Every blog
author has an “About Me” page and a distinct signature mark.
 9. Posts Should Always Encourage Debate

The comment section is another mutual characteristic of respectable blogs. It’s typically
located at the end of every post, as a place for readers to engage in a conversation and leave
their honest feedback. The ability to provoke a response and encourage interaction is held in
the highest regard by all readers.
10. All Blogs Are About Communication
With or without open debate, communication is still the end purpose of each and every blog
post. If the blog is promotional, its goal is to attract the audience and open a dialogue that will
hopefully convince them to buy what the owner is selling. If not about sales, then it’s about
spreading the word.
Whether it imparts knowledge, provides solutions, or simply entertains, blogging is a brilliant
way of reaching out and communicating with the world. Without any question at all, such a
transformative power of free expression and exchange is the single most important
characteristic of any terrific blog.

Characteristics of a quality blog post

Every blog post requires time and effort. The time spent on creating quality posts
translates directly into more clicks and higher site traffic, making the investment worth it.
There are many things that can influence the quality of your blog posts, and it all mostly
depends on your niche, style, and audience. However, no matter how diverse the blog posts
are, there are still a few things that everyone should pay close attention to if they want to leave
an overall good impression on their readers.

1. Thought-out Design
We’ve already touched upon the topic of monotonous chunks of text and how undesirable
they are in blog posts. The reason behind this being how quickly your readers make a judgment
about your post. You have just about 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression.
Blocks of text are often overwhelming, and if the readers cannot scan through the text with
ease, they’ll move on from your site. So, make sure to use short paragraphs, break up the text
with some interesting visuals such as images, GIFs, videos, infographics, etc.

2. Perfect Length
One of the most common questions about blog posts is how long they should be. The
simplest answer is long enough.
Most would believe that because of the shorter attention span of readers, the posts
themselves should be shorter.
 The fact of the matter is that as long as your post is informative and as long as it
answers your audience’s questions, it doesn’t matter how long it is.
If you have a 500-word limit but have much more to say on the topic, go right
ahead. On the other hand, don’t spread out 500 words worth of content to 3000 words.
The focus should be on the quality of the content. As long as the blog post offers
value to the reader, its length is unimportant.

3. Original Content
Regardless of the niche you choose for your blog, it’s more than likely that
someone has covered the topic before. Everything’s already been said and done, but
this doesn’t mean you should just copy-paste the content.
Primarily, to stand out from the crowd, you need to offer a new approach to the
covered topics. This can be done with your tone of voice, style of writing, or point of
view.
Going back to that “personal touch”, if you’ve chosen a niche that you’re passionate
about, offering your own unique approach to it shouldn’t be difficult.

4. Great Research
Every high-quality blog post requires time and effort invested in the research. The
more you devote yourself to the research, the easier it becomes to write the post.
Primarily, this will give you insight into other’s opinions on the topic, you’ll dive
deeper into it, making it easier to form your own unique approach to it.
Secondly, the easiest way to lose readers is by being unreliable. Every claim should be
backed up by evidence, so links and citations from credible sources are essential.
LESSON 9: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN EMERGING LITERATURE

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Examine the characteristics of new emerging genres of new literature; and;
b. Discuss issues and challenges in emerging literature.

Before discussing the emerging trends in English literature, it is a must to

understand the meaning of literature. Literature is the mirror of society. In C.S. Lewis‟
words “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the
necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it
irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” In a simpler way, literature is
what we see, feel, observe, and then penned down through different genres like
poetry, novel, short story, essay or drama. J. Long beautifully states “Behind every
book is a man; behind the man is the race; and behind the race are the natural and
social environments whose influence is consciously reflected.”
Each age has its own characteristics revealing that particular period and its literature:
1. The Renaissance Age (1500-1660) is known for the origin of intellectual liberty,
of growing intelligence and comfort among all classes; in Long’s words.
2. The Eighteenth-century literature, known as Neo-Classic Age (1660-1798)
also, demanded that poetry should follow exact rules; and proposed to have
discovered its rules in the classics of Horace and Virgil and Ovid.
3. The Age of Romanticism (1785-1830) verbalized love for Nature in different
ways like Wordsworth showing divine element in nature; S.T. Coleridge pen-
portraying supernaturalism; Lord Byron ferociousness; Keats presenting
sensuous beauty and Shelley abstract ideas.
4. Victorian Age (1837-1901) is an era of transition. In the later part of the
nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century, the growth of
industrialization, urbanization and the advent of the First World War brought the
loss of faith in the traditional values and morals, and caused the colossal
wastage of human lives. A time period marked by peace, progress, sensibility
on one hand and massacre of spiritual and religious feelings on the other.
Materialism and scientific attitude brutally murdered human faith in God.
It is difficult to define one typical characteristic of 20th and 21st century. This age is
full of experimentation and it is discussed in different genres. The literary canon of 20th
and 21st century foregrounds an aesthetic shift which is more transitional;
experimental, more anxious, more liberal and self-interrogating too.
 In pre-world war era, mostly writers remained loyal to the trends of Victorian age.
Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) led the world towards mourning over the loss of God.
But a change could be noticed with H.G. Well’s Utopian Study of A Modern Utopia that
captured optimistic mood and gave an expression that science and technology would
transform the world.
Meanwhile, Aesthetic Movement gained popularity due to its being in favor of
Catholicism and mysticism. Aesthetes believed in the idea that the art is useless if it is
in commitment with the ideas of morality and standard of conduct. For them “art for
art’s sake” has been the motto of the movement. Oscar Wilde is considered to be the
mentor of the movement and he believed that the motive of art is to provide sensual
pleasure only. His plays The Importance of Being Earnest, A Woman of No
Importance, and An Ideal Husband are some applauded examples of aestheticism.
W.B. Yeats‟ prose “The Secret Rose” (1897), “The Tables of the Law”; poems “The
Rose”, “Crossways” are some of the finest examples.
As a result of all this, Post-world war literature faced constant changes in literary
trends. No particular school of thought or movement ruled 20th and 21st century.
Some literary artisans believed in imitation while others did translation of classics and
regional literature. Ted Hughes translated Ovid’s Aeschylus and Euripides‟ works.
Christopher Fry’s translated works enhanced their already considerable reputation.
Works of Munsi Prem Chand, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Mahasweta Devi have been
translated into English and other languages too.
Another trend in 20th and 21st century is Modernism which has its origin in the
early 20th century. Modernists explored and experimented with literary form and
expression. They adhered to Ezra Pound’s maxim “to make it new.” It was the outcome
of drastic efforts to change traditional representation styles into new ways of
expressing sensibilities of the time. Some prominent writers and poets of this
movement are Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf. Pound’s poems
“Cathay”, “Umbra”, “Lustra” and “Canto”; Woolf’s novels Mrs. Dalloway, To The
Lighthouse and The Waves are examples of modernist experiment.
Modernism has arisen from two movements: “symbolism‟ and “imagism‟ which
highly affected the poetic creation of the time. Symbolism is a reaction against
naturalism and realism. Imagism finds its roots in the aesthetic philosophy of T.E.
Hulme. The poets believed in utilizing common speech; in creating new rhythms and
moods; infinite choice of subject matter; excessive use of symbols and images; yet
providing clarity in style. Charles Baudelaire’s poetry volume Les Fleurs Du Mal marks
the beginning of symbolism. Amy Lowell is an American Imagist who promoted the
works of imagists in England. Ezra Pound is renowned name in Imagism and he
published an anthology under the title Des Imagists to promote the works of the
imagists. All of the modernists worked very hard to free themselves from the shackles
of traditional monopoly of writing form and content.
Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx are the two who questioned human rationality
leading to a change in dealing of characters. Instead of dealing with characters as
action figures, modernist writers started handling them as someone with thought and
soul. This gave birth to another trend of Psycho-analysis.
 It gave a real life to the characters in novel and drama. James Joyce is the first
writer to fully understand the importance of a character’s insight. In his novels Ulysses
and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he introduced his characters with
monologues. Virginia Woolf coined “Stream-of-Consciousness” to let the readers have
a look in the psyche of her characters. This term denotes an endless flow of
consciousness and it means that consciousness includes the entire area of mind from
illogical, pre-conscious and pre-speech level to rational and conscious speech level,
including thoughts, memories, associations and reflections. There are many other
terms linked with the stream of consciousness novel like “interior monologues”,
“stream of thoughts”, all denoting that the subject matter of this kind of novel is the
inner psyche of man.
“Stream-of-consciousness‟ technique in a novel is better known as expressionistic
technique in drama; Arthur Miller employs this technique with perfection in plays like
Death of a Salesman (1949). Jean Paul Sartre also focused on the value of a
character as an individual and made existentialism a famous movement of the time.
They fought for the existence of human being as an individual; as a free person in
literary work. The one who is responsible for his own actions. They believed that an
individual is responsible for his life as he acts and reacts according to his own free will
and this determines his nature and directs his life. Concept of existentialism is fully
employed by Fyodor Dostoevsky in his novel Crime and Punishment and by Franz
Kafka in his novel The Trial.
When philosophers talk about the value of individual, then Feminist writers restate
gender in association with other categories such as race and class. These writers use
literature as a strong medium to fight for the rights of women and especially of women
writers. Toril Moi through her book Sexual/Textual Politics and What is a Woman?
fought for equal rights and understanding for women. Helene Cixous’ text The Laugh
of the Medusa warns readers, especially women, either to read it fully or remain
trapped in the language barriers created by men. Julia Kristeva and Simon de
Beauvoir also raised their voices to fight for women and their rights through the podium
of literature.
Post-colonial Literature outshined the International arena of fight for the rights of
“Third- World‟. Emergence of the writers or poets or playwrights from “Black or Dark
continent‟ or “Orients‟ stunned the English literary world. Aboriginals from different
colonies throughout the world came up with themes and plots unveiling the brutal
deeds committed under the mask of “Christian Burden”. Not only local artists like
Chinua Achebe in his novel Things Fall Apart or Wole Soyinka in his play Lion and the
Jewel but also white writers like Joseph Conrad in his novella Heart of Darkness
reflected their strong unhappiness towards Imperial government’s hypocrisy. Many
British writers believed that it is the responsibility of ruling government to look after the
people being ruled.
 With emergence of artists from once-colonized countries, a new trend emerged too, w
i.e. use of vernacular and colloquial language in English literature. Writers like Mulk a
Raj Anand in his novels Untouchable and Gauri; Chinua Achebe in the novel Things y
Fall Apart; Bapsi Sidhwa in her novel Ice Candy Man; Kamala Markandya in her novels o
Nectar in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice have devised regional languages like Hindi, f
Punjabi, Parsi etc. with standardized English. The major reason has been the dire w
need of introducing the First Nations with the Idea that the nations once being ruled, ri
are not at all without literature and culture. Also, to show them how they mistreat ti
people with different skin color and race in their countries. V.S. Naipaul’s A House for n
Mr. Biswas and Saul Bellow’s “The Victim” are the novels that portrayed the struggle of g
migrants in foreign lands: how alienated and isolated they feel, how they long for the w
feeling of belongingness and how indifferently they are treated. h
e
This indifference is a part of all the countries. People not only misbehave with
r
outsiders but with insiders as well. Dalit literature is the outcome of such ill-treatment.
e
The so called “twice- borns‟ always misbehaved with Dalits or harijans or
t
untouchables. Unfortunately, India has been a fertile ground for such discrimination
h
since ages. Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable gives a detailed account of it. A boy with
e
calibre of becoming an officer remains a sweeper because of his low birth. Omprakash
p
Valmiki’s Joothan, Narendra Jadhav’s Untouchables and Baby Kemble’s The Prisons
r
We Broke have emerged as popular texts depicting issues of racial segregation and
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injustice.
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In Realist Movement, authors attempted to represent familiar things as they were. a
They chose to reflect every day and banal activities and experiences instead of using a g
romantic story line with exaggeration. Muriel Spark combined satirical realism with o
implications of an extra- realist and spiritual dimension in her novels like Robinson, n
The Bachelors etc. Samuel Clemens better known as „Mark Twain‟ also was equipped i
with realism in his works as in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. s
t
G.B. Shaw, Arthur Miller, Sean O’Casey, E.M. Forster etc. gave accounts of their i
time’s social, political and economic issues. G.B. Shaw in his plays Saint Joan, The s
Apple Cart underlined the satire on the political reality of Britain from time to time. p
Arthur Miller through his dramas All My Sons and Death of a Salesman pointed out r
economic and social failures in the times of American economic depression. Sean O‟ o
Casey’s play Juno and the Paycock also presents the failure of society in Ireland to j
provide social security to a family during war. Marxist movement began in early 20th e
century with Karl Marx’s idea of utopian world; a classless society. Many writers after c
Industrialization felt the requirement of a society without class-struggle and clashes. t
John Galsworthy in his work Strife dealt with the conflict between proletariat and e
capitalists. W.H. Auden was also a believer of communism in his early days and he d
projected this through plays like The Dog Beneath the Skin and On the Frontier. a
Stephen Spender also participated in communist flow but for a very short span of time. s
Science fiction is a trend which is the outcome of totally opposite realms i.e. facts a
and imagination. H.G. Wells is one of the renowned fiction writers. He remained n
fascinated by the prospects that science offered to man. His fantasies The Time „
Machine and The Invisible Man show his interest in technology which attracted him to a
write the science fiction. Kitchen Sink Drama is a product of 20th century theatre. It’s a n
gry young man‟.
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be the first play to present the angry young man of contemporary drama. Shelagh
Delaney’s play A Taste of Honey is another great example of such theatre. Comedy of
Menace is a unique trend in which playwrights focused on providing fun out of painful
and tense situation. Harold Pinter’s play The Birthday Party is a fine example where
humor has been created out of terror.
David Campton, Nigel Dennis and N.F. Simpson are some authors producing comedy
from horror.
Another style of play writing is “Theatre of the Absurd‟ where the action and
reaction in the plot fails to deliver any proper meaning. Samuel Becketts play Waiting
for Godot projects this theatre as no one knows anything about Godot: who he is, why
others have been waiting for him, why he has failed to come, etc.
Moral Degradation, sexuality and homosexuality are openly discussed by authors in
20th and 21st century. They have boldness in dealing with these topics. D.H.
Lawrence skillfully deals with mother-son relationship or Oedipus complex in his novel
Sons and Lovers. T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland is a sermon on degrading system of
moral and spiritual values. Tennessee Williams‟ play A street Car Named Desire
focuses on sexual urges. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies deals with moral
corruption of the society portrayed through kids. Literary artists have become quite
bold and liberal in dealing with hetro as well as homosexuality.
After medievalism, in 21st century magic and mythology are again trending. J.K.
Rowling’s series Harry Potter novels, C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Dan
Brown’s Novels The Da Vinci Code, Inferno, Angles and Demons are a few examples
of use of mythology in modern literature.
Pop or popular fiction is plot-driven work written with the intention of fitting into
currently famous literary sub-genre. It is created in order to attract majority of
audiences or readers already familiar with the genre. It is also known as Genre fiction.
Famous novelist Chetan Bhagat is a pop-fiction writer. His works are 2 States: The
story of Marriage, Half Girlfriend etc. The focus remains on becoming best seller and
for that the story could be taken to any level.
Digital or Cyber literature is the latest trend in which works of creation are
exclusively on and for digital devices. In this trend of literature, the writer relies on
cyber medium like website, blogs or social media pages. Pry is a novella from
collaboration of Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman also known as Tender
Claws. Jason Nelson is another digital poet and net-artist. Michael Joyce’s 12 Blue
and Jim Andrew’s Stir Fry Texts are some more examples of digital literature.
Multiple trends have emerged and are emerging in 21st century. Some are like
adaptations of traditional movements and techniques while others are the outcome of
science and technology. Hence, these ages depict modern literature through
social/political/religious milieus with different genres of poetry, novel and drama.
 LESSON 10: THE INTERRELATIONSHIP OF CONTEMPORARY,
POPULAR AND EMERGENT LITERATURE

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Discuss the relationship among contemporary, popular and emergent literature;
and
b. Analyze the interconnectedness among literatures like contemporary, popular
and emergent literature.

The Contemporary Literature (1940s – 1960s)

Contemporary literature is a vast group of written works produced from a
specific time in history through the current age. This literary era defines a time period,
but it also describes a particular style and quality of writing. Some see this
period as an extension of postmodern literature, but most refer to it as a literary
era of its own.
A few scholars claim this period started at the end of World War II, and this is
where the era's pairing with postmodern literature comes in. The postmodern era
began after WWII, in the 1940s, and lasted through the 1960s. The contemporary
period extends to the current day.
Although there are a few disagreements about the beginning of this literary
period, the biggest dispute surrounds what qualifies a written work as literature. The
word refers to both poetry and prose, where prose includes works of fiction such as
novels and novellas, essays, and dramatic works. This term also refers to the quality of
writing. In order to be considered literature, a written work must uphold the highest
writing standards and contain a particular beauty and style. Many literary works
become socially relevant and have the power to influence the public.
Much of contemporary literature comes from Western authors; however, the
term is not synonymous with English or American literature, and this literary period can
apply to written works from anywhere in the world. In fact, globalization opened the
door to include contemporary works written by many literary figures in the Middle East,
Africa, and Asia.
Genres included in this literary period span a variety of writing forms in addition
to novels and poetry. Flash fiction, short stories, slam poetry, plays, memoirs, and
autobiographies can all be included in this category. Nonfiction is usually not classified
as literature, but this era sometimes includes works of creative nonfiction, which tell a
true story using literary techniques.

T
Typical characteristics of the contemporary period include reality-based stories with
strong characters and a believable story. Settings usually keep to the current or modern
era, so futuristic and science fiction novels are rarely included in this category. Well-
defined, realistic, and highly developed characters are important in classifying a written
work as contemporary, and most writing in this category features stories that are more
character driven than plot driven.

Contemporary literature features a somewhat modern narrative, but it also contains a

harsher reality. Contemporary written works tend to be influenced by the prosperous
lifestyle that followed WWII, but this literary class is rooted in the devastation that war
brought to the world. A new reality blossomed in the post-war mind, and it included a
personal cynicism, disillusionment, and frustration that is common to this literary
period.

The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and

is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden
is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story,
but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a
mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take
place in the few days between the end of the fall school term
and Christmas, when Holden is sixteen years old.

Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the
major American novelists of his—or any other—generation. Its hero is Harry
“Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse
desert his wife and son. He is twenty-six years old, a man-child caught in a
struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification
and family duty—even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness and divine
Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to
the faith that he is on the right path, an invisible line toward his own salvation
as straight as a ruler’s edge.
 Beloved, novel by Toni Morrison, published in
1987. The work examines the destructive legacy of slavery
as it chronicles the life of a Black woman named Sethe,
from her pre- Civil War days as a slave in Kentucky to her
time in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1873. Although Sethe lives
there as a free woman, she is held prisoner by memories
of the trauma of her life as a slave.

The Popular Literature (19th – 20th Century)

Most of us have spent at least one delightful and lazy day reading at the beach
or at the park, in a hammock at home or at a mountain camp site. Usually, the books
we choose for such a delicious interlude are ones that have a vivid and exciting plot,
lots of sensory imagery, and one or two engaging characters. We refer to these books
casually as Beach Reading or Escape Reading - and sometimes we even say "junk"
reading. But book lovers of all stripes (from those who love the literary to those who
never venture beyond the dime novel) will often have favorites among the more
"popular" books. Sometimes, even, very difficult and sophisticated literary books are
found in Beach Bags and on Lounge Chairs!
Jane Austen was, and continues to be a widely-read author. *Pride and
Prejudice* has been read by many, many people. Despite its universal appeal, this
book is considered "literary" and is not counted as a piece of "Popular Fiction."
Contrast that with Mary Shelley's Monster. One of the most "popular" books of
all time in terms of overall readership, movie adaptation, and general icon recognition
is Mary Shelley's
*Frankenstein.* It is considered "Popular Fiction." And yet, Shelley was a serious
writer, and this story is an acknowledged literary masterpiece in many ways. (We will
be reading this great book in our class!)
On the other hand, Marie Belloc Lowndes' *The Lodger* (another text we will be
reading) was a raving success in late Victorian times but is less well known today -
even though the subject matter, Jack the Ripper, continues to inspire retellings!
I use these three examples to illustrate that "popular" fiction does not
necessarily mean "junk" fiction or badly written prose! On the contrary! Much of the
literature that we have loved over the years is truly fine fiction and contains excellent
writing.
Of course, there arethousands of pieces of fiction that were once popular that don't
hold up so well - and may have been rather indifferently written, as well. The sheer
volume of the fiction that has been published in the last 200 years leads us,
sometimes, to assume that if a work was enormously popular, it had to necessarily be
inferior, too. In this class, I will argue that key pieces of "popular" fiction are still both
fun to read and important to literary study!
So how, then, you might ask, DO we distinguish between real "literary" fiction
and "popular" fiction, if some of the popular ones are also important literature? We
can't, really; to a large extent there are overlaps and special cases and so forth in
these classifications.
But in general terms, we can always include in Popular Fiction works that can
be categorized as "Genre" works. [You will note that our study curriculum is organized
by genre.] If a novel fits the criteria of Horror, Crime, Detective, Romance, Western,
Science Fiction, or Fantasy, then we usually can include it in Popular Fiction (even if it
also has all the traits of Literary Fiction). Beyond the large-scale genres that we easily
recognize, publishers also define genre books by very specific sub-genres. British
novels, for instance, in which we never see the murder are called "Tea Cozy Crime
Novels"

WHEN DOES POPULAR FICTION BEGIN?

The formal, publishing category of "Popular Fiction" begins in the 19th Century -
a time when wider literacy and cheaper printing make books available to middle-and-
lower-class readers. But, if we just look at the phenomena of popular stories, genre
literature goes back to the earliest folk tales and continues in privately-circulated
manuscripts throughout history. We think of "Tarzan" as being a creature of the 20th
Century - a "popular" hero. Still and all, the concept of the "wild man of the forest"
shows up in tales from our earliest beginnings. Enkidu, the friend of Gilgamesh (in the
epic tale of Gilgamesh), was a rough and wild outsider, raised in the forest. The oldest
surviving manuscripts that tell this story are from a couple of eons ago, but we know
they came originally from ancient Sumerian times - 3000 BC or thereabouts! (This epic
also includes an account of "The Flood" - another popular tale!)
So we do know that stories which engage the attention of many people over
time have always existed and continue to inspire popular literature. We have always
been fascinated with Romances, with Adventures, with Ghosts and Monsters and
Crimes. However, once the "book" became a part of entertainment options for the
masses, though, we had a flowering of new stories and themes. Some of these themes
(the Science Fiction aspects of *Frankenstein*, for example) would not have been
possible in the world before 1800. The same is true of the Cowboy/Western genre. It
was the rather new and unexplored territory of American expansion that gave rise to
the legends and novels about cowpunchers.
And, after 1900, when American Literature came to be appreciated and
American writers challenged the dominance of British writers in English, the
categories, and the differences between "literature" and "dime fiction" became
muddier. Also, after 1900, a wider readership and better distribution of books
encouraged the recognition of even more new movements, genres, and writers.
Jack the Ripper in the London Fog
Infamous murderer Jack the Ripper
killed at least five London female prostitutes in
1888. Never captured, his identity is one of
English's most famous unsolved mysteries.

The Great Gatsby is a story about the impossibility of recapturing the past and
also the difficulty of altering one’s future

To Kill a Mockingbird, novel by Harper Lee,

published in 1960. Enormously popular, it was translated into
some 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies
worldwide. In 1961 it won a Pulitzer Prize. The novel was
praised for its sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to
racism and prejudice in
the American South.

The Emergent Literature (21st century – present)

In the modern parlance, the term is associated with its academic context,
referring to the enduring works of fiction, philosophy, history, etc. that have been
studied for generations and shaped the foundations of our thought. Yet literature by its
definition includes any and all written works, a fact that has never been more relevant
than in our current Internet age, when the written word is more accessible and
democratic than ever before.
The “death of print” has been much heralded over the past decade,
precipitated by the rising accessibility of devices like tablets and smartphones that
have made the electronic medium cheaper and more universal. Book sales, as well
as magazine and newspaper subscriptions, have diminished, but our appetite for
information has grown larger and more impetuous.
 Major journalistic sources, which have always thrived off a mixture of
concision and theatrics, have adapted to this shift. Twitter has created something of
its own literary form, offering the use of hash tags to help convey a message within
160 characters. Blogs have afforded both individual writers and organizations,
established or not, the opportunity of free publication. The hyper-textual nature of the
Internet, aided by now ubiquitous social media, helps keep discussion flowing both
around the world and around the clock. Online forums, which once belonged to a
niche of dedicated computer enthusiasts, have been incorporated by most major
news sites.
More “traditional” forms of literature, including novels, plays, and poetry, have
been less successful in conforming to new technology. Various forms of “electronic
literature,” including hypertext (interactive fiction), animated poetry, and even SMS
(text-message) fiction have grown yet still exist within a small niche.
The dynamics commanded by the continuous change of technological
progress, the incredible rate of advancement and the rapid shift of values which run
pari passu with it, have kinesis as their key characteristic: a circulation of
information and people where almost everything is dissolvable and dispensable.
But we have lost the optimism of the unifying potential of this kinesis. It has altered
any notions of romanticism. Such a literary exercise is seen most in how authors have
dealt with a post-9/11 world. Terrorism, clash and binding factors between civilizations
or populist and cheap criticism have dominated these early years of the 21 st century.
Science fiction, therefore, has been rising in all its glory. This is because the
dialectic between the world and the materiality of language which “describes” it
centers its attention on the multiple fragmentation of a cultural “I”. The actant and his
metamorphoses, in parallel with technological advancement, become a decanted
discourse. It fights against its obsolescence by swapping our economic and social
fabric with the unfamiliar. This destiny has actually been weaved since the 1950s.
The rise of science fiction is not disconnected from what the Theatre of the
Absurd had already implemented. Entangled between the boundaries of modernism
and post-modernism, Camus’s concept of Absurd, Beckett and Ionesco, among
others, depart from the promises of a better man, his axiomatic language, and run
through existential discourses on his failure and consequent world view. Kerouac’s
“Beat Generation”, along with William S. Burroughs, dealt precisely with the roots of
this fragmentation.
The internet has made it possible for students to take these non-traditional
texts as revisit them so that they may analyze them. We are transcending the
limitations of print-based texts into this incredible realm of possibility through
advancing technology.
Therefore, although literature has to change with society, authors are still
trying to address immutable human questions in new ways and reconcile them with
the ever-changing technology that surrounds us.
Tribulation of a Cashier by Anna Sam
Tribulations of a Cashier is a sociological study of the
grocery store world from the viewpoint of the checkout
girl. In a kind of supermarket Cinderella story, a cashier in
France has become a literary sensation. Anna Sam has
turned her ungratifying job into a humorous memoir. Now,
her book has been translated into 16 languages and
turned the 29-year-old into the author she has always
wanted to be.

Indie film Spork, about a female-identified

intersexed person trying to deal with mean girls
in junior high, isn't just a smart comedy with
posthuman overtones. It represents the birth of a
new subgenre: Bitpunk.

Brandon J. Mendelson, author of The

Falcon Can Hear The Falconer
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