THE MAJOR GENRES OF LITERATURE The common definition of literature, particularly for university courses, is that it covers the

e major genres of poetry, drama, and novel/fiction.

Literature

Prose

Poetry

Drama

Prose is the ordinary form of written language. It imitates the spoken language. FICTION Short Stories Fairy Tales Folk Tales Novels Poems NON-FICTION Personal Narrative Letters Memoirs Short Stories Reports

Poetry is language written with rhythm, figurative language, imagery, sound devices and emotionally charged language. Major Types of Poetry Lyric Poetry: Lyric poem is a highly musical verse that expresses the observation and feelings of a single speaker. Narrative Poetry:Narrative Poem is a story told in verse. Narrative poems often have all the elements of short stories, including characters, conflict, and plot. Concrete Poetry : Concrete Poem is one with a shape that suggests its subject. The poet arranges the letters, punctuation, and lines to create an image or picture, on the page. Drama is a story written to be performed by actors. Although a drama is meant to be performed, one can also read the script, or written version, and imagine the action. 3 main approaches: relativism, subjectivism and agnosticism. Relativism: there are no value distinctions in literature; anything may be called good literature. Subjectivism: all theories of literary value are subjective, and that literary evaluation is a purely personal matter.

Agnosticism: follows from subjectivism, argues that though there may be real distinctions in literary value, our subjective value systems prevent us from knowing anything about the real values Formal Elements of Fiction Setting: social + historical background, times, places Plot: rising actions, climax, falling actions, ending Characters: role, appearance, personality, language, behavior Themes: universal & personal lessons Symbols: things, objects, people, places. Point of view: 1st, 3rd persons

THE GREAT DEPRESSION The Great Depression: 1920 1940 Began in 1929: the most dramatic upheavals in its history, the worst economic crisis Caused a major worldwide depression The presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: long, slow recovery process began A great success

THE MAIN SCHOOLS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE Realism Naturalism Modernism Harlem Renaissance

Realism: 1850 1914 (Mark Twain) The faithful representation of reality / verisimilitude Moral and social maturation (rags to riches) Societys hypocrisy Freedom through social exclusion Superstition in an uncertain world The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Naturalism: Jack London

Context: form the days of the gold-rush westward movement Men and nature wrestled for predominance (endurance, physical strength, courage) Love of Life, The Call of the Wild, Sea-wolf, The Iron Heel, Martin Eden, The White Silence

Modernism: Earnest Hemingway Stylistic innovations disruption of traditional syntax and form Self-consciousness about questions for and structure Obsession with primitive material attitudes International perspective on cultural matters The Old Man and the Sea

The Harlem Renaissance (1920 1930): Langston Hughes Outburst of creative activity among black Americans The notion of twoness The Back to Africa Harlem a Dream Deferred, The Morning After, Sylvesters Dying Bed

OLD ENGLISH/ ANGO-SAXON PERIOD (449-1066) The marking (450-1066) Poetry, oral Lit., Religious: The Epic Poem of Beowulf History: Native British: clans/tribes Invaded by: Angles (Germanic people from Angeln, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), Saxons (Germanic tribes from North German plain), Jutes (one of the three most powerful Germanic peoples-Jutland peninsula on modern Denmark & Germany), Danes (Denmark) Agricultural development

Fate, church vs. pagan world, admiration of heroic warriors, religious faith & moral instruction Oral tradition, poetry, ancient verse form Christianity's spread of literacy, introduction of Roman alphabet, unity of diverse peoples

Key Authors Beowulf The Venerable Bede Exeter Book CHARACTER Character refers to a textual representation of a human being (or occasionally another creature). Most fiction writers agree that character development is the key element in a story's creation, and in most pieces of fiction a close identification with the characters is crucial to understanding the story. protagonist: A storys main character (see also antagonist) antagonist: The character or force in conflict with the protagonist Examples of protagonist and antagonist in Vietnamese literature and foreign literature

POINT OF VIEW Point of view in fiction refers to the source and scope of the narrative voice. The first-person point of view is usually identified by the use of the pronoun "I," a character in the story does the narration.

E.g..: the point of view in Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" becomes evident when the protagonist responds, "I don't sing benna at all on Sundays, and never in Sunday school." Third-person point of view occurs when the narrator does not take part in the story.

E.g..: "I don't sing benna at all on Sundays" might become, in the third person, "She never sings benna on Sundays." In third-person limited, sometimes called third-person sympathetic, the narrative voice can relate what is in the minds of only a select few characters (often only one, the point-of-view character). (vs. third-person objective) Second-person point of view (not popular): making the reader a part of the story

THEMES Theme is the meaning or concept we are left with after reading a piece of fiction. Theme is an answer to the question, "What did you learn from this?" In some cases a story's theme is a prominent element and somewhat unmistakable.

e.g. Man Struggles Against Nature: Man Struggles Against Societal Pressure

Man Struggles to Understand Divinity Crime Does Not Pay. Overcoming Adversity Friendship is Dependant on Sacrifice The Importance of Family Yin and Yang Love is the Worthiest of Pursuits Death is Part of the Life Cycle Sacrifices Bring Reward Human Beings All Have the Same Needs QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN READING A POEM FOR AN ANALYSIS Poems are: Basically riddles. Enduring word games. The plain sense behind figurative writing Readers: answer a riddle Poets: play sense against sense Questions to Ask When Reading a Poem for an Analysis 1. Who is speaking? 2. What type of person is the speaker? 3. What is the speakers mood? 4. Of whom or what is he or she speaking? 5. How is the speaker describing this person or object? 6. What attitudes are being projected? 7. Are you inclined to sympathize with the attitudes and emotions of the speaker or to resist or even rebel against them? 8. Is the speaker being ironic? 9. Are certain objects, people, or even the speaker symbolic? If so, of what are they symbolic?

10. Are certain words or lines repeated? If so, what is the significance of this repetition? PATTERN OF RHYTHM Verse Form Meter: a line of poetry with regular and equal units of rhythm (iambic) Types of meter: the Foot, Foot-ing, on the Foot, Foot falling, In Sensed, be-gin Units of Rhythm: monometer (strength, brevity, isolation), dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter