TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT
OF LITERATURE STUDIES
Overview on the nature of literature and its genre
Literature
Literature is a body of written works. The name has
traditionally been applied to those imaginative works
of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of
their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence
of their execution. Literature may be classified
according to a variety of systems, including
language, national origin, historical period, genre,
and subject matter.
Definitions of Literature
“Writings having excellence of form or
expression and expressing ideas of
permanent or universal interest.”
-Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary-
Definitions of Literature
“The matter of imaginative or artistic
literature” as a “transcript, not of mere fact,
but of fact in its infinitely varied forms.”
-19th Century critic- Walter Pater-
Definitions of Literature
“Writings having excellence of form or
expression and expressing ideas of
permanent or universal interest.”
-Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary-
Definitions of Literature
Deriving from the Latin littera, “a letter of
the alphabet,”
literature is first and foremost humankind’s entire body of writing;
after that it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or people;
then it is individual pieces of writing.
-https://www.britannica.com/art/
literature-
Definitions of Literature
As an art,
literature might be described as the organization of
words to give pleasure.
-https://www.britannica.com/art/literature-
What is literature for?
Literature may be considered a vehicle for
the exploration and discovery of our world
and the culture in which we live.
LITERATURE AS SIGNIFICANT HUMAN EXPERIENCE
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
1. Literature helps us grow both
personally and intellectually
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
2. Literature links us with the world
of which we are part
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
3. Literature enables us to transcend
our immediate time, place and culture
and to make connections with other
human beings and their concerns
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
4. Literature encourages us to
develop mature empathy with all
forms of life
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
5. Literature sharpens our sense of
moral judgment
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
6. Literature stimulates our
imagination and ingenuity
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
7. Literature shows the significance
of irony, paradox, oxymoron, and
ambivalence
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
8. Literature allows us to see the
world in different vantage points
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
9. Literature relives history
Literature as a Significant Human Experience
10. Literature reminds us that we
are human beings
Answer the question
Which among the following
mentioned above best attest your
human experience in literature?
Elaborate.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Pleasure in Literature
One of the aims of literature is to please and entertain the
reader by providing attractive plots, identifiable characters
and the description of beauty, suspense or whatever the
subject may involve.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Imagination and Literature
Another aim is to capture the reader's imagination by
presenting him with places, characters or events unlikely to
be present in reality. This kind of literature allows readers to
escape from reality.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Instruction and Literature
Some literature aims at informing or instructing readers
about other countries, traditions, cultures, or religions the
reader would not normally have access to. Often literature
uses parables to instruct its readers in ethical or moral
terms.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Compassion and Literature
There are times when a certain historical event, such as a
war, for instance, may be brought into a far better
perspective by way of a novel than a text book could hope
for. Describing the emotions, feelings and sentiments as
they affected individuals at the time is likely to induce
greater compassion in the reader.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Human Values and Literature
No human value or belief can develop out of a vacuum, but
grow out of experiences and knowledge. Literature aims to
fill that vacuum by providing readers with examples of
different values, beliefs, experiences and meanings
throughout written history they may not otherwise be able to
find
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Literature in Education
For the majority of people around the world, our first serious
encounter with literature comes from school. Reading and
writing has been drilled in all of us from an early age and
this is set in motion with the start of examinations.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Literature within History
Literature allows a person to step back in time and learn
about life on Earth from e ones who walked before us. We
can gather a better understanding of culture and have a
greater appreciation of them. We learn through the way
history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through
speech itself.
PURPOSES OF LITERATURE
Do this:
Reminisce your experience reading a literary piece.
Write the title of that literature and enumerate what
made you discover of history while reading.
Prose
A form of written (or spoken)
language that usually
exhibits a natural flow of
speech and grammatical
structures- an exception is
the narrative device stream
of consciousness
Prose
It is derived from the old
French prose, which in turn
originates in the Latin
expression prosa oratio
(literally, straightforward or
direct speech).
PROSE
A verse novel is a type of narrative poetry
Works of philosophy, in which a novel-length narrative is told
through the medium of poetry rather than
history, economics, etc., prose. Either simple or complex stanzaic
verse-forms may be used, but there will
journalism and most usually be a large cast, multiple voices,
dialogue, narration, description, and action
fiction (an exception is in a novelistic manner.
the verse novel) are
examples of works
written in prose.
POETRY is a piece of art written by a
poet in meter or verse expressing
various emotions which are expressed
by the use of variety of techniques
including metaphors, similes and
onomatopoeia. The emphasis is the
use of aesthetics of language and the
use of techniques such as repitition,
meter and rhyme. It heavily uses
imagery and word association to
quickly convey emotions.
DRAMA
Drama comes from the Greek word “dran” which means “to do” or
“to act”. It is a story acted out. It shows people going through
some eventful period in their lives , seriously or humorously.. The
speech and action of a play recreate the flow of human life, which
comes fully to life ony on the stage
Characteristics of Different Types of Writing
poetry prose drama
The Differences Between Fiction and Nonfiction
Fiction: Nonfiction:
Generally, it refers to plot, refers to factual stories
setings, and characters focused on actual evants
created from the imagination and people
FICTION is fabricated and
based on the author’s
imagination; sometimes
based on real-life events or
people which writers used
as jumping off points for
their stories.
Stephen King sets many
of his stories and novels
in the fictional town of
Derry, Maine. While Derry
is not a real place, it is
based on King’s actual
hometown of Bangor. King
has even created an
entire topography for
Derry that resembles the
actual topography of
Bangor.
What is Nonfiction?
Nonfiction is factual
and reports on true
events. Usually, it has
higher standard to
uphold than fiction.
Creative Nonfiction
refers to the use of literary craft,
the techniques fiction writers,
playwrights, and poets emply to
present nonfiction--- factually
accurate prose about real eople
and events--- in a compelling,
vivid, dramatic manner. The goal
is to make nonfiction stories
read like fiction so that readers
are as enthralled by fact as they
are by fantasy.
It was kicked out of
Oprah’s Book Club in
2006 when it came to
light that he had
fabricated most of his
memoir
Using the Venn Diagram, identify the similarities and
differences of fiction and nonfiction
FICTION NONFICTION
