World Literature • Iliad and Odyssey – A Greek legend and

mythology classics written by Homer.

It refers to the vast literary production across the
world, and it might only contain what is deemed • Divine Comedy – About god, heaven, hell,
“the best” of what the world’s literature can offer. faith, etc. In the Italian perspective written
The phrase comes from the German scholar and by Dante Alighieri
poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe in his phrase
• Book of the Suns – China’s guide to
Weltliteratur.
wisdom and faith, by Confucius
David Damrosch (2003)
• Book of the Dead – Egypt’s mythology or
• States that world literature is not an theology book
infinite, ungraspable canon of works, but
• Mahabharata – Classic literature about
rather a mode of circulation and of
the history of India's faith, the longest epic
reading, a mode that is applicable to
in the world
individual works as to bodies of material,
available for reading established classics • One Thousand and One Nights – Also
and new discoveries alike. called the Arabian Nights, stories about
the early Arab or Persian society
Two Literary Giants
• El Cid Campeador – About Spain's
William Shakespeare
legendary folk hero, history of Spain,
• There are 37 plays attributed to characteristics of Spanish people
Shakespeare.
• Canterbury Tales – About England's
• His works during his lifetime was written people and their faith, by Geoffrey
for his contemporaries, the Elizabethans Chaucer
and had no notion of other islands.
• Song of Roland – About the golden age of
• His works endure our collective Christianity in France
consciousness because Shakespeare has
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin – USA's classic novel
always been a staple in our education.
about slavery, spreading the ideals of
Rabindranath Tagore freedom and democracy all throughout
the world
• This poet happens to be the first Asian
and first non-European to be awarded the Asian Literature of the 21st Century Notes 1
Nobel prize in literature.
Asian Literature
• He was an Indian writer, a contemporary
• It is a rich collection of stories that both
of Rizal.
reflect the beliefs, culture, and feelings of
• He was a multitalented artist who wrote the people. It covers east, central, west
an array of novels, poems, plays, and and south-east Asia. It can be classified as
stories in his native language. lyric, drama or narrative, and it usually
reflect predominant culture and
• He acted in theater and composed music.
philosophies of a particular epoch.
12 Influential Literary Works In The World
• The literature of India, China and Japan
• Bible – Holy book of Romans, considered has been the most popular among other
to be the bestselling book of all time Asian countries due to its longevity and
influence over other countries.
• The Qur’an - Holy book of Muslims
Indian Literature
• Majority of literature is written in Sanskrit. • Tale of Genji (Murusaki Shikibu)
Classic Indian literature would reflect their
• Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
predominant faith: Hinduism. While
modern Indian literature would focus • I Am a Cat (Natsume Soseki)
more on subject matters that can be
• Snow Country (Yasunari Kawabata)
related to society and national issues.
• Kojiki – record of ancient matters
Example:
Korean Literature
• Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore)
• Many contemporary writers have
• Ramayana
addressed the turbulent years of south
• Mahabharata – longest epic of the world Korea from around the 1940s until 1970s,
an era of radicalism that was led by
• Sultana’s Dream (Rokeya Sakhawat
Korean nationalists against Japanese
Hussain)
imperial expansion.
• The Cleft (Prajwal Parajuly)
Example:
Chinese Literature
• The Naked Tree (Park Wan-suh)
• It does not include epic poems but rather
• Shadow of Arms (Hwang Sok-yong)
stresses on everyday issues of society. Its
collection which includes The Book Of • The Vegetarian (Han Kang)
Songs (Confucius) and The Tao Te Ching,
• Please Look After Mom (Kyung-sook Shin)
the central book of Taoism, both focuses
on the duties, behavior, and actions a • Shower (Hwang Sun-won)
person must do in order to belong
Indonesian Literature
harmoniously to his society.
• Follows a similar path to much of
Example:
southeast Asian literature: nationalist,
• The Red Sorghum: A Novel of China (Mo anti-colonial, and critical of warfare. New
Yan) writers blossomed through periodicals,
newspapers, and magazines as they
• The Incident (Lu Shun)
published serialized stories or weekly
• War Stories (Xue Yiwei) poetry features.
• Dream of the Red Chamber (Cao Xueqin) Example:
• Water Margin (Shi Nai’an) • Buru Quartet (Pramoedya Ananta Toer)
Japanese Literature • Saman (Ayu Utami)
• One of the greatest collections of poetry, • Malin kundang (anonymous)
The Man’yoshu, is perhaps one of the
• Do’a (Sanusi Pane)
most celebrated pieces of literature of
Japan. Most of the thematic concerns • Beauty is a Wound (Eka Kurniawan)
were about loss of innocence, the
Singaporean Literature
alienating nature of progress, the
nightmare of socialism in china, and • It comprises a collection of literary works
uncertainty in one’s sexuality. by Singaporeans in any of the country’s
four main languages: English, Chinese,
Example:
Malay, and Tamil. It is viewed as a distinct
 body of literature portraying various  Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)
aspects of Singapore society and forms a
Age of Enlightenment (1700 -1800)
significant part of the culture of
Singapore. • It was a celebration of ideas about what
the human mind was capable of, and what
• Example:
would be achieved through deliberate
• SEAscrapers (Stephanie Ye) action and scientific methodology. Many
of the new enlightened ideas were
• The Way Ahead (Edwin Thumboo)
political in nature. Writers in this era were:
• A Lost Boy (O Thiam Chin)
 Voltaire – employed dry wit and sarcasm
• A Love Story in Sydney (Samantha Heng) to entertain his readers while making
convincing arguments for reform.
 Jean-Jacques Rousseau – a strong
• Indian Literature – Sultana’s Dream
advocate for social reforms of all kinds
• Chinese Literature – The Little Incident
Romantic Movement (1798 – 1870)
• Japanese Literature – I am a Cat
• displays more variety in style, theme, and
• Korean Literature – The Vegetarian content. Romanticism is concerned with
the masses and not with the middle class,
• Indonesian Literature – Malin Kundang
the individual more than with society. The
• Singaporean Literature – Seascrapers focus of literature shifted from the
scientific to the mysterious like:
European Literature of the 21st Century
Notes 2  Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

European Literature  Don Juan (Lord Byron)

• It refers to the literature in many Victorian Period

languages which is so rich with its entire (1837 – 1901)
list of great works and even greater
• The name given to the period is borrowed
writers.
from the royal matriarch of England,
Medieval Period (500 – 1500) Queen Victoria. Victorian writers exhibited
some well-established habits from
• European literature already saw masterful
previous eras, while at the same time
works like:
pushing arts and letters in a new and
 Beowulf interesting directions. Victorian novelists
and poets wrote with simplicity, truth and
 The Song of Roland
tempered emotion like:
 The Nibelungenlied
 Charlotte
 The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
 Emily Bronte
Renaissance Period
 Lord Tennyson
• European literature took the level of its
 Robert Browning
literary standard into a whole new high.
 George Eliot
 The Faerie Queen (Edmun Spencer)
 Thomas Hardy
 Paradise Lost (John Milton)
 • Realism Beowulf
Author: Anonymous
(1820 – 1920)
Literature: Medieval Era

• European Literature in this era is careful Genre: Narrative poetry

on details, and has an effort to replicate 1. Where did the opening story take place?
the true nature of reality in a way that
novelists had never attempted. Famous 2. Who is the prince of Geatland?
writers during this period were: 3. What happened to Grendel after Beowulf
 Franz Kafka cut his arm?

 William Butler Yeats 4. How did Beowulf die?

 T.S. Eliot 5. Who become Beowulf’s successor?

 Vicente Biasco Ibanez Denmark

Naturalism Beowulf
(1870 – 1920) Returns to his swamp and dies
• sought to go further and be more Wounded from a bite in the neck
explanatory than Realism.
Wiglaf
• The environment played an important
part in the narrative structure. Latin American Literature of the 21st Century
Notes 3
• Emile Zola, one of the most influential
writers in this period provided inspiration Latin American Literature
and model in writing during this period.
• is characterized as the post “boom”
Existentialism (1850 – present) phase.

• Crime and Punishment is a profound • It is considered as a progressive canon of

example of some of the principles of writing that articulates struggles with
existentialist. It shows that thinking can be colonialism and imperialism, which has
perverted, leading to ethical decay and been one of the fundamental contexts of
personal destruction. Writers in this their literature.
period were:
• It largely deals with political situations in
 Albert Camus the region, depicting the harsh realities of
the military regimes.
 Chuck Palahniuk
Post-boom Literature
 Stanley Kubrick
• It took place during the 20th century.
 David Lynch
• This era encapsulates the struggles of
Modernist Period writers to find a Latin American identity,
• Literature presented a new way of living and to represent the ethos of their
and seeing the world. writers are now free respective countries.
to try new concepts in writing like the use • It has been recognized as the 21st century
of the unreliable narrator. It was set in literary canon of Latin America, largely
motion through a series of cultural shocks.
 articulating the position of the region “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”.
within the political frame of globalization. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.
• Writers figured largely in their work the Mario Vargas Llosa
atrocities of colonization and dictatorship,
• is considered one of the most influential
but in a style that readers in the West
writer during the Latin American Boom.
found rather new: magical realism.
• He won the coveted Nobel Prize for
Magical Realism
Literature in 2010.
• is a tradition of writing that originated in
• Many of his works influenced writers’
Latin America and goes against European-
belief on what is distinctly Peruvian.
influenced notions of reality or realism by
portraying events and characters that are African Literature
unbelievable or larger than life. of the 21st Century Notes 4
Gabriel Garcia Marquez African Literature
• A Columbian writer who set an example of • It reflects the history of its people, the
Latin American writing through his novel continents feelings, and the minds of its
“One Hundred Years of Solitude”. population.
• takes readers to Macondo, a fictional • It takes pride in their identity as a people
town, which Marquez said to have been along with their rich heritage.
inspired by his very own hometown.
• African literature registers very deep
• It was a perfect harmony between magic historical scars and active recuperation
and reality as the founding of Macondo is from the violence of slavery, Western
the founding of America. colonization, and institutional and cultural
racism.
• This novel was so successful that it has
become one of the most translated works • It is the Heart of Darkness or simply the
and also one of the most read in Spanish. Dark Continent.
Julio Cortazar • However, Africa is much more than just a
place of darkness and oppression.
• another Latin American author who
established himself in the world through • This continent is a home to many diverse
his work “Rayuela”. and rich cultures.
• a novel that can be read in various ways. • The writings of black Africa started in the
middle ages when Arabic was introduced
• It consists of 155 chapters, divided into
to them, and then moved forward in the
three parts: On the Side There, This Side,
1800s with the coming of the alphabet.
and Both Sides.
Negritude
• It is a book that allows the readers to start
from whichever part he want to start and • It literally means blackness.
thus, creating his own meaning to the
• It is the literary movement of the 1900s –
story.
1950s that began among French-speaking
Junot Diaz African and Caribbean writers living in
Paris as a protest against French colonial
• a Dominican American who wrote one of
rule and the policy of assimilation.
the impressive novels in the 21st century
Basic ideas behind Negritude
 Africans must look to their own cultural  It is a creative piece written in comic form.
heritage to determine the values and
 The pictures are arranged in sequenced in
traditions that are most useful in the
image panels and dialogues are written in
modern world.
speech bubbles.
 Committed writers should use African
 The illustrations allow the readers to
subject matter and poetic traditions and
imagine and experience the characters
should excite a desire for political
and events in the story.
freedom.
Flash fiction
 Negritude itself encompasses the whole
African cultural, economic, social and  It is imaginative literature of extreme
political values. brevity. It could range from a word to a
thousand.
 The value and dignity of African traditions
and people must be asserted.  It is known as micro stories, postcard
fiction, nanotales and short shorts.
Nelson Mandela
Characteristics of flash fiction
• one of the famous Africans who was an
activist and leader who fought against Brevity. Flash fiction presents the story with
apartheid or institutionalized racism fewest words as possible.
against blacks, and eventually became the
Complete plot. Flash fiction emphasizes the
president of South Africa.
development of plot. It has a beginning,
Chinua Achebe middle, and ending of the story.
• He was called the “Father of African Surprising ending. The successful hallmark of
Novel” because he represents the Black a flash fiction is its twist at the end of the
African Continent in World literature. His story.
novel, “Things Fall Apart” was his reaction
to the Western representation of the
African reality. The novel articulates how Literary Adaptations with ict skills
African countries are products of a empowerment Notes 5
colonial history, of biased and racist
ICT Information and Communication Technology
narratives of African life from Western
authors. ◦ refers to all the technology used to handle
telecommunications, broadcast media,
David Diop
intelligent building management systems,
• rejects the idea that any good could have audiovisual processing and transmission
come to Africa through the colonial systems, and network-based control and
experience and in his belief that political monitoring functions.
freedom must precede a cultural and
◦ ICT is often considered an extended
economic revival. He was one of the most
synonym for information technology (IT).
talented of the younger French West
African poets of the 1950s. Information Technology
Differentiating 21ST CENTURY LITERARY ◦ Information Technology (IT) is the use of
GENRES: Graphic Novel & Flash fiction Notes computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and
5 manipulate data, or information.
Graphic fiction ◦ IT system is generally an information
system, a communications system or,
 more specifically speaking, a computer
system – including all hardware, software
◦ The use of multimedia allows educational
and peripheral equipment – operated by a
ideas and materials to be presented in a
limited group of users.
more artistic, inspired and engaging way.
ICT Skills
Videos
◦ These are about understanding and
◦ Digital video is a primary component in
applying a range of computer programs,
multimedia, especially those that appear
software, and other applications.
online and on television.
◦ These include: word processing,
◦ The different formats of these types of
spreadsheets, databases, slide
multimedia include WMI, AVI, MPED and
presentations, and search engines.
flash.
THE ICT component
◦ Some of these formats are better than
others because they load faster and can
be viewed or loaded using different
platforms and operating systems.
◦ Many videos have changed formats ever
since the mobile phone industry became
more advanced in technology.
◦ Many of the video formats require plug-
ins on browsers and specific mobile
applications to load.

Use of multimedia and its formats

Multimedia
◦ It is an electronic application used to
teach lessons or to further educate
learners on a particular topic.
◦ It is a presentation of material that uses
both words and pictures in a combination
of text, voice, picture or video.
◦ Using interactive digital tools to tell a story
is called digital storytelling and often uses
a combination of multimedia venues to
complete the task.
 ◦ Voiceovers comprise a tremendous
number of the types of multimedia
Animation
components.
◦ Animation is a form of art for most
◦ Audio files include background music and
people, especially those that are in the
special effects.
business of producing animated movies.
◦ Any audio in an application is designed to
◦ Right now, animation has become
improve a user’s experience.
interactive, allowing users to directly
affect the outcome of animated
components and events.
◦ Flash is the most common platform for
animation, and using this component, the
interactivity of animation is enhanced.
Text
◦ Text has always been and will always be
the most common among the types of
multimedia components in different
applications.
◦ Text in combination with other media
components can make any application
more user-friendly.
◦ By using text, interactivity is increased.
Text elements are particularly important
for accessibility purposes.
◦ Users of an application need to input text
for the system to identify them.
◦ Text is also used to create a digital
signature, such as in passwords.
Images
◦ Digital image files are needed to create
videos and animation.
◦ A user would sooner go to a website filled
with colourful photographs than one that
contains only text elements.
◦ Familiar image formats include jpeg and
png.
◦ These formats permit editing.
◦ Images are created by graphic designers
using various software.
Audio