Literature, most generically, is any body of written works.

More restrictively, literature writing is considered

to be an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying
language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.
Its Latin root literatura/litteratura (derived itself from littera: letter or handwriting) was used to refer to all written
accounts, though contemporary definitions extend the term to include texts that are spoken or sung (oral
literature). The concept has changed meaning over time: nowadays it can broaden to have non-written verbal art
forms, and thus it is difficult to agree on its origin, which can be paired with that of language or writing
itself. Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written
works, culminating in electronic literature.
What is the Importance of Literature?
1. Literature helps students grow both personally and intellectually. Since it reflects significant human experience. It allows
them to grow personally by learning from the experience of other people thus, enabling us to handle varied human situation
that we never experience before: and intellectually because it enhances the vocabulary range vis-à-vis our mental faculty,
thus, making them think critically to articulate and defend our point of view;
2. Literature links students with the world of which we are a part. It helps us understand the people across nations –their
cultures, traditions, beliefs and religious practices; thus, making them live harmoniously by recognizing and respecting
individual differences.
3. Literature enables us to transcend our immediate time, place and culture and to make connections with other human beings
and their concerns. It enables them to break away from or go beyond our present reality through the power of imagination,
enabling one to travel thru time and space at the same time establish good human relation by realizing peoples’ angst
evident in the literary pieces that we are expose to;
4. Literature encourages students to develop mature empathy with all forms of life –human, animal, and plant. It nurtures
their sensibility and compassion for the environment and everything in it by making us grasp the interconnectedness of life
on earth, that the obliteration of one tree is tantamount to the extinction of animal and plant species, and with that, they
were reminded to be the stewards of God’s creation for the earth serves as the habitat of al;
5. Literature sharpens student’s sense of moral judgement. It hones their sense of morality by delineating the distinction
between art and pornography, right from wrong, moral and immoral, and that what is ethical may not necessarily be good
in their own personal consciousness; it enables them to make our personal judgement based on our standard of morality.
6. Literature stimulates student’s imagination and ingenuity. It fuels their imagination and creativity to reconstruct the plot;
these are essential to make sense of any literary work, whether it is read, performed, or viewed;
7. Literature shows the significance of irony, paradox, oxymoron, and ambivalence. It acquaints them us to different poetic
devices and poetic dictions to unearth the message of the poets different from fictionist and playwrights; most of the time,
it will require us to have working knowledge of literary theories or approaches to recreate the writer’s intended meaning;
8. Literature allows students to see the world in different vantage points. It enables them to see the world in different
perspective; what is perceived to be good may not be good in one’s own standard, in the same way that what be perceived
to be bad may not necessarily be bad in your own consciousness because we see things in different angles.
9. Literature relives history. It has historical grounding, thus, making the readers aware of some important facts in the past to
make sense of the present circumstances where we are in. In short, they are able to establish the connection between the
past and the present, and what tomorrow may bring.
10. Literature reminds students that they are human being. It makes them realize that they have our own limitations,
insecurities, and imperfections; that despite their shortcomings, they learn from their experiences and from the experiences
of other people, making them better individuals responsible, self-reliant, compassionate, God-loving, and God-fearing.
In one of the books of Baldonado, et al, (2014), he classified literature into four genres, namely:
A. Prose Fiction presents a story that is invented and not literally “true”. It is written to be read rather than acted or
performed, and the events depicted are told to us by a narrator, not enacted or dramatized. The most commonly
encountered prose is novel and short story.
1. Myth is often a story of origins, how the world and everything in it came to be. It orients to the metaphysical
dimension, attempts to explain the origins and nature of the world, as well as a certain, custom or practice of a
human society, validates social issues, and, on the psychological plane, addresses oneself to the innermost depths
of the psyche.
2. Legend comes from the Latin adjective “legenda”. It refers to unverified story handed down from earlier times,
especially one popularly believed to be historical.
3. Parable is a simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
4. Fable is a usually short narrative making an edifying or cautionary point and often employing as characters animals
that speak and act like humans.
5. Fairy Tale is a kind of folktale or fable. In this story, we meet witches and queens, giants and elves, princes, dragons,
talking animals, ogres, princesses, and sometimes even fairies. Marvelous and magical things happen to characters
in fairy tales. A boy become a bird. A princess may sleep for a hundred years. A seal may become a girl. Objects
too can be enhanced –mirrors talk, pumpkins become carriages, and a lamp may be home to a genie.
6. Short Story is a piece of prose fiction marked by relative shortness and density, organized into a plot and with
some kind of denouement at the end. The plot may be comic, romantic, or satiric. It may be written in the mode of
fantasy, realism or naturalism. It usually focuses on one important event in the lives of a small number of central
characters.
7. Novel is a fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions,
speech, and thoughts of numerous characters placed in a number of different situations.
8. Novella is a fictional prose narrative that is longer that a short story, but shorter than a novel. It is form in its own
right.
B. Poetry is 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 repetition, meter and rhyme. It heavily uses imagery and word
association is said to be its origin.
1. Lyric Poetry is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state of mind or an
emotional state. It retains some of the elements of song which is said to be its origin.
a. Song is a musical work, an abstract entity that serves as an umbrella for many versions or renditions. It is
meant to be sung.
b. Sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in an iambic pentameter, lambic refers to the name of the foot, which is
composed of a weaker syllable followed by an accented syllable. Pentameter refers to the number of feet in
line, in this case five.
c. Elegy is a meditative lyric poem lamenting the death of a public personage or of a friend or loved one; by
extension, any reflective lyric on the broader theme of human mortality.
d. Ode is a long lyric poem with a serious written in an elevated style and formal stanzaic structure.
2. Narrative Poetry gives a verbal representation, in verse, of a sequence of connected events. It propels characters
through a plot. It is always told by a narrator. It may tell a love story, the story of a father and son, or that deeds
of a hero or heroine.
a. Ballad is a song, originally transmitted orally, which tells a story. It is an important form of folk poetry
which has adapted for literary uses from the sixteen century onwards. The ballad is usually a four-line
stanza, alternating tetrameter and trimester.
b. Metrical Romance is a poem which tells a story that ends happily, whether love is involved or not. It
represents a chivalric theme or relates improbable adventures of idealized characters in some remote or
enchanted setting.
c. Epic is an extended narrative poem that operates in a large scale, both in length and topic. It uses an
elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary hero with the intervention of
supernatural beings.
3. Dramatic Poetry like narrative poetry, tells stories. But in dramatic poetry, the poet lets one or more of the
story’s characters act out the story. Many plays are written as dramatic poetry. The difference between drama
and dramatic poetry is a matter of degree. If the dialogue of a play rhythms, has repeating rhythms, or features
of other distinct poetic elements, the play is considered to be dramatic poetry.
a. Dramatic Monologue is a combination of the words dramatic and monologue. The “dramatic” says that it
could be acted out, and is a form of drama, while the “monologue” defines it as a speech that one person
makes, either to himself or to another. It is written to reveal both the situation at hand and the character
himself.
b. Soliloquy is a long speech in which a character who is alone on a stage expresses his or her private thoughts
or feelings. It is intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections.
C. Drama comes from the Greek word “dran” which means “to do” or “to act”. It is 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 only on the stage.
1. Tragedy refers to a drama in which a heroic protagonist meets an unhappy or calamitous end, brought
about by some fatal flaw or character, by circumstances outside his or her control, or simply by destiny.
a. Tragicomedy refers to fictional works that blend aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English
literature from Shakespeare’s time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy refers to a serious play with a
happy ending.
b. Melodrama is formed by combining the words melody from the Greek which means meloidia, meaning
song and drama. Thus, in melodrama, music s used to increase the spectator’s emotional response or to
suggest character types.
2. Comedy depicts humorous incidents in which protagonists are faced with moderate difficulties but
overcome them and the play ends happily. Instead of being isolated like tragic heroes, comic protagonists
are comfortable with their society, or become so; and their success is brought about through cooperation
with others. It may involve laugher at a character who is a fool, a coward, a miser, or zany, or laugher
with the rogue or trickster who upsets the normal social order for a time. In high comedy, human folly
arouses intellectual amusement as well as engaging the emotions; whereas low comedy arouse laugher
through jokes and downing that have more appeal to the emotions than the intellect.
a. Satirical Comedy generally ridiculous human folly and associated political, social or moral problems.
b. The comedy of Manners, depicts the romantic intrigues of a sophisticated upper class, including repartee
and humorous social blundering.
c. Romantic Comedy involves idealized romantic love, as in romance.
d. Black comedy induces laughter as a kind of defense mechanism when a situation, dispassionately
considered, would be simply horrifying.
e. Farce depends ridiculous situations, exaggerated character types, coarse humor, and horseplay for its
comic effects.