The Meaning Of World Literature
World literature is not exactly something that can be defined in one sentence. It has been given multiple meanings by many different authors and people throughout the years. A very brief way to describe the meaning of world literature is literature that circulates elsewhere around the world rather than in its own origin or hometown. Some common examples of world literature are Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Things Fall Apartby Chinua Achebe, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. World literature is important for today's students to read for a glimpse into the lifestyle of the author's portion and perspective of the world and to create realistic and factual mindsets of different parts of the world. Students in today's world should be exposed to world literature for a peek into the life and perspective surrounding area that the author or character is being exposed to. "When reading about civil war, the ability to share the fears and victories of the battlefield firsthand through a character's experiences there helps students to understand the internal and external conflicts he/she faces. When these experiences transcend time and geography to illustrate similar uncertainties, students see and experience these situations as if firsthand" (Breitman). Students who read world literature get a personal insight into the thought process of the author or main character who may be going through some tough times or is experiencing events or traditions that only occur in his/her
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Charmine J. Cramales
BS Math II
Lit 3 10:30 – 12:00
What is Literature?
Poems, novels, and stories; these are some of the things that first came to my mind upon pondering on the question 'What is Literature?'. And just lately I have known that literature also includes songs, speeches, plays, and many others in written and spoken forms. I have also known that things that are produced out of creative imagination can be referred as literary works which are the ones that comprise literature. Considering this description of what literature is, the coverage of literature seems very puzzling. If literary works are those produced out of creative imagining, then it would directly point to fictional works. But then, there are also...show more content...
Take for example the views of two individuals coming from different places on anovel based on the culture of one. It would likely be the same if their culture and beliefs are quiet related but if not, then they would surely have different understandings on certain parts of that novel. Hence, defining literature as those considered by people as 'literature' is questionable.
Eagleton also associated literature as any kind of works which are valued highly by people. But then again, since people may have different perceptions on things, one may value highly a certain work while another person may consider it just as a plain writing. As stated by Ms. Pinzon, a literature professor, a personal letter can be an example of this. The recipient of the letter can be expected to really value the letter while her classmate may not. Hence, this can't define literature as a whole. Then, what really is literature? Many great critics have tried formulating a fixed definition of literature but have failed to do so. In the rise of every possible definition of what literature is, counter arguments also rise.
Literature, though it seems impossible to enumerate everything it covers, play an important role in every individual's life. One can influence using literature or be influenced by it. Examples of these are the novels made by our very own national hero, Jose Rizal – the Noli Me Tangeri and El Filibusterismo. During his time, Rizal has
What Is Literature Essay
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In this paper I am going to compare and contrast a literary text (Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy) and a non literary text (Newspaper article from "The Independent" by Nigel Morris) focussing on the language features used, the structural and presentational devices, the use of correct punctuations, analyse the structure of the non literary text for bias and the techniques used to convey meaning and ideas by both authors. The objective of literary texts is to teach the readers a life lesson with the development and growth of the main character as the plot unfolds. These types of texts have a meaning behind the writing instead of just being written for fun. Literary texts mainly focus on problems or weaknesses of the society that are...show more content...
Furthermore, the writer has used the "Inverted Pyramid" technique, meaning, all the key information is at the top with the least important are arranged in descending order. By the reading the first couple of paragraphs or so, the readers can easily get a good overview of what the article is all about.
The structure of the poem is made up of five stanzas of four lines each. The poem is well organised which, in my opinion, that the poet has planned a certain course of action. The one word sentence "Anything" or other short sentences used throughout the poem sets the pace and tone of the poem. It may have been used by the poet to force the message into the readers' mind. This works well with the violent actions and images in the poem. They also break the flow and rhythm which helps to create the mood and set an angry tone in the poem and also suggesting a 'broken' character. Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence form one line or couplet into the next. It is used by Duffy to give the stanzas the rhythm of natural speech which makes the persona sounds more violent and aggressive.
The linguistic and stylistic features used in the newspaper article are factual and accurate, clear and concise to inform its readers. It also authenticates and supports claims and adds weight to its content. The use of quoted references confirmed the factuality of the writer's information
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Literary and Non Literary Texts Essay example
Holly Stalker Professor Loren Hoekzema
English 141–30
17 February 2015
Nature in Literature: Basho and Voltaire Nature plays a huge role in many pieces of literature, but especially Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North and Voltaire's Candide. There is a major difference between the two forms of literature and how nature is incorporated into each. This Japanese form of literature has a much lighter tone than that of the European style of literature.
You can see a calmer, more relaxed intention into the nature that is in Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North. On page 413 in Basho's piece, it says "As the year gradually came to an end and spring arrived, filling the sky with mist, I longed to cross the Shirakawa Barrier, the most revered ...show more content...
In the opening paragraph on page 454, Voltaire writes "Once upon a time in Westphalia, in the castle of Baron Thunder–ten–tronckh, there lived a young boy whom nature had endowed with the gentlest of dispositions." This opening sentence makes you believe that it could have a similar feel to Basho's story. When you reach page 460, there is a line that says "While he was presenting his argument, the air grew thick, the winds blew from the four corners of the earth, and the ship was assailed by the most terrible storm, within sight of the port of Lisbon." This passage not only shows you that the nature of the story is a lot more dramatic, but it also shows you that Voltaire is more focused on the weather instead of the landscape. There is a dramatic earthquake and a storm that destroys the ship that they are on. Page 461 says "Whirlwinds of flame and ash covered the streets and public squares: houses disintegrated, roofs were upended upon foundations, and foundations crumbled." Voltaire writing this in his passage just shows the reader how awful and destructive the earthquake actually was. While you understand that they encountered a massive destructive earthquake, they do actually see some light at the end of all the horrible events. On page 467, it says "'All will be well,' was Candide's reply. 'Already the sea in this new world is better than those we have in Europe. It's
Nature in Literature Essay examples
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What is Literature? Why Study Literature?
At often times, literature is thought of as lackluster works and long books and passages. People often think that literature is one thing, not knowing that it is in actuality composed of several elements that we all use in our daily lives. In order to get a clear understanding of exactly what literature is, we must first identify the definition. According to Merriam– Webster, literature is defined as the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age; the body of writings on a particular subject : printed matter. This definition however is a bit deceiving in truly understanding what literature really is. In the dictionary definition of literature, it is constantly...show more content...
For example if people took time out to read and learn about other cultures, they will be able to get a better understanding of why people do things that may be "different" in their culture but the norm in the culture of the other person. Human value helps us to understand that though, people all have the same emotions; they can be expressed in different ways; if we learn how to interpret literature, we will have a better understanding of life, people and their behaviors and have better social skills. Thought values are our cognitive values that help us in making choices with clearly defined reasons. It helps us to explore multiple perspectives to problem solving and knowing what fact from fiction is. For instance if a person goes through college without actually studying the literature set before them, they may have the grade but not the ability to decipher "common sense" situations. We study literature to have the ability to consider situations set before us and have a variety of approaches to resolve them, also to understand why people make the decisions that they make. The idea of language values simply helps us to understand language and the use of words in everyday conversation. With literature we develop skills for everyday conversation in the formulation of words and sentences and also for the gathering of information when Get more content
Younger generations aren't feeling as empathetic as older generations and this will lead to a dangerous society. Empathy is the ability to understand and share feelings. Teaching empathy at a young age will allow one another to accept and communicate with each other. It is also a necessity skill in life that helps each other to recognize one's emotions. According to the article, This is How LiteraryFiction Teaches us to Be Human by Tom Blunt, he emphasizes empathy can be taught through literary fiction and it is vital that young children feel empathy toward each other. Literature teaches kids to feel empathetic for each other. A story allows the reader to put themselves in the character's shoes and gives us a different perspective on the character's life. It also shows the reader not to judge someone by their cover because you never know what outside factors are affecting them. For example, Daphne's book is about a shy girl named Daphne, commonly known to others as Daffy Duck. She was raised by an impoverished, mentally ill grandmother, so the other kids would make fun of her. Instead of sympathizing with her, kids pitied her and called her names. "These are the experiences for a young person in which the sort of commonplace...show more content... In her book, readers see the bully in the character's own eyes. Blunt says, "Viewing events from someone else's perspective, following along as they suffer, make mistakes, and are forced into hard decisions that affect others is the core of teaching empathy" (Blunt 3). From reading these books, readers can understand some of the reasons why a person acts a certain way. These books also urge readers to appreciate others and their own life. This appreciation will lead to better society because children will volunteer in the community and respect each others opinions, since each story allows children to interpret different empathetic Get more content
Empathy Through Literature
At this point in my life I find myself in an interesting predicament regarding my attitudes toward reading and writing; more so towards reading. Years ago I used to love reading books for pleasure but nowadays I find myself reading things that little to no effort to digest. This includes the very basic posts on facebook expressing one's opinion on something or articles and threads on reddit discussing topics I find intriguing. Perhaps it's the severe senioritis that has overcome me as I enter my last semester at Chapman University. As I've gotten lazier I can see it start to reflect in my everyday life. Deep down I still love to read but I rarely find myself getting truly invested into the action unless it relates to something I am very...show more content...
You can feed the mind as much as you want and it will never get full of reading. Sadly, I'm not the same person that I was. I guess you could say it's part of growing up. It never really was intentional but it's just the way how it ended up. On the other hand my attitudes toward writing are very different. First let me say that deep down I truly do not like to write. I myself don't personally like to write for leisure or pleasure but rather I write because I believe it is one of the most important aspects of being able to communicate with those around you, both personally and professionally. To put differently, my attitude towards writing is that I write because I need to write and survive in the world around me. I write because I have to, not because I want to. Hopefully this somewhat makes sense. To better explain let me make a comparison. When I am assigned a writing assignment or I am writing because the action is being forced upon me I find myself not enjoying the process and overall the end result is subpar. The perfect example of this would be my junior year in high school when I was enrolled in AP english literature. I dreaded the majority of the class simply because there was so much writing involved in the entire course and therefore I was constantly writing just to get a grade. Being forced to write in such high volume every week for an entire school year was not enjoyable for myself and as a result the Get more content
Literacy Narrative Essay example
Literature Essay It's a kind of complex essay that gives the reader the depth of what you have written. Its helps the reader in enhancing their knowledge and understanding. Its not simple as other essays it has different elements that needs to be taken care of and if they are not applied carefully whole essay gets affected. In this chapter we will explore those elements and conventions that are essential and must be there in a literature essay. The literature essay must consist of 5 essential elements that are : Tone Thesis Motive Evidence Coherent Structure Tone it's the base of any essay we can say like when we talk to our friends we talk in different tone and when we talk to our friends we talk in different tone. In the same...show more content...
Then comes thesis it should be very effective and appealing as it's the main theme of the work there can be more than one themes but its good if we use only one theme in the whole work. The theme should be answering all the relevant answers that can be raised after reading the whole content. Than there is evaluation we write literature essay to help people understand the content or the particular work in a better way and there are claims which we do in the essay those are . Wether the content is helpful or not wether it's important or not and than the claim is that we should not write things from our own perspective should write in a general way why where what happened and etc. The third claim is that is the content morally correct and making sense which character is good and admirable which is not and why is it that. The evaluation is not only to make us write our own views on particular thing but its more just if we answer the other questions that are raised after reading them and we should kept people in view and their thinking while writing a review personal touch should be
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Reflective Essay It is amazing that my journey as an English: Literature major has almost come to a close so quickly. My path has been a smooth and enjoyable one, and it is with great sadness that I begin to gather up the ends of my literary education. I know that I will continue to grow and develop as a critical reader/thinker throughout my lifetime, but I will sorrowfully miss the educational structure that has shaped my literary understanding for the last three years. I consider my greatest strengths as a literature major to be my insightfulness and creative slant with which I approach a piece of work. I have a love for all genres of literature and enthusiastically grasp the text with an eagerness to understand it and relate...show more content...
By dissecting the lines and passages, I have been able to pick up on details and subtleties that have brought the focus and message of the works into finer focus. Paying close attention to detail lends itself to the meticulous, sophisticated readings that I have presented. I possess the ability to make informed judgments about the political and cultural significance of the literary works on which I have focused. In the Boland essay, I have shown how a woman poet has struggled against the cannon to prove that women are also writers of poetry, not just the subject of it. Looking at the way women are portrayed in Boland's work shows how they have a passive, domestic role in Irish life from which they are struggling to break free. My essay on Mansfield's piece shows that I understand she was making a comment on the suppression of women's feelings and sexual desires. In a time period of which things like this were not spoken, Mansfield took the first step in leading women toward emotional sovereignty. All of this also ties into my understanding of the roles of genre, gender, class, and culture in the work's production. Criticism came highly to both Boland's and Mansfield's work because they deal with the liberation of women. Although Boland is definitely more contemporary than Mansfield, both know the struggles associated with anything considered to contain "feminist" undertones. I believe that both of
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Reflective Essay on English Literature Module
How I Learned To Become Literate
As a six–month–old baby books had opened up a whole entire new world of experience for me. My inspiration to learn how to read and write was encouraged by my Mother and Grandmother. This is because they read out loud to me before bed occasionally and gave me the best time of my life by introducing me to a library. By two years of age I developed speech and other communication skills. This helped me understand and develop a favorite book, "PJ Funny Bunny," and I would stare at the pages pretending I was reading them. I would continually pretend to read with other Dr. Seuss books, Smurf pop–up books (I imagined I was a part of these for hours), sniff & scratches, and sensory books. I had just begun ...show more content...
Overtime this helped to enhance my imagination for reading. Another thing our teacher did was present us with books as Christmas gifts. I remember my book was called "A Mouse House." Inside she wrote that I was an excellent reader and said if we all came back over the holidays being able to read our books we could read anything we wanted. I believed her and practiced my book throughout winter break. She had given me hope for learning.
During my Kindergarten years most of my encouragement continued by making up my own short stories with illustrations. Stories I wrote, like the "Oddor Beast" (1) and "The Witch And Too Two Many" (2), helped increase my imagination and made me feel as though I was a really great author. When my report card (3) came around and a "VG" for Very Good was in the Reading box I would get excited to read more.
Throughout the beginning of my Elementary school years we were taught literacy by writing creative stories with illustrations. In my story, "The Girl Who Had The Magic Finger" (4) you can see that I was not great at spelling and completing sentences. I also noticed my tendency to complete things in a big hurry and end sentences with phrases like, "And that's the end of that." I continued to learn by putting together little books like, "Little People Book (5)." These type of books aloud me to read the stories and comprehend what I've read because they were followed by short questions at the end.
By First Grade, I was
Learned To Become Literate Essay
How I
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If literary works were to be split into two categories based on length of work, I would propose that these categories could be works that take the average reader less than half an hour to read, referred to as shorter length literature, and more than half an hour to read, referred to as full length literature. If this claim is accepted, then I would believe that short stories, short drama pieces, and poetry would fit into the shorter length literature category, while the full length literature category holds longer drama pieces, novels, and novellas. Poetry is the only genre among these that, because so much of it is left up to interpretation, is difficult to define character development. The rest of these works, both short and full...show more content...
Maybe Mr. Adams, who talked to Old Man Warner, in "The Lottery" had opinions and feelings similar to the people he talks about from other villages. Readers will never know. Even with a surprise ending like Jackson's story has, it is difficult to accept that every person in this town would feel comfortable or pressured into following through with the murder of an innocent person. Without the sense of doubt or sense of personal growth in any characters, the story does not really leave an impact on readers. On the other hand, characters like Greg, Kate, and Sylvia leave impacts on audiences because they all grow and develop in some way. Having these protagonists for the audience to latch on to and watch change makes full length literature more affective. Furthermore, the pace of a full length work allows the audience to really "get into" these characters that will change, develop, grow, and sink the audience in further. The typical pace of a full length piece of literature needs to be quick enough to hook in an audience sooner rather than later. In plays, it is easy to get this to happen with dialogue. The effective use of dialogue makes the story move much quicker than description of scenery. The audience's introduction to the environment, the characters, and situations are almost entirely projected by dialogue. Some play writes choose to have long winded stage
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I. FICTION
A. What fiction is Fiction (from the Latin fictio, "a shaping, a counterfeiting") is a name for stories not entirely factual, but at least partially shaped, made up, imagined. It is true that in some fiction, such as historical novel, a writer draws upon factual information in presenting scenes, events, and characters. But the factual information in a historical novel, unlike that in a history book, is of secondary importance. Fiction as we know it today is considered to be a relatively new genre compared to poetry and drama. The tradition of fiction started with myth and legend and allegory. But the fictional characters in these imaginary worlds were mostly one–dimensional abstractions, personified as Love, ...show more content...
Plot
Plot is the arrangement of events in a story, or the structure of the action. The action in a plot is usually progressive because one force acts upon another. Plot begins with an exposition: the opening portion that sets the scene (if any), introduces the main characters, tells us what happened before the story opened, and provides any other background information that we need in order to understand and care about the events to follow.
D. The short story
In a short story, a form more realistic than the tale and of modern origin, the writer usually presents the main events in greater fullness. A short story is more than just a sequence of happenings. Some literary short stories, unlike commercial fiction in which the main interest is in physical action or conflict, tell of an epiphany: some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which a character's life, or view of life, is greatly altered. Other short stories tell of a character initiated into experience or maturity. The fable and the tale are ancient forms; the short story is of more recent origin.
E. Point of view
literature Essay examples
LITERATURE
A critical issue in any short story is its point of view. The importance of point of view may easily be overlooked, but the choice of the narrator influences the total structure of the story. There are basically three points of view: Get more content
Example Of Reflection In Literature
In the span of this course, I have learned a great deal about myself in terms of literature. This course has enabled me to make many great strides in my writing by exemplifying the works of authors and their literary devices. English 1102 has broadened my literary horizon by showing me more elegant ways to express my opinion. I am remorseful towards the fact that I did not take the class in person. Inversely, I have learned better ways to communicate towards the audience, through the use of various literary elements in lieu of going on tangents. In regards to taking English 1102, I feel as though I am on the precipitous of progress through the use of parallel structure and diction as a way of getting my point across, as well as using poetic styles from famous authors such as Charlotte Gilman to better express my thoughts and ideas. On the other hand, not being able to take the class in person has disabled me in a sense of not being able to garner a better sense of grammar and punctuation. Furthermore, through the assignments that I have completed, I have mastered the use of consistency which spurred on a more fluid line of communication with the readers through the use of efficiently utilizing parallel structure and diction, instead of jumping from topic to topic. The need to spew all perspectives originates from my predisposition of compacting conflicting opinions on one paper. Notably, employing parallel structure has brightened up my writing tremendously. For example,
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The definition of literature has been discussed and argued over time and there is no precise answer to be given. Any reader or author can define literature as whatever they wish it to be defined as. This is more of an opinion of how one views certain pieces of work or writings and whether or not they feel that is actually literature or not. Literature is any type of creative writing such as fiction or poetry, for example. Literature is also any form of body of written works of language, which could be from the English era or even as far back as the Shakespearean or Elizabethan era. It is also work from a specific period or culture defining key elements or somehow relating to and/or expressing how it is exactly from that time. The...show more content...
In her poem, "Dylan" in lines 4 and 5, she writes, "Her hair was a halo of warm light / and color dripped off her tongue" (23). The reader can interpret just from those two lines the creativity and imagination not only in that one poem, but also in all poetry. The description of hair being a halo of warm light allows the reader to use his or her own imagination to perceive that image in whichever way they would like. Creative writing can be determined by many other things not only image or structure of how the poem is set into stanzas, but what is left up to the reader for interpretation. Jewel writes in "Cautious" in lines 23–29, "an open vessel / whose function it was / to be filled / until my consciousness / could return and / spit out / the bad seeds" (18). After reading these lines the reader can be left with different feelings and emotions that vary from disgust or simplicity. This is just another example of how poetry is creative writing. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, literature is defined as being the body of written works of a language, period, or culture. An author of any specific type of writing or works can include certain details pertaining to language or other details, which allow the reader to develop a sensory image of that specific period or culture. If the reader had no prior knowledge to the language, period, or culture of the writing he or she would be reading, upon reading and analyzing
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Defining Literature Essay
The Study of Literature
I finally understand the study of literature. As an English major, a reader/ writer/ poet who has spent a great deal of time reading the works of others and writing about them, I am reminded of something I have heard my father, a teacher, say repeatedly about the modern American attitude toward education. "Nobody learns just to learn," he observes sadly, pointing out the way in which students often view particularlyhigher education as some kind of training ground for a career. I know exactly what he means. Every time someone asks me what I plan to do with a degree in English, I am reminded of the inquisitive student who interrupts a classroom lecture to ask in earnest "Is this going to be on the test?"...show more content...
If others train for careers, learning practical skills with "real world" implications, then the Humanities student simply learns about being human. He attempts to recognize universal experience and reflect it in art. As ambitious as that may sound, I find my pursuit of English studies to be quite useful in my own life. Let me explain.
One year ago, my wife and I separated. When she left, she took with her (according to mutual agreement) all of the furniture and household amenities, leaving me with only the barest essentials. For several weeks afterward, I returned home to my modest quarters that contained no more than a mattress, my work desk and my books, and one small stand on which to place a stereo. I must confess that in the near month before my parents rescued me, supplying me with a dispossessed sofa, love seat, and T.V. (What do you mean you don't have a television?), I accomplished much more in my work and studies than ever before.
I came to realize in that period the true definition of necessity. Though my wife had retained the comforts of modern living that one gets used to, I found I could still satisfy my basic human needs within the five empty rooms of my apartment. I was reminded of my reading of Thoreau's Walden, and his experimental living in the woods that invited the criticism and skepticism of many of his contemporaries. Inspired, I
The Study of Literature Essay
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The importance of literature on today's society
In a rapidly developing world, the definition of literature goes beyond what the readers see and perceive. It provides a platform for us to open our minds to ambiguities of meaning, while exploring what the world really has to offer through other cultures and beliefs. Most importantly, literature has taught me to support my own point of view and trust my instincts and interpretations. The boundaries of literature are endless and holds no limit to race, religion, culture, and sexuality. With an infinite amount of advantages, I believe literature is an integral component of our everyday lives as it redefines text beyond the literal meaning, thus allowing us to connect with human emotions and surpassing self–defining barriers.
As an avid reader and enthusiastic writer, I have grown to learn that interpretation goes far beyond literal terms. The article "Why Study Literature", emphasizes the importance of literature in our education system and everyday life. Michael Meyer's states that "[w]hile people will say what they mean and mean what they say, [...] language in our world is [...] maddeningly and delightfully ambiguous" ("Why Literature" 1). Literature acts as a medium of developing critical thinking skills, leading to independent learners and readers. If we limit a reader's interpretation of text, it restricts creativity and the idea of being open to multiple analyses. An example of when this technique was applied was in my
Essay On Importance Of Literature
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