KOLEHIYO NG

LUNGSOD NG
DASMARIÑAS
BRGY. BUROL MAIN, CITY OF DASMARIÑAS,
CAVITE, PHILIPPINES 4114
 CLASSIC
LITERATURES OF
THE WORLD
GC-CWL101
Prepared by: Inst. Janine M. Reuta, LPT
 Introduction to
Literature and
Classic Literatures
of the World
GC-CWL101 – Lesson 1
Prepared by: Inst. Janine M. Reuta, LPT
Icebreaker
•Share your favorite
books or movies and
why you like them.
How “Literature” be relevant to Civil Engineering?

• While this lesson may seem unrelated to civil engineering, it

emphasizes the role of humanities in shaping the world and
the engineer's role.
• Literature can provide valuable insights into human behavior,
culture, and history, which can inform decision-making and
problem-solving in engineering.
What is Literature?
• A body of literary productions containing imaginative language
that realistically portrays thoughts emotions, and experiences
of the human conditions.
• Literature is a language in use that provides insights and
intellectual stimulation to the reader.
• A product of a particular culture that concretizes man’s array of
values, emotions, actions and ideas.
What is Literature?
• An art that reflects the work of imagination, aesthetics, and
creative writing which are distinguished from the beauty of
style or expression.
• Imaginative literature refers to written and spoken
composition designed to tell stories, dramatized situations,
and reveal thoughts and emotions, and also more
importantly to interest, entertain, stimulate, broaden and
ennoble readers.
Functions of Literature?
1. Literature helps us grow both personally and
intellectually.
a. Provides an objective base for our knowledge and
understanding.
b. Helps us connect ourselves to the boarder cultural,
philosophic, and religious world of which we are part.
c. Enables us to recognize human dreams struggles in
different places and times that we would never otherwise
knows.
Functions of Literature?
2. Literature helps us develop mature sensibility and
compassion for the condition of all living things- human,
animal, and vegetable.
a. Give us the knowledge and perception needed to
appreciate the beauty of order and arrangement, just
as a well- structured song or a beautifully done painting
can.
b. It provides the comparative basis from which we can
see worthiness in the aims of all people and helps us
see the beauty in the world around us.
Functions of Literature?
c. It our emotion through our interests, concern, tension,
excitement, hope, fear, regret, laughter, and sympathy.
3. Literature shapes our goals and values by helping us clarify our
own identities, both positively through acceptance of admirable in
human beings, and negatively through rejection of the sinister.
4. Literature helps us shape our judgements through the
comparison of good and bad.
5. Literature enables us to develop a perspective on the events that
occur around us and in the world at large
Major Literacy Periods
1. EARLY PERIODS OF LITERATURE
• CLASSICAL LITERATURE- Classic literature is a
collective term of work of literature that transcend
time and culture to have a universal appeal.
• Such novels, short stories and poetry remain relevant
trough time. They are recognized for their artistic
merit, quality and often for their ground breaking
nature.
Major Literacy Periods
A. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1200 BCE-455 CE)
I. Homeric Or Heroic Period (1200-800 BCE)
II. Classical Greek Period (800-200 Bce)
III.Classical Roman Period (200 Bce-455 Ce)
IV.Patristic Period (C. 70 Ad-455 Ce)
Major Literacy Periods
B. The Medieval Period (455 Ce-1485 Ce)
I. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (428-
1066)
II. The Middle English Period(C. 1066-1450)
Major Literacy Periods
C. THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION (c. 1485-1660 CE)
I. Early Tudor Period (1485-1558)
II. Elizabethan Period (1558-1603)
III. Jacobean Period (1603-1625)
IV. Caroline Age (1625-1649)
V. Commonwealth Period or Puritan Interregnum (1649-
1660)
Major Literacy Periods
D. THE ENLIGHTENMENT (NEOCLASSICAL)
PERIOD (C. 1660-1790)
I. Restoration Period (c. 1660-1700)
II. The Augustan Age (c. 1700-1750)
III.The Age of Johnson (c. 1750-1790)
Major Literacy Periods
E. ROMANTIC PERIOD (c. 1790-1830)
F. VICTORIAN PERIOD And THE 19TH CENTURY (c.
1832-1901)
G. MODERN PERIOD (c. 1914-1945)
H. POSTMODERN PERIOD (c. 1945 onward)
Literature Timeline

CLICK HERE
Videos

What is Literature? - VIDEO #1

Why study Literature? - VIDEO #2
What is World Literature?
• World literature as a body of works that
transcend cultural boundaries and have
universal appeal.
• It is considered in global context. It suggests
to the sum of the total world’s national
literature and also circulation of work into
the wider beyond country’s origin.
What is Classic Literature?
Classic literature as works that have endured
over time and continue to be relevant and
meaningful.
Classic literature is celebrated for its enduring
qualities, which often include timeless themes,
complex characters, and rich language.
Timeless Themes
Classic literature often explores fundamental aspects of
the human experience that remain relevant across ages.
Themes like love, honor, betrayal, and the quest for
meaning are common. For example:
• Shakespeare’s works: His plays grapple with themes of
ambition, power, and identity (e.g., Macbeth, Hamlet).
• Homer’s epics: The Iliad and The Odyssey explore
heroism, fate, and the struggles of human life.
Complex Characters
The characters in classic literature are typically multi-
dimensional, with internal conflicts and evolving
personalities. They often grapple with moral dilemmas
or face profound personal growth. For instance:
• Dostoevsky’s characters: In Crime and Punishment or
The Brothers Karamazov, characters are deeply flawed
and conflicted, reflecting on existential questions.
• Austen’s characters: In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth
Bennet and Mr. Darcy are richly developed with their
own growth arcs and personal challenges.
Rich Language
Classic literature often features a distinctive and elaborate
use of language. This includes:
Sophisticated diction: The language is often ornate, reflecting
the period’s linguistic style and sometimes challenging
modern readers.
Literary devices: Metaphors, allegories, and intricate
symbolism are prevalent. For example, Melville’s Moby-Dick
uses the white whale as a complex symbol of obsession and
the unknown.
Literary Genres
 Poetry
• Lyric Poetry- Uses strong feelings and emotions.
• Simple Poetry – it includes wide variety of poem that do not
fall under the other types of lyrics.
• Song – a short lyric poem meant to be sung and has
melodious quality. The song can be sacred of secular.
Under sacred song of hymns, anthems, and oratorios.
• Ode – Most majestic type of lyric poetry, it is exalted in tone
and expresses enthusiasm And lofty praise for person,
object, event or idea. Famous examples are Wordsworth’s
Hymn to Duty or Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn.
 Poetry
- is a intensified language using vivid
imagery, regular rhythm, rhyme scheme
and figurative expression. However,
some poems intentionally avoid the use
of rhymes (blank verse) and ignore
rhyme(free verse)
Poetry
• Elegy- is a lament for the dead . Example
Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard
• Sonnet- a lyric poem of fourteen lines with a
formal rhyme scheme or pattern. The Italian
Francesco Petrarch was the first important poet
to use it though Shakespeare popularized it in
English speaking world.
Poetry
• Haiku – a three line poem consisting of a total of 17
syllables (usually allotted 5-7-5) originating in Japan
and refined poet Basho in the 17th century. Its theme
is usually about nature.

Example
Dewdrops, let me cleanse
In your sweet fleeting waters
These dark hand of life.
Poetry
• Limerick – A short humorous five line poem.
The rhyme scheme is a a b b a.
• Epitaph- an inscription of gravestones
originally in verse form. An epitaph should be
memorable and should speak of the deceased
in some way.
Poetry
• Cinquain – A five line poem invented by Adelaide
Crapsey. It has 2 syllables in its first lines, and
four, six, and eight in the three intervening lines.
Example:
“ Listen with faint fry sound,
like steps of passing ghosts,
the leaves frost crisp’d break from the trees
and fall”—“ November Night” by Adelaide Crapsey
Narrative Poetry
- tells a story in verse form.
Narrative Poetry
• Epic- Celebrates the exploits of a hero and the
development of a nation.
Examples:
a. Greece- Iliad and The Odyssey both by
Homer
b. Rome- Aeneid written by Virgil
c. Spain- El Cid
Narrative Poetry
• Ballad- a short simple narrative poem
composed to be sung as it was transmitted
orally from generation to generation. Themes of
ballads revolve around hapless love, revenge
death, cruel family, a historical event and a
legendary character.
Narrative Poetry
• Metrical Tale- a narrative poem longer than the
ballad. It relates real or imaginary events about
ordinary people in a simple language.
• Metrical Romans- a long rambling love story in
verse form. Virtues of honor, courage, truth and
reverence for women are the themes involve in
metrical romance
Dramatic Poetry
- In dialogue form, it narrated in
poetic form conversations
between characters. It meant to
be performed on the stage.
Dramatic Poetry
1. Tragedy- The hero dies or struggles with
suffering throughout.
2. Comedy- funny elements are found in the play-
such as mistaken identities, wrong attribution
etc.
3. Tragicomedy- a mixture of both tragedy and
comedy
 Drama/Play
- is a composition in prose from that
presents a story told entirely in dialogue
and action.
 Types of Play
a. Burlesque - is a means of making people , actions or
literary forms ridiculous through extreme exaggerated.
b. Tragic comedy - at type of Elizabethan and Jacobean
drama which mingled both the standard subjects matters the
forms of tragedy and comedy;
a) its important characters include both people of high
degree and people of low degree,:
b) it represents a serious action which threatens a tragic
disaster to the protagonist, yet ,by an abrupt reversal of
circumstance, end happily.
 Types of Play
c. Masque - an elaborate and costly form of court
entertainment, combining poetic drama, song,
dance, music splendid costuming the stage
spectacle.
d. Miracle Play - late – medieval drama which had
for its subject the life and martyrdom of a saint.
e. Mystery play - a type of play that presents story
from the scriptures.
 Types of Play
f. Morality play - dramatized allegory of the
representative Christians life, in the mode of a
question for a salvation in which the crucial
events are temptation, sin and confrontation with
death.
g. Absurd - a play that projects a human
condition and essentially and ineradicably
meaningless, purposeless.
 Types of Play
h. Problem Play - intends to represent
contemporary social problem and is is able to
purpose a solution to the problem which is at
odds with prevailing opinion.
i. Commedia dell’ arte - comic drama where
actors playing stock characters, largely
improvised the dialogue around a given scenario.
Types of Drama
Tragedy – is a play in which the main
character is brought to ruin or suffers a
great sorrow. This Type raises a vital points
about man, his existence, his moral nature,
and his social and psychological
relationship.
Types of Drama
Comedy – Is a play that brings laughter where the
protagonist leaps over all difficulties placed in his
way and ultimately achieves his goal
notwithstanding awkwardness. The stroke in
comedy is based on some divergence from
customariness or familiarity in the different
elements of the theory.
Types of Drama
Melodrama – is drawn from tragedy and
characterized as something overstated which
concentrates in action. It deals with stern feat
and concludes in a happy resolutions. It is
only achieved when the power of the villain is
neutralized or combated.
Types of Drama
Farce – Is a play that brings laughter for the
sake of laughter, usually making use of
grossly embellished events and character.
Unlikely plots and entertaining
characterization are used for simulation.
 Prose
- is discourse which uses sentences, forming
paragraphs, to express ideas, feelings and
actions. The subject matter of prose usually
concentrates on the familiar and the ordinary.
Though focusing on the ordinary, topics in prose
may also be about heroism, beauty, nobility and
love. Prose maybe narrative in form and in some
instances may also center on the presentation of
an idea, a concept or a point of view. In this latter
form, its main purpose is to give information,
instruction and enlightenment.
 Prose
Fiction – “a series of imagined facts which illustrates
truths about fiction”
1. Short story – a brief artistic form of prose fiction
which is centered on a single, main incident and is
intended to produce a single dominant impression.
2. Novel- an extensive prose narrative ranging a
hundred pages to epic like length. The plot is
complicated, characterization profound and theme are
many.
 Prose
Non-Fiction- deals with facts and information. It
may be expository or may also narrative in form.
- Essay
- Formal Essay
- Informal Essay