21st Century Literature Reviewer ◦ Reuel Antevadez ◦ Melchor Antevadez SPECULATIVE FICTION • Robert A. Heinlein ◦ CAMPBELL'S “THE HERO'S JOURNEY” Coined the term in 1942 and popularized it through his 1947 essay “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction,” and advocated for it in his guest- of-honor speech at the 1951 World Science Fiction Convention. • Joseph Campbell • The Monomyth describes the common structure that hero myths take, no matter the culture they originate in. a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making -- and more • The journey is one of transformation – it changes the hero. Learning takes place. • Representation of rites of passage • Monomyth is also known as the Hero’s Journey. • It’s dominant genres includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror. • Monomyth is split into 3 phases • Any fiction in which the “laws” of that world (explicit or implied) are different than ours. • • Takes our existing world and changes it by asking “What if?” • Any fiction in which the “laws” of that world (explicit or implied) are different than ours. ◦ Separation/Departure → Initiation → Return ▪ THE KITE OF STARS • • • Call to Adventure • Refusal to Call • Supernatural Aid • Crossing the first threshold • Belly of the whale Dean Francis Alfar ◦ A Filipino playwright, novelist and writer of speculative fiction. ◦ He received the following awards: Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature & Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awards. ◦ • Departure ▪ Among his works are: Salamanca (Ateneo Press, 2006) Kite of Stars and other stories (Anvil Publishing, 2007) How to Traverse Terra Incognita (Visprint, 2014) A Field Guide to the Roads of Manila (Anvil Publishing, 2015) Initiation • Road of Trials • Meeting with the Goddess • Woman as a Temptress • Atonement with the Father • Apotheosis • Ultimate Boon Settings ◦ Flashback ◦ The night when she thought she would finally be a star, Maria Isabella du'l Cielo struggled to calm the trembling of her hands, reached over to cut the tether that tied her to the ground, and thought of that morning many years before when she'd first caught a glimpse of Lorenzo du Vicenzio ei Salvadore: tall, thick-browed and handsome, his eyes closed, oblivious to the cacophony of the accident waiting to occur around him. ▪ Return • Refusal to Return • Magical Flight • Rescue from Without • Crossing the Return Threshold • Master of Two Worlds • Freedom to Live Characters ◦ Lorenzo Du Vicenzio El Salvadore ◦ Maria Isabella Du'l Cielo ◦ Butcher's Boy DYSTOPIAN • A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. • Characteristics of Dystopian Society ◦ Propaganda is used to control the citizens of society. ◦ Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted. ◦ A figurehead or concept is worshipped by the citizens of the society. ◦ Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance. ◦ ◦ • “At first [man] is nothing. Only afterward will he be something, and he himself will have made what he will be.” Albert Camus Citizens have a fear of the outside world. ◦ “Life is absurd.” ◦ Citizens live in a dehumanized state. ◦ ◦ The natural world is banished and distrusted. “There is only one really serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” ◦ Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad. The society is an illusion of a perfect utopian world. Existentialism • Provides an account of what it is like to exist as a human being in the world • Humans define their own meaning in life, and try to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe. Dystopian Controls Corporate Controls ▪ ◦ ◦ A CORNER IN MY SOUL • Saju Abraham ◦ Society is controlled by a mindless bureaucracy through a tangle of red tape, relentless regulations, and incompetent government officials. Technological Controls ▪ ◦ One or more large corporations control society through products, advertising, and/or the media. Bureaucratic Controls ▪ • Hamlet ◦ Society is controlled by technology-through computers, robots, and/or scientific means. A lecturer in English at Sohar University, Oman. He was born in India and became a missionary at the age of 15. He left the missionary and eventually left India to work under the ministry of Education in Oman. Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king. Philosophical/ Religious Control ▪ Society is controlled by philosophical or religious ideology often enforced through a dictatorship or theocratic government. ELEMENTS OF A SHORT STORY • Setting Dystopian Protagonist ◦ The time and location in which a story takes place ◦ Often feels trapped and is struggling to escape. Believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives. ◦ There are several aspects included such as place, time, weather condition, social condition, mood or atmosphere. ◦ Questions the existing social and political systems. Helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his or her perspective. EXISTENTIALISM • Jean-Paul Sartre When an individual's longing for order collides with the real world's lack of order, the result is absurdity (Myth of Sisyphus) ◦ • • “An objective uncertainty, held fast through appropriation with the most passionate inwardness, is the truth, the highest truth there is for an existing person.” ◦ ◦ • ◦ Soren Kierkegaard ◦ “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” • Character ◦ The person in a work of fiction ◦ Characteristics of a person ◦ Types of Characters ▪ Rounded Characters- many-sided and complex personalities that you would expect of actual human beings. ▪ Flat Characters- personalities that are presented only briefly and not in depth ▪ Dynamic – many-sided personalities that change, for better or worse, by the end of the story. ▪ • Static- these characters are often stereotypes, have one or two characteristics that never change that are emphasized. Point of View ◦ The angle or perspective from which the story is told. ◦ Kinds of P.O.V. Plot ◦ ◦ is how the author arranges events to develop his or her basic idea. It is the sequence of events in a story or play. The plot is a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle, and end. ▪ Introduction- The beginning of the story where the characters and the setting is revealed. ▪ Rising Action- This is where the events in the story become complicated and the conflict in the story is revealed ▪ Climax- This is the highest point of interest and the turning point of the story. ▪ Falling Action- The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. The reader knows what has happened next and if the conflict was resolved or not. • First Person- The story is told by the protagonist or another character that interacts closely with the protagonist or other characters (using first person pronouns “I”, “me”, “we”, etc) ▪ Second Person- The main character in the story is referred to using the second person pronoun “you” ▪ Third Person- The story is told using a narrator who is located outside of the action of the story and uses third person pronouns such as “he”, “she”, “his”, “her”, “they” etc. Theme ◦ • Denouement- This is the final outcome or untangling of events in the story. ◦ it is the opposition of forces which ties one incident to another and makes the plot move. ◦ Types of Conflict: a piece of fiction that controls the idea or central insight of the story. It is the author's underlying meaning or main idea that he is trying to convey OTHER LITERARY TERMS Imagery ◦ sensory details appealing to the five senses (taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight). ◦ Types of Imagery: Conflict ◦ ▪ Five essential parts of a plot: ▪ • • ▪ VISUAL: appeals to or represents the sense of sight ▪ TACTILE/KINESTHETIC: appeals to or represents the sense of touch ▪ External- A struggle with a force outside one's self ▪ AUDITORY: appeals to or represents the sense of sound ▪ Internal- A struggle within one's self; a person must make some decision, overcome pain, quiet their temper, resist an urge, etc. ▪ GUSTATORY: appeals to or represents the sense of taste ▪ OLFACTORY: appeals to or represents the sense of smell Kinds of Conflict: ▪ MAN VS MAN (physical) - The leading character struggles with his physical strength against other men, forces of nature, or animals. ▪ MAN VS NATURE - The leading character struggles the forces of nature. ▪ MAN VS SOCIETY (social) - The leading character struggles against ideas, practices, or customs of other people. ▪ MAN VS SELF (psychological) - The leading character struggles with himself/herself; with his/her own soul, ideas of right or wrong, physical limitations, choices, etc. • Frame Story ◦ • a story set within a story, narrative, or movie, told by the main or the supporting character. A character starts telling a story to other characters, or he sits down to write a story, telling the details to the audience. Foreshadowing ◦ a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. It appears at the beginning of a story or a chapter and helps the reader develop expectations about the coming events in a story. • Epiphany ◦ • Flashback ◦ • interruptions that writers do to insert past events in order to provide background or context to the current events of a narrative. Flash-Forward ◦ • The point in a work of literature where a character has a sudden insight or realization that changes his or her understanding the plot goes ahead of time i.e. a scene that interrupts and takes the narrative forward in time from the current time in a story. In Medias Res ◦ a narrative that begins, not at the beginning of a story, but somewhere in the middle usually at some crucial point in the action.
