ELEMENTS OF
LITERATURE AND
THE COMBINED ARTS



At present, not all written works can be
considered literature. To understand a good
literary work, we should know first the
important elements of literature.
It is undeniable that the medium of literature
is language, and language is composed of
words that are combined into sentences to
express ideas, emotions or desires.
Writers, therefore, should be careful in their
choice of words and expressions of their
emotions and ideas in order to carefully
organize sentences that would manifest a
high sense of value.
In other words, a writer should bear these
objectives in mind:
1. To strive in raising the level of the reader’s
humanity and
2. To accomplish the purpose of making one
better person, giving him a high sense of value.
The important elements of literature are:
1. Emotional appeal
2. Intellectual appeal
3. Humanistic value
Emotional appeal – is attained when the reader
is emotionally moved or touched by any literary
work like:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
Elizabeth B. Browning
How Do I Love Thee?


Rizal’s two revolutionary novels, the Noli Me
Tangere and El Filibusterismo, are good
illustrations of literature of intellectual
appeal.
Both add knowledge or information and remind
the reader of what he has forgotten. Specially,
in one of his philosophical ideas “on
consecration to a great idea,” he said:
Don’t you realize that it is a useless life which
is not consecrated to a great idea? It is a stone
wasted in the fields without becoming part of
any edifice. (Simoun to Basilio)


Humanistic value can be attained when a
literary work makes the reader an improved
person with a better outlook in life and with a
clear understanding of his/her inner self.
To illustrate, here is a stanza from Amado V.
Hernandez’s poem entitled “Foreigner,” which
was translated by Cirilio F. Bautista into
English.
Finds faults with things that are nativecustoms and living, food and dress- were it not
for his brown skin you’d think he was foreign
and born somewhere else.
Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” is a very
good example of a literary work which has a
humanistic value. It shows that woman’s pride
changes the normality of life, but at the same
time, the change is to the advantage of the
individual for it leads to self-understanding and
a clearer outlook in life.
What would have happened if she had never lost
those jewels?
Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is, how
fickle! How little is needed to ruin or to save!
The above-mentioned important elements of
literature are embo-died in the Holy Bible, as
the Gospel of St. John 3:6 states;
For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son, so that whoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
Classification of Literature
Perrine stated that literature can be
classified as escape and interpretative
literature.
Escape literature – is written for entertainment
purposes, that is, to help us pass the time in an
agreeable manner. It takes us away from the
real world and enables us to temporarily forget
our troubles and has for its object only
pleasure.
Interpretative literature – is written to
broaden and sharpen our awareness in life. It
takes us, through imagination, deeper into the
real world and enables us to understand our
troubles. It has for its object- pleasure plus
understanding.
Uses of Literature
1) Moralizing literature – here, the purpose of
literature is to present moral values for the
reader to understand and appreciate; the
moral may be directly or indirectly stated.
The Monkey’s Point of View
Three monkeys sat on a coconut tree
Discussing things as they said to be
Said one to the others, now listen, you two,
There’s a certain rumor that can’t be true
That man descended from our noble race
The very idea! It’s desire disgrace!
No monkey ever deserted his wife,
Starved his children and ruined their lives.
And you’ve never known a mother monk
To leave her baby with others to bunk
Or pass them on from one to another
‘Till they hardly know who is their mother
And another thing, you will never see
A monk build a fence round a coconut tree
And let the coconut go to the waste
Forbidding all the monk to the taste.
Starvation would force you to steal from me.
Besides, what monk would smoke a pipe
and burn the trees, pollute his hair and kill
himself?
Here’s another thing a monk won’t do
Go out at night and get a stew
Or use his gun or club or knife
To take some other monkey’s life
Yes! Man descended, the ornery cuss,
But brother, he didn’t descend from us!!!
- Anonymous
2. Propaganda literature – This kind of
literature is found not only in history books and
advertising and marketing books but also in
some books describing one’s personal success
and achievements in life.
3. Psychological continuum of the individualtherapeutic value – It could be looked on as a
sophisticated modern elaboration of the idea of
catharsis- an emotional relief experienced by
the reader there by helping him recover from a
previous pent-up emotion.
The following are examples of therapeutic
poems.
Don’t Quit
When things go wrong. As they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit…
Rest if you must but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns
As every one of us sometimes learns
And many a person turns about
When they might have won had they stuck it
out
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow…
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup
And he learned too late when the night came
down
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out…
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit…
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t
quit.
-Anonymous
I Am Somebody
“I may be young; I may be old,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child
“I may be educated; I may be unlettered,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child.
“I may be black; I may be white,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child.
“I may be rich; I may be poor,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child
.“I may be fat; I may be thin,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child.
“I may be married; I may be divorced,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child.
“I may be successful; I may be a failure,”
But I am somebody,
For I am God’s child.
“I may be a sinner, I may be a saint,”
But I am somebody,
For Jesus is my savior,
I am God’s child!
From:
Schuller, Robert H. self-Esteem: The
New reformation U.S.A. Tyndale House
Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois, 1992
Elements of Poetry
Poetry is as universal as language and almost
as ancient. The most primitive peoples have
used it, and the most civilized have cultivated
it. Among the types of literature, poetry
writing is the most challenging for the following
reasons:
 first, the choice of proper words or grammar;
 second, the denotative and symbolical meaning
of the chosen grammar and
 third, the limitation imposed by the structure
and rhythm of sounds. It is the last reason,
however, that makes a poem beautiful and
appreciated by the reader:
1.
Denotation/Connotation
Denotation – is the actual meaning of a word
derived from the dictionary. The word “home”
for instance, by denotation means a place
where one lives.
Connotation – is the related or allied meanings
of a word. The same word “home” suggests
warmth, comfort, security, love, and other
meanings that are associated with its
denotative meaning.
2.


Imagery -this may be defined as the
representation of sense experience through
language.
Images are formed as we see, hear, taste,
smell, and touch; or we say that an “image” is
the mental duplication of a sense impression.
The most common imagery is visual, as we are
made to see what the author is talking about.
G. Burce Bunao’s “Change” is filled with the
poet’s own personal imagery.
Things change:
No longer do I,
Recovering from the shock
Of a huge branch falling
At my feet
No longer do I
Cower in fear
No longer run to my altar
In the woods,
The fire of prayer in my mouth.
The poet imagines his previous fear of falling,
his recovery from the shock, and realization that
the fall a part of a child’s growth and
development.
3. Figurative language – the most commonly used
and the most important of the figurative language
are the simile and the metaphor. Both simile and
metaphor are used as a means of comparing things
that are essentially unlike. The only distinction
between them is that a
simile – the comparison is expressed by the use of
some word or phrase, such as like, as than, similar
to, resemble or seem;
metaphor – the comparison is implied, that is, the
figurative term is substituted for or identified
with a literal term.
Our man-child is wild –
As tempest, as northwind,
As jungle, as rapids,
As tiger, as broncho
As all these are wild!
“Our Children”
Lucia Zabarte Parceso
We can clearly notice above that the author
compares the child of the men to the wildest in
nature and the wildest of animals.
I gave myself to him.
And tock himself for pay.
The solemn contract of a life.
Was ratified this way.
“I Gave Myself to Him”
Emily Dickinson
This stanza is imaginatively unified by an
extended metaphor, in which a marriage
contract is compared to a sales contract (or
the entering into a love relationship is
compared to a commercial transaction). The
woman is both the seller and the merchandise,
the man both the purchaser and the payment.
4.




Rhythm and Meter - our appreciation of
rhythm and meter is rooted even deeper in us
than our love for musical repetition.
It is related to the beats of our hearts and the
intake and outflow of air from our lungs.
Rhythm is a part of our lives as there is rhythm
in the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we
swim and other similar activities.
Meter, in language, is the accents that are so
arranged as to occur at apparently equal
intervals of time.
Metrical language is called verse.
Out of the night that covers me.
Black as the Pit from pole to pole.
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
“Invictus”
William Ernest Henley
At present, there are poets who are not so
particular on rhyme and meter, and they call
such a style as “free verse”.
What I am
at any given moment
in the process
of my becoming
a person,
will be determined
by the relation with
those who love me
with those whom I
love or refuse
to love.
“On Being a Person”
Lory Jao, 1981
5. Meaning and Idea – the meaning of a poem is
the experience it expresses. Here, we can
distinguish between the “total meaning” of a
poem and its “prose meaning”.
Total meaning – is the idea in a poem which is
only a part of the total experience it
communicates. The value and worth of the poem
are determined by the value of the total
experience, not by the truth or the nobility of
the idea itself.
Prose meaning – does not necessarily have to be
an idea itself. It may be a story, a description,
a statement of emotion, a presentation of
human character or a combination of these.
Elements of the Short Story





As mentioned earlier, literature can be
classified as escape and interpretative
literature.
A story becomes interpretative as it illuminates
some aspects of human life or behavior.
An interpretative story presents us with an
insight- large or small- into the nature and
condition of our existence.
It gives us a keener awareness of what it is to
be a human being in a universe that is sometimes
friendly, sometimes hostile.
It helps us understand our neighbors and
ourselves.
Elements of A Story
1. Plot - it is the sequence of incidents or
events of which a story is composed. “The Life
of Cardo” by Amador T. Daguio is in example of
a short story with related incidents or events.
Plot in a short story means arrangement of
action. The action refers to an imagined event
or happening or to a series of such events.
2. Character – reading for character is more
difficult than reading for a ploy, for character
in much more complex, varied, and ambiguous.
Most short stories are focused on or evolves in
just one character.
3. Theme – it is the controlling idea or the
central insight in a literary work. It is the
unifying generalization about life stated or
implied by the story.



In many stories, the theme may be the
equivalent to the revelation of human character.
In stating the theme in the sentence, we must
pick the central insight, the one that explains
the greatest number of elements in the story
and relates them to each other. The theme gives
a story its unity.
The equivalent of the theme in the literature
and combined arts is the subject in painting,
sculpture, and music
4. Symbol and Irony – literary symbol is
something that means more than what it is. It
is an object, a person, a situation, an action or
some other item that has a literal meaning in
the story but suggests or represents other
meanings as well.
Irony – is a term with a range of meanings,
all of them involving some sort of discrepancy
or incongruity. It is a contrast in which one
term of the contrast in some way mocks the
other term.
5. Language and Style


Language refers to the idiom/phrased used and
how it is used.
Style, on the other hand, is a term which may
refer to the precise use of language, both
literary and figuratively; it may refer to the
total working out of the short story, taking all
the other elements (character, plot, theme ,
setting) into consideration. ( Edilberto Dagot ;
et al., 1974)
THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!!!