Module 9 a Rediscovery of the Literary World

21st CLPW

MODULE 9 A REDISCOVERY OF THE LITERARY WORLD

• Filipino-Chinese literature- melting pot of two cultures in the Philippines
• Africa - “seat of human civilization”
• WHO and WHAT:

1. Charlson Ong - a Filipino-Chinese writer

 - wrote Banyaga: A Song of War (2006)

b)         Khaled Hosseini - an Afghan-American writer and a professional medical doctor in California

- wrote A Thousand Splendid Suns

• LITERARY CRITICISM:

- New Historicism… know all about the author first before understanding a text

- Death of the Author by Roland Barthes… readers must separate the literary text from its writer

c)        Chinua Achebe - Nigerian novelist, professor and critic who rose to critical acclaim

- wrote Things Fall Apart

-Igbo chief

MODULE 10 CHARTING OUR OWN IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

• Southeast Asia (SEA) - rich with its own unique culture and history

- mostly a tropical area, so the countries within it are quite similar in terms of climate and ecosystem

- cultural diversity… a melting pot of cultures

• COUNTRIES:

• Thailand
• Laos
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Indonesia
• Philippines
• Brunei
• East Timor

• RELIGIONS:

• Islam - Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia
• Catholic - Philippines, Vietnam
• Buddhism - Thailand

• WHO and WHAT:

1. Pira Sudham - A Thai author

- wrote Monsoon Country 

• LITERARY CRITICISM:

- Formalism or Russian formalism… Ferdinand de Saussure’s idea of semiotics and how signs and symbols may bring about a new meaning in a literary text

- defamiliarized… new to the senses

b)        Latiff Mohidin - a poet and painter

- Boy Wonder

MODULE 11 THE ROOTS OF EAST ASIA

• East Asia - first Homo erectus or “upright man”
• DYNASTIES

1. Xia Dynasty - 1st dynasty
2. Shang Dynasty of the Yellow River Valley
3. Zhou Dynasty - longest lasting dynasty

• RELIGIONS

• Confucianism - during Han Dynasty
• Buddhism
• Taoism

• COUNTRIES

• Hong Kong
• Mongolia
• Japan
• Korea
• Macau
• Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa prefecture)
• Tibet
• Taiwan

• WHO and WHAT:

1. Kimitake Hiraoka (Yukio Mishima) - Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, and film director

- wrote Swaddling Clothes

• LITERARY CRITICISM:

- Postcolonialism… an era or theory that is developed AFTER certain colony gains independence from its mother country

-Decolonization… intellectual process of returning to the former independence that colonies have enjoyed BEFORE the colonizers came

MODULE 12 EXPLORING SOUTH ASIA AND WESTERN ASIA

• Western Asia or Southwest Asia, and also called Middle East
• RELIGIONS … great monotheistic religions:

• Islam
• Christianity
• Judaism

• WESTERN ASIA is surrounded by:

• Aegean Sea
• Black Sea
• Persian Gulf
• Caspian Sea
• Arabian Sea
• Red Sea
• Mediterranean Sea

- Turkey is shared by both Europe and Asia

- Major source is petroleum, for almost 60% of the world’s reserve are in Western Asia

• SOUTH ASIA COUNTRIES

• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Pakistan
• Afghanistan
• Sri Lanka

• WESTERN ASIA COUNTRIES 

• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Bahrain
• Cyprus
• Georgia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Oman
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates (UAE)
• Yemen

• WHO AND WHAT:

1. Taslima Nasrin - a feminist writer from Bangladesh

- wrote Motherhood

• LITERARY CRITICISM:

- Marxism by Karl Marx… wanted to understand how the capitalist society works and where it would likely lead. For short, class struggles.

TWO CLASSES:

1. Capitalists or owners

2. Proletariat or workers

• ALIENATION… looking at the way workers are living and how this specifically affects their overall well-being:

1. the worker is alienated from the productive process itself
2. … is alienated from the product itself
3. … is alienated from society and other humans
4. … is alienated from the need of the human being for creativity and community that is to be shared with other human beings

MODULE 13 DELVING DEEP INTO THE ANGLO-AMERICAN FRONTIER 

•  Beowulf - a Germanic epic that details the adventures of its lead character
• Old English Poetry:

1.        Heroic Epic - sourced from pre-Christian myth and custom

2.        Christian Epic

• Anglo-Saxon Literature - important Old English heroic epic
• Two names that are prominent during the period: 

1.        Caedmon - earliest known English poet whose story was told by Venerable Bede

2.        Cynewulf - a later poet

• Caesura - a break in the flow of the sound and is arranged in independent patterns

• WHO and WHAT:

1. Edgar Allan Poe- best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre

- wrote The Tell-Tale Heart

• LITERARY CRITICISM:

New Criticism - a literary concept that places the emphasis on “close reading” of the work or text itself