SDO MALABON CITY SHS

Self-Learning Modules in
21st Century Literature from the
Philippines and the World
Second Quarter
 SELF-LEARNING MODULE IN ENGLISH 12
21ST Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

SECOND QUARTER
WEEK 1-5

MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCIES

• Writing a close analysis and critical interpretation of literary texts,
applying a reading approach, and doing an adaptation of these,
require from the learner the ability to identify: representative texts
and authors from Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America, and
Africa (EN12Lit-IIa-22)

LIST OF TEXTS AND AUTHORS (CLASSIC)

Region Authors Works/Texts Genre
AFRICA Wole Soyinka “Civilian and Poetry
Soldier”
ASIA Akiyuki Nozaka “Grave of the Novel into
Fireflies” Film (anime)
EUROPE Anton Chekov “The Lottery Short story
Ticket”
LATIN Gabriel Garcia- “The Handsomest Short story
AMERICA Marquez Drowned Man in
the World”
NORTH Sara Teasdale “Love Songs” Poetry
AMERICA

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

For the first 5 weeks of the quarter, you will be assigned one classic
selection per week to study, discuss, understand, and appreciate. A
compilation (or reader) is at the beginning of this module. Answer the
guide questions for each selection.
WEEK 1
SELECTION CIVILIAN AND SOLDIER
AUTHOR WOLE SOYINKA
REGION AFRICA (NIGERIA)
GENRE POETRY

DIRECTIONS:
A. Read the title. What do you make of it? List things that come to
your mind.
B. Read the poem twice taking care to pause at periods and not at
end of each line. For example, the first stanza,

My apparition rose from the fall of lead,

Declared, 'I am a civilian.' It only served
To aggravate your fright. For how could I
Have risen, a being of this world, in that hour
Of impartial death! And I thought also: nor is
Your quarrel of this world.
should be read this way:

1. My apparition rose from the fall of lead, Declared, 'I am a

civilian.'
2. It only served to aggravate your fright.
3. For how could I Have risen, a being of this world, in that hour
Of impartial death!
4. And I thought also: nor is Your quarrel of this world.

C. If you read the poem correctly, you would find it easy to

understand what is being said.
“My apparition rose from the fall of lead, declared,
“I am a civilian”.
a. Who is talking here? The civilian or the soldier?
b. What does the world “apparition” mean?
c. What is “fall of lead”?
d. What phrase in Line 3 ties up with “apparition”?
 e. What phrase in Line 3 connects to “fall of lead”?
f. Who is “your” in Line 4? Why does he have “quarrel with this
world”? Between the Civilian and the Soldier, who has “quarrel
with this world”?
D. Continue with the next stanza. Adopt the same flow of close
reading and analysis. Ask the questions to yourself or discuss with
a classmate via SMS or Chat.
E. The second stanza is composed of two long sentences. Write
them separately to see the message.
F. What do the following mean?
a. “do not leave a dubious neutral to the rear”
b. “my civilian quandary”
c. “lead festival of your more eager friends”
d. “death Twitched me gently in the eye”
e. your plight And all of you came clear to me.
G. Who is talking in the second stanza?
H. Who is talking in the third stanza?
I. Is the civilian angry at the soldier?
J. What does the civilian hope to do for the soldier in the future?
K. “do you friend, even now, know
What it is all about?” Who is asking what to whom here?

Note: Wole Soyinka experienced a civil war in his country Nigeria.

WEEK 2

SELECTION THE LOTTERY TICKET

AUTHOR ANTON CHEKOV
REGION EUROPE (RUSSIA)
GENRE SHORT STORY

DIRECTIONS:
Complete the table of information for the short story.

SETTING:

CHARACTERS:

PLOT (SUMMARY)

CONFLICT

THEME

POINT OF VIEW

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Have you bought a lotto ticket? Why or why not?
2. What will you do first when you find out that you have won 100
million pesos in the lotto?
3. Who will you tell the good news to?
4. Will you share your winnings? To whom and how much?
5. Will you tell your neighbors? Explain your answer.
WEEK 3
SELECTION THE HANDSOMEST DROWNED
MAN IN THE WORLD

AUTHOR GABRIEL GARCIA-MARQUEZ

REGION COLOMBIA (LATIN AMERICA)
GENRE SHORT STORY

DIRECTIONS:
Complete the table of information for the short story.

SETTING:

CHARACTERS:

PLOT (SUMMARY)

CONFLICT

THEME

POINT OF VIEW

The author is known for his “magical realism” which is a genre of

literature that “depicts the real world as having an undercurrent
of magic or fantasy… Within a work of magical realism, the world is still
grounded in the real world, but fantastical elements are considered
normal in this world.”

Explain in a paragraph of at least 6 sentences the “magical realism”

aspect of the short story.
WEEK 4

SELECTION LOVE SONGS

AUTHOR SARA TEASDALE
REGION NORTH AMERICA (USA)
GENRE POETRY

DIRECTIONS:
1. Recite the poem. Enjoy the sound of the words. Poetry is special in
that the words are carefully chosen by the poet.
2. The two lines below appear at the start of different stanzas. They
are parallel in structure though. They are

Anaphora - a rhetorical device that features repetition of a word or

phrase at the beginning of successive sentences, phrases, or
clauses. (literarydevices.net)

• I have remembered beauty in the night

• I have remembered music in the dark

a. How are they like each other? Consider “beauty in the night” and
“music in the dark”. Reflect and write your insights on your answer
sheet.
3. Find the meaning of fugue and prelude. Which common word in
the poem are they tied to?
4. The persona in the poem is well-travelled. How do we know this
from the poem?
5. She is well-travelled but “at rest”. Why?
6. Is there a song you know that says the same thing as this poem?
Compare.
WEEK 5

SELECTION GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

AUTHOR AKIYUKI NOZAKA (NOVEL)

ISAO TAKAHATA (FILM)

REGION ASIA (JAPAN)

GENRE NOVEL/FILM

**If you can, please watch the excerpts of the film on YouTube.

Write short reflections (3 sentences each) on the following key words:

1. War
2. Bombs
3. Poverty
4. Youth
5. Hope
6. Sibling love
7. Fireflies
8. Survival
 SELF-LEARNING MODULE IN ENGLISH 12
ST
21 Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

WEEK 6
st
Other 21 Century Literary Genres

EXPECTATIONS
MELC Compare and contrast the various 21st century literary
genres and their elements, structures, and traditions from
across the globe (EN12Lit-IId-25)

At the end of this module, you are expected to

• correctly identify sample texts from some of the literary
genres that became popular in the 21st century.

PRETEST
DIRECTIONS: Identify the 21st century literary genre in the first column
with their description in the second column. Write the
letter of your answer on your answer sheet.

Genre Description
1. Twitterature A. Also called short shorts, nanotales, micro-
stories, postcard fiction, or napkin fiction
2. Webtoon B. Takes place in a highly undesirable society,
often plagued with strict control, violence,
chaos, brainwashing or other negative
elements.
3. Fan fiction C. Is a literary use of the microblogging
service of Twitter. It includes various
genres, including aphorisms, poetry,
and fiction (or some combination thereof)
written by individuals or collaboratively.
4. Flash Fiction D. The author uses copyrighted characters,
settings, or other intellectual properties
from the original creator(s) as a basis for
their writing.
5. Dystopian E. a type of digital comic that originated
in South Korea
LOOKING BACK TO YOUR LESSON
What is 21st century literature? Do you recall its definition?

DIRECTIONS: Choose the statements that are true about 21st century
literature. √ them on your answer sheet.

1. literature written from the year 2001 onwards

2. refers to futuristic stories only
3. influenced by the world wide web
4. gender sensitive
5. operates on the extreme reality or extreme fiction
6. questions conventions and supposedly absolute norms
7. themes are always negative
8. from western countries only

BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Aside from the genres of 21st century literature that were already
mentioned in the previous quarter, there are several other forms that
could interest you as readers which we will discuss in this module.

These are webtoon, Twitterature, and fan fiction. Flash fiction has been
the focus of your previous module activities while speculative fiction has
been mentioned, an example of which is dystopian literature.

WEBTOON
This type of digital comic originated from South Korea. Inspired by the
old manhwa tradition (Korean manga) or comical illustration. These
illustrated stories found an online platform in Naver and then Line as
webtoons. The audience has since grown to include English-subtitled
versions for the international market which could be viewed by scrolling
down one frame at a time, something convenient for tablet and mobile
phone users.
FAN FICTION
This is when a fan takes a character or segment of an original work of
fiction and weaves a separate story around it. In old television, there
were spin-offs, characters who were picked out from the original cast
and given a story of their own. Spin-offs though tend to be truthful to the
original work, a fan fiction can be fiercely independent like a fan-woven
story of two characters they want to have ended up with each other but
did not. On Wattpad, a popular online reading and viewing platform, you
can see fan fiction written around real-life idols and celebrities. Fan
fiction seems to serve as daydreaming vehicle of sorts for creative fans.

TWITTERATURE
Imagine a novel tweeted one sentence at a time to avid followers. This
was what author Mika did from her cellphone everyday in 2007 which
made her novel on adolescent love, teen pregnancy, and terminal
illness, Love Sky, the number one bestseller in Japan. This was a very
appropriate way to capture an audience of daily commuters who could
only read a few sentences of a narrative on board trains and buses on
their way to and from work. Love Sky, like many Twitter novels in 2007,
was eventually made into a book and then later a film.

ACTIVITY 1
DIRECTIONS: Discuss a 21st century literary exemplar.

A. Have you read a webtoon? Or have watched a TV series inspired

by one? Write about it on your answer sheet- its plot, theme,
characters, and other aspects that make it worth your time and
interest.
B. Do you have a favorite character from a fictional work? Would you
do a fan fiction about them? Briefly discuss the character and your
story idea of a spin-off.
ACTIVITY 2
DIRECTIONS: Review your saved text messages to a family member or
a friend. Collect 5 of them and find out if you could discern
a potential narrative like a Twitter story does. Write them
on your answer sheet in their most logical order.

CHECKING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

DIRECTIONS: Reflect on why 21st century literary genres like webtoon,

fan fiction, and Twitterature came about. Write your
insights on your answer sheet.

POSTTEST
DIRECTIONS: Match the genre with the example.

Genre Description
1. Twitterature A. Hunger Games
2. Webtoon B. Jimin the Cat
3. Fan fiction C. Love Sky
4. Flash Fiction D. Tower of God
5. Dystopian E. “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
(Ernest Hemingway)

REFERENCES

https://blog.reedsy.com/what-is-flash-fiction/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitterature

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webtoon

Google Search
 SELF-LEARNING MODULE IN ENGLISH 12
21ST Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

WEEK 7
SPECULATIVE FICTION

EXPECTATIONS
MELC Compare and contrast the various 21st century literary
genres and their elements, structures, and traditions from
across the globe (EN12Lit-IId-25)

At the end of this module, you are expected to

• compare sample texts of similar genres across cultures; and
• recognize through critical reading the comparable elements,
structures, and traditions of examples of 21st Century
literature.

PRETEST
How well do you know zombie stories?
DIRECTIONS: Match the film title with its plot. Write your answers on
your answer sheet.

Film Title Plot

1. 28 Days Later (2002) A. Former UN employee Gerry Lane
traverses the world in a race against
time to stop a zombie pandemic that
is toppling armies and government
2. Train to Busan (2016) B. A special military unit fights a
powerful, out-of-control
supercomputer and hundreds of
scientists who have mutated into
flesh-eating creatures after a
laboratory accident
3. Zombieland (2009) C. Four weeks after a mysterious,
incurable virus spreads throughout
the UK, a handful of survivors try to
find sanctuary
4. Resident Evil (2002) D. A shy student trying to reach out to
 his family in Ohio, a gun-toting
tough guy trying to find the last
Twinkie, and a pair of sisters trying
to get into an amusement park
5. World War Z (2013) E. While a zombie virus breaks out in
S Korea, passengers struggle to
survive on the train

LOOKING BACK TO YOUR LESSON

Speculative fiction
- is a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with certain
elements that do not exist in terms of the recorded history and observed
phenomena of the current universe, covering various themes in the
context of the supernatural, futuristic, and many other imaginative
topics.[1] Under this umbrella category, the genres include, but are not
limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero fiction, alternate
history, utopian and dystopian fiction, and supernatural fiction, as well as
combinations thereof (e.g. science fantasy).

The genres included under this broad category are:

1. Science fiction
2. Fantasy
3. Horror
4. Weird fiction
5. Supernatural
6. Superhero
7. Utopian and dystopian
8. Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic
9. Alternate history

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Speculative fiction is a literary “super genre,” which encompasses a

number of different genres of fiction, each with speculative elements
that are based on conjecture and do not exist in the real world.
Sometimes called “what-if” books, speculative literature changes the
laws of what is real or possible as we know them in our current society,
and then speculates on the outcome. (masterclass.com)

DIRECTIONS: Discuss with a classmate via Messenger. Forward your

exchange to your teacher for marking.
1. Why is it a super genre?
2. “speculate”, “conjecture”, “what-if” – why do these terms hold a lot
of potential for a writer?
3. Why is it fiction?

ACTIVITY
DIRECTIONS: Read these excerpts from articles on zombies and then
answer the questions that follow.

If it were not for horror legend George Romero, the zombie film as we
know it today probably would not be around. With the release of his
landmark Night of the Living Dead, the "Godfather of the zombie film," he
revolutionized not only the way the undead were depicted in pop culture
but the way horror movies were shot entirely. And over the following 41
years, Romero wrote and directed five more Dead movies before his
passing in July 2017.
Source: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2550831 -

Though George Romero's 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead" is often
considered to be the original modern zombie film, the first actually
appeared nearly 40 years earlier in "White Zombie," starring Béla Lugosi
as an evil voodoo priest in Haiti who zombifies a beautiful young woman.
In the years since, only a handful of zombie films have returned to their
Haitian origins — most notably "The Serpent and the Rainbow."
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "zombie" first
appeared in English around 1810 when historian Robert Southey
mentioned it in his book "History of Brazil." But this "Zombi" was not the
familiar brain-eating manlike monstrosity but instead a West African
deity. The word later came to suggest the vital, human force leaving the
shell of a body, and ultimately a creature human in form but lacking the
self-awareness, intelligence, and a soul. It was imported to Haiti and
elsewhere from Africa through the slave trade.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/23892-zombies-real-facts.html
 1. Which traits of the original zombie are still characterized in films
and books today?
2. Why do you think the fascination for zombies prevailed especially
in cinemas even if the creatures look monstrous and nightmarish
all the time?
3. If you were to “speculate” on a zombie situation and write a story
about it, what would be its plot? How will it be different from the
numerous zombie stories that have been written?

CHECKING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

DIRECTIONS: On your answer sheet, reflect on the following:

1. How does a writer derive inspiration to create something that
would be as popular as a zombie character and plot?

2. What folklore creature would you be inspired to make popular?

What are its traits that will make it interesting?

POSTTEST
How well do you know your superheroes?
DIRECTIONS: Match the superhero with their superpower. Write your
answers on your answer sheet.
Superhero Superpower
1. Black Panther A. Regenerative healing factor
2. Batman B. Intelligence
3. Doctor Strange C. Combat
4. Superman D. Vibranium suit
5. Deadpool E. Strength and speed

REFERENCES
imdb.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction
https://www.superherodb.com/
 SELF-LEARNING MODULE IN ENGLISH 12
ST
21 Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

WEEK 8

EXPECTATIONS

MELCs
• Produce a creative representation of a literary text by applying
multimedia and ICT skills

• Do self- and/or peer-assessment of the creative adaptation of a

literary text, based on rationalized criteria, prior to presentation

ACTIVITY OPTIONS
DIRECTIONS: Choose three to accomplish for your term-end portfolio of
tasks for this course.

1. Choose a foreign-language song and perform part of it.

But before you sing, explain the lyrics of the song, the story behind
it and why did you choose it. Video-record your performance
(using your cellphone) and send to your teacher via Messenger.
2. Find a 21st Century poem from another country and recite it.
After reciting, briefly explain your own understanding of its
message and why did you choose it. Video record your
performance to submit to your teacher.
3. Choose two films of the same theme and genre but from two
different countries. Compare them using a Venn diagram on Oslo
paper. Do not forget to indicate the important information about the
films in your paper: title, year produced, country and language,
theme, and short plot.
4. Write two flash fiction narratives (300 words each) and post them
on FB. Ask your friends to choose which one they like best.
Forward the one with the most likes (at least 50 likes) to your
teacher.
 5. Draw two fictional characters inspired by Philippine folklore. Post
them on FB and solicit for likes. The one that gets more than 50
likes will be forwarded to your teacher.
6. Write an original flash fiction using emojis/emoticons. Send them
to your contacts and ask them to interpret. Write a short reflection
paragraph on how you felt when your contacts correctly or
incorrectly interpreted your story in emojis. Submit to your teacher
together with a copy of your story and sample interpretations by
your contacts.
7. If you can draw comics, create a possible webtoon of 5 frames.
Put them on bond paper to submit to your teacher or post them
first on FB for likes.
8. Write 3 plot summaries (utopian, dystopian, and supernatural) for
the following:
“The Philippines in 2021”
Submit on bond paper.
9. Create a superhero. Explain his/her name, traits, powers, costume,
attitude, mission, failures, and successes in 350 words. Submit on
bond paper.
10. Support the works of your classmates and write your reaction
to at least three of them on a separate sheet of paper. Label it
“peer evaluation”. Indicate the title of the work and the author (your
classmate).

NOTE: You are given two weeks to accomplish the above. Ask your
teacher for specific rubrics.