CHAPTER 3

THE POPULAR LITERATURE

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

1. Integrate the nature, appeal and social function of popular literature as

the door for the further discussion of such topic.
2. Examine the genres of popular literature, as well as the underlying
types that some of them have, for the provision of the different
distinctive classification of the literary pieces of popular literature.
3. Discuss the challenges in popular literature in terms of its cause and
possible effect in the literary pieces underlying popular literature.

LESSON 1. NATURE, APPEAL AND SOCIAL FUNCTION OF POPULAR

LITERATURE

WHAT TO EXPECT?

1. Discuss the nature, appeal and social function of popular literature.

2. Identify the pioneers who originated popular literature.
3. Name and provide for a brief discussion on the enumerated
compositions.

A. Nature and Appeal of Popular Literature

While "Popular Literature" was published and widely read in the 19th
Century, by the 20th Century it had become a world unto itself. During the
20th Century, the growth of readership and genres in "Popular Literature"
made "Literary" Literature seems like a small and exclusive "academic and
scholarly" market. The ratio of sales told it all: Popular Literature comprised
almost 90 % of the market for fiction.
When we think about literature at all, we tend to think of the famous
authors who were "literary" writers such as Hemingway and Faulkner - but
average folks across the globe were buying and reading fiction in great
numbers - and they didn't stick to the "classic" names. Moreover, many
"popular" writers became just as well known as the literary authors!
We will be reading many of the authors who became household
favorites in the 19th and 20th Centuries - including Mary Shelley, Zane Grey,
and Margaret Mitchell. Also, in our lectures, we will study other writers who
have made an impact on our culture and our imaginations over the years.
Although "popular" fiction is primarily "genre" fiction, and, as such,
restricts its themes to the requirements of the genre, several important
themes have surfaced in mainstream fiction over the last two decades. In a
sense, popular fiction tends to be more closely tied in to contemporary or
current concerns and trends than does "literary" fiction. It tracks closely with
the mood and the tempo of its time. When we read Mary
Shelley's Frankenstein, we are amazed at how modern this book seems - and
yet, it was first popular at a time when the whole idea of emerging scientific
phenomena was wildly fascinating to readers in 1818 - almost two hundred
years ago!
On the other hand, when we read Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple
Sage, we immediately sense that the Cowboy West of which he writes is long
gone for us. Still and all, for his readers at the time, the loss of the frontier
created an immediate sense of loss and nostalgia, and folks were longing to
read about times when wide-open-spaces were filled with brave men and lots
of cows (ha!).

Popular writers also investigated themes that might have been

unsuitable in "literary" literature. Raymond Chandler's detective, Philip
Marlowe, was exactly the kind of guy who would be persona non grata (not
 welcome) as the protagonist of a proper novel. He's a sleazy fellow, a kind of
L.A. type who wears seersucker suits and peacock-blue socks. He knows the
low-lifes. And he is not a heroic type in any sense. Still and all, he tickled the
fancy of a readership who could identify with him - might have even known
somebody like him.
In both Europe and America, the theme of "crime" has been important
to people - and the popular fiction of each era focused on the kinds of specific
crimes and situations that were important in that day. Marie Belloc
Lowndes' The Lodger drew its audience from a population that was transfixed
by "Jack the Ripper." Raymond Chandler's criminals are slightly more tidy,
but inhabit a world that is, by the mid-20th Century, much more complicated
and interconnected.

B. Social Function of Popular Literature

Popular fiction and drama, westerns and detective stories, films and
television serials, all deal with the same great archetypal themes as
folktales and ballads, though this is seldom due to direct influence; these are
simply the limits within which the human mind works. The number of people
who have elevated the formulas of popular fiction to a higher literary level is
surprisingly small. Examples are H.G. Wells’s early science fiction, the
western stories of Gordon Young and Ernest Haycox, the detective stories
of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Georges Simenon, and Raymond Chandler.
Marshall McLuhan in his book Understanding Media (1964) became
famous for erecting a whole structure of aesthetic, sociological, and
philosophical theory upon this fact. But it remains to be seen whether the
new, fluent materials of communication are going to make so very many
changes in civilization, let alone in the human mind—mankind has, after all,
been influenced for thousands of years by the popular, fluent arts
of music and drama.
Even the most transitory television serial was written down before it
was performed, and the script can be consulted in the files. Before the
 invention of writing, all literature was fluent because it was contained in
people’s memory. In a sense it was more fluent than music, because it was
harder to remember. Man in mass society becomes increasingly a creature of
the moment, but the reasons for this are undoubtedly more fundamental than
his forms of entertainment.

REFERENCES

Roden, J. (2020a). The contemporary period. Honors English 11.

http://jrhe.weebly.com/the-contemporary-period-1945---present.html

Roden, J. (2020b). The modernist period (1910-1945). Honors English 11.

http://jrhe.weebly.com/the-modernist-period-1910---1945.html

Penn, J. (2013). Writing fantasy: A short guide to the genre.

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/06/27/writing-fantasy/

Musack. (2018). Biographies, autobiographies and memoirs.

https://www.bcls.lib.nj.us/biographies-autobiographies-and-
memoirs#:~:text
LESSON 2. CLASSIFICATION, CATEGORY AND GENRES OF POPULAR
LITERATURE

WHAT TO EXPECT?

1. Define each classification of popular literature.

2. Explain the different categories of popular literature.
3. Identify the genre from which a certain writing piece belong.
4. List down literary works according to their respective classification,
category and genre.

A. Classification

1. Poetry
Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of words and
rhythm. It often employs rhyme and meter (a set of rules governing the
number and arrangement of syllables in each line). In poetry, words are
strung together to form sounds, images, and ideas that might be too complex
or abstract to describe directly.

This was once written according to fairly strict rules of meter and
rhyme, and each culture had its own rules. For example, Anglo-Saxon poets
had their own rhyme schemes and meters, while Greek poets and Arabic
poets had others. Although these classical forms are still widely used today,
modern poets frequently do away with rules altogether – their poems
generally do not rhyme, and do not fit any particular meter. These poems,
however, still have a rhythmic quality and seek to create beauty through their
words.

The opposite of poetry is “prose” – that is, normal text that runs without
line breaks or rhythm. This article, for example, is written in prose.
 It is probably the oldest form of literature, and probably predates the
origin of writing itself. The oldest written manuscripts we have are poems,
mostly epic poems telling the stories of ancient mythology. Examples include
the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Vedas (sacred texts of Hinduism). This style of
writing may have developed to help people memorize long chains of
information in the days before writing. Rhythm and rhyme can make the text
more memorable, and thus easier to preserve for cultures that do not have a
written language. This can be written with all the same purposes as any other
kind of literature – beauty, humor, storytelling, political messages, etc.

Structure of Poetry
An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the stanza
structure or style of a poem. Generally speaking, structure has to do with the
overall organization of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound. Again,
many modern poems may not have any identifiable structure for they are free
verse.

1. Stanzas
Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by
an empty line from other stanzas. They are the equivalent of a
paragraph in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the
number of lines. Thus:
 couplet (2 lines)
 tercet (3 lines)
 quatrain (4 lines)
 cinquain (5 lines)
 sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
 septet (7 lines)
 octave (8 lines)
2. Form
A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme
scheme and/or metrical pattern, but it can still be labelled according to
its form or style. Here are the three most common types of
poems according to form:

a. Lyric Poetry
It is any poem with one speaker (not necessarily the poet)
who expresses strong thoughts and feelings. Most poems,
especially modern ones, are lyric poems.

b. Narrative Poem
It is a poem that tells a story; its structure resembles the plot
line of a story [i.e. the introduction of conflict and characters, rising
action, climax and the denouement.

c. Descriptive Poem
It is a poem that describes the world that surrounds the
speaker. It uses elaborate imagery and adjectives. While emotional,
it is more "outward-focused" than lyric poetry, which is more
personal and introspective.

Types of Poems that are Subtypes of the Three Styles above:

1. Ode
It is usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject,
an elevated style, and an elaborate stanza pattern.
2. Elegy
It is a lyric poem that mourns the dead. [It's not to be confused with
a eulogy. It has no set metric or stanzaic pattern, but it usually begins
by reminiscing about the dead person, then laments the reason for the
death, and then resolves the grief by concluding that death leads to
immortality. It often uses "apostrophe" (calling out to the dead person)
as a literary technique. It can have a fairly formal style, and sound
similar to an ode.

3. Sonnet
It is a lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version,
is usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic kinds of
sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or
Elizabethan/English) sonnet. The Italian/Petrarchan sonnet is named
after Petrarch, an Italian Renaissance poet. The Petrarchan sonnet
consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The
Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each)
and a concluding couplet (two lines). The Petrarchan sonnet tends to
divide the thought into two parts (argument and conclusion); the
Shakespearean, into four (the final couplet is the summary).

4. Ballad
It is a narrative poem that has a musical rhythm and can be sung. A
ballad is usually organized into quatrains or cinquains, has a simple
rhythm structure, and tells the tales of ordinary people.

5. Epic
It is a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of
a legendary or historical hero.
Elements of poetry

1. Alliteration
This is a repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of
words, usually at the beginning of a word or stressed syllable: “descending
dew drops;” “luscious lemons.” Alliteration is based on the sounds of
letters, rather than the spelling of words; for example, “keen” and “car”
alliterate, but “car” and “cite” do not.

2. Assonance
A term used for the repetition of similar internal vowel sounds in a
sentence or a line of poetry, as in “I rose and told him of my woe.”
Figurative language is a form of language use in which the writers and
speakers mean something other than the literal meaning of their words.
Two figures of speech that are particularly important for poetry are simile
and metaphor. A simile involves a comparison between unlike things using
like or as. For instance, “My love is like a red, red rose.” A metaphor is a
comparison between essentially unlike things without a word such as like
or as. For example, “My love is a red, red rose.” Synecdoche is a type of
metaphor in which part of something is used to signify the whole, as when
a gossip is called a “wagging tongue.” Metonymy is a type of metaphor in
which something closely associated with a subject is substituted for it,
such as saying the “silver screen” to mean motion pictures.

3. Imagery
It is the concrete representation of a sense impression, feeling, or idea
that triggers our imaginative ere-enactment of a sensory experience.
Images may be visual (something seen), aural (something heard), tactile
(something felt), olfactory (something smelled), or gustatory (something
tasted). Imagery may also refer to a pattern of related details in a poem.
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar concluding syllables in
different words, most often at the ends of lines. Rhyme is predominantly a
function of sound rather than spelling; thus, words that end with the same
vowel sounds rhyme, for instance, day, prey, bouquet, weigh, and words
with the same consonant ending rhyme, for instance vain, rein, lane. The
rhyme scheme of a poem describes the pattern of end rhymes.

4. Rhyme schemes
These are mapped out by noting patterns of rhyme with small letters:
the first rhyme sound is designated a, the second becomes b, the third c,
and so on. Rhythm is the term used to refer to the recurrence of stressed
and unstressed sounds in poetry. Poets rely heavily on rhythm to express
meaning and convey feeling. Caesura is a strong pause within a line of
poetry that contributes to the rhythm of the line. When a line has a pause
at its end, it is called an end-stopped line. Such pauses reflect normal
speech patterns and are often marked by punctuation. A line that ends
without a pause and continues into the next line for its meaning is called a
run-on line or enjambment.

5. Stanza
This refers to the grouping of lines, set off by a space, which usually
has a set pattern of meter and rhyme. Tone conveys the speaker’s implied
attitude toward the poem’s subject.

6. Tone
It is an abstraction we make from the details of a poem’s language:
the use of meter and rhyme (or lack of them); the inclusion of certain kinds
of details and exclusion of other kinds; particular choices of words and
sentence pattern, or imagery and figurative language (diction). Another
important element of tone is the order of words in sentences, phrases, or
clauses (syntax).
 The Sun and her Flowers by RupeKaur
3. Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction is a story that takes readers to a time and place in the
past. How far back in time does an author have to go for their work to be
considered Historical Fiction? A good rule of thumb is a minimum of 50 years.
The idea is to take readers out of the events of their lifetime. Most book lovers
agree that Historical Fiction is the closest we’ll get to actual time travel.

What makes a historical novel believable is its setting. Historical Fiction

is set in a real place, during a culturally recognizable time. The details and the
action in the story can be a mix of actual events and ones from the author’s
imagination as they fill in the gaps. Characters can be pure fiction or based on
real people (often, it’s both). But everything about them — their attitudes and
look, the way they speak, and problems they face — should match the era. Of
course the key to an author getting all of this right is research. Authors are
always allowed artistic license, but the most satisfying works of Historical
Fiction have been researched down to every scent, button, turn of phrase,
and cloud in the sky.
 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

B. Category
1. Biographies / Autobiographies
A biography is a detailed, non-fiction narrative of a person’s life,
written by somebody else. To be considered a biography, the story must
be as true as possible and based on factual evidence; fictionalized
accounts of a person’s life fall into the realm of historical fiction.
Biographies can be academic works based on scholarly research or they
can be popular non-fiction books about celebrities, politicians, or historical
figures.
 Whereas, autobiography is a non-fiction narrative of a person’s life,
written by that person. In other words, the author is writing about his or her
own life, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter.
Whereas a biography writer generally relies on a wide variety of
documents and viewpoints to get information about a person’s life,
autobiographies may be based mostly on the writer's memory.
Both a biography and an autobiography will typically tell the story of
a person’s whole life, from birth to death (or to the present day for an
autobiography).
 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

2. Classics
Many commentators argue the classics is not a genre but Even
within genres or literary movements, books that are considered classic are
those that are well-written and/or have cultural importance. A book that
may not have the best writing but was the first book in a genre to do
something ground-breaking is a classic.
 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

3. Comic / Graphic Novels

Graphic novels can be fiction, non-fiction, history, fantasy, or
anything in-between. Graphic novels are book-length comics. Sometimes
they tell a single, continuous narrative from first page to last; sometimes
they are collections of shorter stories or individual comic strips.
Comics, on the other hand, are sequential visual art, usually with
text, that are often told in a series of rectangular panels.
 The Walking Dead: Compendium One by Robert Kirkman
C. Genre
1. Action / Adventure
Adventure was originally a Middle English word derived from the
Old French aventure meaning “destiny,” “fate,” or “chance event.”
Today, we define adventure as a remarkable or unexpected journey,
experience, or event that a person participates in as a result of chance.
This last detail, a result of chance, is a key element of adventure; the
stories usually involve a character who is brought to the adventure by
chance, and chance usually plays a large role in the episodes of the
story. Also, adventures usually includes dangerous situations, narrow
escapes, problems to be solved through intelligence and skill, exotic
people and places, and brave deeds.
There are many types of adventure but their meanings are
obvious. You could see most of them by exploring Netflix—types such
as fantasy adventure, science-fiction adventure, supernatural
adventure, and historical adventure.
 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
 Life Pi by Yaan Mantel

2. Detective / Mystery
The mystery genre is a genre of fiction that follows a crime (like a
murder or a disappearance) from the moment it is committed to the
moment it is solved. Mystery novels are often called “whodunnits”
because they turn the reader into a detective trying to figure out the
who, what, when, and how of a particular crime. Most mysteries feature
a detective or private eye solving a case as the central character.
 And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

3. Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre that typically features the use of magic or
other supernatural phenomena in the plot, setting, or theme.
 Supernatural or mythological creatures often feature, as well as races
other than humans, such as elves, dwarves, or goblins. The worlds
within fantasy books are usually medieval in style, both in terms of
technology and culture. This is what primarily sets fantasy apart from
sci-fi.

So that’s it. There’s your fantasy genre in a nutshell. But like any
genre, it can’t just be labelled or confined by one paragraph. Fantasy is
a very wide and ever-evolving genre, straddling many different sub-
genres at once, or even mixing with completely separate genres.

To name a few: there’s epic fantasy (involving disgustingly

thick books and very long series), high fantasy (usually very
traditional and Tolkienesque), dark fantasy (which mixes in horror or
grim themes), grimdark (employing a dystopian element in the world
or plot), steampunk (a mix of fantasy and Victorian, clockwork, and
steam elements), arcanepunk (a blend of scifi and fantasy), historical
fantasy (incorporating magic into historical fiction, often mixed with the
‘sword and sorcery’ subgenre), and lastly, urban fantasy (which
blends the ideas of magic and myth with modern day worlds.)
 The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

D. Horror
In literature, horror is a genre of fiction whose purpose is to create
feelings of fear, dread, repulsion, and terror in the audience—in other words,
it develops an atmosphere of horror. The term’s definition emphasizes the
reaction caused by horror, stemming from the Old French orror, meaning “to
shudder or to bristle.”

Horror literature has roots in religion, folklore, and history; focusing on

topics, fears, and curiosities that have continuously bothered humans in both
the 12th and 21st centuries alike. Horror feeds on audience’s deepest terrors
by putting life’s most frightening and perplexing things—death, evil,
supernatural powers or creatures, the afterlife, witchcraft—at the center of
attention.

Types of Horror
1. Gothic horror
Gothic horror, also known as gothic fiction or gothic fantasy, is a
dark style of fiction that combines horror and Romanticism. Its style
combines the artistic pleasures of Romantic literature with the
frightening elements of horror, making it terrifying in a seductive and
pleasing way. Gothic horrors stories are written both with and without
supernatural elements, but are always mysterious in nature. Examples
include novels like Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde.

2. Supernatural Horror
A supernatural horror is work of fiction that relies heavily on
supernatural or paranormal elements to drive the story, featuring things
like ghosts, monsters, demons, aliens, witchcraft, zombies, and so on.
The main source of terror in supernatural horrors is the human reaction
to being faced with the unknown, usually in the midst of a serious
conflict—i.e. a haunting, a possession, an invasion, a curse or omen,
etc.

A supernatural horror is work of fiction that relies heavily on

supernatural or paranormal elements to drive the story, featuring things
like ghosts, monsters, demons, aliens, witchcraft, zombies, and so on.
The main source of terror in supernatural horrors is the human reaction
to being faced with the unknown, usually in the midst of a serious
 conflict—i.e. a haunting, a possession, an invasion, a curse or omen,
etc.

3. Non-supernatural Horror
A non-supernatural horror is a work of fiction that does not
include supernatural elements, The terror of non-supernatural horror
comes from the idea that what is happening in the story could plausibly
occur in real life—usually involving the possibility of death—making it
the ideal style for frightening crime or mystery stories.
 The Bird Box by Josh Malerman

E. Romance
In the strictest academic terms, a romance is a narrative genre in
literature that involves a mysterious, adventurous, or spiritual story line where
the focus is on a quest that involves bravery and strong values, not always a
love interest. However, modern definitions of romance also include stories
that have a relationship issue as the main focus.

Types of Romance
1. Gothic
In Gothic romance, the settings are usually in distant regions
and the stories feature dark and compelling characters. They became
popular in the late 19th century and usually had a sense of
transcendence, supernatural, and irrationality. Popular Gothic novels
still read by many high school students today are classics such as:
 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
 2. Historical
Historical romance takes place in times long past and appears
romantic due to the adventure and wildness of the time. This also
provides value and meaning to the lifestyle of the characters. The
following novels fit in this sub-genre:
 The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
 Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott.

3. Contemporary/Modern
Contemporary romance focuses on a love relationship and has
a happy ending. There are two ways these romance novels are written:
as a series or category romance (the author writes a succession of
books that fit a theme or follow a storyline) or as a single-title romance.
Even more so, within the sub-genre romance, and as seen in
many movies, there can be:
 comedy-romance
 tragic-romance
 satire-romance
 serious romance
Playwrights and poets also treat romance with various tones.
 Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

F. Science Fiction
Science fiction, often called “sci-fi,” is a genre whose content is
imaginative, but based in science. It relies heavily on scientific facts, theories,
and principles as support for its settings, characters, themes, and plot-lines,
which is what makes it different from fantasy.
So, while the storylines and elements of science fiction stories are
imaginary, they are usually possible according to science—or at least
plausible.
 Although examples of science fiction can be found as far back as the
Middle Ages, its presence in literature was not particularly significant until the
late 1800s. Its true popularity for both writers and audiences came with the
rise of technology over the past 150 years, with developments such as
electricity, space exploration, medical advances, industrial growth, and so on.
As science and technology progress, so does the genre of science fiction.

Types of Science Fiction

Science fiction is usually distinguished as either “hard” or “soft.”
1. Hard science fiction
Hard science fiction strictly follows scientific facts and principles.
It is strongly focused on natural sciences like physics, astronomy,
chemistry, astrophysics, etc. Interestingly, hard science fiction is often
written by real scientists, and has been known for making both
accurate and inaccurate predictions of future events. For example, the
recent film Gravity, the story of an astronaut whose spacecraft is
damaged while she repairs a satellite, was renowned for its scientific
accuracy in terms of what would actually happen in space.

2. Soft science fiction

Soft science fiction is characterized by a focus on social
sciences, like anthropology, sociology, psychology, politics—in other
words, sciences involving human behavior. So, soft sci-fi stories mainly
address the possible scientific consequences of human behavior. For
example, the Disney animated film Wall-E is an apocalyptic science
fiction story about the end of life on Earth as a result of man’s
disregard for nature.

In truth, most works use a combination of both hard and soft

science fiction. Soft sci-fi allows audiences to connect on an emotional
level, and hard sci-fi adds real scientific evidence so that they can
 imagine the action actually happening. So, combining the two is a better
storytelling technique, because it lets audiences connect with the story
on two levels. Science fiction also has a seemingly endless number of
subgenres, including but not limited to time travel,
apocalyptic, utopian/dystopian, alternate history, space opera, and
military science fiction.
 The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

G. Suspense Thriller
A suspense thriller is a genre of literature, film, and television whose
primary feature is that it induces strong feelings of excitement, anxiety,
tension, suspense, fear, and other similar emotions in its readers or viewers—
in other words, media that thrills the audience.

Types of Thriller
There are a seemingly endless number of types of thrillers, as they
can be combined with nearly any type of conflict to produce emotions that
thrill the audience. Below are the most prevalent types of thrillers:

1. Psychological Thriller
Thrillers that focus on characters that have extreme
psychological disorders, such as psychopaths and people with
split personalities. These disorders accordingly cause
serious personal issues, that eventually lead to conflicts with
strangers and other characters. Sometimes, the main character
is a psychopath that serves as both the protagonist and the
antagonist.

2. Crime Thriller
Thrillers that have crime and justice as their primary
focuses, usually with topics like murder, kidnapping, drugs,
 robbery, mistaken identity, etc. Usually the main character is a
person who is fighting for justice, like a cop, lawyer, special
agent, or even superhero (for example, Batman).
3. Mystery Thriller
A thriller that begins with a mystery that needs to be
solved, typically with negative consequences at stake. Suspense
and tension build as the audience gets closer and closer to
learning the answer to the mystery.
• The Guardians by John Grisham

H. Comedy
Comedy is a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing
and satirical in its tone, mostly having a cheerful ending. The motif of this
dramatic work is triumph over unpleasant circumstance by creating comic
effects, resulting in a happy or successful conclusion.

Thus, the purpose of comedy is to amuse the audience. Comedy has

multiple sub-genres depending upon the source of the humor, context in
which an author delivers dialogues, and delivery methods, which
include farce, satire, and burlesque. Tragedy is opposite to comedy, as
tragedy deals with sorrowful and tragic events in a story.

Types of Comedy
There are five types of comedy in literature:
1. Romantic Comedy
Romantic comedy involves a theme of love leading to a
happy conclusion. We find romantic comedy in Shakespearean
plays and some Elizabethan contemporaries. These plays are
concerned with idealized love affairs. It is a fact that true love
never runs smoothly; however, love overcomes difficulties and
ends in a happy union.
2. Comedy of Humors
Ben Johnson is the first dramatist who conceived and
popularized this dramatic genre during the late sixteenth
century. The term humor derives from the Latin word humor,
which means “liquid.” It comes from a theory that the human
body has four liquids, or humors, which include phelgm, blood,
yellow bile, and black bile. It explains that, when human beings
have a balance of these humors in their bodies, they remain
healthy.

3. Comedy of Manners
This form of dramatic genre deals with intrigues and
relations of ladies and gentlemen living in a sophisticated
society. This form relies upon high comedy, derived from
sparkle and wit of dialogues, violations of social traditions, and
good manners, by nonsense characters like jealous husbands,
wives, and foppish dandies. We find its use in Restoration
dramatists, particularly in the works of Wycherley and
Congreve.

4. Sentimental Comedy
Sentimental drama contains both comedy and
sentimental tragedy. It appears in literary circles due to reaction
of the middle class against obscenity and indecency of
Restoration Comedy of Manners. This form, which incorporates
scenes with extreme emotions evoking excessive pity, gained
popularity among the middle-class audiences in the eighteenth
century.
 5. Tragicomedy
This dramatic genre contains both tragic and comedic
elements. It blends both elements to lighten the overall mood of
the play. Often, tragicomedy is a serious play that ends happily.

 Mr. Sunshine – Korean Drama

 Goblin – Korean Romance – Comedy

REFERENCES
Dukes, J. (2020). What is historical fiction. https://celadonbooks.com/what-is-
historical-fiction/#:~:text=Historical%20Fiction%20is%20set%20in,(often
%2C%20it's%20both).

Scott, J. (2020, May 24). What is horror: Definitions and examples in films.
studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-horror-definition/

Literary Terms. (n.d.). Romance. https://literaryterms.net/romance/#:~:text=What

%20is%20Romance%3F,not%20always%20a%20love%20interest.

Elements of poetry. (n.d.). http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm#:~Whta

:text=SOUND%20PATTERNS,performative%2C%20spoken%20nature
%20of%20poetry.

Musack. (2018). Biographies, autobiographies and memoirs.

https://www.bcls.lib.nj.us/biographies-autobiographies-and-
memoirs#:~:text

LESSON 3. CHALLENGES FACED BY POPULAR LITERATURE

WHAT TO EXPECT?

1. Evaluate the real existence of the jotted challenges.

2. Assess the factors causing these challenges.
3. Formulate solutions for those challenges in popular literature.

Here are the challenges striking popular literature:

1. Means of book promotion, distribution and retail destabilized;
2. Ink-on-paper manufacturing is an outmoded, toxic industry with steeply
rising costs;
3. The Gothic fate of poor slain Poetry is the spectre at this dwindling
feast;
4. Although there is a big tendency of greater income for the authors
whose works are famous enough for people patronize it, an endless
fear of an instant fall down of popularity, due to the left and right arising
compositions, is just around the corner; and
5. Some genres in popular literature are not that favored by the attention
of the public.

REFERENCES

Sterling, B. (2020). Eighteen challenges in contemporary literature.

https://www.wired.com/2009/05/eighteen-challenges-in-contemporary-
literature/

Writing creative nonfiction. (n.d.).

https://davehood59.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/writing-creative-
nonfiction