ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
1. Literature is language-based and national; contemporary society is globalizing polyglot.
2. Vernacular means of everyday communicaio “cellphones, social networks, streaming video” are moving into areas where printed
text cannot follow.
3. Intellectual property seems failing.
4. Means of book promotion, distribution and retail destabilized.
5. Ink-on-paper manufacturing is outmoded, toxic-industry with steeply rising cost.
6. Core demographic for printed media is aging faster than the general population. Failure of print and newspapers is disenfranchising
young apprentice writers.
7. Media conlomerates have poor business model; economically rationalized “culture industry” is actively hostile to vital aspects of
humane culture.
8. Long tail Balkanizes audiences, disrupts means of canon-building and fragments literary reputation.
9. Digital publication domain transforms traditional literary heritage into a huge, cost-free, portable, searchable database,radically
transforming the reader’s relatonship to belle-lettres.
10. Contemporary literature not confronting issues of general urgency, dominant best-sellers are in former niche such as fantasies,
romances and teen books.
11. Barriers to publication entry have crushed, enabling huge torrent of sub literary and/or nonliterary textual.
12. Algorithms and social media replacing work of editors and publishing houses, network socially-generated texts replacing
individually-authored texts.
14. Unstable computer and cellphone interfaces becoming world’s primary means of cultural access. Composito systes remake media
in their own hybrid creole image.
14. Scholars steeped within the disciplines becoming cross-linked jack-of-all traddes virtual intelligentsia.
15. Academic education system suffering severe bubble-inflation.
16. Polarizing civil cold war is harmful to intellectual honesty.
17. The gothic fate of poor slain poetry is the specter at this divindling feast.

LESSON 1. INTRODUCTION TO POPULAR LITERATURE

DR. ROD ELLIS known as the "Father of Second Language Acquisition" (ASL) (1989:30) defines literature as:
1. The verbal expression of human imagination - it means we use words to describe and talk about the things we imagine or make up
in our minds. So, when someone tells a story, sings a song or describe something they haven’t seen before, they are using words to
express their imagination
2. One of the primary means by which a culture transmits itself - Using words to talk about our imagination (like stories) is how we
share our ideas and beliefs with each other and with future generations, helping to keep our culture alive.

UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE, FUNCTION, AND VALUE OF LITERATURE

TWO CATEGORIES OF LITERATURE ACCORDING TO KLEDEN

Kleden (2004:7-8) states that literature can be differentiated based on the kind of meanings that exist in a text.
A. LITERARY TEXT consists of textual meaning and referential meaning
examples:
● Poetry
● Prose
● Drama
● Short stories
B. NON-LITERARY TEXT only consists of referral meaning.
examples:
● Documents
● Legal Documents
● Articles in Academic Journals
● Recipes

The TEXTUAL MEANING is the meaning that is produced by the relationship of text itself. In Textual Meaning this
involves understanding the literal details presented in the sentence. In this case, it's about a cat sitting on a windowsill and observing
raindrops falling outside. Textual meaning is concerned with the immediate and explicit information conveyed by the words.
REFERENTIAL MEANING it is produced by the relationship between internal text and external text (word beyond the
text)
Example: "The cat sat on the windowsill, watching the raindrops fall outside." In referential meaning is about the real-world
reference of the words in the sentence. Here, it points to the actual scenario of a cat sitting by a window and witnessing rain. The
referential meaning is grounded in the tangible actions and elements described in the sentence.
LITERATURE DIFFER FROM ORDINARY SPOKEN OR WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Functions of Literature
ENTERTAINMENT FUNCTION.
- Known as, "pleasure reading". In this function, literature is used to entertain its readers. It is consumed for the sake of one's
enjoyment.
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL FUNCTION.
- Literature shows how society works around them. It helps the reader "see" the social and political constructs around him and shows
the state of the people and the world around him.
MORAL FUNCTION .
- Literature may impart moral values to its readers. The morals contained in a literary text, whether good or bad are absorbed by
whoever reads it, thus helps in shaping their personality.
IDEOLOGICAL FUNCTION.
- Ideological function shapes our way of thinking based on the ideas of other people. Literature also displays a person's ideology
placed in the text consciously and unconsciously.
LINGUISTIC FUNCTION.
- Literature preserves the language of every civilization from where it originated. They are also evidence that a certain civilization has
existed by recording the language and preserving it through wide spans of time.
CULTURAL FUNCTION.
- Literature orients us to the traditions, folklore and the arts of our ethnic group's heritage. It preserves entire cultures and creates an
imprint of the people's way of living for others to read, hear and learn
EDUCATIONAL FUNCTION
- Literature teaches us many things about the human experience. It is used to portray the facets of life that we see, and those that we
would never dream of seeing. Literature therefore, is a conduct for the chance to experience and feel things where we can learn things
about life.

HISTORICAL FUNCTION
- Ancient texts, illuminated scripts, stone tablets etc. keep a record of events that happened in the place where they originated. Thus,
they serve as time capsules of letters that are studied by scholars and researchers of today.

IMPORTANCE OF LITERARY CRITICISM

As a tool in literary studies, criticism plays an important role in doing studies or analysis about literary work.
Applying criticism makes our focus on certain aspects or elements of literary work sharper than reading as usual work. The reader can
focus on an aspect as his interest toward the literary

UNIVERSAL CHARACTERISTIC OF LITERATURE

1. Timelessness
2. Eternity
3. Universality
4. Permanence

LITERATURE is a permanent expression in words of some thought or feelings or idea about life and the world.

LITERARY CRITICISM AND ITS PURPOSE

- Literary criticism refers to analysis and judgment of works of literature.
- It tries to interpret specific works of literature, and also helps to identify and understand different ways of examining and
interpreting them.

TYPES OF LITERARY CRITICISM

Such analysis may be based from a variety of critical approaches or movements, such as:
ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM
is a critical theory that interprets a text by focusing on symbols, images, and character types in literary works that are used to
discuss plot, character or situation. It recognizes conscious and unconscious symbols that relate emotions, values, feelings to specific
images. It encourages the readers to examine basic beliefs, fear, and anxieties.
CULTURAL CRITICISM
focuses on the elements of culture and how they affect one's perceptions and understanding of texts.
FOUR ASSUMPTIONS: Ethnicity, religious beliefs, social class, etc. are crucial components in formulating plausible
interpretation of text.
 While the emphasis is on diversity of approach and subject matter, Cultural Criticism is not the only means of understanding
ourselves and our art. An examination or exploration of the relationship between dominant cultures and the dominated is essential.
When looking at a text through the perspective of marginalized peoples, new understandings emerge.
FEMINIST CRITICISM
is a product of the feminist movement of the 1960's and 1970's. It is the representation of women in literature as an
expression of the social norms about women and their social roles and as a means of socialization. It focused on the images of the
women in books by male writers to expose the patriarchal ideology and how women characters are portrayed.
PSYCHOANALYTIC CRITICISM
based on Sigmund Freud ID, ego and superego, the author's own childhood effects the book and character. It is a type of
criticism that uses theories of psychology to analyze literature. It focuses on the author's state of mind or the state of the mind of
fictional character. Psychoanalytic criticism uses two different approaches; psychoanalysis of the author and psychoanalysis of the
character.
MARXIST CRITICISM
applies political science and economics to the study of literature. Grew out of writings of Karl Marx, who was highly critical
of the capitalist system of economics and politics. It concerned with the issues of class conflict and materialism, wealth, work, and the
various ideologies that surrounds these things. It connotes higher class do control arts, literatures, and ideologies. Marxism As
Compared To Feminist and New Historicism
Like feminist critics, it investigates how literature can work as a force for social change or as a reaffirmation of existing
conditions. Like New Historicism, it examines how history influences literature; the difference is that Marxism focuses on the lower
class.
NEW CRITICISM (FORMALISM/STRUCTURALISM)
New criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated in American literary criticism in the middle
decades of the 20th century which emphasized close reading particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as
a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object.
FORMALISM
refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only
the grammar and syntax but also literary devices such as a meter and figures of speech. It reduces the importance of a text's historical
biographical and cultural context.

NEW HISTORICISM
was first developed in 1980 by the American critic Stephen Greenblatt. It is based on the idea that literature should be studied
and interpreted within a wide context examining both how the author's time, in turn recognizing that current cultural contexts color
that critic's conclusion.
POST-STRUCTURALISM
offers a way of studying how knowledge is produced and critiques structuralism premise. It rejects the idea of a literary text
having a single purpose, a single meaning, or one singular existence. It argues that to understand an object (e.g. a text), it is necessary
to study both the object itself and the systems of knowledge that produced the object.
READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM (RR)
critics believes that a reader's interaction with the text gives its meaning. The text cannot exist without the reader. It focuses
on the reader or audience and the experience of a literary work rather than the author or the context and form of work.
ROLE OF THE READER RESPONSE CRITICISM: The role of the reader is pivotal in the understanding of literature;
they can use a psychoanalytical, structural, feminist, etc. approach to formulate their criticism (anything goes). Readers are active in
the reading process. They cannot read literature passively but must react and therefore bring meaning to the text.

LESSON 2 - POPULAR LITERATURE IN ROMANCE

WHAT IS A ROMANCE?
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.

EXAMPLES OF ROMANCE
In the academic sense, an example of a romance is a story in which the main character is a hero who must conquer various
challenges as part of a quest. Each challenge could be its own story and can be taken out of the overall story without harming the plot.
Example 1
Like all classics, Anna Karenina tackles timeless themes that are as relevant now as when they were written.
Anna, a beautiful and accomplished young woman, is the wife of an important government official. She travels by train to Moscow to
meet her brother, whose family is in turmoil after discovering that he is having an affair.
On the train, she meets a dashing military officer, Vronsky, and the two feel an intense attraction to each other.
After the couple has a fight, Vronsky goes out for the evening, leaving Anna at home.
Anna desperately pursues him to the train station but becomes overwhelmed with despair. She commits suicide by throwing herself
under a train.
Example 2.
A modern romance would include:
The story of a character who keeps meeting the wrong type of people in his or her relationships or has run into a problem
with a current love relationship.
The story would focus on the struggles the character faces while finding Mr. or Mrs. Right. The whole focus would be the
relationship, although the character may also be dealing with other struggles, such as losing a job, handling difficult parents, etc.
These stories may be funny, sad, tragic, serious, or a mix. The obvious resolution to the conflict would be finding the right person or
saving the present relationship.

a. 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.

B.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 and Cooper Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott.

D.CONTEMPORARY/MODERN
Contemporary romance focuses on a love relationship and has a happy ending. There are two ways these romance novels
are written: 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

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROMANCE

Romance is a natural human emotion. Sad love songs and poems when one is recovering from a broken heart can help
express unspoken feelings.
Happy romantic movies and plays help people feel optimistic that someday they will also find true love. However, there is
some criticism that many modern romantic stories make people develop unrealistic views about real relationships, as they expect love
to be like it is in the movies.
The couple usually didn't get along at first, or they had a misunderstanding. Yet, the stories always ended in marriage and
complete happiness.

LESSON 3 - SCIENCE FICTION

SCIENCE FICTION
 Science fiction, often called "sci-fi," is a genre of fiction literature 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.
 storylines and elements of science fiction stories are imaginary, they are usually possible according to science-or at least
plausible.
 Science fiction also has a seemingly endless number of sub genres, including but not limited to time travel, apocalyptic,
utopian/dystopian, alternate history, space opera, and military 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 PRINCPLES. It is strongly focused on
natural sciences like physics, astronomy, chemistry, astrophysics, etc.
- often written by real scientists, and has been known for making both accurate and inaccurate predictions of future events.
- adds real scientific evidence so that they can imagine the action actually happening.
- example : movie about Gravity
2. SOFT SCIENCE FICTION - Soft science fiction is characterized by a focus on social sciences, like anthropology, sociology,
psychology, and politics- in other words, sciences involving human behavior.
- soft sci-fi stories mainly address the possible scientific consequences of HUMAN BEHAVIOR.
- connect on an emotional level
- example : 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. So, combining the two is a better storytelling
technique, because it lets audiences connect with the story on two levels.

IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE FICTION

Many times, science fiction turns real scientific theories into full stories about what is possible and/or imaginable. Many stories

✓suggest what could really happen in the future.

use hard facts and truths of sciences to:

✓to explore what could happen if certain events or circumstances came to be or

✓suggest consequences of technological and scientific advancements and innovation.

*Historically it has been a popular form for not only authors, but scientists as well. In the past 150 years, science fiction has
become a huge genre, with a particularly large presence in film and television-in fact, the TV network "SciFi" is completely devoted to
science fiction media. It is a particularly fascinating and mind-bending genre for audiences because of its connection to reality.

LESSON 4 : DETECTIVE STORY

DETECTIVE STORY
 is a type of popular literature in which a crime is introduced and investigated and the culprit is revealed.
 frequently operate on the principle that superficially convincing evidence is ultimately irrelevant.
 it is also axiomatic that the clues from which a logical solution to the problem can be reached be fairly presented to the reader at
exactly the same time that the sleuth receives them and that the sleuth deduce the solution to the puzzle from a logical
interpretation of these clues.
 about mystery, crime, investigation, finding evidence, etc.

THREE DETECTIVE STORIES :

1. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe.
• published in April 1841
• Poe is generally thought to have been influenced by the Mémoires (1828-29) of François-Eugène Vidocq, who in 1817 founded the
world's first detective bureau, in Paris.
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue is about two women who got murdered and a detective who amazingly solved the crime.
2. “Sherlock Holmes” (The Adventure of the Speckled Band).
• Sherlock Holmes was written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle British writer and physician, is best known for his
detective fiction featuring the character.
3. “The Maltese Falcon”. This story was written by Samuel Dashiell Hammett. Samuel was an American writer of hard-boiled
detective novels.
• Hard-boiled detective novels are a tough, unsentimental style of American crime writing that brought a new tone of earthy realism or
naturalism to the field of detective fiction.
• Hard-boiled fiction used graphic sex and violence, vivid but often sordid urban backgrounds, and fast-paced, slangy dialogue.