Chapter 4 – Literature Pearson Longman © 2009 “This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law: any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network; preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images; any rental, lease, or lending of the program.” THE ART OF BEING HUMAN 9 TH EDITION

LITERATURE AS HISTORY & IDENTITY In the past as in the present, people have used literature to define themselves and their times. Pearson Longman © 2009

THE EPIC The epic is a long narrative poem recounting actions and adventures of a courageous, strong, and cunning hero who may be without moral virtue.  Gilgamesh  The Iliad Pearson Longman © 2009

POETRY In the past as in the present, people have used elevated language above everyday language or prose. Lyrical poetry – sung like lyrics Sappho (ca. 6 th B.C. E.) Catullus (54 B.C.E.) Pearson Longman © 2009

POETRY The Sonnet – a fourteen line poetic form Petrarch ( ) Shakespeare ( ) Federico Garcia Lorca ( ) Pearson Longman © 2009

POETRY Haiku - a short poem of 17 syllables distributed over three lines –five, seven, five. Matsuo Basho ( ) Kobayashi Issa ( ) Pearson Longman © 2009

POETRY Simple Forms, Profound Meaning William Blake ( ) Religious Poetry Psalms Pearson Longman © 2009

POETRY Modernism Emily Dickenson ( ) The Harlem Renaissance Georgia Douglas Johnson ( ) Contemporary Poetry Archibald MacLeish ( ) Billie Collins (b. 1941) Michael Blumenthal (b. 1949) Pearson Longman © 2009

THE NOVEL The novel is a long narrative of adventures, battles, conquests and complicated human relationships - “the stuff of fiction”. Historical beginnings 1000 years ago - The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu The Middle Ages – romances The Italian Renaissance – the novella Pearson Longman © 2009

THE NOVEL Early Western Novel  the picaresque novel – Miguel Cervantes ( ) Don Quixote The Novel in America  American Classics - F. Scott Fitzgerald ( ) The Great Gatsby Ernest Hemingway ( ) A Farewell to Arms Pearson Longman © 2009

THE NOVEL The Non-Western Novel  Afghan-born Novelist Khaled Hosseini (b. 1966) The Kite Runner Pearson Longman © 2009

THE SHORT STORY The short story is essentially an American invention. It is a brief work featuring one central action.  Edgar Allen Poe ( ) “The Telltale Heart”  Shirley Jackson ( ) “The Lottery”  Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923) “ A Beneficiary” Pearson Longman © 2009