LESSON 1
Afro-Asian Literature

LITERATURE

Literature is written works like stories, poems, and plays that people create to express ideas, feelings, or tell stories. It can be fiction (made up) or non-fiction (real). Literature helps us understand different cultures, emotions, and human experiences.

AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE

It is a term fused to describe the spoken or written literary works, such as short stories and poems, by people from Africa and Asia.

What does Afro-Asian literature talk about?

• Family and respect for elders

• Traditions and customs

• Struggles with colonization and freedom

• Identity, culture, and change

• Love, nature, and everyday life

LESSON 2
Types of Conflicts

WHAT IS CONFLICT?

• Conflict is an important part of the plot because it connects events and helps the story move forward. It’s not just about arguments—conflict can be any kind of struggle the main character faces.

TYPES OF CONFLICT

• Internal Conflict- Struggle within oneself

  • Character vs. Self - A character has a problem inside themselves. This can be fear, guilt, or a hard decision.

TYPES OF CONFLICT

• External Conflict- Struggle with a force outside oneself

  • Character vs. Character – A character has a problem with another character.

  • Character vs. Nature - A character fights against nature—like a storm, wild animal, or natural disaster.

  • Character vs. Society - A character disagrees with the rules or laws of their society. They want change.

LESSON 3
Types of Characters

WHAT IS CHARACTER?

• A character is a person, animal, being, creature, or thing in a story.

• Writers use characters to:

  • Perform actions, Speak dialogue, Advance the plot

TYPES OF CHARACTERS

• A round character is someone who feels real. They have a full personality and are affected by what happens in the story. They can learn new things, grow as a person, or even become worse by the end. These characters are more believable because they act like real people — they are consistent, have reasons for what they do, and feel alive.

• A static character stays the same throughout the story. They do not change or grow, even when things happen around them.

TYPES OF CHARACTERS

• A flat character, on the other hand, is simple and one-dimensional. We don’t learn much about them, and they usually show only one or two personality traits.

• A dynamic character (also called a developing character) changes during the story. They grow or learn something important that affects who they are by the end.

LESSON 4
Plot and its types

PLOT

• It is the sequence of events that shows what happens to the characters from the beginning to the end.

LINEAR PLOT DIAGRAM

ELEMENTS OF PLOT

1. ​Exposition = The beginning of a story that gives important background information including the characters and setting.

2. Rising Action = These are the events that happen after the problem begins. They make the story more exciting and keep the reader interested.

ELEMENTS OF PLOT

3. Climax = The turning point of the action in the story. It is the most exciting part of the story.

4. Falling Action = The events that happen after the most exciting part (climax) and start to end the story.

5. Resolution = The end of the story when the problem is solved and everything is explained or finished.

LESSON 5
POV (Point-of-View)

POINT-of-VIEW

• This refers to the angle or perspective from which the story is told. Simply put, it refers to who is telling the story or through whose eyes the events are being described.

TYPES OF POINT OF VIEW

LESSON 6
Features of Poetry

POETRY

• Poetry is a type of writing that uses special language.

• Poetry uses feelings, imagination, and beautiful words.

• Poetry uses sound and rhythm.

• Poetry sometimes rhymes (but not always).

FORM & STRUCTURE

• Line = It is one row of words. It goes from the left to the right.

• Stanza = It is a group of lines in a poem. They are separated by a blank line

Elements

• Rhyme = using words with identical or similar final sounds, like “cat” and “hat.”

• Rhyme Scheme = the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. This pattern is notated by labeling the lines that rhyme with each other with the same letter.

• Tone = in poetry means the author's attitude towards the subject or the audience.

Elements

• Mood = is the general atmosphere or emotional complexion in a piece of writing—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader.

• Diction = the choice of words writers use to communicate their ideas. They base their choice of diction on the content, type or piece of writing, and audience.

• Theme = are lessons or morals that an author wants the reader to learn from a story. This is not different in poetry. Poets often have messages they want to communicate to readers.

Elements

• Meter = Meter is the rhythmic structure of a poem. It’s like the beat in music, but made with words instead of notes.

  • Just like music has a rhythm, so does poetry. This rhythm is created by patterns of stressed (ˊ) - with strong beats and are said louder and clearer and unstressed (˘) syllables - softer and are said more quietly and quickly.

Metrical Foot

Types of Meter

LESSON 7
Figures of Speech

Figures of Speech

• words or phrases used in a special way to make language more interesting or expressive (not always with their literal meaning).

• Tropes in Literature = These use words in a way that’s different from their normal meaning.

Types of Figures of Speech

• Simile = compares two different things using the words "like" or "as."

  • Her smile was as bright as the sun.

• Metaphor = directly compares two different things by saying one is the other, without using "like" or "as."

  • The Lord is my shepherd.

• Personification = where human characteristics are given to non-human objects, animals, or ideas.

  • The wind whispered through the trees.

Types of Figures of Speech

• Hyperbole = uses extreme exaggeration to make a point or show strong feeling. It is not meant to be taken literally.

  • "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."

• Irony = a figure of speech where the opposite of what is said or expected happens, often to be funny or show contrast.

  • A fire station burns down.

• Oxymoron = two opposite or very different words are put together to create a special or interesting meaning.

  • Bittersweet , Seriously funny , Small crowd

Sound Devices

• are tools that writers use to create musical effects in their writing. These help the reader “hear” the poem. These devices help make language more interesting, emotional, or memorable, especially in poetry and songs.

Types of Sound Devices

• Onomatopoeia = is a figure of speech where the word imitates the natural sound of a thing.

  • "The bees buzzed in the garden."

• Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close together in a sentence or phrase.

  • "She sells seashells by the seashore."

Understanding Context

• CONTEXT /konteksto/ is the background (kalagayan) or situation (sitwasyon) in which something happens in a story.

• It helps us understand what’s going on, why characters act a certain way, or what the author is trying to say.

LESSON 8
Context in Literature

Understanding Context

• CONTEXT /konteksto/ is the background (kalagayan) or situation (sitwasyon) in which something happens in a story.

• It helps us understand what’s going on, why characters act a certain way, or what the author is trying to say.

Types of Context

• Biographical context = learning about the writer’s life to understand the story’s meaning more deeply.

• Sociocultural context = the culture, society, and history around a story or event that help us understand it better.

• Historical context = the background history that helps us understand a story better.

• Linguistic context = the background information (who, when, where) and the surrounding words that help us understand meaning.

Symbolism and Allusion

• Symbolism is when a writer uses an object, action, or name to represent something bigger than itself — an idea, a feeling, or a quality. It’s like when a small thing in a story “stands for” something more important.

• Allusion is when a writer talks about or hints at another story, event, or famous thing — but does not explain it directly. If you understand the reference, you get extra meaning from it.

LESSON 9
Pre-writing Strategies for Poetry

What is a good Poetry?

• Good poetry makes us feel something — maybe happiness, sadness, or surprise. It can use special language, like rhymes or pictures made with words, to make the poem interesting and alive.

• Good poetry also makes us think. Sometimes it helps us see the world in a new way, whether it’s serious or funny.

Tips in Writing

1. Choose a Topic = Think about what you want to write about. It could be a feeling like love or sadness, or something you see or imagine.

2. Pick a poem style = There are many types of poems. For example:

   • Haiku (short poems from Japan with 3 lines)

   • Sonnets (poems with 14 lines)

   • Limericks (funny poems with 5 lines)

   • Free verse (no rules for rhyme or rhythm)

Tips in Writing

3. Write your poem = Poetry doesn’t need to follow normal sentence rules. Use your imagination and try tools like:

   • Similes (compare using “like” or “as”), Metaphors (say something is something else), Imagery (use words that create pictures in the mind)

   Just start writing and don’t worry about mistakes. You can fix them later!

4. Edit your poem = After writing, read your poem again. Take out parts that don’t sound right and replace them with better words. Save your first draft so you don’t lose your ideas. If you get stuck, write down what you want that part to feel or mean, and try again later.

Tips in Writing

5. Get Feedback = Show your poem to friends, teachers, or join a writing group. Listen to their advice and think about how to improve your poem. Don’t be afraid to share your work!

LESSON 10
Pre-writing Strategies for Prose (Short Stories)

What is a Short Story?

A short story (Prose) is a small piece of fiction — meaning it’s made-up, not factual — that you can usually read in one sitting.

PROSE is a general classification of literature, either oral or written, that follows the natural flow of speech.

Types of Short Stories

• Anecdote = A brief story of something interesting and often humorous whose purpose is to support a point. They function much like parables: short narratives with a core moral lesson.

• Drabble = A short story of about 100 words whose main purpose is to test the author’s skill, both in prose and in successfully getting a meaningful point across in so few words.

Types of Short Stories

• Sketch = A piece of writing that doesn’t typically contain a plot. Instead, the point of a sketch is to illuminate a particular character, setting, or location.

• Vignette = A short scene which can be part of a larger body of work. The point of a vignette is to capture a single moment or detail about an element in the story, such as a character, idea, or object.

Types of Short Stories

• Feghoot = A funny short story that ends in a pun or wordplay.

• Fable = A short story featuring anthropomorphic creatures, usually animals, whose narrative reveals some kind of a moral point at the end.

• Flash Fiction = Refers to stories shorter than 1,000 words. One of the most famous examples of the form is the following short story, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway:

Tips in Writing

1. A good short story needs one strong mood or feeling.

2. The language should be clear and descriptive.

3. The story should have only a few characters.

4. The story must have a strong point of view or message.

5. Short stories can be creative and break some traditional rules.

Use Transitional Signals in Writing

Transitional signals, also known as transition words, are words or phrases that connect ideas and show relationships between sentences and paragraphs in writing.

Use Transitional Signals in Writing

Use Transitional Signals in Writing

LET'S PRACTICE!