UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS TUGUEGARAO

LITERATURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

DEFINING 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE

“As society and technology change, so does literacy.”

The 21st century demands that a literate person possesses a wide range of abilities and
competencies because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate
environments.

These literacies - from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms -

are multiple, dynamic, and malleable.

 New literary work created within the last decade.

 It is written by contemporary authors.
 It deals with current themes and issues.
 It reflects a technological culture.
 It often breaks traditional writing rules.

21ST CENTURY READERS AND WRITERS NEED TO:

 Develop proficiency with the tools of technology.
 Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-
culturally
 Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes.
 Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
 Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts

CHARACTERISTIC OF A 21ST CENTURY READER/ LEARNER

 They grew up using technology as a primary learning tool
 They are capable of navigating and interpreting digital formats and media messages.
 Possesses literacy skills which include technological abilities such as keyboarding,
internet navigation, interpretation of technological speak, ability to communicate and
interpret coded language and decipher graphics

21st CENTURY LITERARY GENRES

A. CHICK LIT
 Genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and
light-heartedly. It typically features a female protagonist whose womanhood is heavily
thematized in the plot
 Examples:

B. FLASH FICTION

Prepared by:
LOVELY JOY O. RUIZ
Literature Instructor
  It refers to a largely fictional work of relative brevity. In terms of length there seems to
be some disagreement: some say that it should have not more than 50 words while
others say that it can have as many as a thousand words. It goes by different names such
as “short short story, micro fiction, micro- narrative and sudden fiction.
 In the Philippines the genre has its equivalent- the dagli.

C. SPECULATIVE FICTION
 To speculate is to ask the question “what if..?” and open your mind to an infinite number
of possible answers to that question.
 It is a broad genre that encompasses stories that take place in imaginary worlds a result
of one or more “what if…? Questions.
 It is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres. Speculative
fiction is a term that encompasses a wide variety of “weird” fiction genres. It is the super
genre of everything that falls under Science Fiction and Fantasy. Speculative fiction can
take place on earth but often takes place in other worlds envisioned by the author.

1. Science Fiction- deals mainly with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or
individuals. The premise may either be based on or flatly contradict scientific facts and
principles.
Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as
futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel
universes and extra terrestrial life.

2. Fantasy- uses magic and supernatural elements in plot, theme , and setting. Magic is central
to the fantasy genre. These stories often involve journey and quests
Examples: JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and JM Barrie’s
Peter Pan.

3. Contemporary fantasy- Stories set in our present day world. This could have magic or
magical beings present in our world or the magic or beings could be leaking into our world
from another. But the main characters would remain in our world for the story.

4. Dark Fantasy- A combination of Fantasy and horror. Vampire, werewolf, mummies and
zombies fit into this sub- genre.

5. Super Natural Fiction - These type of stories remove all elements that fall under fantasy and
horror, and embrace super natural elements that considered common place in the natural
world.

6. Superhero Fiction- This is a type of Fiction that follows character with superhuman abilities
that come up against dastardly villains trying to take over the world or may be just a certain
city.

7. Utopian- Stories that envision an ideal society, often including a metaphor for how the
choices humanity determines such a possible reason.
It presents a world that is ideally perfect in all aspects of society.
Examples are Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach, and The Magellanic Cloud by Stainlaw Lem
Prepared by:
LOVELY JOY O. RUIZ
Literature Instructor
 8. Dystopian Fiction- Stories that takes place in a futuristic society that is repressive or
controlled, often under the guise of being perfect. The characters live in a real life- nightmare.
These types of stories tries to get the reader to see the consequences of a certain ways of life.
It presents a futuristic, imagined world in which there is only an illusion of a perfect society
but is in fact one which is oppresses through corporate , bureaucratic, technological, moral or
totalitarian control.
Examples are V for Vedetta by Alan Moore and the Giver by Lois

9. Apocalyptic Fiction- Stories in this genre are concerned with the end of the civilization due
to catastrophe. This might come from nuclear war, pandemics, the return of Christ,
technology or general disasters. It deals with the end of civilization either through nuclear
war, plagueor some other general disaster.

10. Post- apocalyptic Fiction-These stories are set in a civilization after an apocalyptic event, or
perhaps years later. Such a story might also fall under dystopian category.

It is a set in a world or civilization after such a disaster. The time frame may be immediately
after the catastrophe, focusing on the struggles of survivors, or some time later when the
existence of civilization before the catastrophe has been forgotten.
Examples: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, World War Z by Max Brooks and Handmaid’s
Tale by Margaret Atwood.

11. Alternate History- Any story that messes up with the history of our world.
It is set in worlds in which one or more historical events unfold differently from how it did in
reality. It is based on the idea that for every event that occurs or a decision made in our
reality, there is another place (a parallel universe) where the event or deci
sion turned out differently.
Examples are napoleon in America by Shannon Selin, and The Age of Aztec by James
Lovegrove.

D. DOODLE FICTION
A literary presentation where the author incorporates doodle drawings and hand written
graphics in place of traditional font
Drawings enhance the story
They often add humorous elements that would be missing if illustrations were omitted

E. DIGITAL MEDIA TEXTS

 The term media text refers to any media product we wish to examine and from which we
derive meaning value. It could be newspaper and magazine articles, comics, films, TV shows,
music, performances, interviews or talks.
 Digital media is digitalized content- texts, audio, video graphics- that can be transmitted over
the internet or computer networks.

Types of Digital Media

1. Podcast
2. Ebooks
3. Digital Story
Prepared by:
LOVELY JOY O. RUIZ
Literature Instructor
 4. Vlog

F. CREATIVE- NON FICTION

• Defines the genre simply, succinctly, and accurately as “true stories well told.”
• It is like jazz—it’s a rich mix of flavors, ideas, and techniques, some of which are newly
invented and others as old as writing itself.

G. HYPERPOETRY
• A form of digital poetry that uses links using hypertext mark-up. It is a very visual form, and
is related to hypertext fiction and visual arts. The links mean that a hypertext poem has no
set order, the poem moving or being generated in response to the links that the reader/user
chooses.

H. BLOG
 A web log: a website containing short articles called posts that are changed regularly. Some
blogs are written by one person containing their own opinions, interests and experiences,
while others are written by many different people.ho
 It is the shortest version of the term “ Web log” It refers to regularly updated journal on the
internet

I. TEXTTULA
• A particular example of this poem is a tanaga, a type of Filipino poem, consisting of four
lines with seven syllables each with the same rhyme at the end of each line - that is to say a
7-7-7-7 syllabic verse, with an AABB rhyme scheme. The modern tanaga still uses the 7777
syllable count, but rhymes range from dual rhyme forms: AABB, ABAB, ABBA; to freestyle
forms such as AAAB, BAAA, or ABCD. Tanagas do not have titles traditionally because the
tanaga should speak for itself. However, moderns can opt to give them titles.

J. META FICTION
• Fiction in which the author self- consciously alludes to the artificiality or literariness of a
work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions and traditional narrative
techniques.
• A fiction that “self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction. It is a fiction that
systematically draws attention to itself as a literary work.

K. MANGA
• Manga is the Japanese word for comics. It is used in the English-speaking world as a generic
term for all comic books and graphic novels originally published in Japan. Manga is
considered an artistic and storytelling style

L. GHOST STORIES
• Are part of Filipino pop culture. They are a specific kind of stories in the horror fiction genre.
As the name suggests, a ghost story features a ghost as one of its characters. Like any story
in the horror fiction genre, a ghost story is meant to scare its reader.

M. GRAPHIC NOVELS/ COMIC BOOKS

• Narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using comic form
Covers many genres - non-fiction, fiction,short stories
Prepared by:
LOVELY JOY O. RUIZ
Literature Instructor
 N. TESTIMONIO
• Testimonio traces its origins to autobiographical literature. It largely concerns itself with the
iisue of marginality. In testimonial literature, the subject position of the author is relevant for
it is what really defines the genres- he/she is from a traditionally marginalized sector of
society who has experienced oppression in more ways than one.
• It is an authentic narrative, told by a witness who is moved to narrate by the urgency of a
situation. (e.g. war, marginalization, oppression, revolution, etc.)

O. FLIPTOP/ RAP BATTLE

• Like textual is a contemporary type of poetry. It traces its origins to the hip-hop culture which
includes among others in art forms, the rap, disc jockeying and break dancing

P. PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY
• It is a series of pictures that evokes an emotion, conveys an idea or tells a story.

Q. MEMOIR
• It is a sub-genre of creative non- fiction that recounts the experiences of someone’s life. It
usually involves a public portion of the writer’s life as it relates to a historic event.

R. SPOKEN WORD POETRY

• It is a poetry intended for performance on stage for a live audience. It is mostly associated
with hip- hop culture, but it also has its roots in modern poetry, post- modern performance,
storytelling and monologue theatre as well as to various types of music such as jazz, blues
and folk.

S. THEATRICAL ADAPDATION
• It is a genre wherein a story from another medium is rewritten to conform to the elements of
theatre.

Sources/ References:
21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World by Mata Emilou Lindsay I., et al.

Prepared by:
LOVELY JOY O. RUIZ
Literature Instructor