LITERATURE

What is Literature?
Foreign Literature
Philippine Literature

What is LITERATURE?
Literature

is writings in which expression

and form, in connection with ideas of
permanent and universal interest, are
characteristic or essential features, as
poetry, novels, history, biography, and
essays. Literature is the entire body of
writings of a specific language, period,
people, etc.

What is LITERATURE?
Literature

includes written works of an

imaginative, journalistic or scholarly
nature. Language is a system of spoken
and written symbols by means of which
people can communicate with each
other.

FOREIGN
LITERATURE

SIMONE DE
BEAUVOIR

Simone de Beauvoir

French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir

is most famous for her 1949 book, The Second
Sex. She had a significant impact on the
development of modern feminist theory, though
she never considered herself a philosopher and
didn't call herself a feminist until later in life. In
regard to her own work she called herself the
"midwife of Sartre's existentialism," and her
contemporaries often considered her work only an
echo of her lover Jean-Paul Sartre's. Scholars have
now begun to acknowledge that she was a
pioneer in the fields of existentialism and feminist
theory in her own right.

The Second Sex and Other

Works
During

her career Simone de Beauvoir

wrote essays, novels, biographies, one
autobiography, and monographs on a
variety of issues. She and Sartre always
reviewed each other's work, and scholars
debate over how much of an influence
they had on each other.

The Second Sex and Other

Works
Her

best known works include two novels,

She Came to Stay and The Mandarins,
and her treatise The Second Sex. The
Second Sex was an immediate bestseller,
selling 22,000 copies in the first two weeks
of its publication in 1949. Written in French,
the book analyzes the sources and
causes of women's oppression, creates a
theory of feminist existentialism, and calls
for a moral revolution.

AUGUSTA JANE
EVANS

Augusta Jane Evans

An

American Southern author and one of

the pillars of Southern literature. She wrote
nine novels: Inez (1850), Beulah (1859),
Macaria (1863), St. Elmo (1866), Vashti
(1869), Infelice (1875), At the Mercy of
Tiberius (1887), A Speckled Bird (1902),
and Devota (1907).

Augusta Jane Evans

Given

her support for the Confederate

States of America from the perspective of
a Southern patriot, and her literary
activities during the American Civil War,
she can be deemed as having
contributed decisively to the literary and
cultural development of the Confederacy
in particular, and of the South in general,
as a civilization. She was inducted into the
Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1977.

JOHN ESTEN
COOKE

John Esten Cooke

John

Esten
Cooke
wrote
many
biographies of officers he had personally
known throughout the Civil War. "The Life
of Stonewall Jackson" is one of his most
famous works. Controversy surrounds this
book, as it is often considered to be more
propaganda than fact. Your report could
include these controversies as a point of
discussion.

WILLIAM
FAULKNER

William Faulkner
Faulkner

is one of the most celebrated

writers in American literature generally
and Southern literature specifically.
Though his work was published as early as
1919, and largely during the 1920s and
1930s, Faulkner was relatively unknown
until receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in
Literature. Two of his works, A Fable
(1954) and his last novel The Reivers
(1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

William Faulkner
In

1998, the Modern Library ranked his

1929 novel The Sound and the Fury sixth
on its list of the 100 best English-language
novels of the 20th century; also on the list
were As I Lay Dying (1930) and Light in
August (1932). Absalom, Absalom!
(1936) is often included on similar lists.

DUBOSE
HEYWARD

DuBose Heyward

DuBose Heyward was an American author

best known for his 1925 novel Porgy, which
was adapted by his wife into a 1927 play. The
stage Porgy inspired the 1935 opera Porgy
and Bess with music by George Gershwin,
which was later adapted into a 1959 film.
Heyward also wrote poetry and other novels
and plays, as well as the children's book The
Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
(1939).

LOUISE OTTOPETERS

Louise Otto-Peters

Born in 1819 in Meissen, as the daughter of a

respected lawyer, Louise Otto-Peters received
a quality education from private tutors. She
became a resonant name in history, as she
was a writer, poet, journalist, feminist, and
women's rights activist. She began writing in
1840 under the pseudonym Otto Stern and
her most famous work is titled "The Speech of
a German Girl," her views upon the events
that troubled Europe during 1848.

Louise Otto-Peters

When the revolution broke out in Europe in

1848, she founded the newspaper "Women's
News." She supported numerous campaigns
for social and political reform and in 1865,
together with her friend Auguste Schmidt,
founded the General Union of German
Women in Leipzig. By 1876, the union already
had 11,000 members. Louise was co-president
until she died in 1895. She is considered the
country's founding feminist.

AUGUSTE
SCHMIDT

Auguste Schmidt
Born

in 1833 in Breslau, current day

Poland, Auguste Schmidt was an
educator, journalist, women's rights
activist, and a pioneer of the feminist
movement. She was the daughter of a
Prussian army artillery lieutenant. After
studying to be a teacher, she moved to
Leipzig in 1861, where she became the
director of a girl's private school.

Auguste Schmidt

In 1862, she became a teacher of literature

and one of her students was Clara Zetkin,
whom she greatly inspired. In 1864, she
became friends with Louise Otto-Peters. In
1866, the two founded the General Union of
German Women. Two years later, she
established the Association of German
Teachers and Educators. In 1889, she became
the first president of the League of German
Women's Association. She finally retired from
her functions in 1900 and died in 1902.

CLARA ZETKIN

Clara Zetkin

Born in 1857 in Wiederau, Saxony, Clara Zetkin was

the daughter of a teacher and a housewife,
dealing with the precarious financial situation of
the working class from a young age. She was one
of the first women in Germany to attend a
teaching school, after which she met Auguste
Schmidt at a seminary in Leipzig and immediately
agreed to her views. Clara adhered to the
ideologies of the German Social Party and was
forced to leave the country after a raid during a
conference. She moved to Paris with Otto Zetkin.
She took his name, but never actually married him,
in order to keep her German citizenship.

Clara Zetkin

In France, she became a journalist and translator,

believing that socialism and feminism were closely
tied, holding a number of speeches sustaining her
views. In 1890, the laws against socialism were
revoked, and she returned to Germany and
became senior-editor for the social democratic
newspaper for women, "Equality," a position she
held for 25 years. She fought to help women
obtain economic independence and for
improving their role inside the family, supporting
divorce. In 1924, she moved to Moscow, where
she died in 1933 and was buried by the walls of
the Kremlin.

MARIE STRITT

Marie Stritt

She was born in 1855 as Marie Bacon in

Transylvania. Among other functions, her
father was a delegate at the Reichstag. Her
mother, Therese Bacon, was active on a
feminist level, but there were no official
organizations back then. She was the one
who introduced Marie to the movement
beginning with 1890. Marie left her hometown
in 1873 to become an actress and attended
an acting school in Vienna. She married the
opera singer Albert Stritt, with whom she had
two children.

Marie Stritt

In 1889, she moved to Dresden, where she

became more involved in the feminist
movement. Marie Stritt is considered a
trailblazer for the feminist movement in
Germany. She was the president of the Union
of German Feminist Associations. In 1894, she
founded
the
first
juridical
protection
association. She was president of many other
feminist associations, fighting for women's
right to vote. She died in 1928 in Dresden, and
her ashes were buried in her hometown in
Transylvania.

BERTHA
PAPPENHEIM

Bertha Pappenheim
Bertha

Pappenheim was an AustrianJewish feminist, a social pioneer, and the

founder of the Jdischer Frauenbund
(League of Jewish Women). Under the
pseudonym Anna O., she was also one of
Josef Breuer's best documented patients
because of Freud's writing on Breuer's
case.

Bertha Pappenheim

Bertha Pappenheim published her first works

anonymously, and later under a pseudonym, "Paul
Berthold. Kleine Geschichten fr Kinder (Little
Stories for Children) appeared anonymously in
1888, to be followed in 1890 by a volume of tales,
In der Trdelbude (In the Junk Shop). The nine
novella in this volume have as their subject in each
case a defective or otherwise useless item, such as
a piece of lace, a music box, or a coffee pot. In
1913, she published the play Tragische Momente.
Drei Lebensbilder (Tragic Moments. Three Scenes
from Life).

ANTOINE DE
SAINT-EXUPRY

Antoine de Saint-Exupry

Antoine de Saint-Exupry was a French

aristocrat, writer, poet, and pioneering
aviator. He became a laureate of several
of France's highest literary awards and
also won the U.S. National Book Award.
He is best remembered for his novella
The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) and for
his lyrical aviation writings, including
Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.

FYODOR
DOSTOYEVSKY

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor

Dostoyevsky is a Russian novelist,

short story writer, essayist, journalist and
philosopher. Dostoyevsky's literary works
explore human psychology in the context
of the troubled political, social, and
spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century
Russia. He began writing in his 20s, and his
first novel, Poor Folk, was published in
1846 when he was 25.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

His major works include Crime and

Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869),
Demons
(1872)
and
The
Brothers
Karamazov (1880). His output consists of
eleven novels, three novellas, seventeen short
novels and numerous other works. Many
literary critics rate him as one of the greatest
and most prominent psychologists in world
literature.
His
novella
Notes
From
Underground is considered to be one of the
first works of existentialist literature.

GABRIEL GARCA
MRQUEZ

Gabriel Garca Mrquez

Gabriel

Garca
Mrquez
was
a
Colombian novelist, short-story writer,
screenwriter and journalist. He started as
a journalist, and wrote many acclaimed
non-fiction works and short stories, but is
best known for his novels, such as One
Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The
Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) and
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985).

STIEG LARSSON

Stieg Larsson
Stieg

Larson was a Swedish journalist and

writer. He is best known for writing the
"Millennium trilogy" of crime novels, which
were published posthumously. Larsson
lived much of his life in Stockholm and
worked there in the field of journalism and
as an independent researcher of rightwing extremism. He was the second bestselling author in the world for 2008.

LEO TOLSTOY

Leo Tolstoy
Leo

Tolstoy was a Russian novelist, short

story writer, philosopher and playwright
who primarily wrote novels and short
stories. Tolstoy was a master of realistic
fiction and is widely considered one of
the greatest novelists of all time. He is best
known for two long novels, War and
Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina
(1877).

Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy first achieved literary acclaim in his 20s

with his semi-autobiographical trilogy of
novels, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth
(18521856) and Sevastopol Sketches
(1855), based on his experiences in the
Crimean War. His fiction output also includes
two additional novels, dozens of short stories,
and several famous novellas, including The
Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and
Hadji Murad. Later in life, he also wrote
plays and essays.

MIGUEL DE
CERVANTES
SAAVEDRA

Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , was a

Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His
magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered to
be the first modern European novel, is a
classic of Western literature, and is regarded
amongst the best works of fiction ever written.
His influence on the Spanish language has
been so great that the language is often
called la lengua de Cervantes ("the
language of Cervantes"). He was dubbed El
Prncipe de los Ingenios ("The Prince of Wits").

PATRICK SSKIND

Patrick Sskind
Patrick

Sskind is a German writer and

screenwriter,
best
known
for
his
internationally acclaimed novel Perfume:
The Story of a Murderer, first published in
1985.

MARKUS ZUSAK

Markus Zusak

Markus Zusak is an Australian writer. He is

best known for The Book Thief and The
Messenger (US title, I Am the
Messenger), two novels for young adults
which have been international bestsellers.
He won the annual Margaret Edwards
Award in 2014 for his contribution to
young-adult literature published in the US.

VICTOR HUGO

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo is considered one of the greatest

and best known French writers. In France,
Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry
but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic
achievements. Among many volumes of
poetry, Les Contemplations and La
Lgende des sicles stand particularly high in
critical esteem. Outside France, his bestknown works are the acclaimed novels Les
Misrables and Notre-Dame de Paris
(known in English as The Hunchback of
Notre-Dame).

JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works

of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry,
earned her a place as one of the most widely
read writers in English literature. From 1811 until
1816, with the release of Sense and Sensibility
(1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield
Park (1814) and Emma (1815), she achieved
success as a published writer. She wrote two
additional novels, Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion, both published posthumously in
1818, and began a third, which was eventually
titled Sanditon, but died before completing it.

PHILIPPINE
LITERATURE

FRANCISCO
ARCELLANA

Francisco Arcellana

Francisco Arcellana was a Filipino writer,

poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher. He
is considered an important progenitor of the
modern Filipino short story in English. Arcellana
pioneered the development of the short story
as a lyrical prose-poetic form within Filipino
literature.
Arcellana's
published
books
include: Selected Stories (1962), Poetry
and Politics: The State of Original Writing in
English in the Philippines Today (1977) and
The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990).

FRANCISCO
BALAGTAS

Francisco Balagtas
Francisco

Balagtas was a prominent

Filipino poet, and is widely considered as
one of the greatest Filipino literary
laureate for his impact on Filipino
literature. The famous epic, Florante at
Laura, is regarded as his defining work.

LUALHATI
BAUTISTA

Lualhati Bautista
Lualhati

Bautista is one of the foremost

Filipino female novelists in the history of
contemporary Philippine Literature. Her
novels include Dekada '70, Bata, Bata,
Pa'no Ka Ginawa?, and GAP.

CARLOS
BULOSAN

Carlos Bulosan
Carlos

Bulosan was an English-language

Filipino novelist and poet who spent most
of his life in the United States. His bestknown work today is the semiautobiographical America Is in the
Heart, but he first gained fame for his
1943 essay on The Freedom from Want.

CECILIA
MANGUERRA
BRAINARD

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is an author and

editor of nineteen books. She co-founded PAWWA
or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists;
she also founded Philippine American Literary
House. Brainard's works include the World War II
novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept,
Magdalena, and Woman With Horns and Other
Stories. She edited several anthologies including
Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary
Fiction by Filipinos in America, and two volumes of
Growing Up Filipino I and II, books used by
educators.

LINDA TY CASPER

Linda Ty Casper
Linda

Ty Casper is a Filipino writer who has

published over fifteen books, including
the historical novel Dream Eden and the
political novels Awaiting Trespass,
Wings of Stone, A Small Party in a
Garden, and Fortress in the Plaza. She
has also published three collections of
short stories which present a cross-section
of Filipino society

BIENVENIDO L.
LUMBERA

Bienvenido L. Lumbera

Bienvenido Lumbera is a Filipino poet, critic

and dramatist. Lumbera authored numerous
books, anthologies and textbooks such as:
Revaluation,
Pedagogy,
Philippine
Literature: A History and
Anthology,
Rediscovery: Essays in Philippine Life and
Culture, Filipinos Writing: Philippine Literature
from the Regions, and Paano Magbasa ng
Panitikang
Filipino:
Mga
Babasahing
Pangkolehiyo.

GILDA CORDEROFERNANDO

Gilda Cordero-Fernando
Gilda

Cordero-Fernando is a writer and

publisher from the Philippines. CorderoFernando has two collections of short
stories: The Butcher, The Baker and The
Candlestick Maker (1962) and A
Wilderness of Sweets (1973). These books
have been compiled and reissued as the
Story Collection (1994).

EDMUNDO
FAROLAN

Edmundo Farolan

Filipino Canadian author Edmundo Farolan started

winning literary awards as a young writer-scholar
while studying philosophy and letters in Madrid in
the 1960s. He has published several books of
poetry, anthologies, textbooks and translations. His
notable works are: Lluvias Filipinas (1967), The
Rhythm of Despair(1974), Tercera Primavera
(1981), Oh Canada (1994), Media and Culture
(2005),
Itinerancias
(2006),
Cuentos
hispanofilipinos
(2010),
Hexalogia
Teatral(Coleccin Oriente - Ed.Moreno Mejas,
2011).

ZOILO GALANG

Zoilo Galang
Zoilo

Galang is the Filipino author of the

first Philippine novel written in the English
language A Child of Sorrow, published
in 1921.

N. V. M. Gonzalez

N. V. M. Gonzalez

Nstor Vicente Madali Gonzlez was a Filipino

writer. The works of Gonzalez have been
published in Filipino, English, Chinese,
German, Russian and Indonesian.

Novels

The Winds of April (1941)

A Season of Grace (1956)
The Bamboo Dancers (1988)

N. V. M. Gonzalez
Short Fiction

A Grammar of Dreams and Other Stories, 1997

The Bread of Salt and Other Stories, 1993
Mindoro and Beyond: Twenty-one Stories, 1981
Selected Stories, 1964
Look, Stranger, on this Island Now, 1963
Children of the Ash-Covered Loam and Other
Stories, 1954
Seven Hills Away, 1947

N. V. M. Gonzalez
Essays

A Novel of Justice: Selected Essays 19681994. Manila: National Commission for

Culture and the Arts and Anvil (popular
edition), 1996
Work on the Mountain (Includes The Father
and the Maid, Essays on Filipino
Life and Letters and Kalutang: A Filipino in
the World), University of the Philippines Press,
1996

NICK JOAQUIN

Nick Joaquin
Nick

Joaquin was a Filipino writer, historian

and journalist, best known for his short
stories and novels in the English language.
He was conferred the rank and title of
National Artist of the Philippines for
Literature. His notable works are: May
Day Eve (1947), The Woman Who Had
Two Navels (1961), A Portrait of the Artist
as Filipino (1966), and Cave and
Shadows (1983).

F. SIONIL JOS

F. Sionil Jos
Francisco

Sionil Jos is one of the most

widely read Filipino writers in the English
language. His novels and short stories
depict the social underpinnings of class
struggles and colonialism in Filipino
society. One of hiss notable works are the
Rosales Saga novels.

PETER SOLIS NERY

Peter Solis Nery

Peter Solis Nery is a Filipino poet, fictionist, and author. After

the EDSA Revolution of 1986, Peter found himself in a new
wave of Philippine literature. There was a resurgence of
interest in nationalistic writing. Peter won his first national
award in writing for his poetry in Hiligaynon, Mga
Ambahanon kag Pangamuyo sang Bata nga Nalimtan sa
Wayang (Songs and Prayers of a Child Forgotten in the
Fields) in 1992. For his performance poetry Si Eva, si Delilah,
si Ruth, kag ang Alput (Eva, Delilah, Ruth, and the
Prostitute) at the Premio Operiano Italia, he was named
Hari sang Binalaybay (King of Hiligaynon Poetry) in 1993, a
title he held until 1998. During his student activism days at
the university, he wrote his first book, I Flew a Kite for
Pepe, in 1993. It was followed by his earth song and hymn
to the planet, First Few Notes of a Green Symphony.

CLARO M. RECTO

Claro M. Recto

Claro M. Recto Jr. was a Filipino politician,

jurist, poet and one of the foremost statesmen
of his generation. He was reared and
schooled in the Spanish language, his mother
tongue alongside Tagalog, and he was also
fluent in English. He initially gained fame as a
poet while a student at University of Santo
Toms when he published a book Bajo los
Cocoteros (Under the Coconut Trees, 1911),
a collection of his poems in Spanish.

Claro M. Recto

A staff writer of El Ideal and La Vanguardia, he wrote

a daily column, Primeras Cuartillas (First Sheets),
under the nom de plume "Aristeo Hilario." They were
prose and numerous poems of satirical pieces. Some
of his works still grace classic poetry anthologies of
the Hispanic world.

Among the plays he authored were La Ruta de

Damasco (The Route to Damascus, 1918), and Solo
entre las sombras (Alone among the Shadows,
1917), lauded not only in the Philippines, but also in
Spain and Latin America. Both were produced and
staged in Manila to critical acclaim in the mid 1950s.

Claro M. Recto

A staff writer of El Ideal and La Vanguardia, he wrote

a daily column, Primeras Cuartillas (First Sheets),
under the nom de plume "Aristeo Hilario." They were
prose and numerous poems of satirical pieces. Some
of his works still grace classic poetry anthologies of
the Hispanic world.

Among the plays he authored were La Ruta de

Damasco (The Route to Damascus, 1918), and Solo
entre las sombras (Alone among the Shadows,
1917), lauded not only in the Philippines, but also in
Spain and Latin America. Both were produced and
staged in Manila to critical acclaim in the mid 1950s.

JOS RIZAL

Jos Rizal
Jos

Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso

Realonda was a Filipino nationalist,
novelist, poet, ophthalmologist, journalist,
and revolutionary. He is widely considered
as one of the greatest heroes of the
Philippines. He was the author of Noli Me
Tngere, El Filibusterismo, and a
number of poems and essays.

ALEJANDRO
ROCES

Alejandro Roces

Alejandro Reyes Roces was a Filipino author,

essayist, dramatist and a National Artist of the
Philippines for literature. During his freshman year in
the University of Arizona, Roces won Best Short
Story for We Filipinos are Mild Drinkers. Another of
his stories, My Brothers Peculiar Chicken, was
listed as Martha Foleys Best American Stories
among the most distinctive for years 1948 and
1951. Roces did not only focus on short stories
alone, as he also published books such as Of
Cocks and Kites (1959), Fiesta (1980), and
Something to Crow About (2005).

BIENVENIDO
SANTOS

Bienvenido Santos
Bienvenido N. Santos was a Filipino-American
fiction, poetry and nonfiction writer. His works
are:
Novels

The Volcano (1965)

Villa Magdalena (1965)
The Praying Man (1982)
The Man Who (Thought He) Looked Like Robert
Taylor (1983)
What the Hell for You Left Your Heart in San
Francisco? (1987)

Bienvenido Santos
Short Story Collections

You Lovely People (1955)

Brother, My Brother (1960)
The Day the Dancers Came (1967, 1991)
Scent of Apples (1979)
Dwell in the Wilderness (1985)
The Old Favorites

Poetry

The Wounded Stag (1956,1992)

Distances: In Time (1983)
"March of Death"
Music for One

EDILBERTO K.
TIEMPO

Edilberto K. Tiempo

Edilberto Kaindong was a Filipino writer and

professor. He and his wife, Edith L. Tiempo, are
credited by Silliman University with establishing "a
tradition in excellence in creative writing and the
teaching of literacy craft which continues to this
day"at that university. As a Guggenheim writing
fellow in 1955, he submitted a collection of short
stories, A Stream at Dalton Pass and Other
Stories, for his Ph.D. in English at the University of
Denver. This collection won a prize at the same
time that his second novel, More Than
Conquerors, won the first prize for the novel.

KERIMA POLOTAN
TUVERA

Kerima Polotan Tuvera

Kerima Polotan-Tuvera was a Filipino author.

She was a renowned and highly respected
fictionist, essayist, and journalists, with her
works having received among the highest
literary distinctions of the Philippines. Her 1952
short story,The Virgin, won two first prizes: of
the Philippines Free Press Literary Awards and
of the Palanca Awards. Her short stories The
Trap (1956), The Giants (1959), The
Tourists (1960), The Sounds of Sunday (1961)
and A Various Season (1966) all won the first
prize of the Palanca Awards.