HANDOUTS for 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World

LITERARY STANDARDS. The ability to judge of literature is based on the application of certain
recognizable standards of good literature. Great literature is distinguished of the following qualities:

a. Artistry (quality which appeals to our sense of beauty.)

b. Intellectual Value ( a literary work stimulates thought, enriches our mental life by making us realize
fundamental truths about life and human nature.)
c. Suggestiveness (this is the quality associated with the emotional power of literature, such that it
should move us deeply and stir our creative imagination, giving and evoking vision above and beyond
the plane of ordinary life and experience.)
d. Spiritual Value ( a good literature elevates the spirit by bringing out moral values which makes us
better persons – this capacity to inspire is part of the spiritual value of literature.
e. Permanence (a great work of literature endures – it can be read again and again as each reading
gives fresh delight and new insights and open new worlds of meaning and experience.)
f. Universality (great literature is timeless and timely – forever relevant in terms of its theme and
conditions.)
g. Style (the writer of literature will usually have a unique view of the world and will put thoughts to us
in a way we have never considered)

Literary Masterpieces that Greatly Influenced the World

The following are just some of the great literary works ever literary works ever written that influenced the lives
of people all over the world.

1. The Holy Bible. The sacred scriptures of Christians which consists of two parts – The Old and New
Testament.

2. Koran (Qur-an). The book of sacred writings used in Muslim religion.

3. Iliad by Homer. One of the two of the greatest war epics about the Trojan War.

4. The Odyssey by Homer. An epic poem (which is a sequel to Iliad) about the adventures of Ulysses.

5. Divine Comedy. An Italian epic poem written by Dante Alighieri and considered one of the greatest works of
world.

6. Mahabharata. One of the two greatest epics of India described as the longest epic ever written, consisting of
100,000 shioka or over 200,000 individual verse lines and long prose passages.

7. Ramayana. One of the greatest Indian epics that depicts the duties of relationships. It consists of 24,000
verses in seven books and 500 cantos.

8. The Book of the Dead of Egypt. An ancient Egyptian funerary text considered as the most important
literature of Egypt.

9. El Cid. The greatest adventure story of the Spaniards.

10. The Tale of Genji. A classic work of a Japanese lady named Murasaki Shikibu. This book is sometimes
called the world’s first novel.

11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe which features Uncle Tom, a long suffering
black slave.

12. Don Quixote. Written by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra and considered to be the most influential work of
literature in Spain.