Introduction to literature / Arsenia B. Tan

Includes index.

Introduction 1 -- Reading and Understanding Poetry -- Rhythm and Rhyme -- Poetic Forms -- Paradoy in Poetry -- The haiku -- Narrative Poetry -- The Epics -- Reading and Understanding the Essay -- Reading and Understanding the Myths, Fables, Parables, Legends -- Reading and Understanding the Short Story -- Reading and Understanding the Drama -- Index.

This book has been planned for the purpose of exposing the students to the different literary genres - both of the East and the West - and thus develop in them an appreciation and love for literature. In preparing this text, the author took great care in introducing patterns for analytical discussion of selections. Provided are sample questions for purposes of guiding both teachers and students in genuinely appreciating the selections. Student have to learn to enjoy the art of literary appreciation - the art of perceiving and understanding the artistic vision of the writers as they saw reality and recreated it in a highly artistic mode. This book hopes to eliminate the wrong attitude and oftentimes frustrations of students in the course of their study of literature. The text seeks to simplify the approach to the study of literary works presenting the basic ingredients that make up a piece of writing as literature. Through the presentation of specific examples of the literary and genres taken from the East and the West cultures, students may have a better insight and understanding of human life and experience as embodied in the noble writings of the great literary men of both East and West.