VALUES OF LITERATURE
FAITH JOY D. PRESQUITO, LPT, MEL
WHAT IS VALUE?
It refers to the qualities of poems, stories,
novels, etc. that make them worthwhile to read.
If we feel that our time reading is well
spent, we can say that a work has value for us.
Nonetheless, if the reading work was a
complete waste, then we might say it has no
value for us.
LITERATURE VALUES
▪Entertainment Value ▪Historical Facts
▪Political Value ▪Philosophical Value
▪Artistic Value ▪Moral Value
▪Cultural Value ▪Ethical Value
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE
▪It gives time to enjoy yourself. But this type of
value is inherently subjective because not
everyone will enjoy the same kinds of stories,
styles or themes.
POLITICAL VALUE
▪It lets readers to change how a person thinks
or acts.
▪It attempts to persuade people or the world to
start acting and thinking in “this” way.
ARTISTIC VALUE
▪It gives occasion to contemplate the nature of
beauty and human creativity.
▪There are many works of literature that
experiment with the limit of language and its
expressive power.
CULTURAL VALUE
▪ It allows the reader to think about the place
and time of the author at the time the work
was written.
▪ It addresses attitudes, customs, and values of
their time (or another time)
HISTORICAL FACTS
▪It intends readers to think about the past, how
things changes overtime, and how the world
has evolved into what it is today.
▪It sometimes overlaps with cultural value.
▪It helps us to learn about the past, process the
past, and use the past to our advantage.
▪It shows us what we have gained or lost.
PHILOSOPHICAL VALUE
▪Explores the nature of human knowledge, how
we know, and what we can know
▪Invites us to think about perception, making
sense of our place in the world, or self-
awareness
MORAL VALUE
▪Gives lessons to learn
▪Teaches how to live or attempts to
teach
ETHICAL VALUE
▪It enables readers to think about
ethical questions.
▪Readers may not agree with a
speaker’s or character’s morality, but
seeing that morality in action can
shed light on what it means or how it
changes the world.
ETHICAL VALUE
▪To measure the ethical value of a work of
literature, we need to ask the following
questions:
▪ Do the characters make choices in the work? What
are those choices?
▪ Do the characters or speakers defend particular
beliefs or points of view? What are they?
TWO MAJOR FORMS OF
LITERATURE
TWO MAJOR FORMS OF LITERATURE
▪POETRY
▪PROSE
POETRY
▪This literary type is usually written in lines
and is characterized by having the element
of rhythm, sound, imagery, and form. Its
main purpose is to express feelings,
thoughts, and ideas. It can be divided into
three types: narrative, dramatic, and
lyrical poetry.
1. NARRATIVE POETRY
▪This poetry tells a story and has
the elements of a narrative such as
characters, setting, conflict, etc.
2. DRAMATIC POETRY
▪This is an emotionally appealing
drama written in verse that tells a
story and is intended to be recited
or sung in front of the audience by
a character speaking in poetry.
3. LYRIC POETRY
▪It is the most common type
of poetry that focuses on
expressing feelings rather
than telling a story.
PROSE
▪In contrast to poetry, this literary piece
applies a natural flow of speech and
grammatical structures which are mainly
consisting of complete sentences arranged
logically and sequentially in a paragraph
form.
1. FICTION
▪ This serves as a product of the writer's wild
imagination and creative thinking where the
characters react to the conflict and various
issues central to the main idea of a literary
work. Its three types are: short story, novel, and
novella. The main genres are crime, fantasy,
romance, science fiction, western, inspirational,
historical fiction and horror.
2. NON-FICTION
▪These are stories inspired by real events
where the writers aim to present, interpret,
or describe experiences based on facts.
The judgments, opinions, and
commentaries of the writers may be
presented in the form of essays, journals,
diaries, feature articles, editorials, and the
like.
