On the Verge of Lunacy

Alden Richards (left) and Maine "Yaya Dub" Mendoza (right) in their first proper onscreen date in Eat Bulaga! In the Philippine noontime show Eat Bulaga 's segment Juan for All, All for Juan a supercouple was born. AlDub is a portmanteau of the names Alden and Yaya Dub played by Alden himself and Maine Mendoza, respectively. For those not familiar with Filipino television shows, Eat Bulaga! is a noontime variety show that has been running for 36 years as of this writing. It features contests, comedy segments, and various entertainment portions. One such segment is Juan for All, All for Juan . Before their accidental pairing became an overnight sensation, Richards has been an actor since 2010 (I wrote a review in my blog of Ilustrado where he played the lead role). He was invited to become a host in the noontime show. Mendoza on the other hand became an Internet celebrity through her Dubsmash videos where she lip syncs audio clips, thus her nickname Dubsmash ...

Note: This is my final paper for Adv. Literary Theory and Criticism, one of my classes in MA in Literature.  October 2015. I'm posting this here as a backup in case I lose my copy and I need a guide in the future. Literature is the soul of a civilization. It is the collection of dreams, ideas and experiences of a people. It is what separates us from animals. It is an examination of our aspirations, happiness, fears and sadness, ideas and opinions. As a student of literature, I have learned that to get the most out of a poem, short story, novel, play or film, I must go beyond simple reading and observation. To do this however, I have to answer first the question "how do we fully appreciate a literary piece?" This essay is divided into four sections, namely; what is literature for me; the literary theories and criticism; Heneral Luna: a film review using the poststructuralist approach; and what makes a good literature? In the first part, I will recall my experiences a...