~What is Literature ?
Literature,
in its broadest sense, is any written work; etymologically the term derives from Latin
literatura/litteratura "writing formed with letters", although
some definitions include spoken or sung texts. More restrictively, it is
writing that possesses literary merit, and language that foregrounds
literariness, as opposed to ordinary language. Literature can be classified
according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction, and whether it is poetry
or prose; it can be further distinguished
according to major forms such as the novel,
short story or drama;
and works are often categorised according to historical periods, or according
to their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre).
Taken
to mean only written works, literature was first produced by some of the
world's earliest civilizations—those of Ancient Egypt and Sumeria—as early as the 4th millennium
BC; taken to include spoken or sung texts, it originated even earlier, and some
of the first written works may have been based on an already-existing oral
tradition. As urban cultures and societies developed, there was a proliferation
in the forms of literature. Developments
in print technology
allowed for literature to be distributed and experienced on an unprecedented
scale, which has culminated in the twenty-first century in electronic
literature.
As a
whole literature can be divided in to two prose and poetry There have been
various attempts to define "literature". Simon and Delyse Ryan begin
their attempt to answer the question "What is Literature?" with the
observation:
The
quest to discover a definition for "literature" is a road that is
much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom
satisfactory. Most attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they
inevitably change over time. In fact, the only thing that is certain about
defining literature is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is
literature change over time as well.
Definitions
of literature have varied over time; it is a "culturally relative
definition". In Western Europe prior to the eighteenth century,
literature as a term indicated all books and writing. A more restricted sense
of the term emerged during the Romantic period, in which it began to demarcate
"imaginative" literature. Contemporary debates over what constitutes
literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what
constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its
subject of analysis both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works.
The value judgement definition of literature
considers it to exclusively include writing that possesses a literary quality
or distinction, forming part of the so-called belles-lettres ('fine writing') tradition. This
is the definition used in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–11) when it classifies
literature as "the best expression of the best thought reduced to
writing." However, this has the result that there is no objective
definition of what constitutes "literature"; anything can be
literature, and anything which is universally regarded as literature has the
potential to be excluded, since value-judgements can change over time.
The formalist definition is that the history
of "literature" foregrounds poetic effects; it is the
"literariness" or "poeticity" of literature that
distinguishes it from ordinary speech or other kinds of writing (e.g. journalism).[8][9] Jim Meyer considers this a
useful characteristic in explaining the use of the term to mean published
material in a particular field (e.g. "Scientific
literature"),
as such writing must use language according to particular standards.[1] The problem with the formalist
definition is that in order to say that literature deviates from ordinary uses
of language, those uses must first be identified; this is difficult because
"ordinary
language" is
an unstable category, differing according to social categories and across
history.[10]
Etymologically, the term derives from Latin
literatura/litteratura "learning, a writing, grammar,"
originally "writing formed with letters," from litera/littera
"letter".[11] In spite of this, the term has
also been applied to spoken or sung texts.[1][12]
The quest to
discover a definition for “literature” is a road that is much travelled, though
the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Most
attempted definitions are broad and vague, and they inevitably change over
time. In fact, the only thing that is certain about defining literature
is that the definition will change. Concepts of what is literature change
over time as well. What may be considered ordinary and not worthy of
comment in one time period may be considered literary genius in another.
Initial reviews of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in 1847 were less than spectacular, however, Wuthering
Heights is now considered one of the greatest literary achievements of all
time. The same can be said for Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851).
Generally,
most people have their own ideas of what literature is. When enrolling in
a literary course at university, you expect that everything on the reading list
will be “literature”. Similarly, you might expect everything by a known
author to be literature, even though the quality of that author's work may vary
from publication to publication. Perhaps you get an idea just from
looking at the cover design on a book whether it is “literary” or “pulp”.
Literature then, is a form of demarcation, however fuzzy, based on the premise
that all texts are not created equal. Some have or are given more value
than others.
Most forays
into the question of “what is literature” go into how literature works with the
reader, rather than how the author set about writing it. It is the
reception, rather than the writing, which is the object of enquiry.
Largely, what we call “literature” is often a subjective value judgment, and
naturally, value judgments, like literary tastes, will change.
Etymologically,
literature has to do with letters, the written as opposed to the spoken word,
though not everything that is written down is literature. As a
classification, it doesn't really have any firm boundary lines. The poet
Shelley wanted to include some legislative statutes of parliaments under poetry
because they created order and harmony out of disorder. There is
recurring agreement amongst theorists though that for a work to be called
literature must display excellence in form and style. Something may also
be literary by association – that is, because V.S. Naipaul is a literary figure through his novels, his private
letters are passed as literature as well.
There is
also general agreement that literature foregrounds language, and uses it in
artistic ways. Terry Eagleton goes some way towards a definition of
literature and its relationship to language: “Literature transforms and
intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech”.
Just as architecture is the art form that arises out of the human ability to
create buildings, literature is the art form that arises out of the human
ability to create language.
The common
definition of literature, particularly for university courses, is that it
covers the major genres of poetry, drama, and novel/fiction. The term
also implies literary quality and distinction. This is a fairly basic
view of literature because, as mentioned in the introduction, the meaning of
the term has undergone changes, and will no doubt continue to do so. Most
contemporary literary histories show a shift from the belles-lettres tradition,
which was concerned with finding beauty, an elevated use of language, emotional
effects and moral sentiments before something could be called literature.
The three main ways of approaching a definition of
literature are relativism, subjectivism and agnosticism. With relativism,
there are no value distinctions in literature; anything may be called good
literature. Subjectivism, as the term implies, means that all theories of
literary value are subjective, and that literary evaluation is a purely
personal matter. Agnosticism follows from subjectivism, though it argues
that though there may be real distinctions in literary value, our subjective
value systems prevent us from knowing anything about the real values.
There’s a new definition of
literature in town. It has been slouching toward us for some time now but may
have arrived officially in 2009, with the publication of Greil Marcus and
Werner Sollors’s A New Literary History of America. Alongside essays
on Twain, Fitzgerald, Frost, and Henry James, there are pieces about Jackson
Pollock, Chuck Berry, the telephone, the Winchester rifle, and Linda Lovelace.
Apparently, “literary means not only what is written but what is voiced, what
is expressed, what is invented, in whatever form” — in which case maps,
sermons, comic strips, cartoons, speeches, photographs, movies, war memorials,
and music all huddle beneath the literary umbrella. Books continue to matter,
of course, but not in the way that earlier generations took for granted.
In any conversation, the
participants need to share an understanding of the “thing” being
discussed. If, for example, we’re going to talk about the film The Big
Lebowski, we’d need to both agree that when we use the title of that movie,
we’re referring to the 1998 film starring Jeff Bridges and John Goodman and
written and directed by the Cohen brothers. If this were a course in
cellular biology, we’d need to share a definition of a “cell” (what it is; what
it isn’t; what its defining characteristics and behaviors are, etc) in order to
talk meaningfully about it. If this were a course in business ethics,
we’d have to share a definition of “ethics” (and “business”). Our
conversations this semester will be about "literature" and about
"critical inquiry," and so we need to have some shared understanding
of what we mean and what we don’t mean when we use those terms.
The purpose of the discussion here is to help us start our conversation about
the meaning of the term "literature."
A safe place to begin when
discussing definitions is a dictionary. Dictionary.com defines
literature, in part, as follows:
"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."
That seems to make enough sense, and
it represents a common definition of literature found in most
dictionaries. But as all dictionaries do, Dictionary.com goes on to
offer more definitions, one of which is this:
"any kind of printed material,
as circulars, leaflets, or handbills."
This problematizes our discussion a
bit: is “literature” anything printed (like advertisements and financial aid
pamphlets and the CR course schedule) or is "literature" only
particular kinds of printed material (like poems and short stories and
plays). It won’t work for us to take a relativistic path and say simply
that “literature is whatever each person thinks it is.” If we do that,
then we won’t really be able to have a conversation about literature
since you may be using the word to refer to poems and I may be using it to
refer to my “to-do” list or to coupons in the newspaper. We don’t
have to agree exactly on every aspect of our definition, but we do need to be
in the same general area together. So for our discussions this semester,
let’s agree that when we refer to “literature,” we ARE NOT referring to
just “any kind of printed material” but only certain kinds of printed
material—specifically, the kinds that possess some kind of artistic merit.
Well, now I’ve really complicated
things. Defining “literature” seems easier than defining “artistic
merit.” After all, what is “art”? Again, it simply won’t work to
take the relativistic path and say that it is whatever each individual thinks
it is. If anything qualifies as “art,” then everything qualifies as
“art,” and, consequently, nothing is really “art.” And art isn’t simply
what I like. There are many things I like immensely that don’t qualify as
“art” (Backpacker magazine, for example), and there is much art that I
can’t stand (for example, almost all of the poetry of Robert Frost). So
what is “artistic merit”? Here it may be helpful to go back to part of
our Dictionary.com definition of literature:
"…expression and form, in
connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic
or essential features."
What does this really mean? I
understand it to mean first that a work we call
"literature" says something (i.e. the "expression")
about issues, experiences, or ideas that are of intense, ongoing interest to
many, many people (i.e. the "ideas of permanent and universal
interest"). Furthermore, a work we call "literature," will
not simply address topics we care about and are interested in; it will address
these topics in special ways. That is, the "form" of the
expression or how the expression is presented somehow contributes to the
uniqueness of the work. To break it down further, let's look at
three elements of this definition.
1. "...connection with ideas
of permanent and universal interest." Since
people create ideas and give them permanence and universal interest, we can
paraphrase this part of our definition to mean that literature addresses topics
that are of deep interest to many, many people. What are these
topics? Probably the things that make our lives both complicated and worth
living--freedom, truth, beauty, love, loyalty, despair, hope, hopelessness,
etc.. Contemplative people across places and throughout time have
concerned themselves with these ideas and have represented and explored them
through literature. It is this that caused American poet Ezra Pound to
describe literature as “news that stays news” and American historian Barbara
Tuchman to describe it as “humanity in print” and a “carrier of civilization.”
2. Furthermore,
our definition of literature above implies that what a work of
literature says about an issue or subject of deep interest is
important. It’s not a particular opinion we’re looking for in literature;
we're looking for insight into the topic that is of "permanent and
universal interest." A “literary” text is one that freshens,
intensifies, deepens, and/or challenges our understanding of something we are
interested in. Literature should “rock” us, shake us up, rattle us, and
make us feel like we understand something new about what it means to be human
and experience the world we live in. Nature writer Annie Dillard
described it this way:
"Why are we reading, if not in
hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed? . . .
. Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize
our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the
possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest
mysteries, so we may feel again their majesty and power?"
Franz Kafka was more blunt:
"If the book we are reading
does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read
it?… What we must have are those books which come upon us like ill-fortune, and
distress us deeply, like the death of one we love better than ourselves….A book
must be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea inside us."
Many stories and poems deal with
love and war and truth and psychology and human emotion, but literary texts
will make us feel like we see something about these things that we didn’t see
before or didn’t see as clearly or didn’t feel as intensely. And
sometimes, as Kafka implies in the quote above, this deepened understanding may
be brought to us violently, shattering our illusions and wrestling away from us
our comfortable assumptions.
3. Our definition of
"literature" above implies that when determining whether or not a
text is "literary" we should consider not just what is
said but also how it is said. Herein lies an
often-forgotten criteria of literature: form. By form we do not mean
novel, poetry, short story, or play; we mean the specific conventions used
within those genres to create particular effects. There are many, many
texts that speak thoughtfully and insightfully about issues that matter to the
masses, but that doesn’t make them “literary” texts. A history book, a
psychology textbook, a field guide to edible native plants…all of these may
offer valuable insight into issues we care about, but they are likely not
literary texts because they don’t offer this insight in a way that is, itself,
remarkable for the way it functions in conjunction with the ideas to create an
experience that is greater than the ideas themselves. Usually, in an
artistic work, the form of the presentation (the rhythm of a song, the
perspective of a painting, the metaphors in a poem, etc.) works to achieve
a particular effect—that is, the form works to create a special impact on the
ways listeners of a song, the viewers of a painting, or the readers of a
story think about, feel, understand, and relate to the ideas represented
in the artistic work. The insight that literature offers is not
often just mental; it is often felt. Literature, Ezra Pound
says, “is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree,”
and according to literary theorist Terry Eagleton, it “transforms and
intensifies ordinary language.” This attention to the ways of
communicating for effect and to intensify and deepen one’s felt understanding
is what caused writer Iris Murdoch to describe literature as “a sort of disciplined
technique for arousing certain emotions.”
Kinds
of literature
The major forms of Literature are:
Various works of literature are
written in and further categorized by genre. Sometimes forms are used
interchangeably to define genre. However, a form, e.g., a novel or a poem, can
itself be written in any genre. Genre is a label that characterizes elements a
reader can expect in a work of literature. The major forms of literature can be
written in various genres. Genre is a category characterized by similarities in
style, or subject matter.
The classic major genres of
Literature are:
Genre
categories: fiction and nonfiction
Genre may fall under one of two
categories: Fiction
and Nonfiction.
Any genre can be either: a work of Fiction (nonfactual descriptions and events
invented by the author)
or a work of Nonfiction (a communication in which descriptions and events are
understood to be factual).
Common
genres: fiction
Subsets of genres, known as common
genres, have developed from the archetypes of genres in written expression. The
common genres included in recommended Literaturin verse or prose, usually for
theatrical performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through
dialogue and action
- Classic – fiction that has become part of an accepted literary canon, widely taught in schools
- Comic/Graphic Novel – scripted fiction told visually in artist drawn pictures, usually in panels and speech bubbles
- Crime/Detective – fiction about a committed crime, how the criminal gets caught, and the repercussions of the crime
- Fable – narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans; legendary, supernatural tale
- Fairy tale – story about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children
- Fanfiction – fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc.
- Fantasy – fiction with strange or other worldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality
- Fiction narrative – literary works whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact
- Fiction in verse – full-length novels with plot, subplot(s), theme(s), major and minor characters, in which the narrative is presented in verse form (usually free verse)
- Folklore – the songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or "folk" as handed down by word of mouth
- Historical fiction – story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting
- Horror – fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread and sometimes fear in both the characters and the reader
- Humor – Usually a fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement, meant to entertain and sometimes cause intended laughter; but can be contained in all genres
- Legend – story, sometimes of a national or folk hero, that has a basis in fact but also includes imaginative material
- Metafiction – also known as romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, uses self-reference to draw attention to itself as a work of art, while exposing the "truth" of a story
- Mystery – fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets
- Mythology – legend or traditional narrative, often based in part on historical events, that reveals human behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining to the actions of the gods
- Poetry – verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that creates emotional responses
- Realistic fiction – story that is true to life
- Science fiction – story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future or on other planets
- Short story – fiction of such brevity that it supports no subplots
- Suspense/Thriller – fiction about harm about to befall a person or group and the attempts made to evade the harm
- Tall tale – humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with nonchalance
Common
genres: nonfiction
- Biography/Autobiography - Narrative of a person's life. A true story about a real person.
- Essay - A short literary composition that reflects the author's outlook or point.
- Narrative nonfiction - Factual information presented in a format which tells a story.
- Speech - Public address or discourse.
- Textbook - Authoritative and detailed factual description of a topic.
- Reference book - Dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, etc.
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