Literature
is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the
first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the
Latin littera meaning "an individual written character
(letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a
collection of texts or work of art, which in Western culture
are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and
poetry. In much, if not all of the world, texts can be oral
as well, and include such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad,
plus other forms of oral poetry, and the folktale.
Nations can have literatures, as can corporations, philosophical
schools or historical periods. Popular belief commonly holds
that the literature of a nation, for example, comprises the
collection of texts which make it a whole nation.
The Hebrew Bible, Persian Shahnama, the Indian Mahabharata,
Ramayana and Thirukural, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Beowulf,
and the Constitution of the United States, all fall within
this definition of a kind of literature.
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More generally, one can equate a literature
with a collection of stories, poems, and plays that revolve around
a particular topic. In this case, the stories, poems and plays may
or may not have nationalistic implications. The Western Canon forms
one such literature. Furthermore, people may perceive a
difference between "literature" and some popular forms
of written work. The terms "literary fiction" and "literary
merit" often serve to distinguish between individual works.
For example, almost all literate people perceive the works of Charles
Dickens as "literature", whereas some critics[citation
needed] look down on the works of Jeffrey Archer as unworthy of
inclusion under the general heading of "English literature".
Critics may exclude works from the classification "literature",
for example, on the grounds of a poor standard of grammar and syntax,
of an unbelievable or disjointed story-line, or of inconsistent
or unconvincing characters. Genre fiction (for example: romance,
crime, or science fiction) may also become excluded from consideration
as "literature". |
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Frequently, the texts that make up literature crossed over these boundaries. Illustrated stories, hypertexts, cave paintings and inscribed monuments have all at one time or another pushed the boundaries of "literature". Different historical periods have emphasized various characteristics of literature. Early works often had an overt or covert religious or didactic purpose. Moralizing or prescriptive literature stems from such sources. The exotic nature of romance flourished from the Middle Ages onwards, whereas the Age of Reason manufactured nationalistic epics and philosophical tracts. Romanticism emphasized the popular folk literature and emotive involvement, but gave way in the 19th-century West to a phase of so-called realism and naturalism, investigations into what is real. The 20th century brought demands for symbolism or psychological insight in the delineation and development of character. The Muslim Scientist and Philosopher Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq defined Literature as follows: "Literature is the garment which one puts on what he says or writes so that it may appear more attractive. |
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