What is Literature?

• Literary culture; the production of

literary work especially as an
occupation; writings in prose or verses;
writings having excellence of form and
expression and expressing ideas of
permanent or universal interest; the body
of writings on a particular subject;
printed matter (as leaflets or circulars);
the aggregate of musical compositions.
“Literature as writing that exhibits excellence
of form or expression.”
• This definition emphasizes artistic worth, and limits the
range of literature to works which are distinguished by
their style, composition, and general force of
presentation. The term literature thus becomes an
expression of value judgment.
• The problem with this definition, according to Wellek and
Warren, is that it tends to confine literature to what we
call “great books.” It may blind us to the value of
experimental works, or works that do not follow the
conventional rules of writing.
• This they say has pedagogical value; but may also do
harm because it excludes many works that may not
exhibit the qualities of the so-called great books but
which are nevertheless worthy of consideration as
literature.
 “Literature as writing of permanent or
universal interest.”
• The reference is to the great books (masterpieces)
that exhibit a high level of craftsmanship, and that
have endured, or have withstood the changes of
time.
• Those who subscribe to what we would call the
universalist notion of literature believe that great
works of a literature will have the same value
anytime, anywhere. Valued highly in the past
during the time they were composed, these works
are still being appreciated today. These works
were appreciated not only by their original writers
but also by readers from different cities or
cultures.
 “Literature as writing of permanent or
universal interest.”

• Such a universalist notion is disputed by those

who claim that there is no such thing as ideas
of permanent or universal value. According to
them, all ideas and all artistic works for that
matter are subject to the changes of time and
taste. Moreover, our responses to the works of
art are conditioned or influenced by our
cultural background or orientation.
• A literary work considered great in one
particular period may be forgotten or
depreciated in another time. A masterpiece by
a particular cultural group may hold no value
at all to others.
 Alternative Definitions of Literature
• When dictionary fails, the usual recourse is to
consider literature as „imaginative writing‟. This
view involves the old distinction between fact and
fiction: literature deals with things imagined; non-
literature (history) with known facts.
• Wellek and Warren: “In all of them, the reference
is to a world of fiction, of imagination. The
statements in a novel, in a poem, or in a drama are
not literally true; they are not logical …”
• If we look at history, literature has also
traditionally embraced works that may not be
considered, strictly speaking, as imaginative
writing.
 Alternative Definitions of Literature
• Example: English literature includes the essays of
Francis Bacon (a philosopher) and Thomas Huxley (a
scientist), French literature includes the
philosophical works of Descartes and Pascal, and
Philippine Literature includes the polemical essays
of Renato Constantino, a historian and social
commentator.
• The distinction between fact and fiction on which the
definition rests, “seems unlikely to get us very far,
not least because the distinction itself is often
questionable one (Eagleton).” There are societies or
ethnic groups who believe that their myths embody
is not fiction but fact; while there are fictional works
(pulp romances) which are often not categorized as
literature.
Alternative Way of Looking at the Problem of Defining
Literature

• Wellek and Warren (Theory of Literature): “The main

difference between the language of science and the
language of literature may be summarized in this
manner: scientific language is purely denotative, whereas
literary language is highly connotative.”
– Denote: applies to the definitive meaning content of a term:
in a noun, the thing or the definable class of things or ideas
which it names; in a verb, the act or state which is affirmed.
– Connote: applies to the ideas or associations that are added
to a term and cling to it, often as a result of personal
experience but sometimes as a result of something
extraneous (as a widely known context with a widely
known event).
• „Purely Denotative‟: it tries to establish one-to-one
correspondence between the word and what it refers to. It
aims at exactness.
 Alternative Way of Looking at the
Problem of Defining Literature

• „Highly Connotative‟: it does not only

refer to something but also communicates
the tone of the speaker and tries to affect
the reader in various ways. Literary
language exhibits richness of meaning
that cannot be found in language used in
a purely denotative sense.
• Difference of literature from other types of
literature invokes two things: its
fictionality and its peculiar use of
language.
 Alternative Way of Looking at the
Problem of Defining Literature

• Literature, therefore, is a work of fiction

characterized by a very self-conscious use of
language which is highly connotative in
nature.
• Literature is at best a fluid concept; it is not a
fixed abstract category but a socially
constructed norm which changes in various
contexts.
• Terry Eagleton: “Literature, in the sense of a
set of works of assured and unalterable value,
distinguished by certain shared inherent
properties, does not exist.”
 Two Definitions of Literature:
1. A Dictionary of Literary Terms (J.A. Cuddon):
Literature: a vague term which usually
denotes works that belong to the major
genres: epic, drama, lyric, novel, short story,
ode,…
– There are many works which cannot be classified
in the main literary genres which nevertheless
may be regarded as literature by virtue of
excellence of their writing, their originality, and
their general aesthetic and artistic merits.
– Example: Aristotle‟s treatises on Poetics and
Rhetoric; Gibbon‟s Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire; Darwin‟s On the Origin of Species; and
Dame Rebbeca West‟s The Meaning of Treason.
 Two Definitions of Literature:

2. A Dictionary of Literary, Dramatic and

Cinematic Terms (S. Barnet, M. Berman, and
W. Burto): Literature: sometimes means
anything written.
– Most critics regard such definition as too broad
because it includes pamphlets on how to make
money from guppies, and too narrow because it
excludes such oral compositions as ballads and
folk tales. Perhaps one can begin by saying that
literature uses language in compositions that are
valuable in themselves.
Literature as Seen by Writers and Wits
• Cyril Connoly (Enemies of Promise):
“Literature is the art of writing something that
will be read twice; journalism what will be
read at once.
• Ezra Pound (How to Read): “Great Literature
is simply language charged with meaning to
the utmost possible degree.”
• Robert Louis Stevenson (Memories and
Portraits): “Literature in many of its branches
is no other than the shadow of good talk.”
• John, Viscount Morley (Critical Miscellanies):
“Literature – the most seductive, the most
deceiving, the most dangerous of professions.”
Literature as Seen by Writers and Wits
• Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Literature is
the effort of man to indemnify himself
from the wrongs of his conditions.”
• Thornton Wilder: “Literature is the
orchestration of platitudes.”
• Thomas Mann: “Literature is the union
of suffering with the instinct of form.”
• Mark Twain: “A classic is something
that everybody wants to have read and
nobody wants to read.”