Definitions and Meanings of Literature

Etymology:

LATIN: literatura/litteratura - writing formed with letters

Literature is the best of what has been thought and written.(“Preface to the Poems”)

-Arnold

Literature is an imitation of a sequence of events. Literature can be categorized and, thereby,understood according to the method of operation and execution of each category. Viewing or reading literature facilitates the expression (pushing out) of undesirable emotions. (“Poetics”).

-Aristotle

Literature is the execution in language of a number of rules that govern how to render an imitation of events gracefully and according to form and verisimilitude. (‘’The Discourses on Dramatic Poetry’’)

- Corneille

Literature is an imitation of events or objects in such a manner as to render a ‘’golden’’ world, improved over the real object in nature (which Sidney calls ‘’brazen’’) Literature ought to delight, instruct, and inspirit the reader. (‘’An Apology for Poesy’’)

- Horace

Literature is a faithful reproduction of life, executed in an artistic pattern. It is the orchestration of the manifold but elemental experiences of man, blended into harmonious and desired patternsof expression. (‘’Phil. Literature from Ancient Times to the present’’)

- Del Castillo and Medina

Literature is an imitation which has been judged to have value a period of centuries as a true but general reflection of human nature in a variety of real or imaginary circumstances. (‘’Preface to Shakespeare’’)

- Johnson

Literature is written work that causes or fails to cause the experience of the sublime---awe attached to terror. (‘’On the Sublime’’)

- Longinus

Literature is language that draws attention to the mode of expression and thereby goes beyond merely describing or communicating ideas.

- Mukarovsky

Literature is an imitation (in words) of an imitation (In matter or material existence) of an idea that exists originally in the mind of God. As an imitation twice removed from the true reality, it is inferior, deceptive, and dangerous, largely because audiences imitate what they see and read.

- Plato

Literature is an imitation of nature that is executed not by copying nature directly but rather by imitating the works and techniques of previous writers who are somehow ‘’close’’ to nature and to the original. (‘’An Essay on Criticism’’)

- Pope

Literature is a creative expression of Platonic ideas thatis cast in a form that affects readers by operating upon their sympathies and antipathies, thereby affording an emotional experience of ideas that Plato had believed could be apprehended logically.(‘’Preface to the Cenci,’’ Defense of Poetry)

- Wordsworth

Literature defamiliarizes the familiar; that is, it caused us to see the ordinary in a way that jolts us out automatic ways of perceiving And acting. (‘’Art as Technique”)

- Shlovsky

The business of criticism , is not to find fault nor to display the critic’s own learning Or influence , but it is to know “the best which has been thought and said in the World” and by using this knowledge to create a current of fresh and free thought.

-Matthew Arnold-The Critic

THE END