T.2 CONCEPT OF LITERATURE Flashcards
What is the controversy around the noun “literature”?
Literature is the object study of Literary Science. However, the elements that distinguish literary texts form non-literary texts aren’t always clear. What is the essence of literature, then?
Historical approach to the term literature: What did Dyonisius write? What does it consist on?
Dionysius, a greek grammatitian, wrote Techné Grammatiké, a set of instructions in order to create a language.
He doesen’t differentiate literary disciplines like poetry of criticism from the others, he sees it more broadly.
Historical approach to the term literature:
What does Quintilian write? What does it consist on?
Institutio Oratoria: how to give good speeches
Historical approach to the term literature:
How was literature approached during the Illustration?
his concept includes all human speeches: science, arts, geography,music, rhetoric, medicine…
For the most part of history, the goal of scientific discourse was not to convey a clear message, but to impart the message in a rather “beautiful” way
Historical approach to the term literature:
What writer attempts to gather the “universal literature” of a language and see its progress? During the Illustration
San Andres
Historical approach to the term literature:
During the Romanticism, how does the concept narrow down?
Kant distinguishes a literary discipline, poetry, as the art of genious, and extends of Aristotle’s literary genres
Historical approach to the term literature:
Which new term appears during the Romanticism due to nationalist movements?
nationalist movements in the 19 th Century cause: NATIONAL LITERATURE
Historical approach to the term literature:
How are national and universal (weltliteratur in german) literature related? What is Goethe’s idea of Weltliteratur?
a literature is materialized by and as a language, but also within a culture.
The concept of universal literature appears in 1827 as a concept based on certain
reflections made by Goethe. His idea is that of the totality of literature, to study literature beyond the borders of Germany with the intention of globalizing literature; he emphasizes the idea of the eternal, complete, totality (to go beyond, to advance).
Historical approach to the term literature:
What does comparative literature consist on? How is it born?
It is a study methodology that approaches the relation between language and literature, other languages or other knowledge spheres and disciplines.
It is a cultural and literary trend based on greek and latin “paragon” (models). Stricto Sensus, it was created by Dionisio Halicarnassus.
But also form comparing national literatures.
Closest definition of literature:
The materialization of the human capacity to manifest (feelings, emotions…), and that materialization can come to existence in the shape of highly elaborated use of language.
Actualization of the concept of literature
As an artistic movement that reflects the historical moments of time.
