WHAT IS LITERATURE? Flashcards
Literature is a faithful reproduction of “
man’s life executed in an artistic pattern
It represents the real-life events of a person’s life and as long as it is done creatively.
DEL CASTILLO AND MEDINA
What characteristics distinguish
literature from nonliterary forms?
- written in artistic pattern
- structure of a narrative
- has its title and context
- involves critical thinking
- special attention
Literature are ‘writings’ or ‘book “
knowledge.
This is why RRL is meant for the technical pieces ever written.
1800 DEFINITION
Literature as imaginative writing.
This is very prescriptive of the standard writers must adhere to so that their work can be considered literary.
Madame de Staël
Literature is whatever a given society or “
culture treats as literature.
Not an effective definition: Because it answers the question, “What do certain societies consider as literature?”
Jonathan Culler, 2000
Literature is an institutional label that
gives us reason to expect that the results
of our reading effort will be worth it
Tells us that institutions act as gatekeepers and dictate what we can consider and what we can’t consider literature.
Jonathan Culler, 2000
Literature as a product of conventions and certain kinds of attention.
Demands a different kind of attention and that what we might see as literature is the product of the decisions of gatekeepers.
Literary works as language with particular properties or features.
The text must be in the right context to be considered literary and that there are text that must be satisfied in order for a text to be a literary
