Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 225 views

    What Is Literature?: R.J. Rees, R.A. Scott-James, Terry Vargas Llosa

    Uploaded by

    Qhusnul Amalia

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    What Is Literature?: R.J. Rees, R.A. Scott-James, Terry Vargas Llosa

    Uploaded by

    Qhusnul Amalia
    225 views21 pages

    Original Title

    whatisliterature-130720115921-phpapp02

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    225 views21 pages

    What Is Literature?: R.J. Rees, R.A. Scott-James, Terry Vargas Llosa

    Uploaded by

    Qhusnul Amalia

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 21

    What is Literature?

    R.J. Rees, R.A. Scott-James, Terry


    Eagleton, Marjorie Garber, Mario
    Vargas Llosa
    And others.
    What is literature?
    With which of the following definition you would like to agree?
     written works with artistic value: written works, e.g.
    fiction, poetry, drama, and criticism, that are recognized as
    having important or permanent artistic value
     body of written works: the body of written works of a
    culture, language, people, or period of time Russian
    literature
     writings on subject: the body of published work
    concerned with a particular subject scientific literature
     body of music: the body of musical compositions for a
    particular instrument or group of instruments literature for
    the piano
     printed information: printed matter such as brochures or
    flyers that give information the company's promotional
    literature
     production of literary works: the creation of literary
    work, especially as an art or occupation
     [14th century. Via French < Latin litteratura < litteratus (see
    literate)]Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
    Do you agree with this definition?
     Lit is … creative writing of recognized artistic
    value
     Written works, esp. those considered of superior
    or lasting artistic merit
     Literature (from Latin litterae (plural); letter) is
    the art of written works, and is not bound to
    published sources (although, under
    circumstances unpublished sources can be
    exempt). Literally translated, the
    word literature means "acquaintance with letters"
    (as in the "arts and letters"). The two major
    classification of literature are poetry and prose.
    (Wikipedia)
     Is any writing, literature?
     Is use of language and words literature???

     What about colours, stones, music?

     Is literature mirror to society / human nature /


    reality?
     Is it photographic representation of . . . ?
     Is it an X-Ray image of . . . ?
    Bertolt Brecht & Franz Kafka
    R A Scott James – The Making of
    Literature
     It is with literature as an art that I am concerned
    in this book, and at the outset it should be clearly
    distinguished from the literature which sets out
    to impart knowledge or produce moral
    conviction.
     Obvious as the difference may seem to us, it was
    not always obvious, and the border-line is blurred
    even to-day.
     It is the distinction which may be made between
    two drawings of a house, one being a " picture,"
    the other an architect's plan.
     The first has an aesthetic character. The second
    is a piece of information its purpose is didactic.
    Knowledge and power
     How to draw line in between?
     Thomas DeQuiency:
     Literature of knowledge = Didactic – to teach
     Litearure of power = aesthetic – to move
     Thomas De Quincey, "The Literature of Knowlege and the Literature of Power" (First
    Published in the North British Review, August, 1848, as part of a critical essay on Alexander
    Pope)
     Literature is the product of imagination, originality,
    style of expression, thought emotions and
    feelings, idea etc….
    Advertisement… is it literature?
     Then, can we call……. Ad, literature?
     Why?
     Why not?

     Is Graphic novel or comics book literature?


     What is the difference between pulp fiction and
    serious literature?
    Some universal characteristics of
    Literature
     Timelessness,
     Eternity,
     universality,
     Permanence…

     Literature is a permanent expression in words of


    some thought or feelings or idea about life and
    the world.
    R.J. Rees:
     Literature may be good, bad or indifferent; but
    good literature will have same, if not all, of the
    following qualities:
     Psychological truth or holding the mirror
    up to nature
     Originality
     Craftsmanship
     A consciousness of moral values
    Terry Eagleton: Literary Theory:An
    Introduction
     „Imaginative writing in the sense of fiction‟ – writing
    which is not literally true. (?)

     Imaginative Vs Realistic
     Fiction vs Fact
     Imaginative representation of realistic life.
     Historical truth Vs Artistic truth
     Novels and News Stories – fact and fiction – how to
    discriminate?
     Comics and pulp fiction – purely imaginative &
    fictitious, yet not „literature‟.
     Compare „Macbeth / Moll Flanders and The White
    Tiger‟.
     The end – Poetic Justice Vs Realistic end.
    Literature is creative and imaginative:
     Does this mean that Philosophy, History, Natural
    Sciences are uncreative and unimaginative?

     Perhaps another approach is required to define


    literature:
    … uses language in peculiar ways.
     Roman Jakobson – „organised violence committed
    on ordinary speech‟.
     Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary
    language, deviates systematically from everyday
    speech.
     (???) Safdar Hashmi – Kitabe Kuchh Kehna
    Chahati hai!
    The Use and Abuse of Literature:
     By Marjorie Garber
     “The Use and Abuse of Literature,” the latest book by
    the prolific Harvard literary scholar Marjorie Garber, is
    in part about this “centripetal movement” in artistic
    appreciation “from the edges to the center, from the
    outside to the inside, incorporating once disparaged
    genres and authors into respectable, canonical and
    even classic status.” We‟ve all seen the process
    applied to television and cinema and comic books
    (now called, in a Maileresque turn, “graphic novels”),
    but Garber reminds us that this tendency has existed
    throughout history, bringing biography and
    Renaissance drama (Garber‟s primary academic
    specialty) and even the novel itself in from the cold,
    along with private forms like letters and journals that
    never wished for such consideration. “What once
    wasn‟t literature,” Garber writes, “is now at the heart
    of the canon.”
    Why study literature?
     Understanding social milieu
     Understanding culture
     Understanding human nature & behavior
     Develop historical sense
     Relish aesthetics of artistic expression
    Does it really happen?
     Do we really enjoy ‘reading’ literature?
     What does the history of civilization prove?
     Have we become better?
     Do we understand each other?
     Do we respect human values(?)?
    Why study literature?
     By studying good literature we learn more about
    human problems and difficulties
     Universality of such problems and ways to
    overcome them
     Make ourselves better human beings
     Humanity and compassion
     International understanding and world peace.
    How to read a book of literature for
    examination purpose
     A book has an Author –
     A book has Genre –
     A book has central theme / subject matter -
     A book has characters –
     A book has style –
     A book has some critical observations -
    Sources:
     Garber, Marjorie. The Use and Abuse of
    Literature.
     Eagleton, Terry.
     Scott-James, R.A. The Making of Literature.
     Rees, R.J.
     Thomas DeQuiency.
     http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/books/review/
    book-review-the-use-and-abuse-of-literature-by-
    marjorie-garber.html?_r=1
     http://www.uwec.edu/pnotesbd/Llosa_article.htm

    You might also like