The topic is much too obvious so I'll jump right to the point. Literature is ANY text that exists. Academic journals, fiction and non-fiction books, newspapers, advertisements, poems, short stories, music, textbooks, even homework can be classified as literature. Not to mention class notes, grocery lists, graffiti, and greeting cards. Literature in its most basic form is ANYTHING written. Yes, this even applies to those little love letters you send to your high-school sweetheart (not that I would know....ohhhh!). The common rabble in today's society would probably disagree with this, something like graffiti is not literature. But let's examine the main focus of literature itself. It seeks to inform, record, analyze, describe, and depict. It is artistic, pessimistic, opinionated, and conveys emotional and logical appeal. Surely every form of text falls under one of these categories. No, a grocery list may not be a well thought-out amalgam of knowledge but it is "informative literature." Also, a literary work is not necessarily a published work nor must it be known to more than one person: it just exists. Therefore, regardless of the form of text it can still be written well or poorly, though such is purely personal belief. Overall, the quality of literature itself is analogous with what one believes constitutes a literary dissertation. While I believe anything and everything written can be good or bad literature a fellow peer may be more of less limited in their views. Such is the power of opinion.
Can literature not be spoken as well?
ReplyDeleteI would say anything "purely spoken" is not literature. Most songs, for example, have literary roots because they are written down first. I suppose what I am saying is more of a dictionary definition, though. Therefore, literature is written work, not simply a thought or verbiage spoken aloud.
Delete