{"id":59,"date":"2015-11-23T13:18:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T13:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/englishcomp2x74x2\/?post_type=chapter&p=59"},"modified":"2017-01-11T17:22:54","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T17:22:54","slug":"defining-literature","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-eng-102-college-writing-ii\/chapter\/defining-literature\/","title":{"raw":"Defining Literature","rendered":"Defining Literature"},"content":{"raw":"Literature<\/b>, in its broadest sense, is any written work. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin\u00a0litaritura\/litteratura<\/i> \"writing formed with letters,\" although some definitions include spoken or sung texts. More restrictively, it is writing that possesses literary merit. Literature can be classified according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction and whether it is\u00a0poetry or prose. It can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel, short story or drama, and works are often categorized according to historical periods or their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre).\r\n\r\nTaken to mean only written works, literature was first produced by some of the world's earliest civilizations\u2014those of Ancient Egypt and Sumeria\u2014as early as the 4th millennium BC; taken to include spoken or sung texts, it originated even earlier, and some of the first written works may have been based on a pre-existing oral tradition. As urban cultures and societies developed, there was a proliferation in the forms of literature. Developments in print technology allowed for literature to be distributed and experienced on an unprecedented scale, which has culminated in the twenty-first century in\u00a0electronic literature.\r\n

Definition<\/h2>\r\nDefinitions of literature have varied over time.\u00a0 In Western Europe prior to the eighteenth century, literature as a term indicated all books and writing.[footnote]Leitch et al.<\/i>, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism<\/i>, 28[\/footnote]\u00a0\u00a0A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, in which it began to demarcate \"imaginative\" literature.[footnote]Ross, \"The Emergence of \"Literature\": Making and Reading the English Canon in the Eighteenth Century,\" 406 &\u00a0<\/span>Eagleton, Literary theory: an introduction<\/i>, 16<\/span>[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n\u00a0<\/span>Contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of analysis both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works.[footnote]Leitch et al.<\/i>, The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism<\/i>, 28[\/footnote]\r\n

Major Forms<\/h2>\r\n

Poetry<\/h3>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_635\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"238\"]\"French<\/a> A calligram by Guillaume Apollinaire. These are a type of poem in which the written words are arranged in such a way to produce a visual image.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nPoetry is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and rhythmic\u00a0qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, prosaic ostensible meaning (ordinary intended meaning).\u00a0Poetry has traditionally been distinguished from prose by its being set in verse;[footnote]\"poetry, n.\". Oxford English Dictionary<\/i>. OUP. Retrieved 13 February<\/span> 2014<\/span>.<\/cite> (subscription required)[\/footnote]\u00a0prose is cast in\u00a0sentences, poetry in lines; the syntax of prose is dictated by meaning, whereas that of poetry is held across metre or the visual aspects of the poem.[footnote]Preminger, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics<\/i>, 938\u20139[\/footnote]\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nPrior to the nineteenth century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines; accordingly, in 1658 a definition of poetry is \"any kind of subject consisting of Rythm or Verses\".<\/cite>[footnote]\"poetry, n.\". Oxford English Dictionary<\/i>. OUP. Retrieved 13 February<\/span> 2014<\/span>.<\/cite> (subscription required)[\/footnote]\u00a0Possibly as a result of Aristotle's influence (his Poetics<\/i>), \"poetry\" before the nineteenth century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art.[footnote]Ross, \"The Emergence of \"Literature\": Making and Reading the English Canon in the Eighteenth Century\", 398[\/footnote]\u00a0As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition;<\/cite>[footnote]Finnegan, Ruth H. (1977). Oral poetry: its nature, significance, and social context. Indiana University Press. p.\u00a066. &\u00a0<\/cite><\/span>Magoun, Jr., Francis P. (1953). \"Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry\".Speculum 28<\/b> (3): 446\u201367. doi:10.2307\/2847021<\/cite><\/span>[\/footnote]\u00a0hence it constitutes the earliest example of literature.\r\n

Prose<\/h3>\r\nProse is a form of language that possesses ordinary syntax and natural speech rather than rhythmic structure; in which regard, along with its measurement in sentences rather than lines, it differs from poetry.[footnote]Preminger, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics<\/i>, 938\u20139 &Alison Booth; Kelly J. Mays. \"Glossary: P\".LitWeb, the Norton Introduction to Literature Studyspace<\/i>. Retrieved 15 February<\/span> 2014<\/span>.\u00a0[\/footnote]\u00a0On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff notes that \"\r\n