Definitions of literature

2. LITERATURE
- literally “acquaintance with
letters”
-from Latin “Litera” which
means individual written
character

3. Various Definitions

4. Noah Webster
All writings in prose or verse,
especially those of
an imaginative or
critical character.

5. Arnold
Literature is the best of what has
been thought and written. Poetry,
at least, is an imitation of a noble
action and ought to impart
pleasure by permitting a “vent in
action” of emotions which would
otherwise be stifling.

6. Aristotle
Literature is an imitation of sequence
of events. Literature can be
categorized, and thereby, understood
according to the method of operation
and execution of each category.
Viewing or reading literature facilitates
the expression (pushing out) of
undesirable emotions.

7. Corneille
Literature is the execution in
language of a number of rules
that govern how to render an
imitation of events gracefully
and according to form and
verisimilitude.

8. Horace
Literature is an imitation of events
or objects in such a manner as to
render a “golden” world, improved
over the real object in nature.
Literature ought to delight,
instruct, and inspirit the reader.

9. Del Castillo and Medina
 Literature is a faithful reproduction of life,
executed in an artistic pattern. It is the
orchestration of the manifold but elemental
experiences of man, blended into
harmonious and desired patterns of
expression.

10. Johnson
Literature is an imitation which has
been judged to have value a period
of centuries as a true but general
reflection of human nature in a
variety of real or imaginary
circumstances.

11. Longinus
Literature is written work that
causes or fails to cause the
experience of the sublime.

12. Mukarovsky
Literature is language that
draws attention to the mode
of expression itself and
thereby goes beyond merely
describing or communicating
ideas.

13. Plato
 Literature is an imitation (in words) of an
imitation (in matter or material existence)
of an idea that exists originally in the mind
of God. As an imitation twice removed from
the true reality, it is inferior, deceptive and
dangerous, largely because audiences
imitate what they see and read.

14. Pope
Literature is an imitation of a nature
that is executed not by copying nature
directly but rather by imitating the
works and techniques of previous
writers who are somehow “close” to
nature and to the original.

15. Wordsworth
Literature is a creative expression of
Platonic ideas that is cast in a form that
affects readers by operating upon their
sympathies and antipathies, thereby
affording an emotional experience of
ideas that Plato had believed could be
apprehended logically.

16. Shlovsky
Literature defamiliarizes the
familiar; that is, it caused us to
see the ordinary in away that
jolts us out of automatic ways
of perceiving and acting.

17. Henry van Dyke
Literature consists of those writing
which interpret the meanings of
nature and life, in words of charm
and power, touched with the
personality of the author, in artistic
forms of permanent interest.

18. Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq
Literature is the garment
which one puts on what he
says or writes so that it may
appear more attractive.

19. Roman Jakobson
Literature is organized
violence committed on
ordinary speech

20. Ezra Pound
Great literature is simply
language charged with
meaning to the utmost
possible degree.

21. Salman Rushdie
Literature is where I go to explore
the highest and lowest places in
human society and in the human
spirit, where I hope to find not
absolute truth but the truth of the
tale, of the imagination and of the
heart.

22. G. K. Chesterton
Literature is a
luxury; fiction is a
necessity.

23. C. S. Lewis
Literature adds to reality, it does
not simply describe it. It enriches
the necessary competencies that
daily life requires and provides; and
in this respect, it irrigates the
deserts that our lives have already
become.

24. Henry Miller
Develop interest in life as you see it;
in people, things, literature, music
- the world is so rich, simply
throbbing with rich treasures,
beautiful souls and interesting
people. Forget yourself.

25. Alfred North Whitehead
It is in literature that the
concrete outlook of
humanity receives its
expression.

26. E.M. Forster
What is wonderful about
great literature is that it
transforms the man who
reads it towards the
condition of the man who
wrote.

27. 7 LITERARY
STANDARDS

28. ARTISTRY
This is a quality
which appeals to our
sense of beauty.

29. INTELLECTUAL VALUE

A literary work that
stimulates thought.

30. SUGGESTIVENESS
Associated with the
emotion of a literary
piece.

31. SPIRITUAL VALUE
Elevates the spirit by
bringing out the moral
values of a person or
situation.

32. PERMANENCE

A great work of
literature endures.

33. UNIVERSALITY
Great literature
is timeless.

34. STYLE
This is the peculiar way in
which a writer sees life,
forms his ideas and
expresses them.