What is literature?

What is literature?

This blog is written as a task to write definition of Literature after studying  M.A. at Department of  English, MKBU. While taking admission at Dept. Of English i had written following write up about what is Literature? & in  this blog i will try to write critique of my own write up. What i believed earlier &  NOW.

"Day by day in a everyway i am getting better & better"-Emily ku.

I want to define Literature, but while doing this i remember lines of Derrida that is it possible to define anything once and for all?? Or at what extent can we define something? Because when we include something into definition we are excluding rest of the things.

Now i totally may not agree with the my own writing. Because i had written that Anything that is written is called literature.

The very first line of my writing can be deconstructed because it says "Anything that is written is called literature". So what about Oral literature? Or  “the

literatures of preliterate people??  So, my own line seems to me misleading. It may be true in general sense, partially. But it is much more than written words.

Anything written is not called literature because newspapers,  pamphlets are also written but its not literature. Literature is an art & artistic arrangement of words with realism, imagination and philosophy of life makes it more enjoyable. It gives boundless aesthetic delight.

Literature is imaginative writing.  A kind of story that cannot be literally true. If it is true then it is fact, not fiction. It is man made,  not natural.

So, there is always clash between imaginative V/s Realistic,  Fiction V/s  Fact,  Historical truth V/s Artistic truth (Jodha Akbar,  "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", Jesus and Mary Magdalene in Christian history and in The Da Vinci code , the list can be extended. ..) So, the question may arise that how to discriminate novels and news stories,  fact & fiction. Because comics and pulp fiction are purely imaginative & fictitious YET not literature. One point where it differs is POETIC JUSTICE (bad people punished & good win at last). But POETIC JUSTICE is not possible in real world. There is CATHARSIS (purgation of emotion,  sense of relief) in literature.  This is what makes it distinct than other disciplines.

Language is the brush of artist(writer) through which they paint/ create delightful verbal painting. Ornamental language is characteristic of literature but it does not mean that simple language doesnt make good literature. There is also general agreement that literature foregrounds language, and uses it in artistic ways. Terry Eagleton goes some way towards a definition of literature and its relationship to language: “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech”. Just as architecture is the art form that arises out of the human ability to create buildings, literature is the art form that arises out of the human ability to create language.

Timelessness,  eternity, universality, permanence, originality, craftsmanship are the characteristics of literature.

What writer tells through characters that makes it great & permanent.-( lines like "to be or not to be", "Nothing can be done", "There was unrest, there was great unrest", Until the lions have their own historian, the history of hunt will always glorify the Hunter.  etc.)& Philosophy of life(Like Waiting for.Godot), psychology of humans(E.A.Poe's stories,  Dr.Jakyll and Mr.hyde) &  relevance of character's experiences with present time makes it good literature.( it would be controversial if i categorize-'Good literature' & 'Bad literature. As such there is nothing good or bad but our thinking & way of looking makes it so)

Literature is interdisciplinary- history, psychology, philosophy, sociology, religion has deeper connections with it. By reading literature one can master this discipline or say get necessary information of it by product. Thus it would be appropriate to call Literature - A HUGE(age old) TREE, with having millions of branches.

Writers are not the ordinary people. They have vision to look beyond what other dont see. They captures spirit of time & undercurrents of society. Creative writer has artistic sensibility.  He observes the world like any common man but his vision observes the world quite differently.  He can perceive from life experiences what common man cannot see at all. This experiences and observations get imaginative colors with the help of artistic sensibility. He creates world of imaginative reality. His literary world is more beautiful and artistic than real world. He is naturally gifted to create the world which has power to move and transform the reader. He gets his raw materials from life. He is critic of life.

Literature is a 'huge Ocean', no one can discover &knew its vastness, secrets and mysteries in totality.

Literature is not just imaginative stories written in leisure time only for entertainment. But it is reflection of time, place and society in which we are living. Literature is mirror or photographic image of society. equally literature is also an x ray image portraying ugly, darker sides of society. સાહિત્ય કૉઇ એક દેશનું નહી આખા વિશ્વનુ પૃતિનિધિત્તવ કરે છે. સાહિત્ય અને સમાજ વચ્ચે બિંબ પૃતિબિંબનૉ સંબંધ રહેલો છે.

Still, whatever definition we try to give literature will remain incomplete because its exactly like 5-7 blind men defining Elephant, by touching it. Whatever aspect they will touch upon, will define like that.

Literature is made up of various genres like plays, novels, poems, short stories and essays. Each genre is distinct.

Literature is beautiful amalgamation of Imagination and Experience (Realism). At the same time it is Subjective, the same text affects  readers differently. You will get from texts what you are interested in. Few readers will satisfy themselves by surfacial meaning & few will dig deep and reach to the hidden allegorical meaning.

Literature is also timeless and universal. Because its subject matter is human being & human nature is the most COMPLEX in the world.so, literature is as compex as human nature.

"ઝેરના પારખા ના કરાય". So we learn through fictional characters. (For example 'acting without thinking- Othello', &'Thinking & thinking and never putting into action-Hamlet'- both is dangerous) Reading of books is a means of getting much more knowledge than we could ever hope to get through our own personal experiences. It helps us toward a better understanding of self & society. By reading literature we learn about human problems & difficulties.

Life is not a video game that once you die, that once your game is over you restart & start playing again. Life never gives second chance. So books, literature like history indicates us towards the error of judgement made by fictional characters. So that you learn from others.

Humanity has progressed a lot. Knowledge is multiplying everyday & this is stored in good books. If we dont use it then what is the use of it because we will repeat the same mistake made by previous one. So, LITERATURE IS BANK OF KNOWLEDGE & WISDOM. THE MORE YOU INVEST IN READING THE MORE INTEREST YOU WILL GET.

While looking from various point of view, one angle leads me to think literature as marginalized history. What dont get place in history that gets its outlet in history. Example of it can be "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Sinh. The partition strife & suffering of people living in border areas is voiced in literature. History may celebrate independence struggle & few political leaders, but is always silent over pain of ordinary people. This traumatic experience which is religated by history is captured by literature. At the same time the texts like The Da Vinci Code by Brown can be read as Alternative History.so, in one sense LITERATURE IS ALTERNATIVE HISTORY.

Another definition can be given is Literature is like organic body,  everything is interrelated deeply.

Apart from just story- what is told,  'HOW' it is told is also very important. Literary techniques used by writers makes it perfect.  Epistolary technique,  stream of consciousness,  memory narrative etc are fine example of it.

So what to write as conclusions of what is literature?  Well, !!! Literature is much more than what I''ve written.