   #copyright

Literature

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General Literature

   Old book bindings at the Merton College library.
   Enlarge
   Old book bindings at the Merton College library.

   Literature is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first
   sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera
   meaning "an individual written character ( letter)"). The term has
   generally come to identify a collection of texts or work of art, which
   in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction,
   drama and poetry. In much, if not all of the world, texts can be oral
   as well, and include such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad, other
   forms of oral poetry, and the folktale.

Introduction

                               Literature
                              Major forms
   Epic • Romance • Novel
                                 Media
   Performance • Book
                               Techniques
   Prose • Poetry
                            History & lists
   History • Modern History • Books • Authors • Awards • Basic Topics
                               Discussion
   Criticism • Theory • Magazines

   Nations can have literatures, as can corporations, philosophical
   schools or historical periods. Popular belief commonly holds that the
   literature of a nation, for example, comprises the collection of texts
   which make it a whole nation. The Hebrew Bible, Persian Shahnama, the
   Indian Mahabharata, Ramayana and Thirukural, the Iliad and the Odyssey,
   Beowulf, and the Constitution of the United States, all fall within
   this definition of a kind of literature.

   More generally, one can equate a literature with a collection of
   stories, poems, and plays that revolve around a particular topic. In
   this case, the stories, poems and plays may or may not have
   nationalistic implications. The Western Canon forms one such
   literature.

   Classifying a specific item as part of a literature (whether as
   American literature, advertising literature, gay and lesbian literature
   or Roman literature) can involve severe difficulties. To some people,
   the term "literature" can apply broadly to any symbolic record which
   can include images and sculptures, as well as letters. To others, a
   literature must only include examples of text composed of letters, or
   other narrowly defined examples of symbolic written language ( Egyptian
   hieroglyphs, for example). Even more conservative interpreters of the
   concept would demand that the text have a physical form, usually on
   paper or some other portable form, to the exclusion of inscriptions or
   digital media.

   Furthermore, people may perceive a difference between "literature" and
   some popular forms of written work. The terms " literary fiction" and "
   literary merit" often serve to distinguish between individual works.
   For example, almost all literate people perceive the works of Charles
   Dickens as "literature", whereas some tend to look down on the works of
   Jeffrey Archer as unworthy of inclusion under the general heading of "
   English literature". Critics may exclude works from the classification
   "literature", for example, on the grounds of a poor standard of grammar
   and syntax, of an unbelievable or disjointed story-line, or of
   inconsistent or unconvincing characters. Genre fiction (for example:
   romance, crime, or science fiction) may also become excluded from
   consideration as "literature".

   Frequently, the texts that make up literature crossed over these
   boundaries. Illustrated stories, hypertexts, cave paintings and
   inscribed monuments have all at one time or another pushed the
   boundaries of "literature".

   Different historical periods have emphasized various characteristics of
   literature. Early works often had an overt or covert religious or
   didactic purpose. Moralizing or prescriptive literature stems from such
   sources. The exotic nature of romance flourished from the Middle Ages
   onwards, whereas the Age of Reason manufactured nationalistic epics and
   philosophical tracts. Romanticism emphasized the popular folk
   literature and emotive involvement, but gave way in the 19th-century
   West to a phase of so-called realism and naturalism, investigations
   into what is real. The 20th century brought demands for symbolism or
   psychological insight in the delineation and development of character.

Forms of literature

Poetry

   A poem is a composition usually written in verse. Poems rely heavily on
   imagery, precise word choice, and metaphor; they may take the form of
   measures consisting of patterns of stresses ( metric feet) or of
   patterns of different-length syllables (as in classical prosody); and
   they may or may not utilize rhyme. One cannot readily characterize
   poetry precisely. Typically though, poetry as a form of literature
   makes some significant use of the formal properties of the words it
   uses — the properties attached to the written or spoken form of the
   words, rather than to their meaning. Metre depends on syllables and on
   rhythms of speech; rhyme and alliteration depend on words that have
   similar pronunciation. Some recent poets, such as E. E. Cummings, made
   extensive use of words' visual form.

   Poetry perhaps pre-dates other forms of literature: early known
   examples include the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (dated from around 2700
   B.C.), parts of the Bible, the surviving works of Homer (the Iliad and
   the Odyssey), and the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. In
   cultures based primarily on oral traditions the formal characteristics
   of poetry often have a mnemonic function, and important texts: legal,
   genealogical or moral, for example, may appear first in verse form.

   Much poetry uses specific forms: the haiku, the limerick, or the
   sonnet, for example. A haiku must have seventeen syllables, distributed
   over three lines in groups of five, seven, and five, and should have an
   image of a season and something to do with nature. A limerick has five
   lines, with a rhyme scheme of AABBA, and line lengths of 3,3,2,2,3
   stressed syllables. It traditionally has a less reverent attitude
   towards nature.

   Language and tradition dictate some poetic norms: Persian poetry always
   rhymes, Greek poetry rarely rhymes, Italian or French poetry often
   does, English and German can go either way (although modern non-rhyming
   poetry often, perhaps unfairly, has a more "serious" aura). Perhaps the
   most paradigmatic style of English poetry, blank verse, as exemplified
   in works by Shakespeare and by Milton, consists of unrhymed iambic
   pentameters. Some languages prefer longer lines; some shorter ones.
   Some of these conventions result from the ease of fitting a specific
   language's vocabulary and grammar into certain structures, rather than
   into others; for example, some languages contain more rhyming words
   than others, or typically have longer words. Other structural
   conventions come about as the result of historical accidents, where
   many speakers of a language associate good poetry with a verse form
   preferred by a particular skilled or popular poet.

   Works for theatre (see below) traditionally took verse form. This has
   now become rare outside opera and musicals, although many would argue
   that the language of drama remains intrinsically poetic.

   In recent years, digital poetry has arisen that takes advantage of the
   artistic, publishing, and synthetic qualities of digital media.

Drama

   A play or drama offers another classical literary form that has
   continued to evolve over the years. It generally comprises chiefly
   dialogue between characters, and usually aims at dramatic / theatrical
   performance (see theatre) rather than at reading. During the eighteenth
   and nineteenth centuries, opera developed as a combination of poetry,
   drama, and music. Nearly all drama took verse form until comparatively
   recently.

   Greek drama exemplifies the earliest form of drama of which we have
   substantial knowledge. Tragedy, as a dramatic genre, developed as a
   performance associated with religious and civic festivals, typically
   enacting or developing upon well-known historical or mythological
   themes. Tragedies generally presented very serious Theme.

   With the advent of newer technologies, scripts written for non-stage
   media have been added to this form. War of the Worlds (radio) in 1938
   saw the advent of literature written for radio broadcast, and many
   works of Drama have been adapted for film or television. Conversly,
   television, film, and radio literature have been adapted to printed or
   electronic media.

Essays

   An essay consists of a discussion of a topic from an author's personal
   point of view, exemplified by works by Francis Bacon or by Charles
   Lamb.

   'Essay' in English derives from the French 'essai', meaning 'attempt'.
   Thus one can find open-ended, provocative and/or inconclusive essays.
   The term "essays" first applied to the self-reflective musings of
   Michel de Montaigne, and even today he has a reputation as the father
   of this literary form.

   Genres related to the essay may include:
     * the memoir, telling the story of an author's life from the author's
       personal point of view
     * the epistle: usually a formal, didactic, or elegant letter.
     * the blog, an informal short rant about a particular topic or
       topics, usually opinion

Prose fiction

   Prose consists of writing that does not adhere to any particular formal
   structures (other than simple grammar); "non-poetic writing," writing,
   perhaps. The term sometimes appears pejoratively, but prosaic writing
   simply says something without necessarily trying to say it in a
   beautiful way, or using beautiful words. Prose writing can of course
   take beautiful form; but less by virtue of the formal features of words
   (rhymes, alliteration, meter) but rather by style, placement, or
   inclusion of graphics. But one need not mark the distinction precisely,
   and perhaps cannot do so. Note the classifications:
     * " prose poetry", which attempts to convey the aesthetic richness
       typical of poetry using only prose
     * " free verse", or poetry not adhering to any of the structures of
       one or another formal poetic style

   Narrative fiction ( narrative prose) generally favours prose for the
   writing of novels, short stories, graphic novels, and the like.
   Singular examples of these exist throughout history, but they did not
   develop into systematic and discrete literary forms until relatively
   recent centuries. Length often serves to categorize works of prose
   fiction. Although limits remain somewhat arbitrary, modern publishing
   conventions dictate the following:
     * A Flash fiction is generally defined as a piece of prose under a
       thousand words.
     * A short story comprises prose writing of less than 10,000 to 20,000
       words, but typically more than 500 words, which may or may not have
       a narrative arc.
     * A story containing between 20,000 and 50,000 words falls into the
       novella category.
     * A work of fiction containing more than 50,000 words falls squarely
       into the realm of the novel.

   A novel consists simply of a long story written in prose, yet the form
   developed comparatively recently. Icelandic prose sagas dating from
   about the 11th century bridge the gap between traditional national
   verse epics and the modern psychological novel. In mainland Europe, the
   Spaniard Cervantes wrote perhaps the first influential novel: Don
   Quixote, published in 1600. Earlier collections of tales, such as
   Boccaccio's Decameron and Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, have
   comparable forms and would classify as novels if written today. Earlier
   works written in Asia resemble even more strongly the novel as we now
   think of it — for example, works such as the Chinese Romance of the
   Three Kingdoms and the Japanese Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki. Compare
   too The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

   Early novels in Europe did not, at the time, count as significant
   literature, perhaps because "mere" prose writing seemed easy and
   unimportant. It has become clear, however, that prose writing can
   provide aesthetic pleasure without adhering to poetic forms.
   Additionally, the freedom authors gain in not having to concern
   themselves with verse structure translates often into a more complex
   plot or into one richer in precise detail than one typically finds even
   in narrative poetry. This freedom also allows an author to experiment
   with many different literary and presentation styles — including
   poetry— in the scope of a single novel.

   See Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel. [This definition needs expansion]

Related Narrative Forms

     * Graphic novels and comic books present stories told in a
       combination of sequential artwork, dialogue and text.
     * Films, videos and broadcast soap operas have carved out a niche
       which often parallels the functionality of prose fiction.
     * Interactive fiction, a term for a prose-based genre of computer
       games, occupies a small literary niche.
     * Electronic literature is a developing literary genre meant to be
       read on a computer screen, often making use of hypertext.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
