source : http://www.tcnj.edu/~fedor2/literature.gifWhat is literature to us? or why is it even important?
Literature is the art of written works. In a literal meaning it is a written or printed works collectively, those works characterized by creativeness and imagination, as poetry, fiction, essays, other prose literature, drama, oral literature and other narrative forms. A writings that pertain to a particular epoch, country, language or branch of learning. This are the main meaning of literature according to the dictionary.
But the question is what is it to me or to you? why is it even important for us to learn it? I don't have the exact answer for that nor the idea of literature to be a part of myself. Let me tell you how I found something interesting out of a statement that made me realized what is literature and why is it even important.
Roland Barthes is a french literary theorist, a philosopher and a critic (1915-1980), he said that language is in the last analysis about itself: that is, a text is self-referential and we should not confuse it with some hypothetical "outside reality".
On the other hand, Micheal Foucault (1926-1984), who called himself an "archeologist of knowledge" spoke about language in the following terms.
" having became a dense and consistent historical reality, language forms the locus of tradition, of the unspoken habits of thought, of what lies hidden in a people's mind... Expressing their thought in words of which they are not the masters, enclosing them in verbal forms whose historical dimension they are unaware of, men believe that their speech is their servant and do not realize that they are submitting themselves to its demands. "
And so we are caught in the prison house of language. There is no sovereign subject, no great author who meant to say something; there are only text made of words on which we can write commentaries of commentaries.
It may not be and an original explanation coming from me, but this specific statement is the exact explanation I'm looking for, for me to put it in plain words the meaning of literature and what is it's importance.
You can write anything you wish, say anything you want in your unconscious mind and express it in words, you will be the human-center of the world, a world without a center but a world of text and it will be "your written masterpiece."
reference book : the development of western thought volume II by: sumanga, mogol, and soria .
Literature is the art of written works. In a literal meaning it is a written or printed works collectively, those works characterized by creativeness and imagination, as poetry, fiction, essays, other prose literature, drama, oral literature and other narrative forms. A writings that pertain to a particular epoch, country, language or branch of learning. This are the main meaning of literature according to the dictionary.
But the question is what is it to me or to you? why is it even important for us to learn it? I don't have the exact answer for that nor the idea of literature to be a part of myself. Let me tell you how I found something interesting out of a statement that made me realized what is literature and why is it even important.
Roland Barthes is a french literary theorist, a philosopher and a critic (1915-1980), he said that language is in the last analysis about itself: that is, a text is self-referential and we should not confuse it with some hypothetical "outside reality".
On the other hand, Micheal Foucault (1926-1984), who called himself an "archeologist of knowledge" spoke about language in the following terms.
" having became a dense and consistent historical reality, language forms the locus of tradition, of the unspoken habits of thought, of what lies hidden in a people's mind... Expressing their thought in words of which they are not the masters, enclosing them in verbal forms whose historical dimension they are unaware of, men believe that their speech is their servant and do not realize that they are submitting themselves to its demands. "
And so we are caught in the prison house of language. There is no sovereign subject, no great author who meant to say something; there are only text made of words on which we can write commentaries of commentaries.
It may not be and an original explanation coming from me, but this specific statement is the exact explanation I'm looking for, for me to put it in plain words the meaning of literature and what is it's importance.
You can write anything you wish, say anything you want in your unconscious mind and express it in words, you will be the human-center of the world, a world without a center but a world of text and it will be "your written masterpiece."
reference book : the development of western thought volume II by: sumanga, mogol, and soria .
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