What is Literature.

                             

Before giving my view about literature, I would like to quote and explain C.S. Levis’ statement about literature. He writes;

“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.”

Very briefly C.S.Levis has put all the aspects related to Literature in above quotation. We generally believe that literature represents imagination with creativity, but it also involves reality of life in one or another way. For example reading of “Oliver Twist” makes us aware of the life of Victorian people. Charles Dickens not only shares his creative imagination but also describes the manners and matters of his time. Literature thus, helps us to understand the history and the past of the society of different ages. Another thing is that, it boosts our life, as we get inspiration from it. Literature represents a language or people, culture and tradition and it leads us towards the new worlds of experiences. We, get some experiences through literature which are not meant to be learned as it is said that “one can’t play with fire.”

Though Literature represents our day to day life, it differs from everyday speech. There are some different qualities which make literature and other sources different. For example, though advertisements are imaginative and creative we can’t call them as literature. Terry Eagleton has rightly said, “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech.”

‘Literature’ is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works(for example, “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley) and the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination including works of poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction. It also transfers human beings from one place to another, as it is a travel agent that makes the traveler travel free of cost. E.M.Forster has rightly said regarding this point,

“What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.”