Assignment 1- What is Literature?

Asking one to define the term literature is like asking what makes art “art”. It is not an easy question. Through the course of this assignment I have felt my mind twisting into an angry fist and my hands pulling out strands of hair because the word literature can have two very different meanings and both are equally acceptable. Trying to blend those two concepts took a while but what I came up with is this: Literature can simply define all written material, gibberish and all, but in order for it to be deemed “admirable“, it must meet a simple list of criteria.

As Robert Luis Stevenson puts it, “The difficulty of literature is not to write but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.” Good literature is inventive, it bends the rules of conformation and strives on its flaws. Since our minds have been programmed to notice out of the norm differences we pick up on them quickly when apparent in reading. Writer’s have noticed that trait and use it to influence the mood of their work, thus deeming it inventive. Take The Girl in the Flammable Skirt for example, Aimee Bender chooses to leave out the proper use of quotation marks in order to emphasize a quickened, unattached pace.

Though not always, most exceptional literature comes from the past. Those works have endured the strains of time due to a sustainable theme that societies can relate to at all times. Gilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest known texts, has endured due to its relativity to love and friendship. Without such a common and powerful aspect, it might not have even been told so many of times, or engraved on clay tablets. If a piece of literature does not posses qualities that can relate to a common pathos, it often gets lost within in the whirlwind of other disassociations.

Just like art, certain pieces are loved by many but also hated. There never can fully be a

concurrence on a piece of literature even if it fits in within the “good” criteria, mainly because not all people have similar tastes. Literature is art in the written form; critics pick it apart, attempt to analyze it, there’s some good masterpieces and some scribbles on the wall, but nonetheless it is art.