Response 2

Jenna Wilhelmi

September 26, 2010

What is Literature, really?

After hearing some sound arguments from my teacher and peers, I decided to reevaluate my definition of the word literature before reading this weeks stories. I started by simply going to the Literature section at the bookstore and seeing what exactly was kept there. There were a lot of award winning authors and star reviewed books. There were enduring classics and famous works from around the world. However, most of the books either could not really be placed into one genre or transcended their genre in some way. I would call these books ‘game-changers.’ People who either dared to break the rules or tackled a subject no one had touched before wrote these books. This observation trumps my earlier definition of literature. The only ‘rule’ I still think applies to the word is that literature is something that makes you feel a strong emotion; whether that emotion is negative or positive.

This weeks readings defied being placed in any one genre, besides the fact that all the stories were fiction. The Caretaker dealt with the ups and downs of a war refugee’s life. There were touches of history, war, injustice, poverty and even a hint of romance in this story. Which I think actually made the character of Joseph more real. He had extreme highs and lows, to be certain, but he still dealt with life in a way that made him an easy character to sympathize with. Being able to feel the same things as a character is one way literature allows us to connect with its imaginary worlds. This can also be said of deplorable characters.

If you truly hate a character it can make you just as invested in a story as if you love a character. Take the story Two Brothers for example. Theron’s actions, the abusive way he treats his brother, makes you hate him. Nevertheless, your hatred for the character drives you to continue reading because you want to see what happens to him, to see if he is punished. The opposite goes for Aurel. He is the easier of the two to sympathize with, so you stick around to see if he stands up to or escapes his brother. Either way, for concern or hatred, you stick around to see what happens to these characters.

Literature isn’t romance, but it can be romantic. It isn’t adventure, but it can be adventurous. Literature is overall none of these micro genres, but it can also be any of them. Basically, I would venture to say that the word literature and the books that carry this title defy being told that they are any one type of story. Literature books dare to be several things at once.

My best and favorite example of this would be Frankenstein. Frankenstein is a horror story and a story of redemption. Frankenstein is a feminist piece, since it was the first major book of its time to be written by a woman, but it also talks about what makes us human. The more you think about the subject matter of Frankenstein the harder it is for you to place it into any one genre. This is what books that bear the title of literature do. Literature books try to avoid being placed into one genre so that you, the reader, will see it for what it is and what it is trying to say rather than what title it bears.