What is Literature ?

What is Literature ? [ Before Post-Graduation]

What is Literature ? [ After Post-Graduation]

While reading my own writing on "What is Literature?", I feel that my understanding of literature has evolved. From Plato to Stephen Gosson, poetry faced opposition. However, it was Aristotle who, by providing the definition of tragedy, stated that literature "through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions." Dryden later defined literature with a new insight. Wordsworth described poetry as the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," while Coleridge defined it as "secondary imagination." Matthew Arnold claimed that literature is a "criticism of life." Then came none other than T.S. Eliot with his idea of "Tradition and the Individual Talent."  

All these definitions were challenged with the emergence of deconstruction. As I engaged with these ideas through words, my understanding of literature evolved. When I began exploring ancient criticism, I felt that this was the definitive explanation of literature. Yet, as I delved deeper into the definitions provided by different critics, the concept of literature became more obscure to me. Eventually, the historical sense helped me understand that literature is multidisciplinary.  

Initially, I believed that literature was simply a mirror of life a so-called cliché metaphor. Nonetheless, as I studied further, my understanding of literature developed. Literature provides geographical, cultural, religious, and critical insights into texts and ultimately into society. The Victorians believed in "literature as art for life’s sake," whereas the Decadents considered "literature as art for art’s sake." Ultimately, literature is a window through which one views society and at its highest level, it is a means of self-reflection, as encapsulated in the Western ideal of "Know Thyself."  

Literature is the expression of human existence and is highly political, offering a kaleidoscopic view to its readers. After the emergence of deconstruction theory, language came to be seen as inherently incapable of articulating meaning. Since literature is written in the form of language whether as novels, plays, poetry, films, web series, advertisements, pamphlets, journalism, and so on it inherently generates meaning. As Terry Eagleton and Karl Marx argued, literature is highly political and ideological, shaped by the social conditions of its time. This is also supported by new historicists like Stephen Greenblatt, who emphasized the historical understanding of literature as a reflection of its era, highlighting societal mistakes to prevent their recurrence or to alert readers to choose sides consciously.  

Literature is now changing its form into electronic forms, digitally generated literature, and even social media posts. Connecting this with cultural studies, particularly Raymond Williams’ assertion that "the everyday is important," the making of culture becomes the making of literature. We now go beyond referring to texts and instead define them as artifacts. I never thought that painting, photographs, or selfies could be interconnected with literature.  

When studying Cultural Studies, it showcases that literature is about power and representation. Michel Foucault's idea of power driving knowledge and Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony reveal that literature is a representation of power. Nonetheless, literature serves as a medium to expose the pitfalls of society its darker sides, biases, and mistakes.

The literature written by Orientalists and the colonized highlights the power of literature to represent marginalization. Whether it addresses binaries such as high and low culture, male and female, master and slave, or self and Other, it consistently provides an alternative narrative, which is crucial.

As Derrida emphasized the importance of "the metaphysics of absence," and Chimamanda Adichie asserted that "stories must be told," at its core, literature is ultimately about storytelling. As Rabindranath Tagore metaphorically described it as the "Temple and the Mahakal," literature endures across time. His poem 'Deeno Dan" still resonates with contemporary times.

Rather than a shallow understanding of literature as merely a medium for delight and moral teaching, it transcends these definitions. Literature reaches its zenith when it surpasses the shackles of language, time, geography, and culture to become the morpheme of abstract ideas.