What is Literature?

What is Literature?

1. Literature is a mirror of life.
2. Bwalya: literature is a Latin word ‘litera’ which means Writing. From this background, it is believed that literature is anything that is written.
3. Oxford English Dictionary: literature is literally “an aquaitance with letters” as in the first sense given in the (from the Latin litera meaning ‘an individual character/letter’).
4. Hancock (01): literature is a body of written works: the body of written works of a culture, language, people or a period of time.
5. Literature is a body of written works: the body of written works of a culture, language, people or a period of time that follows certain basic elements.
6. Scylar: literature is “any writing on a subject: the body of published work concerned with a particular subject.”
7. Pollanen: ‘literature refers to published writings in a particular style on a particular subject.
8. Encarta (2009): Literature is the use of well-chosen words to tell a story through narrative, involving characters in conflict, or to express an emotion or idea through artfully arranged images.
9. Hancock (2): literature is being written works of fiction and nonfiction in which compositional excellence and advancement in the art of writing are higher priorities than are considerations of profit or commercial appeal.
10. Davids: literature is a creative writing of artistic value.


Genres of Literature
1. Poetry
a. Poems (in general)
b. Sonnets
c. Ballads
d. Pastorals
e. Lyrics
f. Songs
2. Drams
a. Comedies
b. Tragedies
c. Tragicomedies
d. Farce
e. Pantomime
f. Melodrama
3. Fiction
a. Novels
b. Novellas
c. Short stories
d. Myths
e. Tales
f. Legends
4. Non-Fiction
a. Diaries
b. Biographies
c. Speeches
d. Essays
e. Autobiographies




Quiz Questions (Section B):
1) What is the difference between “Literature” and “literature”?
2) What are the definitions that put Mathematics, Physics and Literature together?
3) What is the definition that applies to both literature and history?