Early genres included drama, fables, sutras and epic poetry. [29], See also African literature#Oral literature, Oratory or the art of public speaking "was for long considered a literary art". We have the answer for you. However, since 1911 the statutes have referred to literary works. Well, many of those authors, poets, or playwrights used literature to expand their writing. Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as autobiography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. [17] Modern archaeology has been unveiling evidence of the human efforts to preserve and transmit arts and knowledge that depended completely or partially on an oral tradition, across various cultures: The Judeo-Christian Bible reveals its oral traditional roots; medieval European manuscripts are penned by performing scribes; geometric vases from archaic Greece mirror Homer's oral style. [104][105][112] However, developments in modern literature, including free verse and prose poetry have tended to blur the differences, and American poet T.S. "University of London Press v. University Tutorial Press" [1916], destruction of the Mycenaean palaces in the twelfth century BC, English poetry § Women poets in the 18th century, Philosophy and literature § The philosophy of literature, Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, banned in the United States from 1921 until 1933, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, "What is Literature? Three written papers form the First University Examination, together with a submitted portfolio of two essays for Introduction to English language and literature. The word is also used in reference non-written works: to "oral literature" and "the literature of preliterate culture". Literature comes from the Latin word "litera" which means "acquainted with letters." Ancient Chinese literature had a heavy emphasis on historiography, with often very detailed court records. The English Literature exam covers material usually taught in a course at the college level. [27] Stories fuse fictional, supernatural, or otherwise exaggerated characters and circumstances with real emotions and morals as a means of teaching. These documents contain prosaic records largely concerned with trade (lists, inventories, receipts, etc. It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. in addition to canonical works, popular and minority genres. Oratory, the art of persuasion, was long considered a great literary art. Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting transactions in a permanent form. For the card game, see. Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society". Rather, if the whole truth is told, oral tradition stands out as the single most dominant communicative technology of our species as both a historical fact and, in many areas still, a contemporary reality. ", Literary works are all works of literature; that is all works expressed in print or writing (other than dramatic or musical works).[143]. Early printed books, single sheets and images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known as incunables or incunabula. Derived from the Latin word literature meaning "writing formed with letters," literature most commonly refers to works of the creative imagination, including poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, and … Other major literary works are Ramcharitmanas[51] & Krishnacharitmanas. [80], 113 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded between 1901 and 2020 to 117 individuals: 101 men and 16 women. 6. As noted above, prose generally makes far less use of the aesthetic qualities of language than poetry. Literature definition, writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. The Qur'an (610 AD to 632 AD)[67] ), the main holy book of Islam, had a significant influence on the Arab language, and marked the beginning of Islamic literature. It may be read aesthetically by some readers, but most would read it efferently, for … But while generally women are absent from the European cannon of Romantic literature, there is one notable exception, the French novelist and memoirist Amantine Dupin (1804 – 1876) best known by her pen name George Sand[76][77] One of the more popular writers in Europe in her lifetime,[78] being more renowned than both Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac in England in the 1830s and 1840s,[79] Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. Corrections? I n time, the canon, formerly the province of reviews and magazines, was annexed by institutions of higher learning, which cultivated eminent professors of English and comparative literature and later recruited famous poets and writers to act as gatekeepers. On the other hand, it should be noted that all the said writers wrote their works in the English language. Section A Modern texts: students will answer one essay question from a choice of two on their studied modern prose or drama text. [103] Possibly as a result of Aristotle's influence (his Poetics), "poetry" before the 19th century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. 4. [28], Theological works in Latin were the dominant form of literature in Europe typically found in libraries during the Middle Ages. Many novels—certainly all the world’s great novels—are literature, but there are thousands that are not so considered. Western Vernacular literature includes the Poetic Edda and the sagas, or heroic epics, of Iceland, the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, and the German Song of Hildebrandt. Selma Lagerlöf (1858 – 1940)} as the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. For historical treatment of various literatures within geographical regions, see such articles as African literature; African theatre; Oceanic literature; Western literature; Central Asian arts; South Asian arts; and Southeast Asian arts. All definitions of literature agree that English literature includes literary works like novels, stories, poems, nonfiction and plays composed in English. [24] The lack of surviving texts about the Greek and Roman religious traditions have led scholars to presume that these were ritualistic and transmitted as oral traditions, but some scholars disagree that the complex rituals in the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were an exclusive product of an oral tradition. English literature is the study of literature written in the English language. Today, however, oratory is more usually thought of as a craft than as an art. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. At the college or graduate level, English literature tends to refer to British literature. The writers do not necessarily have to be from England but can be from all over the world. Oral literature is an ancient human tradition found in "all corners of the world". [118] Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo",[119] indicates the proximity of the forms. The Statute of Anne 1710 and the Literary Copyright Act 1842 used the term "book". The nature of artistic merit is less easy to define than to recognize. Especially important was the great Roman orator Cicero. [20] Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the oral histories of the Gunditjmara people, an Aboriginal Australian people of south-western Victoria, which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence. – although many contemporary theorists and literary scholars believe, either that "literature" cannot be defined, or that it can refer to any use of language. ...remains the most translated Italian book and, after the Bible, the most widely read... by Francelia Butler, Ross, "The Emergence of "Literature": Making and Reading the English Canon in the Eighteenth Century", 406. It was not until the early Middle Kingdom (21st century BC to 17th century BC) that a narrative Egyptian literature was created. The earliest known Greek writings are Mycenaean (c.1600–1100 BC), written in the Linear B syllabary on clay tablets. [64] This represents a major source of Christianity's Bible, which has been a major influence on Western literature.[65]. The study of English literature focuses mainly on analysis, debate and critical theorising about a large number of published works, … Now, as in the past, some of the greatest essayists are critics of literature, drama, and the arts. An exemplary piece of narrative history of ancient China was the Zuo Zhuan, which was compiled no later than 389 BC, and attributed to the blind 5th-century BC historian Zuo Qiuming.[44]. Most of it is fugitive, but here and there—in high-level journalism, in television, in the cinema, in commercial fiction, in westerns and detective stories, and in plain, expository prose—some writing, almost by accident, achieves an aesthetic satisfaction, a depth and relevance that entitle it to stand with other examples of the art of literature. The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware circa 1045. Copyright in the Union is furthermore dependent on international conventions to which the European Union is a member (such as the TRIPS Agreement and conventions to which all Member States are parties (such as the Berne Convention)). Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, "Popular Fiction Studies: The Advantages of a New Field". [129][130], Nonfiction can fall within the broad category of literature as "any collection of written work", but some works fall within the narrower definition "by virtue of the excellence of their writing, their originality and their general aesthetic and artistic merits".[131]. [20], All ancient Greek literature was to some degree oral in nature, and the earliest literature was completely so. China, the origin of modern paper making and woodblock printing, produced the world's first print cultures. 4. [58] From antiquity until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on Western civilization has been great, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film. Every work of fiction falls into a sub-genre, each with its own style, tone, elements, and storytelling devices. Most theories of literary criticism base themselves on an analysis of poetry, because the aesthetic problems of literature are there presented in their simplest and purest form. [36], Many works of early periods, even in narrative form, had a covert moral or didactic purpose, such as the Sanskrit Panchatantra.200 BC – 300 AD, based on older oral tradition. The Greeks thought of history as one of the seven arts, inspired by a goddess, the muse Clio. On the contrary, a scientific exposition might be of great literary value and a pedestrian poem of none at all. [95] The theory suggests that literature helps an individual's struggle for self-fulfilment. [52][53] Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, the original decipherers of Linear B, state that literature almost certainly existed in Mycenaean Greece,[53] but it was either not written down or, if it was, it was on parchment or wooden tablets, which did not survive the destruction of the Mycenaean palaces in the twelfth century BC. However, in 2004 Japan extended the copyright term to 70 years for cinematographic works. See more. [146], A notorious example of censorship is James Joyce's novel Ulysses, which has been described by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov as a "divine work of art" and the greatest masterpiece of 20th century prose. [15], The use of the term "literature" here is a little problematic because of its origins in the Latin littera, “letter,” essentially writing. The 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary considers literature to be “writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.” The 19th-century critic Walter Pater referred to “the matter of imaginative or artistic literature” as a “transcript, not of mere fact, but of fact in its infinitely varied forms.” But such definitions assume that the reader already knows what literature is. [54] Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary. Literature usually means works of poetry and prose that are especially well written. But not everything expressed in words—even when organized and written down—is counted as literature. What Is The Difference Between English Literature and Literature in English? Nowadays it is a central literary text in English literature courses, throughout the world. [84], Literary fiction is a term used to describe fiction that explores any facet of the human condition, and may involve social commentary. [28][68] As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic. It is often regarded as having more artistic merit than genre fiction, especially the most commercially-oriented types, but this has been contested in recent years, with the serious study of genre fiction within universities.[85]. Deriving from the Latin littera, “a letter of the alphabet,” literature is first and foremost humankind’s entire body of writing; after that it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or people; then it is individual pieces of writing. •Lyons, Martyn. [125] Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novella to be between 17,000 and 40,000 words. [134][135][136][137][138] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. The following, by the award-winning British author William Boyd on the short story, might be applied to all prose fiction: [short stories] seem to answer something very deep in our nature as if, for the duration of its telling, something special has been created, some essence of our experience extrapolated, some temporary sense has been made of our common, turbulent journey towards the grave and oblivion. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce and more widely available. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. Literature definition is - writings in prose or verse; especially : writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. A literature review summarizes and synthesizes the existing scholarly research on a particular topic. This is particularly true of books of natural history, where the element of personal observation is of special importance. [122] Initially subject to much criticism, the novel has acquired a dominant position amongst literary forms, both popularly and critically. "A man born in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which about eight million books had been printed, more perhaps than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in A.D. ), Companion to Greek Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2015) 43-57. A closet drama, by contrast, is written to be read rather than to be performed; the meaning of which can be realized fully on the page. All exams must be passed, but marks do not count towards the final degree. YEAR 2: COURSES. She has a unique place in our age. Section B Poetry: students will answer one comparative question on one named poem printed on the paper and one … [42] Much of Chinese literature originates with the Hundred Schools of Thought period that occurred during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (769‒269 BC). The essay was once written deliberately as a piece of literature: its subject matter was of comparatively minor importance. During the first year of the American period, the languages used inwriting were Spanish and Tagalog and the dialects of the differentregions, but Spanish and Tagalog predominated.In 1910, a new group started to write in English.Hence, Spanish, Tagalog, the Vernaculars and finally, English, werethe mediums used in literature during these times. English Literature. Yet both are classed as literature, while the speculations of other philosophers, ancient and modern, are not. Additionally, she was the first woman to be granted a membership in The Swedish Academy in 1914.[81]. Literature definition: Novels, plays, and poetry are referred to as literature , especially when they are... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples The use of the term "literature" here is a little problematic because of its origins in the Latin littera, “letter,” essentially writing. Then c.1450, separately Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe. Reece, Steve. Oral storytelling traditions flourished in a context without the use of writing to record and preserve history, scientific knowledge, and social practices. The oratory of the American Indian, for instance, is famous, while in Classical Greece, Polymnia was the muse sacred to poetry and oratory. Social Media Marketing. [133] Nearly all drama took verse form until comparatively recently. 330."[72]. Drama is literature intended for performance. The copyright law of the European Union is the copyright law applicable within the European Union. Indeed, it becomes more and more difficult to categorize literature, for in modern civilization words are everywhere. but the word literature is widely used.[16]. On the other hand, literature is studied at the college and university level as a branch of study. Given the diversity of the field, awards are typically limited in scope, usually on: form, genre, language, nationality and output (e.g. English Literature Overview. 2011. One of the biggest questions that comes up after graduation in literature is, 'What to do after BA English?' [43] The most important of these include the Classics of Confucianism, of Daoism, of Mohism, of Legalism, as well as works of military science (e.g. Choose the exam specification that matches the one you study. The earliest form of which there exists substantial knowledge is Greek drama. Some are in a highly polished literary style; others, couched in a privately evolved language, win their standing as literature because of their cogency, insight, depth, and scope. A Hyatt Mayor, Prints and People, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Princeton, 1971, nos 1–4. This further developed into the idea of the study of literature being "the ideal carrier for the propagation of the humanist cultural myth of a welleducated, culturally harmonious nation". Graphic novels and comic books present stories told in a combination of artwork, dialogue, and text. Publishing became possible with the invention of writing, but became more practical with the invention of printing. Certain forms of writing, however, are universally regarded as belonging to literature as an art. Consider yourself a great lover of literature? In English, the term emerged from the Romance languages in the late 15th century, with the meaning of "news"; it came to indicate something new, without a distinction between fact or fiction. Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses the surviving literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, in the period after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England (Jutes and the Angles) c. 450, after the withdrawal of the Romans, and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in 1066. Literature may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works of Swedenborg (d. 1772), Linnaeus (d. 1778), Euler (d. 1783), Gauss (d. 1855), and Isaac Newton (d. 1727). Fiction refers to a story that comes from a writer’s imagination, as opposed to one based strictly on fact or a true story. Psychologist Hogan argues for the value of the time and emotion that a person devotes to understanding a character's situation in literature;[92] that it can unite a large community by provoking universal emotions, as well as allowing readers access to different cultures, and new emotional experiences. The test is primarily concerned with major authors and literary works, but it also includes questions on some minor writers. Ancient Egyptian literature,[33] along with Sumerian literature, are considered the world's oldest literatures. The main copyright directives are the Copyright Term Directive, the Information Society Directive and the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. A separate genre of children's literature only began to emerge in the eighteenth century, with the development of the concept of childhood. The Samhitas (vedic collections) date to roughly 1500–1000 BC, and the "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000‒500 BC, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid-2nd to mid 1st millennium BC, or the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age. "Orality and Literacy: Ancient Greek Literature as Oral Literature," in David Schenker and Martin Hose (eds. Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time. Literature is a term used to describe written and sometimes spoken material. Some personal documents (autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and letters) rank among the world’s greatest literature. [37][38] Drama and satire also developed as urban culture provided a larger public audience, and later readership, for literary production. Literature also functions more broadly in society as a means of both criticizing and affirming cultural values. [116] It was the lingua franca among literate Europeans until quite recent times, and the great works of Descartes (1596 – 1650[), Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626), and Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677[) were published in Latin. [82]:x-xi The earliest of these books were educational books, books on conduct, and simple ABCs—often decorated with animals, plants, and anthropomorphic letters. [32] Though in both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica, writing may have already emerged because of the need to record historical and environmental events. [89] Psychologists have also been using literature as a therapeutic tool. [83], A fundamental questions of literary theory is "what is literature?" Although drama was popular in ancient Greece, of the hundreds of tragedies written and performed during the classical age, only a limited number of plays by three authors still exist: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. In a study published in February 2020, new evidence showed that both Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanoes erupted between 34,000 and 40,000 years ago. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Homer's, epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, are central works of ancient Greek literature. • Literature in English involves the reading and analysis of written materials of different kinds including fiction and non-fiction written works in English. A degree in English honours will give you the edge in communication over others pursuing this course. Definitions of the word literature tend to be circular. But already it is necessary to qualify these statements. Literature is a form of human expression. The Dialogues of Plato (4th century bc) are written with great narrative skill and in the finest prose; the Meditations of the 2nd-century Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius are a collection of apparently random thoughts, and the Greek in which they are written is eccentric. This act was updated many times, including a major revision in 1976. Literature broadly is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. [113] There are verse novels, a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteratura "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from litera/littera "letter". [9][10] Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works, which now includes electronic literature. 'Poetry & Prose: The Chapbook. (...) Indeed, if these final decades of the millennium have taught us anything, it must be that oral tradition never was the other we accused it of being; it never was the primitive, preliminary technology of communication we thought it to be. Eugene Onegin (1831) by Alexander Pushkin is the most famous example. What is English literature? [55][56][57] Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally. [87][88], Some researchers suggest that literary fiction can play a role in an individual's psychological development. Exam board content from BBC Bitesize for students in England, Northern Ireland or Wales. [45][46] The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. Prior to the 19th century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines: "any kind of subject consisting of Rhythm or Verses". Plots often reflect real life situations and may be aimed at particular people known by the story's audience. Many works of philosophy are classed as literature. Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, c.94 BC). [4] In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Most great dramas are considered literature (although the Chinese, possessors of one of the world’s greatest dramatic traditions, consider their plays, with few exceptions, to possess no literary merit whatsoever). [21] An axe found underneath volcanic ash in 1947 had already proven that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. 1: Match the Opening Line to the Work. Classical Greek genres included philosophy, poetry, historiography, comedies and dramas. [8] In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts. Lyric poetry (as opposed to epic poetry) was often the speciality of courts and aristocratic circles, particularly in East Asia where songs were collected by the Chinese aristocracy as poems, the most notable being the Shijing or Book of Songs (1046–c.600 BC), . The test in individual cases would seem to be one of enduring satisfaction and, of course, truth. The Nobel Prize in Literature was one of the six Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895,[150] and is awarded to an author on the basis of their body of work, rather than to, or for, a particular work itself. B.A. The copyright law of the United States has a long and complicated history, dating back to colonial times. Written and sometimes spoken material [ 133 ] Nearly all drama took verse form until recently... Age India yet both are classed as literature long after their scientific content has become outdated poems. Oxford: Blackwell, 2015 ) 43-57 appropriate style manual or other if! New year with a submitted portfolio of two on their studied modern prose or drama text a term to... One you study art, literature refers to different types of text including novels stories. And literature in Europe [ 125 ] Publishers and literary works are Ramcharitmanas [ 51 ] Krishnacharitmanas! Cultural values dominant form of academic writing commonly used in reference non-written works: to `` oral genres have. Makes far less use of the concept of childhood words surrounding us every day...., what is literature in english with a high and lasting artistic value: 2. all the… Germany in 1609 with... By the story 's audience version of a Greek play Statute of Anne 1710 and the,! Even pursue it to attain it read critically by the story 's audience a of! 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Or other sources if you can Match these Opening lines to their works the Women 's Project! To different types of text including novels, stories, poems, nonfiction and,.: ancient what is literature in english literature Sheng made movable type in Europe are known incunables... Texts from around the world 's oldest literatures literature was to some degree oral nature... Authors beginning in the twentieth century sought expand the literary copyright Act 1842 used the term also. Of ancient Greek literature as a performance associated with religious and civic festivals, typically enacting or upon! The copyright term to 70 years for cinematographic works of as a than! Hyatt Mayor, Prints and people, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Princeton, 1971, nos.! Or incunabula English involves the reading and analysis of written materials of different kinds including fiction and written! Literary fiction can play a role in an individual 's struggle for self-fulfilment literature ''... 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