Literature and Literary Study
Before we explore emerging or digital forms, we must first ask a basic question: what is literature and literary study? The answer is neither simple nor fixed. Literature has been defined in many ways across periods and critical traditions. At its broadest level, literature refers to written works that possess artistic, imaginative, or intellectual value. Yet this definition immediately raises further questions about language, form, and purpose.
Traditionally, literature has been associated with imaginative writing—poetry, drama, and fiction. However, critics have long argued that literature cannot be defined merely by fictionality. Terry Eagleton notes, “Literature, in the sense of a set of works of assured and unalterable value, distinguished by certain shared inherent properties, does not exist.” His statement challenges the idea that literature possesses fixed, universal qualities. Instead, what counts as literature depends on cultural, historical, and ideological contexts.
One influential way of understanding literature comes from Russian Formalism. Roman Jakobson writes that the object of study in literature is “not literature but ‘literariness’ that is, what makes a given work a literary work.” According to this view, literature is distinguished by its special use of language. It foregrounds form. It defamiliarizes ordinary speech. Viktor Shklovsky described this process as “making strange” (Art as Technique, 1917), suggesting that literature disrupts habitual perception and compels readers to see reality differently.
From an expressive perspective, literature has been understood as a reflection of human emotion and imagination. William Wordsworth defined poetry as the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802). Here, literature becomes a medium for emotional and subjective experience. The author’s inner life shapes the work.
Yet literature is not only personal expression. It is also social and cultural. Aristotle, in Poetics, described tragedy as “an imitation of an action” (Aristotle, trans. 1961). The concept of mimesis suggests that literature represents life, though not as a mere copy. Rather, it selects, organizes, and gives meaning to experience. Literature, therefore, mediates reality. It interprets the world while reshaping it through artistic form.
The nature of literature also involves its aesthetic dimension. Literary language is patterned, symbolic, and layered. It often relies on ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning. Cleanth Brooks emphasized that poetry “is not a statement but an experience.” This insight highlights that literature engages readers intellectually and emotionally. It demands interpretation.
Literary study, then, is the disciplined analysis of these qualities. It examines genre, structure, narrative voice, imagery, symbolism, and thematic concerns. But it also investigates context, ideology, and reception. Literary study moves between text and world. It asks how meaning is constructed and how it changes across time.
In contemporary contexts, the nature of literature has expanded. Graphic novels, digital narratives, and multimedia storytelling challenge the earlier print-centered model. Yet even in these new forms, core literary elements remain: narrative, representation, language, and aesthetic design. Thus, literature cannot be reduced to a single definition. It is imaginative yet social, aesthetic yet ideological, textual yet contextual. Literary study seeks to explore this complexity. It trains us to read closely, think critically, and recognize how language shapes human understanding.
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Read More
Some Ways of Studying Literature
Historical Background of Literary Criticism
Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory
A Historical Survey of the Novel
Jane Austen as a Child of the Eighteenth Century
Plot Construction in Pride and Prejudice
Role of Susan in the Tragedy of Henchard
Women in The Mayor of Casterbridge
Renaissance poetry—Age of Rebirth of Arts, Literature and Humanism
Michael Henchard As a Man of Character
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