THE FASCINATING WORLD OF
WORDS AND ITS ATTEMPT TO DEFINE LITERATURE
“Había una vez…
la necesidad de contar. Desde los inicios mismos de la humanidad, el hombre ha
sentido el poderoso impulso de contar sus historias, sus deseos y sus miedos.
Primero lo ha hecho a través de relatos orales y dibujos en las paredes de las
cavernas, luego lo narró en tablillas de arcilla y en papiros. La invención de
la imprenta (1450) y del papel “industrial” facilitaron la producción y
circulación de todas esas historias. Pero no todo lo que se escribe es
literatura.
Definir la
literatura es un trabajo principalmente histórico: depende de la época en que
se hace esa definición y de la cultura que la formula.”
Colombino
- Madeleine (2014)
Words, unquestionably, are a way to transport messages in
written or spoken senses. Words have an incalculable power: they can create or
they can destroy, they can give life or they can bring death, they can add or
they can diminish, they can condemn or they can release. Words simply allow, through
a mysterious and invisible power, to transmit messages with and without
limitations from an individual’s to another’s imagination; giving way to the
language and simultaneously to the communication.
To define literature is not a simple task, indeed, sometimes
describing concepts tend to be complicated; since it exists the possibility of dearth
of words to make clearer certain concepts and thoughts. However, the vast world
of language offer us doubtlessly the leeway to communicate, in one way or
another, enough ideas to convey what we desire to say. Therefore, with the
ambition to draw with more precise words the meaning of literature, I dare to give
- based on some authorities of the literature field and their interpretations -
a closer definition of what literature actually is.
To begin, literature may be defined as “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.” (Word Reference Dictionary). Nevertheless, literature
may also be defined by dividing it into two categories, as it is stated by
Mayer (1997):
“If we assume that a definition of literature should
be, in many important ways, like definitions of other words in the language, we
will perhaps find a more fruitful approach to the term. Here I will first
present two different approaches to definition—the criterial approach and the
prototype approach—and then suggest some features of a prototypical literary
work.”
According to Mayer, the criterial approach refers to the
criteria or standard that all texts must join to be able to classify as truly
literature. On the other hand, the prototype approach makes reference to the
prototype or model that texts must have in common to be literary work. In these
order of ideas, Mayer proposes some features that catalogue a text as a prototypical
literary work, which requires to be “(1) written texts; (2) marked by careful
use of language… such as creative metaphors, well-turned phrases, elegant
syntax, rhyme, alliteration, and meter; (3) are in a literary genre (poetry,
prose, fiction, or drama); (4) are read aesthetically…”
Alternatively, in order to differentiate literature in
comparison with other kind of texts, King (2015) shows the distinctions between
mass Communication, Text and Literature. King explains that mass communication refers
to the moment in which “allows the creator to communicate with lots of people
over a long period of time (Writing a book, making a movie, recording a song,
publishing a blog, publishing a magazine, making a TV show, making a commercial)”.
Additionally, he explicates that text may be defined as “an individual example
of mass communication. (A movie, a TV episode, a book, an issue of a magazine
or newspaper, an advertisement, a song, an album).” And last but not least, he indicates
that literature is “a type of a text that has some qualifications in order to
be literature.” He says that the first and the simplest requirement is that the
text must be written down as a book, and also that must be considered to be
really good by people who have lots of experience reading books and thinking
closely about them.”
Nonetheless, I distinctly remember one of the lectures of
our current course of English Literature in which the whole class was in
agreement that literature is not only books, but also songs, music and other
types of art. To reinforce that, Krystal (2014) states that “ Apparently, “literary
means not only what is written but what is voiced, what is expressed, what is
invented, in whatever form” — in which case maps, sermons, comic strips,
cartoons, speeches, photographs, movies, war memorials, and music all huddle
beneath the literary umbrella. Books continue to matter, of course, but not in
the way that earlier generations took for granted.” It means that literature
has not limitations; it is a wide portfolio that includes more than just books.
To sum up, even though defining some concepts may be an intricate
job, words are a powerful resource that permits to give meaning to any conception.
Literature is not an exception; in spite of its complexity it is possible to
say that literature is an ensemble of language products that reflects beauty and
for the same reason it is enough worthy to be called literature.
REFERENCES
Colombino, L. y Madeleine, P. (2014) Taller de
Narrativa (page 10) https://issuu.com/liacolombino/docs/columbia_-_narrativa-_teor__a_-_mat
Mayer Jim, What is Literature? A Definition Based on
Prototypes (pages 1, 2, 3) https://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/work-papers/_files/docs/1997-meyer.pdf
King, M. [Matt King] (2015, September 11) What is Literature?
[Archivo de video]. Recuperado
de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEpqmTPZfLA
Krystal,
A. (2014) What
Is Literature? In defense of
the canon. Harper’s Magazine http://harpers.org/archive/2014/03/what-is-literature/
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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