Array ( [0] => {{short description|Written work of art}} [1] => {{distinguish|Literature (card game)}} [2] => {{pp-move}} [3] => {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}{{CS1 config|mode=cs1}} [4] => [5] => {{Literature}} [6] => [7] => '''Literature''' is any collection of [[Writing|written]] work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an [[art]] form, especially [[prose]], [[fiction]], [[drama]], [[poetry]],{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/literature |title=Literature: definition |publisher=Oxford Learner's Dictionaries |access-date=24 July 2020 |archive-date=10 June 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210610161527/https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/literature |url-status=live }} and including both print and [[Electronic literature|digital writing]].{{Cite book |last=Rettberg |first=Scott |title=Electronic literature |date=2019 |publisher=Polity press |isbn= 978-1-5095-1677-3 |location=Cambridge, UK Medford, MA}} In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include [[oral literature]], also known as [[orature]]{{cite web |last=Kaboré |first=André |title=Orature as a Characteristic of the Literatures of Werewere- Liking and Pacéré |date=January 2015 |url= https://www.academia.edu/74064555}} much of which has been transcribed.{{sfn|Goody|1987|p=}}{{cite web |last=Goody |first=Jack |title=Oral literature |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/oral-literature |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214104037/https://www.britannica.com/art/oral-literature |archive-date=14 December 2019 |access-date=2020-07-27 |publisher=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]}}; see also [[Homer]]. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting [[knowledge]] and [[entertainment]], and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. [8] => [9] => Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various [[non-fiction]] genres, such as [[biography]], [[Diary|diaries]], [[memoir]], [[Letter (message)|letters]], and [[essay]]s. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional [[books]], articles or other written information on a particular subject.{{Cite web |last=Rexroth |first=Kenneth |title=literature | Definition, Characteristics, Genres, Types, & Facts |url= https://www.britannica.com/art/literature |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729030437/https://www.britannica.com/art/literature |archive-date=29 July 2020 |access-date=27 July 2020 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}''OED''{{full citation needed|date=November 2023}} [10] => [11] => [[Etymology|Etymologically]], the term derives from [[Latin language|Latin]] ''{{Lang|la|literatura/litteratura}}'' "learning, a writing, grammar", originally "writing formed with letters", from ''{{Lang|la|litera/littera}}'' "letter".{{cite web|title=literature (n.)|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=literature&allowed_in_frame=0|publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=9 February 2014|archive-date=22 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222162614/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=literature&allowed_in_frame=0|url-status=live}} In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts.{{cite journal|last=Meyer|first=Jim|year=1997|title=What is Literature? A Definition Based on Prototypes|url=http://www.und.nodak.edu/dept/linguistics/wp/1997Meyer.htm|journal=Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics and University of North Dakota Session|volume=41|issue=1|access-date=11 February 2014}}{{Dead link|date=January 2021}}{{cite journal|last=Finnegan|first=Ruth|title=How Oral Is Oral Literature?|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies|year=1974|volume=37|issue=1|pages=52–64|jstor=614104|doi=10.1017/s0041977x00094842 |s2cid=190730645}} {{subscription required}} Literature is often referred to [[Synecdoche|synecdochically]] as "writing", especially [[creative writing]], and poetically as "the craft of writing" (or simply "the craft"). [[Syd Field]] described his discipline, [[screenwriting]], as "a craft that occasionally rises to the level of art."{{cite book|author-last=Field|author-first=Syd|title=Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting|section=Introduction|publisher=Delta|date= 2005|isbn=978-0440582731}} [12] => [13] => [[History of printing|Developments in print technology]] have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works, which now include [[electronic literature]]. [14] => [15] => == Definitions == [16] => Definitions of literature have varied over time.Leitch ''et al.'', ''The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism'', 28 In Western Europe, prior to the 18th century, literature denoted all books and writing. Literature can be seen as returning to older, more inclusive notions, so that [[cultural studies]], for instance, include, in addition to [[Western canon|canonical works]], [[Genre fiction|popular and minority genres]]. The word is also used in reference to non-written works: to "[[oral literature]]" and "the literature of [[preliterate]] culture".{{Cn|date=April 2024}} [17] => [18] => A [[value judgment]] definition of literature considers it as consisting solely of high quality writing that forms part of the ''[[belles-lettres]]'' ("fine writing") tradition.{{sfn|Eagleton|2008|p=9}} An example of this is in the [[Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1910–1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'']], which classified literature as "the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing".{{cite book |surname=Biswas |given=A.R. |title=Critique of Poetics |volume=2 |year=2005 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0377-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dpqORJYizkC&q=%22the%20best%20expression%20of%20the%20best%20thought%20reduced%20to%20writing%22&pg=PP1|archive-date=2021-04-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414114731/https://books.google.com/books?id=9dpqORJYizkC&q=%22the%20best%20expression%20of%20the%20best%20thought%20reduced%20to%20writing%22&pg=PP1|url-status=live|page= 538}} [19] => [20] => == History == [21] => {{main|History of literature}} [22] => [23] => === Oral literature === [24] => {{main article|Oral literature}} [25] => {{see also|African literature#Oral literature}} [26] => [[File:Kyrgyz Manaschi, Karakol.jpg|thumb|A traditional [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] [[manaschi]] performing part of the [[Epic of Manas]] at a [[yurt]] camp in [[Karakol]], [[Kyrgyzstan]]]]The use of the term "literature" here poses some issue due to its origins in the Latin ''littera'', "letter", essentially writing. Alternatives such as "oral forms" and "oral genres" have been suggested but the word literature is widely used. [27] => [28] => [[Australian Aboriginal culture]] has thrived on oral traditions and oral histories passed down through tens of thousands of years. [29] => In a study published in February 2020, new evidence showed that both [[Budj Bim]] and [[Tower Hill (volcano)|Tower Hill]] volcanoes erupted between 34,000 and 40,000 years ago.{{cite web |last=Johnson |first=Sian |date=26 February 2020 |title=Study dates Victorian volcano that buried a human-made axe |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-26/study-dates-victorian-volcano-that-buried-a-human-made-axe/11991290 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200908041638/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-26/study-dates-victorian-volcano-that-buried-a-human-made-axe/11991290 |archive-date=8 September 2020 |access-date=9 March 2020 |website=ABC News}} Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in [[Victoria, Australia|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.{{cite journal |last1=Matchan |first1=Erin L. |last2=Phillips |first2=David |last3=Jourdan |first3=Fred |last4=Oostingh |first4=Korien |year=2020 |title=Early human occupation of southeastern Australia: New insights from 40Ar/39Ar dating of young volcanoes |journal=Geology |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=390–394 |bibcode=2020Geo....48..390M |doi=10.1130/G47166.1 |issn=0091-7613 |s2cid=214357121}} An axe found underneath [[volcanic ash]] in 1947 had already proven that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill. [30] => [31] => [[Oral literature]] is an [[Oral tradition|ancient human tradition]] found in "all corners of the world". 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: [32] => {{Blockquote| [33] => 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. (...) 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. 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.{{cite book|author=John Miles Foley. ''"What's in a Sign"''|editor=E. Anne MacKay|title=Signs of Orality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkfRvkgDTOsC |year=1999|publisher=Brill Academic |isbn=978-9004112735|pages=1–2}}}} [34] => [35] => The earliest poetry is believed to have been recited or sung, employed as a way of remembering [[oral history|history]], [[genealogy]], and law.{{cite book|last=Francis|first= Norbert |date=2017|title=Bilingual and Multicultural Perspectives on Poetry, Music, and Narrative: The science of art|location= Lanham, MD|publisher= Rowman and Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4985-5183-0}} [36] => [37] => In Asia, the transmission of folklore, mythologies as well as scriptures in ancient India, in different Indian religions, was by oral tradition, preserved with precision with the help of elaborate [[Vedic chant|mnemonic techniques]].{{cite journal |author=Donald S. Lopez Jr. |year=1995 |title=Authority and Orality in the Mahāyāna |journal=Numen |volume=42 |number=1 |pages=21–47 |publisher=Brill Academic |jstor=3270278 |doi=10.1163/1568527952598800 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43799/1/11076_1995_Article_1568527952598800.pdf |hdl=2027.42/43799 |hdl-access=free |access-date=22 October 2020 |archive-date=1 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101012117/http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43799/1/11076_1995_Article_1568527952598800.pdf |url-status=live }} [38] => [39] => The early Buddhist texts are also generally believed to be of oral tradition, with the first by comparing inconsistencies in the transmitted versions of literature from various oral societies such as the Greek, Serbia and other cultures, then noting that the Vedic literature is too consistent and vast to have been composed and transmitted orally across generations, without being written down.{{Cite web |title=Buddhism - The Pali canon (Tipitaka) {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism/The-Pali-canon-Tipitaka |access-date=2023-03-17 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=17 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317054833/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism/The-Pali-canon-Tipitaka |url-status=live }} According to Goody, the Vedic texts likely involved both a written and oral tradition, calling it a "parallel products of a literate society".{{Cite book |last=Ong |first=Walter J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=37Ikbo9P4M8C |title=Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word |date=2002 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-28128-7 |language=en |access-date=17 March 2023 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164807/https://books.google.com/books?id=37Ikbo9P4M8C |url-status=live }} [40] => [41] => All ancient Greek literature was to some degree oral in nature, and the earliest literature was completely so.Reece, Steve. "Orality and Literacy: Ancient Greek Literature as Oral Literature", in David Schenker and Martin Hose (eds.), Companion to Greek Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2015) 43-57. [https://www.academia.edu/30640456/Orality_and_Literacy_Ancient_Greek_Literature_as_Oral_Literature Ancient_Greek_Literature_as_Oral_Literature] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101220823/https://www.academia.edu/30640456/Orality_and_Literacy_Ancient_Greek_Literature_as_Oral_Literature |date=1 January 2020 }} [[Homer]]'s epic poetry, states Michael Gagarin, was largely composed, performed and transmitted orally.{{cite book|author=Michael Gagarin |editor=E. Anne MacKay| title=Signs of Orality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkfRvkgDTOsC |year=1999|publisher=Brill Academic |isbn=978-9004112735|pages=163–164}} As folklores and legends were performed in front of distant audiences, the singers would substitute the names in the stories with local characters or rulers to give the stories a local flavor and thus connect with the audience, but making the historicity embedded in the oral tradition as unreliable.{{cite book|author=Wolfgang Kullmann |editor=E. Anne MacKay| title=Signs of Orality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vkfRvkgDTOsC |year=1999|publisher=Brill Academic |isbn=978-9004112735|pages=108–109}} 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.{{cite book|author=John Scheid|editor=Clifford Ando and Jörg Rüpke|title=Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZ5JP8gZgJEC&pg=PA17|date=2006|publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag|isbn=978-3-515-08854-1|pages=17–28|author-link=John Scheid|access-date=22 October 2020|archive-date=20 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820001803/https://books.google.com/books?id=uZ5JP8gZgJEC&pg=PA17|url-status=live}} [42] => [43] => Writing systems are not known to have existed among [[Native North Americans]] (north of Mesoamerica) before contact with Europeans. Oral storytelling traditions flourished in a context without the use of writing to record and preserve history, scientific knowledge, and social practices.{{Cite book|title=Native American Storytelling: A Reader of Myths and Legends|url=https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanst00kroe|url-access=limited|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=2004|isbn=978-1-4051-1541-4|editor-last=Kroeber|editor-first=Karl|location=Malden, MA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanst00kroe/page/n11 1]}} While some stories were told for amusement and leisure, most functioned as practical lessons from tribal experience applied to immediate moral, social, psychological, and environmental issues.{{Cite book|title=Native American Storytelling: A Reader of Myths and Legends|url=https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanst00kroe|url-access=limited|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=2004|isbn=978-1-4051-1541-4|editor-last=Kroeber|editor-first=Karl|location=Malden, MA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanst00kroe/page/n13 3]}} Stories fuse fictional, supernatural, or otherwise exaggerated characters and circumstances with real emotions and morals as a means of teaching. Plots often reflect real life situations and may be aimed at particular people known by the story's audience. In this way, social pressure could be exerted without directly causing embarrassment or social exclusion.{{Cite book|title=Native American Storytelling: A Reader of Myths and Legends|url=https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanst00kroe|url-access=limited|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=2004|isbn=978-1-4051-1541-4|editor-last=Kroeber|editor-first=Karl|location=Malden, MA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/nativeamericanst00kroe/page/n12 2]}} For example, rather than yelling, [[Inuit culture|Inuit]] parents might deter their children from wandering too close to the water's edge by telling a story about a sea monster with a pouch for children within its reach.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/685533353/a-playful-way-to-teach-kids-to-control-their-anger|title=How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger|newspaper=NPR|date=13 March 2019|language=en|access-date=2019-04-29|last1=Doucleff|first1=Michaeleen|last2=Greenhalgh|first2=Jane|archive-date=26 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026061927/https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/13/685533353/a-playful-way-to-teach-kids-to-control-their-anger|url-status=live}} [44] => [45] => The enduring significance of oral traditions is underscored in a systemic literature review on indigenous languages in South Africa, within the framework of contemporary [[linguistic]] challenges. Oral literature is crucial for cultural preservation, linguistic diversity, and social justice, as evidenced by the postcolonial struggles and ongoing initiatives to safeguard and promote South African indigenous languages.{{Cite journal |last=Diko |first=Mlamli |date=2023-07-28 |title=The retainment of South African indigenous languages: a systemic literature review |url=https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs/article/view/2427 |journal=International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147- 4478) |volume=12 |issue=5 |pages=306–314 |doi=10.20525/ijrbs.v12i5.2427 |issn=2147-4478|doi-access=free }} [46] => [47] => ==== Oratory ==== [48] => [[Rhetoric|Oratory]] or the art of [[public speaking]] was considered a literary art for a significant period of time. From [[Ancient Greece]] to the late 19th century, [[rhetoric]] played a central role in Western education in training orators, lawyers, counselors, historians, statesmen, and poets.See, e.g., Thomas Conley, Rhetoric in the European Tradition ([[University of Chicago]], 1991).{{NoteTag|The definition of rhetoric is a controversial subject within the field and has given rise to philological battles over its meaning in Ancient Greece.See, for instance {{cite journal |doi=10.1080/07350199609389075 |volume=14 |title=On schiappa versus poulakos |year=1996 |journal=Rhetoric Review |pages=438–440 |last1=Parlor |first1=Burkean |last2=Johnstone |first2=Henry W. |issue=2}}}} [49] => [50] => === Writing === [51] => {{Further|History of writing}} [52] => [[File:Tableta con trillo.png|thumb|240px|Limestone [[Kish tablet]] from [[Sumer]] with pictographic writing; may be the earliest known writing, 3500 BC. [[Ashmolean Museum]]]] [53] => 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.{{Cite journal|last=Green|first=M.W.|date=1981|title=The Construction and Implementation of the Cuneiform Writing System.|journal=Visible Language|volume=15|issue=4|pages=345–372}} Though in both [[ancient Egypt]] and [[Mesoamerica]], writing may have already emerged because of the need to record historical and environmental events. Subsequent innovations included more uniform, predictable [[List of national legal systems|legal systems]], [[Religious text|sacred texts]], and the origins of modern practices of [[Models of scientific inquiry|scientific inquiry]] and [[Knowledge management|knowledge-consolidation]], all largely reliant on portable and easily reproducible forms of writing. [54] => [55] => === Early written literature === [56] => [57] => {{Main|History of literature|Ancient literature|History of books}} [58] => [59] => [[Ancient Egyptian literature]],{{sfn|Foster|2001|p=19}} along with [[Sumerian literature]], are considered the world's [[Ancient literature|oldest literatures]].{{cite book|title=The literature of ancient Sumer |editor-surname1=Black |editor-given1=Jeremy |editor-surname2=Cunningham |editor-given2=Graham |editor-surname3=Robson |editor-given3=Eleanor |year=2006 |publisher=OUP |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-929633-0|page= xix}} The primary genres of the literature of [[ancient Egypt]]—[[Didacticism|didactic]] texts, hymns and prayers, and tales—were written almost entirely in verse;{{sfn|Foster|2001|p=7}} By the [[Old Kingdom]] (26th century BC to 22nd century BC), literary works included [[Ancient Egyptian funerary texts|funerary texts]], [[epistle]]s and letters, [[hymns]] and poems, and commemorative [[autobiographical]] texts recounting the careers of prominent administrative officials. It was not until the early [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] (21st century BC to 17th century BC) that a narrative Egyptian literature was created.Lichtheim, Miriam (1975). ''Ancient Egyptian Literature'', vol 1. London: University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-02899-6}}. [60] => [61] => 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.{{Harvnb|Jacobs|1888}}, Introduction, page xv; {{Harvnb|Ryder|1925}}, Translator's introduction, quoting Hertel: "the original work was composed in Kashmir, about 200 B.C. At this date, however, many of the individual stories were already ancient."{{Harvnb|Ryder|1925}} Translator's introduction: "The ''Panchatantra'' is a ''niti-shastra'', or textbook of ''niti''. The word ''niti'' means roughly "the wise conduct of life." Western civilization must endure a certain shame in realizing that no precise equivalent of the term is found in English, French, Latin, or Greek. Many words are therefore necessary to explain what ''niti'' is, though the idea, once grasped, is clear, important, and satisfying." Drama and satire also developed as urban culture provided a larger public audience, and later readership, for literary production. [[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 (Chinese)|Book of Songs]]'' (1046–{{circa|600 BC}}).{{sfnp|Baxter|1992|p=356}}{{sfnp|Allan|1991|p=39}}Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (AD 127–200), ''Shipu xu'' 詩譜序. [62] => [[File:LuxorTemple03.jpg|thumb|alt=Inscribed hieroglyphics cover an obelisk in foreground. A stone statue is in background.|[[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] with [[cartouche]]s for the name "[[Ramesses II]]", from the [[Luxor Temple]], [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]]]] [63] => In [[Chinese classics|ancient China]], early literature was primarily focused on philosophy, [[historiography]], [[military science]], agriculture, and [[Chinese poetry|poetry]]. China, the origin of modern [[paper making]] and [[woodblock printing]], produced the world's first [[print culture]]s.A Hyatt Mayor, Prints and People, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Princeton, 1971, nos 1–4. {{ISBN|0-691-00326-2}} Much of Chinese literature originates with the [[Hundred Schools of Thought]] period that occurred during the Eastern [[Zhou dynasty]] (769‒269 BC).[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-philosophy#ref171469 "Chinese philosophy"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502233005/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/112694/Chinese-philosophy#ref171469 |date=2 May 2015 }}, Encyclopædia Britannica, online The most important of these include the Classics of [[Confucianism]], of [[Taoism|Daoism]], of [[Mohism]], of [[Legalism (Chinese philosophy)|Legalism]], as well as works of military science (e.g. [[Sun Tzu]]'s ''[[The Art of War]]'', {{circa|5th century BC}}) and [[History of China|Chinese history]] (e.g. [[Sima Qian]]'s ''[[Records of the Grand Historian]]'', {{circa|94 BC}}). Ancient Chinese literature had a heavy emphasis on historiography, with often very detailed court records. 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]].{{Cite journal|last1=Lin|first1=Liang-Hung|last2=Ho|first2=Yu-Ling|date=2009|title=Confucian dynamism, culture and ethical changes in Chinese societies – a comparative study of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585190903239757|journal=The International Journal of Human Resource Management|language=en|volume=20|issue=11|pages=2402–2417|doi=10.1080/09585190903239757|s2cid=153789769|issn=0958-5192|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=21 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421071814/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585190903239757|url-status=live}} [64] => [65] => In [[Indian literature#In archaic Indian languages|ancient India]], literature originated from stories that were originally orally transmitted. Early genres included [[Sanskrit drama|drama]], [[Panchatantra|fables]], [[Sūtra|sutras]] and [[Indian epic poetry|epic poetry]]. [[Sanskrit literature]] begins with the [[Vedas]], dating back to 1500–1000 BC, and continues with the [[Sanskrit Epics]] of [[Iron Age India]].see e.g. {{Harvnb|Radhakrishnan|Moore|1957|p=3}}; Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and {{IAST|Upaniṣads}}", in: {{Harvnb|Flood|2003|p=68}}; {{Harvnb|MacDonell|2004|pp=29–39}}; ''Sanskrit literature'' (2003) in Philip's Encyclopedia. Accessed 2007-08-09Sanujit Ghose (2011). "[https://www.worldhistory.org/article/230/ Religious Developments in Ancient India] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730065808/https://www.worldhistory.org/article/230/religious-developments-in-ancient-india/ |date=30 July 2022 }}" in ''Ancient History Encyclopedia''. The Vedas are among the [[Ancient literature|oldest sacred texts]]. The Samhitas (vedic collections) date to roughly 1500–1000 BC, and the "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the [[shakha|redaction]] of the Samhitas, date to {{circa|1000}}‒500 BC, resulting in a [[Vedic period]], spanning the mid-2nd to mid 1st millennium BC, or the [[Bronze Age|Late Bronze Age]] and the [[Iron Age India|Iron Age]].[[Gavin Flood]] sums up mainstream estimates, according to which the Rigveda was compiled from as early as 1500 BC over a period of several centuries. {{Harvnb|Flood|1996|p=37}} The period between approximately the 6th to 1st centuries BC saw the composition and redaction of the two most influential Indian epics, the ''[[Mahabharata]]''{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kl0DYIjUPgC&pg=PA399|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8|page=399|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=19 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019135909/https://books.google.com/books?id=5kl0DYIjUPgC&pg=PA399|url-status=live}}{{cite book|author1=T. R. S. Sharma|author2=June Gaur|author3=Sahitya Akademi (New Delhi, Inde).|title=Ancient Indian Literature: An Anthology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IRp1PKX0BXoC&pg=PA137|year=2000|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-0794-3|page=137|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=19 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019124522/https://books.google.com/books?id=IRp1PKX0BXoC&pg=PA137|url-status=live}} and the ''[[Ramayana]]'',{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ramayana-Indian-epic|title=Ramayana {{!}} Summary, Characters, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2020-02-18|archive-date=12 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412065621/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ramayana-Indian-epic|url-status=live}} with subsequent redaction progressing down to the 4th century AD such as [[Ramcharitmanas]].Lutgendorf, Philip (1991). The Life of a Text. University of California Press. p. 1. [66] => [67] => The earliest known Greek writings are [[Mycenaean language|Mycenaean]] ({{circa|1600}}–1100 BC), written in the [[Linear B]] syllabary on clay tablets. These documents contain prosaic records largely concerned with trade (lists, inventories, receipts, etc.); no real literature has been discovered.{{cite book|last1=Chadwick|first1=John|title=The Decipherment of Linear B|date=1967|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-107-69176-6|page=101|edition=Second}} "The glimpse we have suddenly been given of the account books of a long-forgotten people..."{{cite book|last1=Ventris|first1=Michael|last2=Chadwick|first2=John|title=Documents in Mycenaean Greek|date=1956|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-1-107-50341-0|page=xxix|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AkgPCAAAQBAJ&q=Why+have+no+works+of+Linear+B+literature+survived%3F&pg=PR29|access-date=15 November 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414115310/https://books.google.com/books?id=AkgPCAAAQBAJ&q=Why+have+no+works+of+Linear+B+literature+survived%3F&pg=PR29|url-status=live}} [[Michael Ventris]] and [[John Chadwick]], the original decipherers of Linear B, state that literature almost certainly existed in [[Mycenaean Greece]], but it was either not written down or, if it was, it was on parchment or wooden tablets, which did not survive the [[Late Bronze Age collapse#Greece|destruction of the Mycenaean palaces in the twelfth century BC]]. [68] => [[Homer]]'s [[epic poems]], the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]'', are central works of [[ancient Greek literature]]. It is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC.{{cite book|last1=Croally|first1=Neil|last2=Hyde|first2=Roy|title=Classical Literature: An Introduction|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1136736629|page=26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g-arAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|access-date=23 November 2016|language=en|year=2011|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810024216/https://books.google.com/books?id=g-arAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|url-status=live}} Modern scholars consider these accounts [[legend]]ary.{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Nigel|title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1136788000|pages=366|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8pXhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA366|access-date=22 November 2016|language=en|year=2013|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810024215/https://books.google.com/books?id=8pXhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA366|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Romilly|first1=Jacqueline de|title=A Short History of Greek Literature|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226143125|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y_DTllltXBQC&pg=PA1|pages=1|access-date=22 November 2016|language=en|year=1985|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810024216/https://books.google.com/books?id=y_DTllltXBQC&pg=PA1|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Graziosi|first1=Barbara|title=Inventing Homer: The Early Reception of Epic|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521809665|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCHsh9QWzLYC&pg=PA15|pages=15|access-date=22 November 2016|language=en|year=2002|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810024216/https://books.google.com/books?id=vCHsh9QWzLYC&pg=PA15|url-status=live}} Most researchers believe that the poems were originally [[Oral tradition|transmitted orally]].{{cite book|last1=Ahl|first1=Frederick|last2=Roisman|first2=Hanna|title=The Odyssey Re-formed|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0801483356|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dB27oJJb_NYC&pg=PA7|access-date=23 November 2016|language=en|year=1996|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810024215/https://books.google.com/books?id=dB27oJJb_NYC&pg=PA7|url-status=live}} From [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]] until the present day, the influence of Homeric epic on [[Western culture|Western civilization]] has been significant, inspiring many of its most famous works of literature, music, art and film.{{cite book|last1=Latacz|first1=Joachim|title=Homer, His Art and His World|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0472083534|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzRhA7q7ZuMC&pg=PA2|access-date=22 November 2016|language=en|year=1996|archive-date=10 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810024216/https://books.google.com/books?id=JzRhA7q7ZuMC&pg=PA2|url-status=live}} The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education; to [[Plato]], Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" – ''ten Hellada pepaideuken''.{{cite book|last1=Too|first1=Yun Lee|title=The Idea of the Library in the Ancient World|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0199577804|page=86|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGsVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|access-date=22 November 2016|language=en|year=2010|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805075340/https://books.google.com/books?id=fGsVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA86|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=MacDonald|first1=Dennis R.|author-link=Dennis R. MacDonald|title=Christianizing Homer: The Odyssey, Plato, and the Acts of Andrew|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0195358629|page=17|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=17xEDe6_Jt4C&pg=PA17|access-date=22 November 2016|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630083720/https://books.google.com/books?id=17xEDe6_Jt4C&pg=PA17|archive-date=30 June 2017|year=1994}} [[Hesiod]]'s [[Works and Days]] (c.700 BC) and [[Theogony]] are some of the earliest and most influential works of ancient Greek literature. Classical Greek genres included philosophy, poetry, historiography, comedies and dramas. [[Plato]] (428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) and [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BC) authored philosophical texts that are regarded as the foundation of [[Western philosophy]], [[Sappho]] ({{circa|630|570 BC}}) and [[Pindar]] were influential [[lyric poetry|lyric poets]], and [[Herodotus]] ({{circa|484|425 BC}}) and [[Thucydides]] were early Greek historians. Although drama was popular in ancient Greece, of the hundreds of [[tragedy|tragedies]] written and performed during the [[classical age]], only a limited number of plays by three authors still exist: [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]], and [[Euripides]]. The plays of [[Aristophanes]] ({{circa|446|386 BC}}) provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as [[Ancient Greek comedy|Old Comedy]], the earliest form of Greek Comedy, and are in fact used to define the genre.''Aristophanes: Butts'' K.J.Dover (ed), Oxford University Press 1970, Intro. p. x. [69] => [70] => The [[Hebrew]] religious text, the [[Torah]], is widely seen as a product of the [[Persian period]] (539–333 BC, probably 450–350 BC).{{Sfn|Frei|2001|p=6}} This consensus echoes a traditional Jewish view which gives [[Ezra]], the leader of the Jewish community on its return from Babylon, a pivotal role in its promulgation.{{sfn|Romer|2008|p=2 and fn.3}} This represents a major source of Christianity's Bible, which has had a major influence on Western literature.{{cite book |title= The Bible: A Very Short Introduction|last= Riches|first= John|year= 2000|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|isbn= 978-0-19-285343-1|page= 134}} [71] => [72] => The beginning of [[Roman literature]] dates to 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a Latin version of a Greek play.Duckworth, George Eckel. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BuLEo5U9sb0C&pg=PA3 ''The nature of Roman comedy: a study in popular entertainment.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804104234/https://books.google.com/books?id=BuLEo5U9sb0C&pg=PA3&dq |date=4 August 2020 }} University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. p. 3. Web. 15 October 2011. Literature in [[Latin]] would flourish for the next six centuries, and includes essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings. [73] => [74] => The [[Qur'an]] (610 AD to 632 AD),{{cite book|last=Donner|first=Fred|title=Muhammad and the Believers: at the Origins of Islam|url=https://archive.org/details/muhammadbeliever00donn|url-access=limited|year=2010|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-674-05097-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/muhammadbeliever00donn/page/n173 153]–154}} the main [[Religious text|holy book]] of [[Islam]], had a significant influence on the Arab language, and marked the beginning of [[Islamic literature]]. Muslims believe it was transcribed in the Arabic dialect of the [[Quraysh]], the tribe of [[Muhammad]].{{cite web |date=2019-09-08 |title=الوثائقية تفتح ملف "اللغة العربية" |url=https://doc.aljazeera.net/followup/الوثائقية-تفتح-ملف-اللغة-العربية/ |access-date=2020-06-18 |website=الجزيرة الوثائقية |language=ar |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616052303/https://doc.aljazeera.net/followup/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%AB%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%82%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%AD-%D9%85%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9/ |url-status=live }} As Islam spread, the Quran had the effect of unifying and standardizing Arabic. [75] => [76] => Theological works in Latin were the dominant form of [[Mediaeval literature#Types of writing|literature]] in Europe typically found in libraries during the [[Middle Ages]]. [[Western culture|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]]''. A later form of [[Mediaeval literature|medieval fiction]] was the [[Romance (heroic literature)|romance]], an adventurous and sometimes magical narrative with strong popular appeal.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-literature|title=Western literature - Medieval literature|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=21 October 2020|archive-date=29 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429055915/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/343624/Western-literature/15348/Christianity-and-the-church|url-status=live}} [77] => [78] => Controversial, religious, political and instructional literature proliferated during the European [[Renaissance]] as a result of the [[Johannes Gutenberg]]'s invention of the [[printing press]]Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, ''The Printing Press as an Agent of Change''. Cambridge University Press, 1980 around 1440, while the [[Medieval romance]] developed into the novel.Margaret Anne Doody, [https://archive.org/details/truestoryofnovel0000dood/page/1 ''The True Story of the Novel'']. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 21 October 2020. [79] => [80] => === Publishing === [81] => [[File:Jingangjing.jpg|thumb|The intricate frontispiece of the [[Diamond Sutra]] from [[Tang dynasty]] China, the world's earliest dated printed book, AD 868 ([[British Library]])]] [82] => Publishing became possible with the [[history of writing|invention of writing]] but became more practical with the [[History of printing|invention of printing]]. Prior to printing, distributed works were copied manually, by [[scribe]]s. [83] => [84] => The Chinese inventor [[Bi Sheng]] made [[movable type]] of earthenware {{circa|1045}} and was spread to Korea later. Around 1230, Koreans invented a metal type movable printing. East metal movable type was spread to Europe between the late 14th century and early 15th century.{{cite book |author = Polenz, Peter von. |title = Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart: I. Einführung, Grundbegriffe, Deutsch in der frühbürgerlichen Zeit. |publisher = New York/Berlin: Gruyter, Walter de GmbH |year = 1991 |language=de}}{{cite web|url = http://www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-1-introduction.htm|title = Did East Asian Printing Traditions Influence the European Renaissance?|author = Thomas Christensen|access-date = 2006-10-18|year = 2007|publisher = Arts of Asia Magazine (to appear)}}[[Thomas Franklin Carter]], ''The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward'', The Ronald Press, NY 2nd ed. 1955, pp. 176–178{{cite book|author=L. S. Stavrianos|author-link=L. S. Stavrianos|title=A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century |edition=7th |year=1998 |orig-year=1970 |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |isbn=978-0-13-923897-0 }} In {{circa|1450}}, [[Johannes Gutenberg]] invented movable type in Europe. This invention gradually made books less expensive to produce and more widely available. [85] => [86] => Early printed books, single sheets, and images created before 1501 in Europe are known as [[incunable]]s or ''incunabula''. "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. 330."[[Michael Clapham (industrialist)|Clapham, Michael]], "Printing" in ''A History of Technology'', Vol 2. ''From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution'', edd. Charles Singer ''et al.'' (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited from [[Elizabeth L. Eisenstein]], ''The Printing Press as an Agent of Change'' (Cambridge University, 1980). [87] => [88] => Eventually, printing enabled other forms of publishing besides books. The [[history of newspaper publishing]] began in Germany in 1609, with the [[magazine#History|publishing of magazines]] following in 1663. [89] => [90] => === University discipline === [91] => ==== In England ==== [92] => {{main|English studies}} [93] => [94] => In late 1820s England, growing political and social awareness, "particularly among the [[utilitarians]] and [[Jeremy Bentham|Bentham]]ites, promoted the possibility of including courses in English literary study in the newly formed [[London University]]". 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 well educated, culturally harmonious nation".{{Cite web|url=http://oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/rraley/research/english/court.html|title=Court: Institutionalizing English Literature|website=oldsite.english.ucsb.edu|access-date=20 October 2020|archive-date=21 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021083037/http://oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/rraley/research/english/court.html|url-status=live}} [95] => [96] => ==== America ==== [97] => {{Main|American literature (academic discipline)}} [98] => [99] => === Women and literature === [100] => {{Further|French literature|German literature|Russian literature|5=English poetry#Women poets in the 18th century}} [101] => [102] => The widespread education of women was not common until the nineteenth century, and because of this, literature until recently was mostly [[Western canon#Historical exclusion of women|male dominated]].{{Cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/cheryb/women/wlit.html|title=Women and Literature|website=www.ibiblio.org|access-date=23 October 2020|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024035024/http://www.ibiblio.org/cheryb/women/wlit.html|url-status=live}} [103] => {{Quote box [104] => |quote=George Sand was an idea. She has a unique place in our age.
Others are great men ... she was a great woman. [105] => |author=[[Victor Hugo]] [106] => |source=''Les funérailles de George Sand''{{cite book |title=Saturday Review |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYZNeU6DiQAC&pg=PA771 |year=1876 |publisher=Saturday Review |pages=771ff |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801231232/https://books.google.com/books?id=eYZNeU6DiQAC&pg=PA771 |url-status=live }} [107] => |quoted=1 [108] => |border=2px [109] => |bgcolor=Cornsilk [110] => }} [111] => There were few English-language women poets whose names are remembered until the twentieth century. In the [[English poetry#Victorian poetry|nineteenth century]] some notable individuals include [[Emily Brontë]], [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]], and [[Emily Dickinson]] (see [[American poetry]]). But while generally women are absent from the European cannon of [[Romantic poetry|Romantic literature]], there is one notable exception, the French novelist and memoirist Amantine Dupin (1804 – 1876) best known by her pen name [[George Sand]].{{cite book |last1=Hart |first1=Kathleen |title=Revolution and Women's Autobiography in Nineteenth-century France |date=2004 |publisher=Rodopi |page=91}}{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Linda M. |title=Germaine de Staël, George Sand, and the Victorian Woman Artist |date=2003 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |page=48}} One of the more popular writers in Europe in her lifetime,{{cite news |last1=Eisler |first1=Benita |title='George Sand' Review: Monstre Sacré |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-sand-review-monstre-sacre-1528489494 |access-date=2018-11-06 |work=WSJ |date=8 June 2018 |archive-date=23 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923104833/https://www.wsj.com/articles/george-sand-review-monstre-sacre-1528489494 |url-status=live }} being more renowned than both [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Honoré de Balzac]] in England in the 1830s and 1840s,{{cite journal |last1= Thomson |first1= Patricia |date= July 1972 |title= George Sand and English Reviewers: The First Twenty Years |journal=[[Modern Language Review]]|volume= 67 |issue= 3 |pages= 501–516 |doi= 10.2307/3726119 |jstor= 3726119 }} Sand is recognised as one of the most notable writers of the European Romantic era. [[Jane Austen]] (1775 – 1817) is the first major English woman novelist, while [[Aphra Behn]] is an early female dramatist. [112] => [113] => [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prizes in Literature]] have been awarded between 1901 and 2020 to 117 individuals: 101 men and 16 women. [[Selma Lagerlöf]] (1858 – 1940) was the first woman to win the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], which she was awarded in 1909. Additionally, she was the first woman to be granted a membership in The [[Swedish Academy]] in 1914.{{Cite book|title=Swedish Women's Writing 1850-1995|last=Forsas-Scott|first=Helena|publisher=The Athlone Press|year=1997|isbn=0485910039|location=London|pages=63}} [114] => [115] => [[Feminism|Feminist scholars]] have since the twentieth century sought to [[Women's writing (literary category)#Rediscovering ignored works from the past|expand the literary canon]] to include more women writers. [116] => [117] => === Children's literature === [118] => [[File:Pinocchio.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|''[[The Adventures of Pinocchio]]'' (1883) is a canonical piece of children's literature and [[List of best-selling books|one of the best-selling books]] ever published....remains the most translated Italian book and, after the Bible, the most widely read... by Francelia Butler, ''Children's Literature'', Yale University Press, 1972.]] [119] => A separate genre of children's literature only began to emerge in the eighteenth century, with the development of the concept of [[childhood]].{{cite book |editor-last=Nikolajeva |editor-first=María |editor-link=Maria Nikolajeva |title=Aspects and Issues in the History of Children's Literature |year=1995 |publisher=Greenwood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubZL9V1L9fEC&pg=PR9 |isbn=978-0-313-29614-7 |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-date=27 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727215518/https://books.google.com/books?id=ubZL9V1L9fEC&pg=PR9 |url-status=live }}{{rp|x-xi}} The earliest of these books were educational books, books on conduct, and simple ABCs—often decorated with animals, plants, and anthropomorphic letters.Lyons, Martyn. 2011. Books: a living history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. [120] => [121] => ==Aesthetics== [122] => {{Further|Aesthetic judgment|Value judgment}} [123] => [124] => === Literary theory === [125] => {{Further|Literary theory|Philosophy and literature#The philosophy of literature}} [126] => A fundamental question of [[literary theory]] is "what is literature?" – although many contemporary theorists and literary scholars believe either that "literature" cannot be defined or that it can refer to any use of language.{{Cite journal|last=Sullivan|first=Patrick|date=2002-01-01|title="Reception Moments," Modern Literary Theory, and the Teaching of Literature|jstor=40012241|journal=Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy|volume=45|issue=7|pages=568–577}} [127] => [128] => ===Literary fiction=== [129] => {{Further|Western canon#Literary canon}} [130] => [[File:Parnaso 09.jpg|left|thumb|[[Dante]], [[Homer]] and [[Virgil]] in [[Raphael Sanzio|Raphael]]'s ''[[The Parnassus|Parnassus]]'' fresco (1511), key figures in the Western canon]] [131] => [[Literary fiction]] is a term used to describe fiction that explores any facet of the [[human condition]], and may involve [[social commentary]]. 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.Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, "Popular Fiction Studies: The Advantages of a New Field". ''Studies in Popular Culture'', Vol. 33, No. 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 21-3 [132] => [133] => The following, by the award-winning British author [[William Boyd (writer)|William Boyd]] on the short story, might be applied to all prose fiction: [134] => [135] =>
[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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story|title=A short history of the short story|last=Boyd|first=William|access-date=2018-04-17|language=en-US|archive-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180621042829/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story|url-status=live}}
[136] => [137] => The very best in literature is annually recognized by the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], which is awarded to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist [[Alfred Nobel]], produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction" (original Swedish: ''den som inom litteraturen har producerat det mest framstående verket i en idealisk riktning'').{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature |access-date= |work=nobelprize.org |archive-date=13 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713233725/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |author=John Sutherland |title=Ink and Spit |publisher=The Guardian |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2189673,00.html |work=Guardian Unlimited Books |date=13 October 2007 |access-date=13 October 2007 |archive-date=11 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111074241/http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2189673,00.html |url-status=live }} [138] => [139] => ===The value of imaginative literature=== [140] => [141] => Some researchers suggest that literary fiction can play a role in an individual's psychological development.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vBcsaEQmwBEC&q=literature+importance+in+psychology+reading&pg=PT10 |title=So-called "Alternative FLL-Approaches" |last=Oebel |first=Guido |publisher=GRIN Verlag |year=2001 |isbn=9783640187799 |location=Norderstedt |language=en |access-date=15 November 2020 |archive-date=14 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414114736/https://books.google.com/books?id=vBcsaEQmwBEC&q=literature+importance+in+psychology+reading&pg=PT10 |url-status=live }} Psychologists have also been using literature as a therapeutic tool.{{Cite book |title=Discontinuous Discourses in Modern Russian Literature |last1=Makin |first1=Michael |last2=Kelly |first2=Catriona |last3=Shepher |first3=David |last4=de Rambures |first4=Dominique |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1989 |isbn=978-1349198511 |location=New York |pages=122}}{{Cite book |title=Children's Literature and its Effects |last=Cullingford |first=Cedric |publisher=A&C Black |year=1998 |isbn=0304700924 |location=London |pages=5}} Psychologist Hogan argues for the value of the time and emotion that a person devotes to understanding a character's situation in literature;{{sfn|Hogan|2011|p=10}} that it can unite a large community by provoking universal emotions, as well as allowing readers access to different cultures, and new emotional experiences.{{sfn|Hogan|2011|p=11}} One study, for example, suggested that the presence of familiar cultural values in literary texts played an important impact on the performance of minority students.{{Cite book |title=Handbook of Child Psychology, Child Psychology in Practice |last1=Damon |first1=William |last2=Lerner |first2=Richard |last3=Renninger |first3=Ann |last4=Sigel |first4=Irving |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2006| isbn=0471272876 |location=Hoboken, NJ |pages=90}} [142] => [143] => Psychologist [[Abraham Maslow|Maslow's]] ideas help literary critics understand how characters in literature reflect their personal culture and the history.{{sfn|Paris|1986|p=61}} The theory suggests that literature helps an individual's struggle for self-fulfillment.{{sfn|Paris|1986|p=25}}{{Cite journal |last=Nezami |first=S.R.A. |date=February 2012 |title=The use of figures of speech as a literary device—a specific mode of expression in English literature |url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA283834622&v=2.1&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1 |journal=Language in India |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=659–}}{{Dead link|date=January 2021}} [144] => [145] => == The influence of religious texts == [146] => {{Further|Islamic literature|King James Version#Influence}} [147] => [148] => Religion has had a major influence on literature, through works like the [[Vedas]], the [[Torah]], the Bible,{{cite book [149] => |last1 = Riches [150] => |first1 = John [151] => |orig-date = 2000 [152] => |chapter = The Bible in high and popular culture [153] => |title = The Bible: a Very Short Introduction [154] => |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=07dFEAAAQBAJ [155] => |series = Volume 14 in Very Short Introductions Series [156] => |date = 2022 [157] => |edition = 2 [158] => |location = Oxford [159] => |publisher = Oxford University Press [160] => |publication-date = 2021 [161] => |page = 115 [162] => |isbn = 978-0198863335 [163] => |access-date = 23 February 2022 [164] => |quote = In its various translations, [the Bible] has had a formative influence on the language, the literature, the art, the music of all the major European and North American cultures. It continues to influence popular culture in films, novels, and music. [165] => |archive-date = 23 February 2022 [166] => |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220223053100/https://books.google.com/books?id=07dFEAAAQBAJ [167] => |url-status = live [168] => }} [169] => and the [[Quran]].{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islamic-arts|title=Islamic arts - Islamic literatures|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=22 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622144153/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islamic-arts|url-status=live}}{{cite book |title=The Bible: A Very Short Introduction|last=Riches |first= John |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-285343-1 |page=134}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism|title=Hinduism - Vernacular literatures|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=11 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311180325/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism|url-status=live}} [170] => [171] => The [[King James Version]] of the Bible has been called "the most influential version of the most influential book in the world, in what is now its most influential language", "the most important book in English religion and culture", and "arguably the most celebrated book in the [[English-speaking world]]"{{cite web | url=https://rsc.byu.edu/new-testament-history-culture-society/king-james-translation-new-testament#:~:text=The%20King%20James%20Version%20of,1 | title=The King James Translation of the New Testament | Religious Studies Center }} - principally because of its literary style and widespread distribution. Prominent [[Atheism|atheist]] figures such as the late [[Christopher Hitchens]] and [[Richard Dawkins]] have praised the King James Version as being "a giant step in the maturing of English literature" and "a great work of literature", respectively, with Dawkins adding, "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian".{{cite magazine|url= https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/05/hitchens-201105?currentPage=all|title= When the King Saved God|year= 2011|magazine= [[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]|access-date= 10 August 2017|archive-date= 24 December 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201224153506/https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/05/hitchens-201105?currentPage=all|url-status= live}}{{cite news|url= https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/may/19/richard-dawkins-king-james-bible|title= Why I want all our children to read the King James Bible|date= 20 May 2012|newspaper= [[The Guardian]]|access-date= 10 August 2017|archive-date= 29 November 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201129234923/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/may/19/richard-dawkins-king-james-bible|url-status= live}} [172] => [173] => Societies in which [[preaching]] has great importance, and those in which religious structures and [[clergy|authorities]] have a near-monopoly of [[literacy|reading and writing]] and/or a censorship role, may impart a religious gloss to much of the literature those societies produce or retain - as for example in the European [[Middle Ages]]. The traditions of [[textual criticism|close study]] of religious texts has furthered the development of techniques and theories in [[literary studies]]. [174] => [175] => ==Types== [176] => [177] => === Poetry === [178] => [179] => [[File:Calligramme.jpg|thumb|left|A [[calligram]] by [[Guillaume Apollinaire]]. These are a type of poem in which the written words are arranged in such a way to produce a visual image.]] [180] => {{main article|Poetry}} [181] => Poetry has traditionally been distinguished from [[prose]] by its greater use of the [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] qualities of language, including musical devices such as [[assonance]], [[alliteration]], [[rhyme]], and [[rhythm]], and by being set in [[Line (poetry)|lines]] and [[Verse (poetry)|verses]] rather than paragraphs, and more recently its use of other [[Typography|typographical]] elements.{{cite web|title=poetry, n.|url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/146552|work=Oxford English Dictionary|publisher=OUP|access-date=13 February 2014|archive-date=30 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630003156/https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/146552|url-status=live}}{{subscription required}}{{sfn|Preminger|1993|p=938}}{{sfn|Preminger|1993|p=939}} This distinction is complicated by various hybrid forms such as [[digital poetry]], [[sound poetry]], [[concrete poetry]] and [[prose poem]],{{sfn|Preminger|1993|p=981}} and more generally by the fact that prose possesses rhythm.{{sfn|Preminger|1993|p=979}} Abram Lipsky refers to it as an "open secret" that "prose is not distinguished from poetry by lack of rhythm".{{cite journal|last=Lipsky|first=Abram|title=Rhythm in Prose|journal=The Sewanee Review|year=1908|volume=16|issue=3|pages=277–289|jstor=27530906}} {{subscription required}} [182] => [183] => Prior to the 19th century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines: "any kind of subject consisting of {{sic|hide=y|Rhythm}} or Verses". Possibly as a result of [[Aristotle]]'s influence (his ''[[Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics]]''), "poetry" before the 19th century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art.{{clarify|date=October 2020}}{{cite journal|last=Ross|first=Trevor|title=The Emergence of "Literature": Making and Reading the English Canon in the Eighteenth Century."|journal=ELH|year=1996|volume=63|issue=2|url= https://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/MakingReaders/Readings/Ross%20English%20Canon.pdf|access-date=9 February 2014|doi=10.1353/elh.1996.0019|s2cid=170813833|archive-date=21 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221223450/http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/MakingReaders/Readings/Ross%20English%20Canon.pdf|url-status=live|page= 398}} As a form it may pre-date [[literacy]], with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition;{{cite book|last=Finnegan|first=Ruth H.|title=Oral poetry: its nature, significance, and social context|year=1977|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=66}}{{cite journal|last=Magoun|first=Francis P. Jr.|title=Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry|journal=Speculum|year=1953|volume=28|issue=3|pages=446–467|jstor=2847021|doi=10.2307/2847021|s2cid=162903356}} {{subscription required}} hence it constitutes the earliest example of literature. [184] => [185] => === Prose === [186] => {{main article|Prose}} [187] => As noted above, prose generally makes far less use of the aesthetic qualities of language than poetry.{{sfn|Preminger|1993|p=938}}{{sfn|Preminger|1993|p=939}}{{cite web|title=Glossary: P|url=http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb10/glossary/P.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318074151/http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb10/glossary/P.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 March 2011|work=LitWeb, the Norton Introduction to Literature Studyspace|access-date=15 February 2014|author=Alison Booth|author2=Kelly J. Mays }} However, developments in modern literature, including [[free verse]] and [[prose poetry]] have tended to blur the differences, and poet [[T.S. Eliot]] suggested that while: "the distinction between [[Verse (poetry)|verse]] and prose is clear, the distinction between poetry and prose is obscure".Eliot T.S. 'Poetry & Prose: The Chapbook. Poetry Bookshop: London, 1921. There are [[verse novel]]s, a type of narrative poetry in which a novel-length narrative is told through the medium of poetry rather than prose. ''[[Eugene Onegin]]'' (1831) by [[Alexander Pushkin]] is the most famous example.For discussion of the basic categorical issues see {{harv|Preminger|1993|loc="Narrative Poetry"}}. [188] => [189] => On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff notes that "[In the case of [[ancient Greece]]] recent scholarship has emphasized the fact that formal prose was a comparatively late development, an "invention" properly associated with the [[Classical antiquity|classical period]]".{{cite journal|last=Graff|first=Richard|title=Prose versus Poetry in Early Greek Theories of Style|journal=Rhetorica|year=2005|volume=23|issue=4|pages=303–335|jstor=10.1525/rh.2005.23.4.303|doi=10.1525/rh.2005.23.4.303|s2cid=144730853 }} {{subscription required}} [190] => [191] => [[Latin]] was a major influence on the development of prose in many European countries. Especially important was the great Roman orator [[Cicero]]."Literature", ''Encyclopaedia Britannica''. online 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. Among the last important books written primarily in Latin prose were the works of [[Emanuel Swedenborg|Swedenborg]] (d. 1772), [[Carl Linnaeus|Linnaeus]] (d. 1778), [[Leonhard Euler|Euler]] (d. 1783), [[Carl Friedrich Gauss|Gauss]] (d. 1855), and [[Isaac Newton]] (d. 1727). [192] => [193] => ====Novel==== [194] => {{main article|Novel}} [195] => [[File:Printing3 Walk of Ideas Berlin.JPG|thumb|Sculpture in [[Berlin]] depicting a stack of books on which are inscribed the names of great German writers]] [196] => {{See also|Genre fiction|Hypertext fiction}} [197] => [198] => A novel is a long fictional narrative, usually written in prose. In English, the term emerged from the [[Romance language]]s in the late 15th century, with the meaning of "news"; it came to indicate something new, without a distinction between fact or fiction.{{cite book|last=Sommerville|first=C. J.|year=1996|title=The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information|location=Oxford|publisher=OUP|page=18}} The romance is a closely related long prose narrative. [[Walter Scott]] defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvelous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society"."Essay on Romance", ''Prose Works'' volume vi, p. 129, quoted in "Introduction" to Walter Scott's ''Quentin Durward'', ed. Susan Maning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, p. xxv. Romance should not be confused with [[Harlequin Romance]]. Other European languages do not distinguish between romance and novel: "a novel is ''le roman'', ''der Roman'', ''il romanzo''",Doody (1996), p. 15. indicates the proximity of the forms.{{cite web|title=The Novel|url=http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/novel.html|work=A Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature|publisher=[[Brooklyn College]]|access-date=22 February 2014|archive-date=22 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222161435/http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/novel.html|url-status=live}} [199] => [200] => Although there are many historical prototypes, so-called "novels before the novel",{{sfn|Goody|2006|p=19}} the modern novel form emerges late in cultural history—roughly during the eighteenth century.{{sfn|Goody|2006|p=20}} Initially subject to much criticism, the novel has acquired a dominant position amongst literary forms, both popularly and critically.{{sfn|Goody|2006|p=29}}{{cite book|title=The Novel, Volume 2: Forms and Themes|year=2006|publisher=Princeton UP|location=Princeton|isbn=978-0-691-04948-9|page=31|editor=Franco Moretti|chapter=The Novel in Search of Itself: A Historical Morphology}} [201] => [202] => ====Novella==== [203] => {{main article|Novella}} [204] => The publisher [[Melville House Publishing|Melville House]] classifies the novella as "too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story".{{Cite news|last=Antrim|first=Taylor|title=In Praise of Short|journal=The Daily Beast|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/04/the-novella-is-making-a-comeback.html|access-date=15 February 2014|year=2010|archive-date=18 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218182635/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/04/the-novella-is-making-a-comeback.html|url-status=live}} Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novella to be between 17,000 and 40,000 words.{{cite web|url=http://sfwa.org/awards/faq.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319043837/http://sfwa.org/awards/faq.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2009-03-19|title=What's the definition of a "novella," "novelette," etc.?|website=[[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]]}} [205] => [206] => ====Short story==== [207] => {{main article|Short story}} [208] => A dilemma in defining the "short story" as a literary form is how to, or whether one should, distinguish it from any short narrative and its contested origin,{{cite web|last=Boyd|first=William|title=A short history of the short story|url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story/#.Uxr1EoVVO-c|publisher=Prospect Magazine|access-date=8 March 2014|archive-date=3 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140703204216/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story/#.Uxr1EoVVO-c|url-status=live}} that include the Bible, and [[Edgar Allan Poe]].{{cite journal|last=Colibaba|first=Ştefan|title=The Nature of the Short Story: Attempts at Definition|journal=Synergy|year=2010|volume=6|issue=2|pages=220–230|url=http://synergy.ase.ro/issues/2010-vol6-no2/14-the-nature-of-the-short-story-attempts-at-definition.pdf|access-date=6 March 2014|archive-date=21 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321144131/http://synergy.ase.ro/issues/2010-vol6-no2/14-the-nature-of-the-short-story-attempts-at-definition.pdf|url-status=live}} [209] => [210] => ==== Graphic novel ==== [211] => {{Main article|Graphic novel}} [212] => Graphic novels and comic books present stories told in a combination of artwork, dialogue, and text. [213] => [214] => ==== Electronic literature ==== [215] => [[Electronic literature]] is a literary genre consisting of works created exclusively on and for [[digital devices]]. [216] => [217] => ==== Nonfiction ==== [218] => Common literary examples of non-fiction include, the essay; [[travel literature]]; biography, autobiography and memoir; journalism; [[Letter (message)|letter]]; diary; history, [[Philosophy and literature#Philosophical writing as literature|philosophy]], economics; [[scientific writing|scientific]], [[nature writing|nature]], and [[technical writing|technical]] writings.{{cite book|title=Quality Reading Instruction in the Age of Common Core Standards|editor=Susan B. Neuman|editor2=Linda B. Gambrell|page=46|year=2013|publisher=International Reading Association|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzbNGWVonZIC|isbn=978-0872074965|access-date=18 October 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414115008/https://books.google.com/books?id=mzbNGWVonZIC|url-status=live}} [219] => [220] => 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".{{sfn|Cuddon|1998|p=472}} [221] => [222] => === Drama === [223] => [[File:Libretto Cover Andrea Chenier.jpg|left|thumb|upright=.8|Cover of a 1921 libretto for [[Umberto Giordano|Giordano]]'s opera ''[[Andrea Chénier]]'']] [224] => Drama is literature intended for performance.{{cite book|last1=Elam|first1=Kier|title=The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama|url=https://archive.org/details/semioticsoftheat0000elam|url-access=registration|date=1980|publisher=Methuen|location=London and New York|isbn=978-0-416-72060-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/semioticsoftheat0000elam/page/98 98]}} The form is combined with music and dance in opera and musical theatre (see [[libretto]]). A play is a written dramatic work by a playwright that is intended for performance in a theatre; it comprises chiefly [[dialogue]] between characters. 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.{{cite book|last1=Cody|first1=Gabrielle H.|title=The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama|date=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York City|page=271|edition=Volume 1}} Nearly all drama took verse form until comparatively recently. [225] => [226] => The earliest form of which there exists substantial knowledge is [[Greek theatre|Greek drama]]. This developed as a performance associated with religious and civic festivals, typically enacting or developing upon well-known historical, or [[mythology|mythological]] themes, [227] => [228] => In the twentieth century, [[Screenplay|script]]s written for non-stage media have been added to this form, including [[radio drama|radio]], television and film. [229] => [230] => == Law == [231] => === Law and literature === [232] => The [[law and literature]] movement focuses on the interdisciplinary connection between law and literature. [233] => [234] => === Copyright === [235] => [236] => {{Further|History of copyright}} [237] => [[File:Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale (Lunon).jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The [[Palais Bourbon#The Library|Library]] of the [[Palais Bourbon]] in Paris]] [238] => [[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.{{Cite web |title=Definition of copyright |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/copyright |publisher=[[Oxford Dictionaries (website)|Oxford Dictionaries]] |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=21 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221041434/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/copyright |url-status=dead }}{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Definition of Copyright |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copyright |dictionary=[[Merriam-Webster]] |access-date=20 December 2018 |language=en |archive-date=21 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221041518/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copyright |url-status=live }}Nimmer on Copyright, vol. 2, § 8.01."Intellectual property", ''Black's Law Dictionary'', 10th ed. (2014).{{Cite web |url=https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_909_2016.pdf |title=Understanding Copyright and Related Rights |website=www.wipo.int |page=4 |access-date=6 December 2018 |archive-date=27 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227043606/https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_909_2016.pdf |url-status=live }} The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.{{Cite web |url=https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/ |title=Copyright Basics FAQ |last=Stim |first=Rich |website=The Center for Internet and Society Fair Use Project |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=21 July 2019 |date=27 March 2013 |archive-date=11 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180611130447/https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/faqs/copyright-basics/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/unprotected.html#ideas |title=Works Unprotected by Copyright Law |publisher=Bitlaw |author=Daniel A. Tysver |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-date=2 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302173206/http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/unprotected.html#ideas |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise9.html |title=Legal Protection of Digital Information |page=''Chapter 1: An Overview of Copyright'', Section II.E. Ideas Versus Expression |author=Lee A. Hollaar |access-date=25 October 2020 |archive-date=28 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028211829/http://digital-law-online.info/lpdi1.0/treatise9.html |url-status=live }} [239] => [240] => ==== United Kingdom ==== [241] => Literary works have been protected by copyright law from unauthorized reproduction since at least 1710.The Statute of Anne 1710 and the Literary Copyright Act 1842 used the term "book". However, since 1911 the statutes have referred to literary works. Literary works are defined by copyright law to mean "any work, other than a dramatic or musical work, which is written, spoken or sung, and accordingly includes (a) a table or compilation (other than a database), (b) a computer program, (c) preparatory design material for a computer program, and (d) a database."{{Cite web |title=Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 |work=legislation.gov.uk |access-date=11 October 2021 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/part/I/chapter/I/crossheading/descriptions-of-work-and-related-provisions |archive-date=29 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029171417/https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/part/I/chapter/I/crossheading/descriptions-of-work-and-related-provisions |url-status=live }} [242] => [243] => Literary works are all works of literature; that is all works expressed in print or writing (other than dramatic or musical works)."University of London Press v. University Tutorial Press" [1916]{{full citation needed|date=November 2023}} [244] => [245] => ==== United States ==== [246] => The [[copyright law of the United States]] has a long and complicated history, dating back to colonial times. It was established as federal law with the Copyright Act of 1790. This act was updated many times, including a [[Copyright Act of 1976|major revision in 1976]]. [247] => [248] => ==== European Union ==== [249] => The [[copyright law of the European Union]] is the copyright law applicable within the [[European Union]]. Copyright law is largely harmonized in the Union, although country to country differences exist. The body of law was implemented in the EU through a number of [[Directive (European Union)|directives]], which the member states need to enact into their national law. The main copyright directives are the [[Copyright Term Directive]], the [[Information Society Directive]] and the [[Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market]]. 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]])). [250] => [251] => ====Copyright in communist countries==== [252] => [253] => {{Further|Copyright in Russia|Copyright law of the Soviet Union|Intellectual property in China}} [254] => [255] => ====Copyright in Japan==== [256] => [[Copyright in Japan|Japan]] was a party to the original [[Berne convention]] in 1899, so its copyright law is in sync with most international regulations. The convention protected copyrighted works for 50 years after the author's death (or 50 years after publication for unknown authors and corporations). However, in 2004 Japan extended the copyright term to 70 years for cinematographic works. At the end of 2018, as a result of the [[Trans-Pacific Partnership]] negotiations, the 70 year term was applied to all works.{{cite web |url=http://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/chosakuken/hokaisei/kantaiheiyo_hokaisei/pdf/r1408266_02.pdf |script-title=ja:環太平洋パートナーシップ協定の法律） |language=ja |author=Agency for Cultural Affairs |publisher=Agency for Cultural Affairs |access-date=2019-01-04 |archive-date=19 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119052833/https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/chosakuken/hokaisei/kantaiheiyo_hokaisei/pdf/r1408266_02.pdf |url-status=live }} This new term is not applied retroactively; works that had entered the public domain between 1999 and 2018 by expiration would remain in the public domain. [257] => [258] => === Censorship === [259] => [[File:Kuzma petrov-vodkin, ritratto di anna akhmatova, 1922.JPG|thumb|[[Soviet]] poet [[Anna Akhmatova]] (1922), whose works were condemned and censored by the [[Stalin]]ist authorities]] [260] => {{Further|Book censorship|Theatre censorship|Film censorship}} [261] => [262] => Censorship of literature is employed by states, religious organizations, educational institutions, etc., to control what can be portrayed, spoken, performed, or written.{{sfn|Cuddon|1998|pp=118–122|loc="Censorship"}} Generally such bodies attempt to ban works for [[sedition|political reasons]], or because they deal with other controversial matters such as race, or [[obscenity|sex]].{{cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/bbooks/about|title=About Banned & Challenged Books|work=ala.org|date=25 October 2016|access-date=28 October 2020|archive-date=8 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140408084921/http://www.ala.org/bbooks/about|url-status=live}} [263] => [264] => A notable example of censorship is [[James Joyce]]'s novel [[Ulysses (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.Nabokov, pp. 55, 57{{full citation needed|date=September 2022}} It was [[Obscenity trial of Ulysses in The Little Review|banned in the United States from 1921 until 1933]] on the grounds of obscenity. Nowadays it is a central literary text in English literature courses, throughout the world.''Ulysses'' has been called "the most prominent landmark in modernist literature", a work where life's complexities are depicted with "unprecedented, and unequalled, linguistic and stylistic virtuosity". ''The New York Times guide to essential knowledge'', 3d ed. (2011), p. 126. [265] => [266] => == Awards == [267] => [268] => There are numerous [[Literary award|awards]] recognizing achievement and contribution in literature. Given the diversity of the field, awards are typically limited in scope, usually on: form, genre, language, nationality and output (e.g. for first-time writers or [[debut novel]]s).{{Cite news|title=Man Booker 2013: Top 25 literary prizes|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookprizes/10139413/Man-Booker-2013-Top-25-literary-prizes.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015075047/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookprizes/10139413/Man-Booker-2013-Top-25-literary-prizes.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 October 2013|publisher=[[Telegraph Media Group|The Telegraph]]|access-date=8 March 2014|author=John Stock|author2=Kealey Rigden |date=15 October 2013}} [269] => [270] => The [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] was one of the six [[Nobel Prizes]] established by the will of [[Alfred Nobel]] in 1895,{{cite web|title=Facts on the Nobel Prize in Literature|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/literature/index.html|work=Nobelprize.org|publisher=Nobel Media AB|access-date=8 March 2014|archive-date=8 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308200013/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/literature/index.html|url-status=live}} and is awarded to an author on the basis of their body of work, rather than to, or for, a particular work itself.{{refn|group=note|However, in some instances a work has been cited in the explanation of why the award was given.}} Other literary prizes for which all nationalities are eligible include: the [[Neustadt International Prize for Literature]], the [[Man Booker International Prize]], [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama|Pulitzer Prize]], [[Hugo Award for Best Novel|Hugo Award]], [[Guardian First Book Award]] and the [[Franz Kafka Prize]]. [271] => [272] => == See also == [273] => {{Portal|Literature|Writing}} [274] => * [[Outline of literature]] [275] => * [[Index of literature articles]] [276] => {{columns-list|colwidth=30em| [277] => * [[List of literary movements]] [278] => * [[List of narrative techniques]] [279] => * [[List of poetry groups and movements]] [280] => * [[Literary agent]] [281] => * [[Literary magazine]] [282] => * [[Reading]] [283] => * [[Rhetorical modes]] [284] => * {{section link|Science fiction|As serious literature}} [285] => }} [286] => [287] => == Notes == [288] => {{reflist|group=note}} [289] => [290] => == References == [291] => {{reflist}} [292] => [293] => ===Bibliography=== [294] => {{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}} [295] => * {{citation |last=Allan |first=Sarah |title=The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China |publisher=SUNY Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-7914-0460-7 |postscript=.}} [296] => * {{citation |last=Baxter |first=William H. |title=A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology |author-link=William H. Baxter |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |year=1992 |isbn=978-3-11-012324-1 |postscript=.}} [297] => * {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Cuddon |given=J. A. |authorlink=J. A. Cuddon |editor=C.E. Preston |title=A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory |edition=4th rev. |year=1998 |orig-year=1977 |place=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=0-631-20271-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoflite00cudd_0/mode/1up |url-access=registration}} [298] => * {{cite book|last=Eagleton|first=Terry|title=[[Literary Theory: An Introduction]]|year=2008|publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Oxford|isbn=978-1-4051-7921-8|edition=Anniversary, 2nd}} [299] => * {{cite book |last=Flood |first=Gavin |author-link=Gavin Flood |title=An Introduction to Hinduism |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontohi0000floo |url-access=registration |year=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43878-0 }} [300] => * {{cite book |editor-last1=Flood |editor-first1=Gavin |title=The Blackwell companion to Hinduism |date=2003 |publisher=Blackwell Publ |location=Oxford |isbn=1-4051-3251-5}} [301] => * {{cite book |last=Hogan |first=P. Colm |year=2011 |title=What Literature Teaches Us about Emotion |location=New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}} [302] => * {{citation |last=Foster |first=John Lawrence |title=Ancient Egyptian Literature: An Anthology |year=2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |page=xx| isbn=978-0-292-72527-0}} [303] => * {{Cite book |last=Frei |first=Peter |title=Persia and Torah: The Theory of Imperial Authorization of the Pentateuch |date=2001 |publisher=SBL Press |isbn=9781589830158 |editor-last=Watts |editor-first=James |location=Atlanta, GA |pages=6 |chapter=Persian Imperial Authorization: A Summary}} [304] => * {{cite book |surname=Goody |given=Jack |author-link=Jack Goody |title=The Interface Between the Written and the Oral |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-521-33794-6 |url= https://archive.org/details/interfacebetween00good |url-access= registration}} [305] => * {{cite book |last=Goody |first=Jack |title=The Novel, Volume 1: History, Geography, and Culture|year=2006|publisher=Princeton UP|location=Princeton|isbn=978-0-691-04947-2|page=18|editor=Franco Moretti|chapter=From Oral to Written: An Anthropological Breakthrough in Storytelling}} [306] => * {{citation |last=Jacobs |first=Joseph |title=The earliest English version of the Fables of Bidpai |url=https://archive.org/details/earliestenglishv00doniuoft |year=1888}} [307] => * {{cite book |last=MacDonell |first=Arthur Anthony |year=2004 |title=A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-2000-5}} [308] => * {{cite book |last=Paris |first=B.J. |year=1986 |title=Third Force Psychology and the Study of Literature |location=Cranbury |publisher=[[Associated University Press]]}} [309] => * {{cite book|last=Preminger|first=Alex|title=The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics|url=https://archive.org/details/newprincetonency00alex|url-access=registration|publisher=US: Princeton University Press|year=1993|isbn=978-0-691-02123-2|display-authors=etal}} [310] => * {{cite book |last1=Radhakrishnan |first1=S. |last2=Moore |first2=C. A. |author-link=Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan |year=1957 |title=A Source Book in Indian Philosophy |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, New Jersey |isbn=978-0-691-01958-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/sourcebookinindi00radh}} [311] => * {{Cite journal |last=Romer |first=Thomas |date=2008 |title=Moses Outside the Torah and the Construction of a Diaspora Identity |url=http://www.jhsonline.org/Articles/article_92.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Hebrew Scriptures |volume=8, article 15 |pages=2–12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021035437/http://www.jhsonline.org/Articles/article_92.pdf |archive-date=2020-10-21 |access-date=2019-09-27}} [312] => * {{citation |year=1925 |title=The Panchatantra |last=Ryder |first=Arthur W. (transl) |author-link=Arthur W. Ryder |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=81-7224-080-5 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Panchatantra_Arthur_W_Ryder/Panchatantra%20-%20Arthur%20W%20Ryder#page/n9/mode/2up}} [313] => {{refend}} [314] => [315] => == Further reading == [316] => {{refbegin}} [317] => ;Encyclopedias [318] => * {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Baldick |given=Chris |authorlink=Chris Baldick |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms |edition=4th |format=Online Version |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0191783234 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001/acref-9780198715443 |url-access=subscription}} [319] => * {{cite encyclopedia |editor-surname=Greene |editor-given=Roland |editor-link=Roland Greene |display-editors=etal |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |edition=4th rev. |year=2012 |url={{Google books|id=uKiC6IeFR2UC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15491-6}} [320] => * {{cite encyclopedia |title=Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature |place=Springfield, Ma |publisher=Merriam-Webster |year=1995 |url={{Google books|id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=0-87779-042-6}} [321] => [322] => ;Other [323] => * {{cite book |last=Bonheim |first=Helmut |title=The Narrative Modes: Techniques of the Short Story |year=1982 |publisher=Brewer |location=Cambridge}} An overview of several hundred short stories. [324] => * {{cite journal |last=Gillespie |first=Gerald |title=Novella, nouvelle, novella, short novel? — A review of terms |journal=Neophilologus|date=January 1967 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=117–127 |doi=10.1007/BF01511303|s2cid=162102536}} [325] => *MAZZEO, T. J. (2012). Some Caveats about Postulating a Regency Literature. Keats-Shelley Journal, 61, 57–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24396035 [326] => * {{cite web |last=Wheeler|first=L. Kip|title=Periods of Literary History|url=http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/periods_lit_history.pdf|publisher=[[Carson-Newman University]]|access-date=18 March 2014|archive-date=1 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080301021627/http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Periods_Lit_History.pdf|url-status=live}} Brief summary of major periods in literary history of the Western tradition. [327] => {{refend}} [328] => [329] => == External links == [330] => {{Wikivoyage|Literature}} [331] => {{Library resources box [332] => |by=no [333] => |onlinebooks=no [334] => |others=no [335] => |about=yes [336] => |label=Literature [337] => }} [338] => * [http://www.gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg Online Library] [339] => * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070207044954/http://www.iblist.com/ Internet Book List] similar to [[Internet Movie Database|IMDb]] but for books (archived 7 February 2007) [340] => * [https://archive.org/details/texts Digital eBook Collection] – [[Internet Archive]] [341] => [342] => {{Humanities}} [343] => {{Literary composition}} [344] => {{Subject bar |wikt=yes |wikt-search=literature |commons=yes |commons-search=Category:Literature |n=yes |n-search=Category:Literature |q=yes |s=yes |s-search=Category:Literature |b=yes |b-search=Subject:Literature |v=yes |d=yes |d-search=Q8242}} [345] => {{Portal bar|Literature}} [346] => [347] => {{Authority control}} [348] => [349] => [[Category:Literature| ]] [] => )
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Literature

Literature is a broad term that refers to written works such as novels, plays, poetry, and essays. It encompasses various forms of storytelling and expression of ideas in a written format.

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It encompasses various forms of storytelling and expression of ideas in a written format. Literature reflects the cultural and historical context of a society, helping to explore and understand the human experience. It can be categorized into genres and subgenres, each with its own distinct characteristics and themes. Studying literature allows one to delve into different literary theories and analyze the creative use of language, plot, character development, and other literary devices. Literature has evolved over centuries and has had a profound impact on society, shaping our perceptions, beliefs, and values.

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