История литературы / 1. Literature as art approaches to definition, peculiarities, and main tools

There are words that are difficult to define. L. is one of them. Literature – Latin literalis, from littera (letter) – writing in verse or prose of acknowledged excellence whose value lies in their intense, personal expression of life. Many artists tried to define literature, but they mostly define its functions, not what it is. Experience-the key word in definition. Our routine experience is limited and L. gives us experience of other people and expands our own. Any work of L. is a message that gives factual and emotional experience usually shared by the writer who wants to influence the reader. It is a lie, but we believe it because it`s true not to life, but to experience. The writer sums up people`s experience and resorts to all sorts of strategies to make this experience convincing. Literature is a large mirror of life, and it has a far greater range than any other form of art because there is no sphere of human experience that does not lend itself to verbal expression. That is why some scholars think that literature does not belong to art, as it stands somewhat apart from it, a subject all of its own. A work of literature is centered round the character of a human being (no matter what kind or what genre it belongs to). It, like any art, reflects the world in images. The writer creates an image of an individual person. But in this image you can find a lot of features that are common to other people, and still this individual possesses certain peculiarities of character and leads his own life. The most typical images are used as common nouns standing for one peculiar quality (Don Quixot, Lady Macbeth, Don Juan, Othello). Word – the main instrument, the most powerful because can express everything and render any emotional state. L. is written in figurative language. 2 types of it: 1) an effect which changes the structure of lang without affecting its meaning (rhyme) 2) an effect that affects the meaning (metaphor, chiasmus, hyperbole, metonymy, litotes, irony, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, zeugmaFolk (people)+lore (teaching). Folklore comprised literary messages orally, exhibition of wisdom. L. – not only in written form, existed before writing was invented. There are 3 kinds of literature: epic, lyric , drama. In all these kinds of literature the authors share their experience using the power of the word because the word may reach every sphere of human activity. It does it through images. An image-an ever changing entity of the typical and the individual, which models life. Imagery – words and sentences which produce clear and vivid mental pictures. An image in literature has a much more restricted meaning referring to the use of figurative language. F.L. was invented when literature became written. Folklore being oral literature resorted to other means, Its effect depended upon the immediate impression produced with the help of music, gestures, mimicry, intonation. All that was lost when the L. became written. To restore the effect and impression the writers invented all these figures of speech. Becoming written, L gained immortality. Literature is sharing of factual and emotional=spiritual experience in verbal messages (not all verbal messages are pieces of literature), written or spoken in figurative language. “To write literature is to create out of the materials of human spirit smth which did not exist before.” (W. Faulkner) “Literature is not a handicraft. It is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.”(L.Tolstoy)