'What is Literature?': A Literary Guide for English Students and Teachers

What is literature? How does it differ from other forms of writing? What makes a literary text canonical? MFA student Paige Thomas answers these questions using the work of literary critics such as Derek Attridge and Roland Barthes and a few common literary texts.

Timestamps
0:00 Literature Basic Definition
1:18 Literature and the Canon
2:48 Alternative Literature Definitions
6:46 Final Literature Definition

Below are a few more videos in the series. Please drop us a comment letting us know what literary terms you would like us to explore in future videos!

[SWLF]

If you enjoyed the video, please let us know by hitting the like button, asking a question, or sharing your thoughts on these definitions of literature in the comments section. Thanks for watching, everybody!

[isleastron]

The first minute of the video is almost the same explanation that was given to us by our professor in literature when I was in college. The rest of it is an expansion of what I already know and at some point, I came to realize that there are more things that I haven't stumbled upon before in the introduction of lit.

Thanks a lot and I hope you produce more content for both language and literature subjects

[yapdog]

I SO appreciated this video because, as a literary multi-genre novelist, I've been feeling like the odd man out. I've been told that my work will be appreciated after I'm dead, but that gives me little comfort. However, it's good to know that there really is no consensus on what constitutes literature, good or otherwise. SUBSCRIBED

[rajeshdangar]

It's really amazing!! ❤️ Want on topic like How to read critically, close reading or how to read the text effectively

[vehement-critic_q]

Great!!! You've regarded the subject from multiple different angles which help us get acquainted with the ins and outs of the topic. But there are intrinsic and extrinsic factors to be taken for granted to decide which texts are literature.

[Aritul]

I've been charged with making a presentation on paraphrases, summaries, and literary analyses. I looked for a video to help me and found this. This is such an informative video. Thanks for making it.

[Khatoon]

Literature includes nonfiction books, articles, or other written information in particular subject. Etymology, literature term derives from Latin literatura ( learning? Writing, grammar, or originally writing form of letters from litera letter ) . Literature is body of written works . There are four main literary genres are poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama . Literature helps us better understand our lives, ourselves, and world around us . Father of English literature is Geoffrey Chaucer. Characteristics of literary texts include characters, setting, plot ( problem/ solution), sequence. Study literature allows us to develop through knowledge of literary ( history, theory, criticism), helps student to improve their knowledge of language. Inspiration from religious texts too . Literature have power to make social change as well as preserving cultures and traditions of other countries. Thank you for your wonderful literary educational channel. Honestly gathering information of every video of your channel is great idea, and help to review information if I forget .

[BwsXwiybePHLXancSogvXCZEwqG]

this was such a helpful explanation thank you 🙏🙏🙏🙏

[leetintary]

For some reason, watching this video made me think of the issues brought up in Dave Hickey's book Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy.

[alicemiller]

Hii, im trying to write an essay about this topic but cant seem to find any resources. Where did you find the thing about literature vs Literature please?

[anshikapawar]

Your videos are really what makes things interesting and understandable... Can we expect one on literary periods, pls

[danishiqbal]

Could you point to a critical work that centralises Irony as the literary touchstone? (Are you referring to someone like J Hillis Miller?) Thank you.

[Secular]

Thank you so much for this excellent video, all the best!

[beemaack]

Thank you for the thought provoking video!

I have been wrestling with the question “What is Literature?” lately and this video has helped push me further into the camp of “There is no objective answer”.

I think that with the help of the internet and globalization, it’s becoming more evident that while actions and events can possess objectivity, the meaning we make as humans can only ever be subjective.

Historically, it seems like describing a work as “Literary” feels more like a synonym for “valuable”. Value that is placed on a text either by the public, or by critics and committees, and sometimes both. Literature is a buzz word that elite committees used to push works that they believed to be (morally) superior; put plainly, Literature can’t exist without bias. Furthering my claim that the Literature label is elitist, considering Literature to be books that sell the most for the longest stretches of time pushes out indie novelists/publishers from participating in Literary discourse as well.

All this being said, I still do have a personal metric for defining Literature: my partner and I both read Literature and we like to joke that Literature is when “nothing happens” in the story. It’s just emotional writing about people and places and the things that happen to them. There’s no framework for a plot in that there’s no defined win/lose state for the characters. Trying to predict the ending of a Literary work is missing the point of the story entirely. In other words, Literature is sort of like “life on a page”.

Good video! I’m interested to see how our perception of Literature changes in the coming years.

[lanasaad]

I am going to teach Language Arts. How to know whether the student has read the whole book or the summary&analysis on the Internet. I think the last one is worse than plagiarism. Though my question is not dirrectly related to the video I'd still appreciate any insights.

[kahansudev]

did she get Jouissance mixed up with the sublime?

[mikevallender]

The very hungry caterpillar is definitely literary.

[vishalraj]

When saw a beautiful thing
Brain goes into a dig
Which is made by heart
You are a defination of glory
That is what I needed.
But unfortunately the heart forget to
Close the dig.

Just a few lines from my heart for you ma'am.

[TroubadourChannel]

It is good to question our predecessors, but I have yet to see this done in a coherent, logical and intelligible fashion. Some in academia today may desire to have modern literature and certain of our favorite texts to be included in a new canon, but the primary purpose of a canon is not to confine ourselves in our reading, but to expand our awareness of what is possible. This video does a pretty good job of explaining some of this. It is problematic however, in its basic argument about why the canon has become more inclusive to modern writers as well as "diverse" writers. The fact that white males were selecting much of what we think of as the canon, does not mean their standards were incorrect. It could mean that. But the color of their skin is an insufficient reason to write them off. In fact, it is racist. Critical Race Theory is essentially the same as any previous racist theory that claims we should make judgments on any other criteria other than content of character.

Mortimer Adler may have had white skin, that doesn't mean his canonical list of great works is false or improper. It could be that his is the best set of books to gain a liberal education in the West, thus leading to a better understanding of where we are as individuals and a culture today. This can help us better integrate newer voices who may be reacting to the canon and a feeling of non-inclusion. This racist view that white people are incapable of setting proper standards is lazy thinking. If you are going to attack the canon, give an actual argument. It is not an argument to say "they so white."

[leticia_baptista]

Dizem que a literatura é escrita...
Esquecem-se da literatura oral e tradicional.
Esquecem-se das origens da literatura.

Na atualidade, há escritores que apenas falam (têm assistentes para fazerem a transcrição).
A literatura voltou às suas origens.

Portanto, a literatura pode ser oral ou escrita. 🤗