Literature is a form of human expression. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica The scope of literature Love literature? This quiz sorts out the truth about beloved authors and stories, old and new. Deriving from the Latin littera, “a letter of the alphabet,” literature is first and foremost humankind’s entire body of writing after that it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or people then it is individual pieces of writing. And indeed its central meaning, at least, is clear enough. The 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary considers literature to be “writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.” The 19th-century critic Walter Pater referred to “the matter of imaginative or artistic literature” as a “transcript, not of mere fact, but of fact in its infinitely varied forms.” But such definitions assume that the reader already knows what literature is. Some literatures are treated separately by language, by nation, or by special subject (e.g., Arabic literature, Celtic literature, Latin literature, French literature, Japanese literature, and biblical literature).ĭefinitions of the word literature tend to be circular. Literature may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter.įor historical treatment of various literatures within geographical regions, see such articles as African literature African theatre Oceanic literature Western literature Central Asian arts South Asian arts and Southeast Asian arts. The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.
Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.From tech to household and wellness products.