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Sep 2, 2014 · Sept. 2, 2014. Each week in Bookends, two writers take on questions about the world of books. The critic Kenneth Burke once called literature “equipment for living.” This week, Adam Kirsch and...
The question ‘What is literature?’ arises because critics and theorists hope, by saying what literature is, to promote what they consider the most pertinent critical methods and to dismiss methods that neglect the most basic and distinctive aspects of literature.
Whether it’s questions on the value of our greatest writers and their works, or the nature of literary criticism, the way that we approach literature has long been the subject of heated debates. Our curated selection of these ten maps set out ways to think critically around the subject and its impact on our societies.
– Critical Worlds. 1 What Is Literature and Why Do We Study It? Literary criticism—the formal study of literature—has ancient roots. From Aristotle’s Poetics to ibn al Mu’tazz’s Kitab al Badi, ancient and medieval scholars were just as curious as we are about what makes something literature. Is it the subject matter? The language? The imagery?
Dec 10, 2017 · Digital technology is clearly an important part of the world today, but literature, and the humanities in general, offers a counterweight to the rampant speed and power that digital devices insist on.
May 14, 2001 · Good literature, while temporarily relieving human dissatisfaction, actually increases it, by developing a critical and non-conformist attitude toward life. It might even be said that...
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Apr 4, 2017 · 2. Great literature is based on ideas that are startling, unexpected, unusual, weighty. or new. Great literature makes us see or think things we never did before. The ideas underpinning the work challenge our accustomed categories and ways of thinking, putting minds on edge. We may agree, and also we disagree.
