Comprehensive Study Guide on the Concept and Critique of Literature

Etymological Roots and Scope of Literature

The term "literature" originates from the Latin litteraturae, which translates directly to "writings." Since the eighteenth century, the word has been commonly employed as an equivalent to the French expression belles lettres ("fine letters") to designate fictional and imaginative writings, specifically encompassing poetry, prose fiction, and drama.

In an expanded usage, "literature" designates other forms of writing—including philosophy, history, and scientific works addressed to a general audience—that are distinguished by their form, expression, and emotional power. It is within this broader sense that reading lists for literature courses include the philosophical writings of Plato and William James, the historical writings of Edward Gibbon, the scientific essays of Thomas Henry Huxley, and the psychoanalytic lectures of Sigmund Freud.

In its most inclusive sense, which closely mirrors its Latin origin, "literature" applies to all written works regardless of their kind or quality. This all-inclusive usage occurs frequently when referring to the sum of works dealing with a particular subject matter. For instance, at a major American university that includes a College of Agriculture, the chairman of the Division of Literature once received a letter reading: "Dear Sir, Kindly send me all your literature concerning the use of cow manure as a fertilizer."

Evaluative Functions and Critical Perspectives

When applied to imaginative writing, "literature" serves an evaluative function as well as a descriptive one, making its proper application a subject of ongoing contention. Over time, a historical development occurred in which a work of literature came to be conceptualized as an autonomous fine art meant to be enjoyed for its own sake.

Modern critical movements aim to correct historical injustices by highlighting the strong but covert roles played by gender, race, and class in establishing what has been recognized as literature across various eras. Critical frameworks—such as cultural studies, feminist criticism, gender criticism, Marxist criticism, and new historicism—interrogate how these socio-political factors form the ostensibly timeless criteria of great and canonical literature, as well as how they draw distinctions between "high literature" and literature produced for a mass audience.

Scholarly References and Bibliography

For critical analysis and theoretical development of the concept of literature, several key scholarly sources offer foundational discussions:

Jonathan Culler examines contemporary theoretical frameworks in The Literary in Theory (2007).

M. H. Abrams details the historical emergence of the autonomous literary work in "Art-as-Such: The Sociology of Modern Aesthetics," included in Doing Things with Texts (1984).

Pierre Bourdieu analyzes the social and institutional conditions surrounding literary autonomy in The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field (1995).

Additional entry references regarding literature are located on pages 142, 149, 205, and 320.