Eagleton – Key Ideas on “What Is Literature?”

Challenge of Defining Literature

Literature cannot be fixed by genre (e.g., fiction vs. non-fiction). Historical surveys show that essays, sermons, philosophy and history have all been shelved alongside poetry and drama, while much fiction (comics, formula romance) is excluded. Distinctions between “fact” and “fiction” themselves shift across periods; what once counted as report may later be read as myth, and vice-versa. Result: no stable, intrinsic boundary separates literary from non-literary writing.

Language-Centred Approaches

Russian Formalists argued that the literary is a special use of language that “makes strange,” foregrounding sound, rhythm, syntax or narrative devices to jolt readers out of automatised perception. Yet any definition that rests on deviation presumes a fixed linguistic norm, something impossible in a society stratified by class, region, era and context. Moreover, plain or non-self-conscious prose can still be literary, while flamboyant everyday speech is rarely classed as such.

Reading, Context and Use

A text may become literary when it is approached “non-pragmatically” – read for generalized reflection rather than immediate practical ends. The same words on a subway notice or in a novel can function differently according to context, conventions and reader intention. Hence literariness is not an inherent feature of the language itself but a role a community assigns to a piece of writing.

Value Judgements

What is called literature normally overlaps with what is highly valued. Canonical status, however, is neither eternal nor objective; works can be promoted, demoted or reclassified as historical interests and critical fashions change. Because valuations vary, the category “literature” is fluid: some texts are born literary, others achieve literariness, and some have literariness thrust upon them.

Ideology and Power

Underlying value judgements are shared social assumptions that support particular power relations. These often appear “natural,” yet they direct which writings are privileged and how they are read. Even apparently neutral facts are articulated through prior interests, making criticism inseparable from wider ideological structures. Consequently, the literary canon reflects not timeless merit but historically situated choices aligned with dominant social groups.