subject: Problem Of Defining The Place Of Literature Among Disciplines2 [print this page] What is Literature What is Literature
Saying word Literature people often mean belles-lettres literature or a literature as an art. There are different genres, styles, tendencies. Prose and poetry are in the long run. But what is literature in general as a whole?
Dividing literature from other textual works it is important to remember about a number of features inherent in the structure of literature as a phenomenon.
The Problem of Co-author
Absence of the author and written form do not allow calling a work finished; when an author or a group of authors complete their work, texts start living independently. Folk texts have no author, so each time when somebody tells for example a legend he/she becomes a co-author by adding words and shades of sense.
Scripts, songs or operas do not have attributes of literary works. Scripts, visual and sound accompaniment cannot go independently; it is simply unaesthetic and absurd. Song lyrics cannot exist without music; it is unaccomplished work.
Nevertheless, if lyrics are created by a composer on the base of already existing poetic text there are co-existence of two forms: literary text and song. Sometimes literary text cannot exist without visual element. A good example of such phenomenon is Antoine de Saint-Exuprie's novella The Little Prince. Functions of the author's illustrations are very important for perception and understanding of the text. This is another example of co-existence.
There is one more criteria dealing with functions of a literary text but not with its structure.
Literary texts are texts carrying social meaning. It means that private or official correspondence, private diaries, school compositions and other cannot be called literary. But there are exceptions: if corresponders are significant scientists or esthetic authors. But where is the border between great belles-lettres author and scribbler? Only aesthetic form and content of a work can be an indicator.
