What is really the definete meanig of Literature

[bookzu]

It is great pleasure to be here..
I would like to ask you in your own idea/thought ..
What is Literature?
There were lot's of meaning that was given to me but I'm curious which of them is the definite meaning of literature.
Please shower me with you knowledge..so pure and divine :D

[AbdoRinbo]

Ahoy bookzu, I'm glad to see that you've joined us. The question you raised is one that has been the topic of heated debate for hundreds of years (since the birth of the Novel). I will give answering your quesion a shot just to see what transpires. My understanding is Literature is generally any written or spoken composition that strikes a profoundly human chord, channeling our interests. The problem lies with the question concerning human 'interest'. Why is something interesting? Personally I don't believe that question can be answered, so Literature will remain a mysterious (and, sadly, subjective) part of our lives' fulfillment.

[Koa]

us. . Why is something interesting? Personally I don't believe that question can be answered, so Literature will remain a mysterious (and, sadly, subjective) part of our lives' fulfillment.

The Russian formalists (group of critics of the years 1910-1930 more or less) defined topics of interest as 'topical' stuff (sorry about the pun, I looked up the word I had in mind and topical seemed the best translation), for example nowadays what is interesting is what is in the mass media at the moment, and all it indirectly makes become of interest (example: news about some country may want people know more about that country and its culture: that's interesting.) Some topics are interesting for a week, some for 1 year, some for more...Some topics are always of interest for the human being, so they are universally interesting...universal topics.

This of course is not the final truth about interest, just a point of view that came to my mind reading Adbo's thoughts, and I thought it would be interesting ( ! ) to show how some people gave an answer to this question of the interest (there might be many other points of view of course, I just happened to know this particular one)

(Sorry I didn't explain it very well, I wish i could look up my notes to find better expressions but I lent them ;))

[AbdoRinbo]

Beautiful, Koa. :D Have you read Mikhail Bakhtin?

[KLO]

I think these 2 speeches best answer your question:
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html
http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1962/steinbeck-speech.html