Defining Literature
Looking for the definition of
literature is the same Herculean task that every student of literary curious
person has to take up; however, the result is the same – either a philosophized
hallucination or nothing! To define literature in the most appropriate terms is
very difficult and rather impossible (this is what I think to be true; and most
others too). In the academic days, a teacher may come in the class with his spectacles
on the forehead and might tell you that ‘literature is the mirror of society’. It
is, however, the most suiting of the available definitions. Literature is,
indeed, the mirror of society. Nevertheless, will you take the risk to ask him
that which ‘image’? A real image; a forged image; a virtual image; or some
other image! The question them moves to a new level of the argument. What type
of mirror is literature is? A plain mirror that reflects simply what it
observes; a convex mirror that forges the image otherwise; or a concave mirror
that starts predicting rather than reflecting…
Therefore, friends, defining
literature persists to be a pain in neck for the students, teachers, and
scholars. We offer you to construct a definition of your own for best results!
