Introduction to World Literature

• Literature


  A body of written works distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution
• Literature as a form of human expression


  Not everything expressed in words, even when organized and written down, is counted as literature. Primarily informative writings like technical, scholarly, and journalistic would be excluded from literature by most critics
• Ways literature may be classified

  • Language
  • National origin
  • Historical period
  • Genre
  • Subject matter
• Forms universally regarded as belonging to literature as an art

  Individual attempts within these forms succeed if they possess artistic merit and fail if they do not
• Works of literature provide a kind of blueprint of human society
• Literature gives insight and context to all the world's societies
• Literature is more than just a historical or cultural artifact; it can serve as an introduction to a new world of experience
• Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby Dick" was considered a failure by contemporary reviewers but has since been recognized as a masterpiece and is frequently cited as one of the best works of Western literature for its thematic complexity and use of symbolism
• What is considered literature can vary from one generation to the next
• Reading "Moby Dick" in the present day can provide a fuller understanding of literary traditions in Melville's time