The politics of defining literature

A very good introduction to the subject is Terry Eagleton’s “Introduction: What is Literature?” (the first chapter of Literary Theory: An Introduction). In it, he enumerates several ways by which we usually define literature. But then he also interrogates each definition to the point that whatever certainty we had about what literature is ultimately breaks [...]

Literature used to be the new religion, now …

To quote (again) Terry Eagleton quoting George Gordon, early Professor of English Literature at Oxford (in Chap. 2, “The Rise of English,” Literary Theory: An Introduction): “England is sick, and … English literature must save it. The Churches (as I understand) having failed, and social remedies being slow, English literature has now a triple function: [...]

Are we post-Romantics in our definition of literature?

I would like to pretend I’m from the upper class and be a snob and, sitting in the library (like the image to the right grabbed from Raby Castle), say: “No, that’s not how we look at literature. Literary texts, for us, are only those that belong to what we call the Greats.” Because, as [...]