Literary Theory

[monk222]

The question of what literature is can’t be answered simply through conceptual analysis. This is because it is also a question thrown up to us by history; one that cuts to the heart of the question of intellectual and moral value, asking us who we are and what is important to us, and how we respond to life. It must be tackled by rigorous and specific critical practice that looks outwards, on to the world, as well as inwards to the depths of thought and feeling. ... Eagleton is most articulate on the problems that have weighed down his topic in the final chapter: ‘Art and humanity, then, can be seen as akin in that their function lies not outside themselves but in the activity of their self-realisation.’

-- Sarah Boyes, "Rescuing Literature from Literary Theory" at Spiked.com

I simply, perhaps brutishly, take literature to be an exercise in trying to realize meaningfulness through the arrangement of words alone, the play of words - the art of the word, where language meets love.