INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
The term " Literature" defines the written and oral products of artistic discourse. Literature is a concept that is narrower than the secretariat, which includes all the written - as a rule - texts of a particular community. This, therefore, which differentiates literary texts from non-literary is "literary". The concept of literary literacy cannot be easily defined so the area of Literature cannot be defined with strict limits.
Many attempts have been made to define the concept of literary literature, which can be distinguished in two groups according to the following directions: one is the ontological examination, that is, trying to define Literature "from the inside", with internal criteria, with which he tries to identify some stable features of the literary discourse. Some of the ontological definition attempts are the definitions of Literature as 'fictional writing', as a 'divergent use of language' or as a text offering 'aesthetic delight'.
The second direction is the historical-evolutionary examination, which studies "what was considered literary at times". Such an examination, which of course does not aim to formulate a definition, is particularly useful to us because it allows us to understand the various changes in the treatment of Literature and Literature.
History of the term
The term "Literature" appears for the first time in the 12th century. in a text by Nikitas the Witness, with the importance of the rhetorical use of speech, of culture. Today's meaning was first used by Ioannis Pantazidis in 1886, in his article "Literature, Literature, Literature", in the journal Estia. The author of the article explains that he uses the term literary to declare the art of speech, in correspondence with the terms "artist" and "art". A first mention of the use of the term was made in 1867 by A. Kyprianos, in the preface to the translation of the History of Greek Literature of KO Müller. There, the author explained that he eventually preferred the well-established term " philology ", fearing that the novel term "literature" (which he used after a suggestion by I. Pantazidis) was a hatred for readers. Until then, the term "philology" was used to declare the subject, that is to say, the monuments of speech and science. To avoid confusion, there was also the term "light literature", referring to literary works. According to the testimonies of the time, the term "light literature" was in use until around 1920.
Attempted definition of literature with internal criteria
Literature as fiction
Fiction is the synthesis of a fake myth, that is, a myth invented by the author, with imaginary elements. The definition of Literature with this criterion has the following weaknesses:
· the distinction between fiction and storytelling was not clear, especially in previous centuries.
· Literature previously included texts that can not be considered as fiction, such as letters, treatises, philosophical texts.
· fictional texts are not always literary, such as comics.
Literature as a specific use of language
A very common definition of Literature is the definition of literary writing as writing that deviates from the usual use of language. This direction in the study of literature was given by the Formalist Russians, who perceived the particular organization of language as a characteristic of literary literature: the writer, using various "tricks", "deformed" the conventional language, which became "open" a "renunciation" in which industry supporters concentrated the literature of literature. Reappearance was not only the placement of an altered form where the common language used to place another, more intimate, but also the inoculation of a simple one where a composite was expected. On this basis, literary literature falls under the term "inaccessible form", which covers both cases. The problem that arises from this definition is the difficulty of precisely determining the conventional language from which literary deviates. There is no complete correspondence between the term in Greek (Literature) and that in other languages (Literature, littérature, letteratura). The term Literature covers the scope of works that are generally regarded as literary because they do not predict or set limits. The literature points to the concept of letters, Belles-Lettres, and not to a technique.
The literary text as "non - practical" text
The literary text can be defined as a text that does not serve a practical purpose, for example, information on a subject. Thus the literary text differs, for example, from a scientific text. With such a view, interest in the study of a literary text does not focus on the subject of which it speaks, but on the way, it speaks. Practice from the non-practical use of texts is difficult to separate since it is not only dependent on the author's intention to write a "practical" or "literary" text, but (above all) and the way the reader chooses to read the text. For this reason, it is possible for some text to be written in a "literary" intention but gradually to cease to be treated as a literary one, while on the other hand to belong to a kind of reason that is not considered "literary", but over time is included in the literary texts.
Literature as aesthetic enjoyment
There is a tendency to define literary texts as "good" texts, which are considered superior to others and offer the reader aesthetic pleasure. Such a view is problematic because there are no inherent criteria for evaluating a text; the aesthetic perceptions do not remain unchanged over time because they are completely dependent on the environment, beliefs and concerns of each age. It is very likely, therefore, a text that at one particular moment had a recognized literary value, another to cease to respond to contemporary concerns and to lose its value. In addition, the evaluation of a project is often determined by the specific image we have created for the "literary rule": if we read a project knowing that it is the work of a recognized and acclaimed writer, we will positively assess it with this criterion, while we may reject another by knowing in advance that this is a work of a writer who is considered to be a minor. Indicative of the relevance of evaluative judgments is the experiment of Cambridge University Professor IA Richards, who1929 gave his students poems without revealing their writers and asked to express their judgment of judgment: the students rejected many poems of established poets and preferred other, unrecognized or underestimated.
Conclusion
The ontological considerations of the literary phenomenon eventually end up in a stalemate because they are based on the assumption that the "literary" characteristics are fixed and permanent. This view is easily overturned by the fact that "the perceptions of nature and the functioning of literature are constantly changing" and "its characteristics are not accepted as a notion in any place and time”.
A Background-evolutionary aspect of the literary phenomenon
The examination of "what was considered literary at times" tells us that until the 18th c. the concept of Literature had a totally different content than today. The term "Literature" was identified with the term "Secretariat" and literally, it was considered any texts were models of rhetorical art. Theoretical considerations based on literature by then the Poetics of Aristotle.
Literature as "imitation"
The Poetics of Aristotle was the first independent and systematic study of poetry, but not with the simeriki importance of poetry, but the significance of what we now call literature. The Aristotle defines poetry as "imitation" (Chap. I, 1447a), that is as a representation of reality. The poetic genres to consider is the tragedy and epic and excludes the study of the lyric poetry, because its content is not narrative, therefore non-mimetic. It is noteworthy that Aristotle does not identify the concept of poetry in the sense of a measure since it emphasizes that a work in a rhymed form is not necessarily poetic (cf. I, 1447b).
From the Renaissance to the end of the classical period, the literature was based on Poetry by Aristotle. For the reference to the literary phenomenon, the term "poetry" was used, while the prose (Prosa) still had no place in the literary rule
Literature as "expression"
The great change in the view of literature took place in the 18th - 19th century. under the influence of Romanticism. Since then, literature has begun to be treated no longer as an "imitation" of reality, but as an "expression" of it. According to this view, the writer with his work does not imitate reality, but "creates" one's own reality. Literature was now considered "expression" of the creator's psychic world, and its meaning was limited and excluded as much as only some useful function (for example, information or persuasion). At that time, the concepts of "imagination", "creativity" and "originality" of a work, which were previously considered necessary, were introduced, since the composition of a work had to obey strict rules.
At the same time, the term "literature" began to be used more frequently and gradually replaced the term "poetry", which eventually was limited to the meaning of "lyrical poetry". The literary genres were crystallized in a new figure (Drama, Epic, Lyric poetry) by Goethe and Hegel in the 19th century. and at the same time gradually began to broaden the concept of Literature to include, in turn, the prose (speech, novella, novel), which had begun to experience great growth.
Literary language
The next view of literature was based solely on the examination of the literary language, which was the criterion that differentiated literary from non-literary texts. The turning point in this direction was made in the early 20th century. with the Russian Formalists initially and then with the Czechs and the French builders. It can even be said that with this view the concept of Literature has been limited and instead of the whole text it is now referred to the individual text.
Modern approach
Since the 1980s, there has been the intense reflection on whether Literature can be defined on ontological criteria. It was argued that literary works have some intrinsic aesthetic value, which remains unchanged. Emphasis was placed on the historical view of the phenomenon, and Literature began to be studied and identified in relation to the occasional attempts to define it and considerations of its operation.
Literary Currents
Literary current is a trend that appeared in art in a specific period and was followed by several artists.
· Classicism
· Romanticism
· Realism
· Foresight
· Naturalism
· Surrealism (or Surrealism)
· Aesthetics
· Beat Literature
Genera and species of speech
The genes of speech are called the broad categories, which include the monuments of speech and species and their smaller subdivisions. There are many suggestions for the classification of texts in genres and genres and it is often questioned even the usefulness of categorization since literary species are constantly evolving and often mixed. In Greece, the classification in the three major categories of prose, poetry and theatre is mainly used. Some of the most important types of speech are: novel, short story, novel, epic, ode, sonnet, ballad, sloppy poem, tragedy, comedy. Types of speech, such as memoirs, essay, chronograph, autobiography, biography and travel texts, are often treated as literary in the broad sense of the term.
The scientific study of literature
The branch dealing with the scientific study of literature is called in Greek " philology ". For the same industry, the terms "literature" and "science of literature" have also been proposed. The study of literature includes the following disciplines:
· History of literature
· Theory of Literature
· Criticism of literature
· Comparative Literature
History of literature
History of Literature is the industry that historically examines the evolutionary course of the literary production of a nation (more commonly), but also of a wider or narrower group. The history of literature is, of course, not limited to works that can be considered literary only with current perceptions, but it examines what works were considered literary and were literary at the time they were written. In addition, it is necessary to combine the study of the history of literature with the general study of the history of literature, education and the intellectual movement of the particular group, without of course excluding the search for the effects of historical, social and political events on the spiritual and literary Zoe.
The history of literature divides the material under study into periods, that is, long periods of time, in which there is generally relative homogeneity in the literary movement. Classification in periods is not always based on literary criteria; historical events are often used. This segmentation is of course not absolute, as the spiritual phenomena do not arise from nothing or replace the pre-existing ones immediately.
Generations, Schools and Movements
The periods are further divided into smaller segments, generations, faculties and movements. The literary generation is distinguished mainly by biological criteria, ie it contains writers about peers who have received common impulses and influences, their works have several common characteristics and of course are differentiated from the previous generation. Ranking in generations, which is often questioned, is not based on the criterion of the date of publication of the works, because it is common for a writer to appear along with the authors of a particular generation, but his work has the characteristics of the previous or has completely peculiarity. The school is a group of writers who have common features, shared perceptions, are aware of belonging to a common group, and mainly accept as a "leader" and pioneer a particular writer, whom they follow as a model, such as the poets of the New Athenian School and the Kostis Palamas. Related to the terms "school" and "generation" is also the term movement, which identifies a group of artists who, in addition to the characteristics of the faculty, also possess the feature that they aim to radically overthrow the prevailing tendencies and enforce the proceedings the aesthetic perceptions. The members of a movement make their presence felt dynamical and vigorously project their work to achieve their purpose.
Theory of Literature
The theory of literature is the study of the literary phenomenon, which attempts to answer questions about the nature, properties and characteristics of literature and to define the meaning of literary and literary texts.
Literature Theories
· Formalism
· New Review
· Czech structure
· French architecture
· Semitic
· Theory of Recruitment
· Transdisciplinary
· Depreciation
· Marxism
· Phenomenology
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