Inquiry Into Literature

Post Written By: Chris Stein

     In class this week, we worked on our "Inquiry Into Literature" essay  in which we explained our view on what literature is. Personally, in my traditional thinking, I believe literature to be mostly limited to purpose written books and according to my thesis statement, something that "incorporates the artistic use of written language into a story, the portrayal of a message, or the presentation of an observation on life as well as a purpose greater than pure entertainment of the reader." Literature is a rather abstract term to describe, one that we typically don't simply because of its variability and complex uncertainty. To contrast this, music is a very generic term that applies to almost any vocal or instrumental sound purposefully created as art. Music and literature share many defining characteristics, chiefly in regards to artistic merit. But what counts as artistic and what doesn't? Some (including me) say screamo doesn't count as art or music. (My apologies to those of you who enjoy screamo. I guess I'm just not that intense of a person. Chill.) The same goes with literature. Some people (again, including myself) believe that Nicholas Sparks novels are fictional stories or books, but not literature. Personal bias and whether we "like" a certain genre or style can often be confused the denotation of literature or the denotation of music. Although, there are pieces from both forms in black and white that are clearly and universally recognized. For instance, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is not literature while Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is literature. In music, one could say someone whistling a tune in the men's  restroom is not music. You wouldn't tell this person to turn down the music. You would simply tell them to stop because its just weird. On the other end of the spectrum, one would call Beethoven's Fifth Symphony music because thats what it clearly is. It has timeless artistic merit among other textbook classic musical qualities allow us to call it music.

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