Literature
The word literature, derived from the Latin derived from (letter) appears at the beginning of the twelfth s with a technical meaning of "written word" then evolves in the late Middle Ages to the meaning of "knowledge from books," before reaching the XVII - XVIII centuries the primary meaning today: all the works written or oral with a dimension aesthetic activity or participating in their development.
Literature is defined in effect as a particular aspect of communication verbal - oral or written - which involves the exploitation of resources of language to multiply the effects on the recipient, whether reader or listener. Literature - whose borders are necessarily vague and vary from personal assessments - is characterized not by its media and genres, but by its aesthetic function: the shaping of the message outweighs the content, thus exceeding the communication utility limited to the transmission of information even complex. Today the literature is associated with the civilization of books by which we talk about distance to the authors, but it also involves various forms of oral expression such as poetry without writing traditional peoples - including our songs are distant cousins - or theater , to be received through the voice and body actors. The digital technology is, however, may be transforming the traditional medium of literature and nature.
The concept of literature has been regularly challenged by writers such as critics and theorists: this is particularly true since the late nineteenth century when they sought to redefine - like the art - features literature (eg with the notion of commitment to Sartre , What is literature? ) and nature (thinking about writing and reading of Roland Barthes or studies of linguists like Roman Jakobson ) and renew the aesthetic (the "One must be absolutely modern" Rimbaud in New Novel via Surrealism , for example).
Nevertheless, rich in its diversity without formal limit as much as his subjects constantly revitalized who say the human condition, literature is first encounter between the man who, by his words, said he and his world, and he who receives and shares this unveiling.
Summary |
Etymology Latin
The French word "literature" comes from a Latin word derived from literature littera " letter "within the meaning of sign graphics used to transcribe a language.
The dictionary Gaffiot First certificates in French According to the TLF , the word is attested in the early twelfth century (in 1121) with the original meaning of Latin "written thing" . The word "literature" can not find the meaning of the Late Latin "erudition, knowledge gained through books" at the end of the fifteenth century ": TLF cites the example J. of Vignay and Philip Commynes ). According to Philippe Caron , the word "literature" retains the general meaning of "knowledge obtained by the books" until the seventeenth century: then said "have some literature" as we say today "have culture ", it covers all areas of general knowledge, so in 1699, Fontenelle present mathematics as "a kind of literature." But in the second half of the century, alongside the general sense, the word is applied more and more restricted knowledge, that of "belles lettres" related to the beautiful language. This shift reflects the changing social elites under Louis XIV is established where the concept of honest , capable of sophisticated social life made of valued cultural practices such as knowledge of literary works, particularly those of the antiquity that nourish the classical theater while poets exploit the kinds defined by Aristotle as the epic poetry. In the eighteenth century the word "literature" is quite synonymous with "belles-lettres, that is to say works recognized by people of taste and culture component of worldly time formed through better education and the world of literary salons and academies , and to Voltaire : "The literature refers throughout Europe a knowledge of works of taste." Another example shows that the word "literature" with common sense today is now firmly installed in the middle of the Enlightenment: in 1753 Charles Batteux title his book "Course of belles-letters, or Principles of Literature and reissued in 1764 by keeping only the "Principles of literature." The same year appeared "The school of literature" of Father Laporte whose sub-title of the second part is unambiguous: "Special rules for each type of prose and verse" . The word is still evolving slowly from 1750 to the broader meaning of "written language creation" leaving an increasingly important role in subjective judgments free from restrictive aesthetic: that would later design the romantic poet's creator should be free even if a poet maudit conception prefigured in his Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia Alembert claiming that the artworks are mainly "of the invention that does little that his Laws of Engineering". Paul-Louis Courier defines the same way in the 1820s as a literary work "produced by instinct and sense of beauty" So the feeling of the author and not necessarily that of the establishment. By 1800 the modern sense became the common sense: the word "literature" refers to texts that "they" give an aesthetic quality that can be discussed, whether the decision of an institution learned expressing the common taste but also of the individual author or reader: it is the job that made Madame de Stael in her landmark book "On Literature" in 1799. In the mid-nineteenth century grammarian Bernard Jullien still distinguishes "literature" and "grammar" for him, the ultimate point of "high grammar" above since antiquity description of the mechanisms of language to address criteria of beauty in the formality and style of texts. The literature that "class and studied the works (of interest style)" goes beyond: it supports the study and inquiry on the merits, the content works, such as themes and points of view chosen by the authors, which obviously does not interference with legal proceedings as evidenced by the facts at the same time to Baudelaire and Flaubert , violating decency in 1857. Soon the "grammar" is limited to the description of the language, becoming a tool for literature who will care for the observation and appreciation of the formal aspects such as content works. It may be noted that "science" as the new stylistic or linguistic resume in the second half of the twentieth century the role of senior grammar in the study of texts. Finally, the field of "literature" is expanding in the twentieth century in all written work, not without debate on the literary canon: we discuss both the content (sentimental novels station, pornography and eroticism) as forms (novel without punctuation, free verse, automatic writing). We therefore use more refined categories as historical fiction , literature of science fiction or paraliterature without eliminating disagreements over the classification of certain types of literary works as the novel train , the picture story or comic strip. It also calls into question the notion of genre and text types and their hierarchy as we re-evaluate the works of the past (recent example: Charles Danzig selfish Dictionary of French Literature , 2005). The aesthetic and moral debates will also never closed all the ambitions of the authors do not necessarily correspond with the expectations of readers, thus raising the question of the avant-garde that appear almost every generation since 1830 and reflect literary movements that have taken over as the Romantic , the naturalism , the decadence , the Dada ... The division into historical periods or in language areas also debate and is combined with other lighting: distinguish authors by gender (women's literature), sexual orientation (literature "gay") policy approaches (communist literature) ... The literature also questioned regularly about its nature and its role since the late nineteenth s in practice (eg Lautreamont , Mallarme , Camus ) as in the theory (eg, Paul Valery , Sartre ). Initially focused mostly on poetry by the "modern" ( Surrealists , Lettrists , Oulipo ), reflection was focused on the Roman with the New Novel in the years 1950-1970 and the "era of suspicion" that calls into question the notion of character, chronology, or new genres such as auto-fiction today, and also in the theater ( Antonin Artaud - Theatre erupted from Beckett or Ionesco ). Discussions were open and carried by designers such as by academics and critics, for example about the link between the work and the author challenged by Proust cons Sainte-Beuve , or the "death of the author" proclaims that Roland Barthes who returns to the major role player who rewrote the text itself. In fact the " literariness of a text, that is to say what makes a literary text, belongs to the literature, is always the central question of approaches such as structuralism with Roland Barthes , the narratology by Gerard Genette , the style , defined as "linguistic effects of the post by Michael Riffaterre or analyzing the pattern of communication and language functions of Roman Jakobson looking to build a more objective approach and technical texts which faces nevertheless strong opposition, for example that of Henry Meschonnic . The literature also questions facing competition from the cinema , and television and given the recent use of Information technology and communication and the computer in the production and dissemination of texts that raise questions More generally the place of writing in the postmodern world. Finally, the writers (apart from playwrights or authors of songs that confront the world of stage and music playback) traditionally exist only through the edition of their text book or newspaper. The relationship with the publishing world are crucial for literature and writers have had to impose the notion of authorship of the work and guarantee the existence of copyright (financial and moral rights) following of Beaumarchais , on the initiative of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers in 1777 , and Honore de Balzac, with his "Letter to the writers of the nineteenth century "published in the Revue de Paris in 1834 which led in 1838 the creation of League of men of letters. However only a very limited number of creators of literature can live by his pen, which continues to pose the question of the status of the writer. Words of the family: Evolution of meaning in the seventeenth - eighteenth centuries
Modern Sense
The literariness : issues in literature
Statute of the literature and the writer
Family schedules and Meaning of words
See also
Sources
Literature. User manual : lesson Antoine Compagnon the College Belgium. References
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5, rated)
Loading ...