What’s Literature?

•Try to give some words which is associated with the literature and please explain it.

•The word “literature” came into English from the 14th century in the sense of polite learning through reading. Thus a man of literature, or a man of letters, meant what we would now describe as a man of wide reading. So, this word corresponds mainly to the modern meaning of the word “ literacy精通文学,有文化.”

•From the mid-18th century, literature referred to the practice and profession of writing. This appears to be closely connected with the heightened self -consciousness of the profession of authorship. Since the 19th century, literature has been the high skills of writing in the especial context of high imagination.

•Literature comes from human interest in telling a story, in arranging words in artistic forms, in describing in words aspects of our human experiences. This human activity embodies human desire to express and share experiences. At the beginning, the literary impulse exists only in one’s mind. It is a writer’s “ performance in words” as Robert Frost once said. In this way it can be appreciated by others. Therefore, we can define literature as language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages. Literature is characterized by beauty of experience and form and by university of intellectual and emotional appeal.

•文学是指以语言文字为工具形象化地反映客观现实的艺术，包括诗歌、散文、小说、剧本、寓言、童话等，是文化的重要表现形式，以不同的形式（称作体裁）表现内心情感和再现一定时期和一定地域的社会生活。