Authors: Peter Widdowson
ISBN-13: 9780415169141, ISBN-10: 0415169143
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Date Published: December 1998
Edition: (Non-applicable)
This introductory volume provides an overview of the history of Literature as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Literature:
• offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest origins
• illustrates the kinds of theoretical issues which are currently invoked by the term 'literary'
• provides a definition of the 'literary' for the twenty-first century With Literature Peter Widdowson provides a thought-provoking essay on the contemporary relevance of the 'literary' for students.
Acknowledgements | ||
1 | What is 'Literature'? | 1 |
Some (non-)definitions | ||
2 | What has 'Literature' been? | 26 |
A history of the concept, Part One: Origins to Orthodoxies | ||
3 | What has happened to 'Literature'? | 63 |
A history of the concept, Part Two: After the 1960s | ||
4 | What is 'the literary'? | 93 |
5 | The uses of 'the literary' | 129 |
Newstories | ||
6 | Watch this space | 205 |
Notes | 207 | |
References | 211 |