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Blog post #1

In chapter 2, Culler, says that literature does not have to be depicted in a certain way as its main purpose is to convey an idea, story or knowledge to its audience. He uses this as a backbone in his argument that it is unnecessary to compare literature and non-literature. Literature conveys a message in an imaginative and engaging way that non-literature does not require.

Q:  do we gain anything when we read literature more than we would have gained if the author used a less aesthetic form of writing?

Blog post #1

1.After reading chapter 2 in “What is literature, and does it matter?” by Jonathan Culler, I believe the important part is about the method we use to define literature. We can do this by providing examples about works that may not be literatures. Furthermore, it tells us how this connects to speeches, sermons, history, philosophy, poem, and story. In the first ten pages of the second chapter of the book Literary Theory,” Culler give us examples of poems and stories like Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the ‘My Love is like a red, red rose’ by Robert Bruns. In this paragraph, Culler details how theorists explore the different interpretations between different literary works. In poems they use rhymes, but also tell stories about their feelings and emotions to share with the person who is reading it while the novel is plotted to a story that keeps you captivated. Even though it is hard to tell what is the difference with what is literature and non-literature, it is better to get an understanding with both. However, at the end of the day, certain literary works have continued to influence the way we live our lives.

2.After reading this chapter, the question reverberates throughout my head is “what is the importance between literary and non-literary for human life?” I would like to understand this better, is it that maybe we, as individuals, interpret literary works and non literary works in different manners.

What is literature and does it matter ? Blog Post

After reading “What is literature and does it matter? written by Jonathan Culler in my point of view the most important aspect is that “literature comes in all shapes and sizes and most of them seem to have more in common with works that aren’t usually called literature than they do with some other works recognized as literature (p 21)”. As discussed in the chapter the author mentioned that literature maybe a poem, play, or narrative. The way that they are written differs from each other. To name some are poems and sonnets are written on shorter lines while narratives are longer. Some articles are written more interesting because the authors used different devices such as figures of speech such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole and etc..There are two characteristics that could lead to identifying first, the theory itself which intermingles with the different fields of learning. Second, we can say that all text is somewhat not equal some text is created more powerful and intense while some are soft and weak. The importance of thinking about the definition of literature plays a huge part in understanding the components of the literature. Moreover, it is an undertaking of the writers and the readers that require knowledge, deeper understanding, and skills in carrying out their tasks.

 

The question that stayed with me while reading this article is that Does literature play a significant role in identifying a particular generation? 

What is literature and does it matter?

1.In the chapter2 “What is literature and does it matter?” which is written by Jonathan Culler, he points out that literary and non-literary cannot be clearly defined according to their style, they can come in any style and being learned in the same way. How to define them depends on how readers think about them. Looking though history, literary and non-literary both act as the container of culture, have developed their diversity under many cultural backgrounds. Culler also attempts to address the most importance quality of the literature, which is utility. He lists an example in the article which he extracts random words from a context and line them on a page, the result shows that the sentence lost its function because it does not make sense anymore (24), this proves that utility is a vital quality of literature. In my opinion, the most important aspect of this chapter is defining how literary or non-literary helps human. Therefore, we need to learn how to efficiently extract useful information from the context, and to achieve this goal students need to be training systematically such as: “memorize them, study their grammar, identify their rhetorical figures and their structures or procedures of argument” (22), otherwise understanding them will become really difficult and exhausted. The reason why thinking about the definition of literature is so important because it is a natural phenomenon of the changing of cultural diversity, which reflects people’s values. Furthermore, literature advance people’s mind to become logical and positive, so reading literature it is worthy.

2.The question stays with me is if reading is like a conversation between literature and reader, will the values of reader cause a change of cultural diversity?

“what is literature and does it matter”

  1. After reading the chapter “what is literature and does it matter” written by Jonathan Culler, in my opinion we see literature in many different forms such as plays, poetry, and novels. It reflects the culture and represents the civilization and the education of the society or the country and expresses what people believe and how they see the world at this time frame. Literature also goes deeply and indicates the affairs that people interface or have a variety of opinions about it. However, there is no specific definition for literature, what you may consider as a literature some people may not. It does not have a standard to decide what is literature and what is not, also some of it in between. It depends on the background, education, and knowledge you have. So even if the same content is read by different people, every person will have his own way to understand what is behind it. 

2. the question that sticks in my mind is why the literature is not clear to define it?  

 

Blog post #1

In my opinion, the most important aspect of Chapter 2 and its first ten pages is that there is no simple definition of what literature is and what is not. Jonathan Culler describes many features of what could define literature, but all of them insist on more complex consideration. It is crucial to think about definitions of the literature because literature can enrich us in the sense of the knowledge of the language, and also provide informative value or emotional sensation. Literature also evokes in us thinking or asking questions, which is essential for critical thinking, for instance. Culler explains that sometimes it is complicated to determine if the text is literature or not because even fundamental aspects determining some of the texts are changing over time. Some of the old famous literature pieces could have been hundreds of years ago considered just an example of the rhetoric or use of language. Culler described as a suitable example of ads that are written in a certain way, and thanks to playing with the words and its order could remind a poem. In the meantime, some poems nowadays that are qualified as literature could sound as a part of the ordinary conversation. That is why Jonathan Culler, at the beginning of the chapter, suggests asking queries about the particular text. We should try to analyze it, and that can help to detect whether it is the writing literature or not. For instance, what is the relation between the words used? Could the specific terms attract the interest of the reader or what the author meant by that statement?
I think Culler wanted to say that literature is closely connected with the readers and what evokes in us reading of specific texts.

The question that stayed with me the most is: “What is involved in treating things as literature in our culture?” (page 23). I think that is very similar to art. Variations of modern, abstract paintings or conceptual art pieces could be considered by many as nonsense, but to many others, could have significant value, for instance, in associations that are appearing on their mind when looking at the specific art piece. It is a very complex and complicated question that is worthy of deeper thinking.

Blog Prompt #1

Reading chapter 2 of “what is literature and does it matter?” It shows that there is no need to compare literature and non-literature. Culler says literature is not only a word, this word describes a lot of things. The word literature brings so much creativity in texts. Literature is used in small texts, poems, introduction, etc. Theorists recommend using rhetorical devices in non-literary texts. Culler shows that we shouldn’t differentiate literature and non-literature as they are similar. Understanding the text and finding the main idea is the main goal and gaining the knowledge from the text. Culler also mentioned that literature comes in many shapes and sizes and to get a specific definition of the word literature.

Question: Why does it matter if we read literature or non literature if they are similar?

What is literature and does it matter?

 

1-I think the most important aspect of chapter 2, What is literature, and does it matter? by Jonathan Culler is that he points out that literature has not a single meaning or that there is not a specific answer to define it. Culler mentions that it comes in all shapes and sizes. It means that we can find literature in any kind of book and writings. After that, we can say that literature varies depends upon many factors. Throughout the chapter, we can find some examples where Culler emphasizes, what I think are two of the main factors to pay attention to when asking what is literature. These main factors are how people treat a text and the context of it. On page 23 of this chapter, the author gives us a really good point to ponder about the main question. He stays that, “Rather than ask ‘what is literature, we need to ask ‘what makes us treat something as literature. He challenges us with this question. However, he gives us part of the answer when he says, “Most of the time what leads readers treat something as literature is that they find it in a context that identifies it as literature: in a book of poems or a section of a magazine, library, or bookstore” (28). Culler also mentions that it matter where you come across a text. I think Culler is telling us that the context is a fundamental part to decide what is literature and what is not. I think it is important to think about definitions of literature because once we know how to identify literature, we also know how to recognize non-literature works. However, I think the most important thing is the knowledge we can gain from both. It depends more on the context, but from both, we can find valuable information that can help us a lot depending on what we want or what we need to explore.

2-One question that stayed in my mind as reading this chapter was if most of the time what leads readers to treat something as literature is that they find it in a context that identifies it as literature” (28).  what would be other things that make people treat a text as literature?

Blog Post #1

  1. In the Literary Theory by Jonathan Culler, the most of important aspect of this section of the chapter is how it is difficult to give a definition of literature. According to the author, a child or some ordinary people can think it is easy to define literature but for the specialist in that field, to give a definition of literature we have to look many aspects. In some part of the chapter, the writer said for example the historians explain how an event happen but not why. Furthermore, the author gives some correlation between the weed that is a physical thing to the literature that is a collection of words in the sentences that explain a real or unreal fact. It is important to think about the definition of the literature as other subjects for example biology, chemistry, math etc. have their definitions, but according to the writer in this chapter it is difficult to provide a specific definition of literature for the specialists.
  2. As I read this chapter, I am wondering if the conclusion he gave in page 28 “literature, we might conclude, is a speech act or textual event that elicits certain kinds of attention.” Could be consensual for many specialists in literature?

 

Blog post #1

Is every writing of any type or any form considered as literature? During the first ten pages of the second chapter of the book “Literature theory,” Jonathan Culler tries to expose what could, was, or would in the future be considered as literature. We explore thought history, that not every type of text were, at start, considered as such and that theorist have been trying to define common ground to this term without success. I believe literature should stay open-minded to any type of text, except the phonebook, of course! But a haiku ( Japanese poem of 5 lines) can be as moving as the best Agatha Christie novel. And it is what, for me, matter in literature: that the reading we have bring something to us: knowledge, emotion, sensations, evasions…

The question that stayed with me the most is, “What makes us (or some other society) treat something as literature?” (p.23). People have different tastes and opinions regarding reading. Books I have been forced to read at school considered as “ classic of literature” were not as interesting as “classical ones” I was discovering on my own time. Indeed, these books are forever in the history of literature due to their writing style, history, or, I guess, success. But tastes are not the same to everyone, and between “ the middle-class gentleman” from Moliere and “ the lord of the ring” from JR Tolkien, I would much more happily read the last one.