Imaginative Literature: The True Meaning Of Literature

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The question “what is literature?” doesn’t seem like a difficult question but after thinking about it for a few minutes what is the true meaning of literature? If you googled that question it would tell you that literature is written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. What written works are considered superior or lasting artistic merit? I believe that literature is imaginative, non-factual but in some ways factual, and it makes changes in the soul of an individual or a group. The first thing that literature portrays is imaginative writing. Imaginative writing is pretty much creative writing, which is when the writer gets to express feelings and emotions instead of just presenting the facts. In the journal,…show more content…
Some believe that literature is only non-factual works of writing but I believe that is not true. In the journal Naming Nonfiction, Robert L. Root says, “‘Literary nonfiction,’ ‘creative nonfiction,’ and ‘lyric essay’ are some of the makeshift semantic hybrids current use.” The term non-fiction is fact based work which are essays, memoirs, biographies, histories, and journalism. An example of nonfiction literature is A Narrative of the captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (127) this short story is about Mary Rowlandson and how her colony was besieged by Native Americans that took her into captivity from the year 1675 to 1677. This story is nonfiction because it is a narrative of an historical event that happened in her life. Nonfiction contrasts with the term fiction is written work that uses imagination, such as novels, short stories, plays, and poems. Literary fiction is symbolic or thematic fiction that critics consider having ‘literary merit’. Sometimes songs, like the courtly love songs conceived by the French and Italian troubadour lyric poets and poet musicians of the Middle Ages, which are fictional. An example of fiction literature is The Great Gatsby, this book is fiction literature because it focusses on the American dream, and it is less about its plot and more about its commentary. I do believe that Literature can be both fiction and nonfiction because nonfiction is more essays, memoirs, biographies, histories, and journalism and fiction is more as novels, short stories, plays, and poems, and all of these are genres of literature. (www.thoughtco.com) “The term literature is a rubric, an overarching ensemble that encompasses both fiction and nonfiction. So, a work of fiction is a work of literature, just as a work of nonfiction is a work of literature. Literature is a broad and sometimes changeable designation, and critics may argue about which works deserve to be called

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