THE
NATURE OF LITERATURE
An
essay by Siti Nur Khayati
Study English in
university level whether in English education or English literature, we always
find literature, but what actually literature itself? Why we must study
literature while we study language? So let’s discuss about the nature of
literature.
From the last literary
class I got some definition about literature. Literature is sometimes defined
as anything written (any writing, and verbal works of arts). It has a sense of
entertaining display and provides pleasure education to understanding life.
Literature may consist of texts based on factual information and fiction. It
can be classified: informative, and imaginative literature. And I have my own
definition of the literature. Literature is used to describe anything from
creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most
commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination including works of
poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.
There are a lot of kinds of literary works. Let’s discuss
about some of them. According to Ursula Le Guin there are some kinds of
literature:
-
An
autobiography is the story of a person’s life written or told by that person.
-
A
biography is the story of a person’s life written told by another person.
-
A
fable is a story that teachers a moral or a lesson. It often has animal
characters.
-
Fantasy
novels are often set in worlds much different from our own and usually include
magic, sorcery and mythical creature.
-
A
folktale is a story that has been passed down, usually orally, within a
culture. It may be based on superstition and feature supernatural characters.
Folktales include fairy tales, tall tales, trickster tales and other stories
passed down over generations.
-
A
legend is story that has been handed down over generations and is believed to
be based on history, though it typically mixes fact and fiction. The hero of
legend is usually a human.
-
A
myth is a traditional story that a particular culture or group once accepted as
sacred and true. It may center on God or supernatural being and explain how
something came to be, such as lighting or music or the world itself.
-
Science
fiction stories examine how science and technology affect the world. The books
often involve fantasy inventions that may be reality in the future.
That is one of reference about kinds of literature. Actually
different source it’s become different argument, but what we are going to study
is general kinds of literature which often learn in study literature. There are
poetry, prose, and drama.
Poetry is
creative writing who definite rhythm and rhyme and consists of some stanzas
that build by some lines. History, journalism, philosophy, fiction and fantasy
writings, scientific writings, children’s literature authors and writers are
included in Prose Literature. Drama is a composition which is in the form of a
dialogue.
Because there are many literary works so we can appreciate
them with understanding and mastery the form and content of a literary work.
The way to appreciate is understand the idea or information, and also we can
perform in many ways, such as discuss the elements of a literary work, write a note
on certain aspect, re-cite poems, short stories, and performing drama on a
stage. To understand the literary work we must study the language (word
meaning), study the structures of a literary work, and study some approaches.
Approach to literary study is relation to its background, the author, its
reader, other literature, an as an Entity in itself.
After discuss about literary work, we can take the
advantages of them. Such, literary works are authentic sources on how language
is used as it is and teach us about life; it enrich our experience of life.
With reading literature sharpens our soul and it make us wiser.
Language Skill
