Literature and its Audience.

Writings about Literature.

Question to SEMINAR 5

in INTRODUCTION to LITERATURE
For the 1-st year students of the English Department

Compiled by

Candidate of Philology Shkuropat M.Y.

SEMINAR5
TOPIC: Literature and its Audience.
Literature and its Environment.Writings about Literature

Activity 1
.
 Read the abstracts from the article “The Art of Literature” by Kenneth Rexroth
(pp.16-20; 24-26) and get ready to answer the questions.

Questions
1. How did forms of oral literature develop in pre-literary and barbaric
societies?
2. What caused the division of literature into elite and folklore?
3. How did these two kinds of literature influence each other?
4. What is the difference between popular literature in old times and
modern popular literature?
5. What is the modern idea on developing of the folk songs and folk tales?
What is their role in developing literature and pop music?
6. What modern media are rivals to literature?
7. What are the advantages of reading as compared to modern media?
8. What does literature traditionally reflect?
9. In what ways did folk and elite literature depend in medieval and ancient
times?
10. What did introduction of printing allow?
11. What does class distinction lie in literature of modern times?
12. What tendencies in national literary developments could be observed in
the XX century?
13. How are changes in literary values influenced by historical events?
14. How does literature relate to other forms of art?
15. How old is the history of scholarly literary writings?
16. What religious traditions are considered written?
17. What authors dominated in 19th century literary scholarship?
18. How is literary scholarship developed at present?
19. What is the difference between literary research, literary criticism and
literature?
20. What is the present day role of literary criticism?