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Attempt to answer the following question:

Give definition to literature by your own words and


mention the important features in literature:

My Answer:

Literature is a written or spoken text which is formed by using partly or


completely symbolic language that gives the human life new meaning that is
based on fanciful perspectives by using imagination along with the reason.

Literature is a written or spoken text since it has different genres which either
made to be read such as: Fiction and short story or to be spoken such as: Poetry
and Drama.

The language that used in literature is either completely symbolic or partly. By


symbolic I mean that the literary language has to have (at least partly) patterned
language, figurative speech and so on. In my view, the language of the literature
must be written by highly metaphorical and symbolic language. This creative
language since the literary books are not written for a specific time or a special
generation of readers, they will lose their effect on their readers if they were
written in literal language. The metaphorical and symbolic language will make
the literary texts immortal and every new generation will understand the
literature in way that is totally or slightly different from the generations that is
before and after it. The figurative language that used by literary texts will not
only have special effects on the generation but also will allow every individual
(within same community) has his own understanding for the literature that (s)he
reads. I think the symbolic and metaphorical language that is used in the literary
works what gives literature its artistic values and these artistic values what
makes literature deathless in addition to its susceptibility to renewed in every
time.

This does not mean that other literal language (i.e., the ordinary language) is
totally be avoided in the literature but its usage will be partly.

Literature has to deal with human life by using of the writer's imagination to
shed led on the sides that cannot be recognize by the scientists. That means the
scope of literature in describing the human life is wider than the scientific
scope. If the text describes the life from a realistic perspective, it will be
scientific text while if the text uses the science and imagination to depict the life
that means it is literature. This because of the fact that the ability of imagination
in human beings is greater than the mental ability. Needless to say that doesn't
mean that literature is only imaginative work but it is mix of reason and
imagination.

And since the literature deals with human life in general, thus the literature is
universal not special for single group of people. It deals with the humans
regardless of their ethnic, religious and gender affiliation and even regardless of
their age. Literature in this sense deals with the human life anytime and
anywhere. So that literature doesn't deal with only English man to be English
literature but it is for any man thus it is universal. Literature doesn't especial for
adults since the children are human and located with the humanity

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