20.09.2011

Literature, painting, sculpture and music. They have some similarities: they are all forms of art and therefore they produce emotions and can generate pleasure and positive or negative reactions. Their differences are that literature is made up of words, painting is made up of colours, sculpture of marble... so, different forms of art use different ingredients and tools.

The language of poetry must follow a strict discipline technique, so their language is charged with a lot of meaning and that is why poetry arouses and steers several emotions.

Literary products send a lot of messages and every text has got a lot of meanings. Most of them can be correct. Every reader provides a personal interpretation of the same text, but the interpretation is not free. Literary products allow all the readers to make up their own opinion but, in order to advance an interpretation or a proposal we must e able to support it by reference to the text.

The mode of expression of a literary text is the thing that most impresses the readers, even before they can catch its meaning. Literary texts go beyond the surface meaning (the meaning given by the mere order of the words) and develops itself through more layers of meaning.

The literary genres are: poetry, fiction and drama.
The sonnet, the ballad, the novel, the haiku are literary forms (subdivisions of the literary genres).

What literature is in my opinion

Literature is an art, made up of words combined in books by many writers of all ages. Literature was born from the imagination, the feelings and the humanity of many writers, and I think one of its aims is to develop the imagination, arouse certain feelings and make not feel alone many readers.

When you are down and feel alone, and then you read a text or even only a phrase that describes your feelings and witnesses that you aren't the only one who have ever felt this way, you feel better. I think literature is a great resource. It is a great ensemble of knowledge written for everybody and available to everybody.

When somebody writes a literary text (a novel, a poetry or whatever) he does it because he has discovered something important, or he has lived a sensational adventure or a very deep pain, and he thinks that his experience may help somebody else who is, was or will be in his same situation.

To express complex weavings of feelings (even in a limited space and with strict rules like in poetry), literary language must different from the daily one. Every word is charged with meaning and most of the times the whole text is developed in several layers of meaning. And since everybody has lived his life in a different way and experimented different feelings and situations, everybody can find out a different meanings from a text, according with his past experiences.

This way, literary texts give to the readers precious suggestions and change and improve their vision of the world and their power of choice. And at the same time, new generations of readers can make up their personal ideas, become writers and contribute to the growth of the literary culture helping other people.