Introduction:

Literature is a body of written works. The name has been traditionally applied to those imaginative
works of poetry and prose. Literature may be classified according to a variety of systems, including
language, national origin, historical period, genre and subject matter. Literature is a form of human
expression, those writings are primarily informative technical, scholarly, journalistic would be excluded
from the rank of literature by most, though not all, critics. Certain forms of writings, however are
universally regarded as belonging to literature as an art individual attempts within these forms are said
to succeed if they passes something called artistic merit and to fail if they do not. The nature of artistic
merit is less ease to define than to Recognize

Literature came from the Latin word “littera” meaning “letters” and referring to an acquaintance with
the written word is the written work of a specific culture, Sub-culture, Religion, Philosophy or the study
of such written work which may appear in poetry or in a prose. Literature in the west originated in the
southern Mesopotamia Region or Sumer (c. 3200) in the city of Uruk and flourished in Egypt, later in
Greece. (the written word having been imported there from the Phoenicians) and from there, to Rome
writing seems to have originated independently in China from divination practices and also
independently in Mesoamerica and elsewhere. The first author of literature in the world, known by
name was the high priestess of Ur, Enheduanna (2285-2250 BCE) who wrote in praise of the Sumerian
goddess Inanna.

Genres of literature are important to learn about. The most general genres, of literature are epic,
tragedy, and creative nonfiction. They can all be in the form of the prose of poetry genres may be
defined by literary technique, to be content on even length. The distinctions between genres and
categories are flexible and loosely defined often with subgroups. Genre should not be confused with age
categories, by which literature maybe classified as either adult, young adult or children’s. They are also
not the same as format, such as graphic novel or picture book.

Classic literature refers to the great masterpieces of Greek, Roman, and other ancient civilizations. The
works of Homer, Ovid, and Sophocles are all example of classical literatures. The term is not just limited
to novels; it can also include epic, lyric, comedy, tragedy, pastoral, and other forms of writing. The study
of their texts was once considered to be a necessity for students of the humanities. Ancient Greek and
Roman authors were said to be of the highest quality. The study of the work was once seen as the mark
of an elite education. While there books generally still find their way into high school and college English
classes. They are no longer commonly studied. The expansion of literature has offered readers and
academics more to choose from.

Contemporary Literature is defined as literature written after World War II through the current days. In
which the word contemporary Literature, we are talking about literature that is being written in the how
about the now. There is some disagreement. Most agree that Contemporary Literature reflect a
society’s social and/or political viewpoints shown through realistic characters. So when we think of
contemporary literature, we cannot simply look at a few scenes and settings since society changes over
time, so do the context and messages of this writing.
Literary Criticism, as distinguished from scholarly research, is usually itself considered a form of
literature. Some people find great critics as entertaining and stimulating as great poets, and theoretical
treatises of literary aesthetics can be as exciting as novels, Aristotle, long inus, and the roman
rhetorician and critic Quintilian are still read, although Renaissance critics like the once all-powerful
Josephus Scalliger are forgotten by all Samte- Bueve, Hippolyte Taime, Vissarioh Belinsky, Matthew
Arnold, Walter Bagehot, Walter Pater, and George Saintsury, are probably read more for themselves
than for their literary Judgements and for their general theorizing rather than their applications

The English critics have survived because they largely confined themselves to acknowledged
masterpieces and general ideas. The 19th-century revolution in theology resulted from the convergence
of Dorminian theories of evolution and the technical and historical criticism of the Bible. IN the last
decades of the 20th century, though, Anglo-American literary criticism was criticized for its failure to be
“literature’ and for its dependence on Jargon

By the time literature appears in development of a culture, the society has already come to share a
whole system of stereo types and archetypes. The kind of symbolic realities that are enshrined in
religion and myth, Literature may use such symbols directly, but all great works of literary art are, as it
were, original and unique myths. The first stones of civilized man, repeating the Sumerian epic of
Gilgamesh or Sophocles Oedipus the king. The subject matter of literature is as wide as a human
experience itself. Myths, legends and folktales lie at the beginning of literature, and their plots,
situations, and allegorical judgement of life represent a constant source of literary inspiration that never
fails. So the themes of literature have at once an infinite variety and adding constancy. They can be
taken from myth, from history, or from contemporary occurrence, or they can be pure invention.