Section One What Is Literature1．
什么是文学？
这是个难于回答的问题。人们通常认为，属于文学的特性其实在非文学的话语和实践中也是必不可少的。例如，修辞手法常常被认为对文学才是至关重要的，而在其他类型的话语中则纯属装饰。而今，在非文学的文本中——不论在弗洛伊德的心理分析案例的解释中，还是在一些哲学论证的着作中，都常运用修辞手法，而且修辞手法还起着重要的作用。通过说明修辞手法在其他类型的话语中同样可以塑造思想，理论家们论证了在非文学性文本中文学性的重要作用，这就使文学和非文学的区别变得越发错综复杂了。
1．What is literature？
This is a difficult question. Qualities often thought to be literary turn out to be crucial to non-literarydiscourses and practices as well. For instance， rhetorical devices have often been thought crucial to literaturebut have been considered purely ornamental in other sorts of discourses. Now， in non-literary texts—whetherFreud’s accounts of his psychoanalytic cases or works of philosophical arguments rhetorical devices are oftenemployed and playing important roles. In showing how rhetorical figures shape thought in other discourses，theorists demonstrate a powerful literariness at work in supposedly non-literary texts， thus complicating thedistinction between the literary and the non-literary.
文学起源于人们对讲述人类的某些经验的兴趣。文学与哲学在古希腊和古罗马的口语文化中同出一母。尽管亚里士多德之后文学与哲学被划分隔离，纵观中世纪、现代以及后现代文化变迁过程，依然可见文学与哲学牵连互动的“兄弟关系”和最富有成效的纵横交叉。文学作品具有的公众影响力，为作家提供了表达政治观点和意见的平台。公众影响力也正是政治不得不关心文学的原因——作家威胁着政治的稳定。文学和政治密不可分。关于文学与政治的讨论永远不会停止，因为文学就是政治。科学技术作为动态的智力力量常常影响着在其作品中含有科技思想的男女作家们的文学想象；无数事例说明科学可能印上文学的形式，如艾略特及其小说、达尔文的进化论，都表明了某些科技主题在文学作品中得到了反映，而科技则成了小说的部分元素。从浪漫主义时期到现代的科幻小说，文学与科技的互动关系是不难理解的。随着网络时代的到来，许多学者掌握了一些将传统文学研究方法同现代科技相结合的方法，创建了计算机可以识别的文本、文学作品数据库、《数字化人文学科伴侣》等。
既然学者们把文学、哲学、历史学、语言学、政治理论、心理分析等各方面的思想融合在一起，那么他们为什么还要劳神地去看他们正在解读的文本究竟是不是文学呢？
The original source of literature arises from people’s interest in telling a story about some aspects ofhuman experiences. Literature and philosophy share a common parentage in the oral tradition of ancientGreece and Rome. The dynamic“sibling relationship”between literature and philosophy and the mostfruitful intersections of philosophy and literature can still be seen by an overview of the medieval， modern，and postmodern traditions though a post-Aristotelian division between literature and philosophy was made.
The public voice of literary works gives writers a platform for expressing political ideas or dissatisfaction. Thepublic voice is also the very reason politics has to be concerned with literature—writers threaten politicalstability. Literature and politics are closely interrelated and can never be separated. There is no end to thepossibilities of the topic“politics and literature”， because literature is politics. Science and technology asthe dynamic intellectual force has often influenced literary imagination of men and women of writers whohave embodied scientific ideas in their works； numerous examples can be taken to illustrate how sciencemay possibly bear on literary forms， for instance， George Eliot and her fiction， Darwin’s evolutionary theory，both of which demonstrate some scientific and technical themes have been reflected in literary works whilescience and technology have been turned into some elements of fictions. It’s not difficult to understand thedynamics between science and literature from the Romantic period to science fiction in the modern age. Now，with the arrival of the Internet， many scholars， having mastered the skills needed to blend traditional scholarlymethods with the newer technology， have created machine-readable texts， literary databases， A companionto Digital Humanities， etc. Since scholars intermingle ideas from literature， philosophy， history， linguistics，political theory， psychoanalysis and so on， why should they worry about whether the texts they’re reading areliterary or not？
文学表述再现着文化，而文化又是文学的起源或起因。文学与文化紧密相连。文化包括并涵盖了文学，文学只是文化的精彩部分和一种独特的文化实践。不同的文化影响着文学的界定。不同的思想、信念、国家和历史阶段不仅影响文学标准的构建而且影响对文学的界定。
Literature expresses or represents its culture which is its source or cause. Literature and culture areclosely interrelated. Culture includes and encompasses literature while literature is only the highlight of itsculture and a particular cultural practice. Different cultures affect defining literature. Differing ideas， beliefs，countries and historical periods not only affect the construction of literary standards but also affect definingliterature.
非文学现象的“文学性”就表明文学的概念仍然起着一定的作用，因而需要进一步讨论。到底什么是文学？当代着名文学理论家乔纳森·卡勒说：“文学就是一个特定的社会认为是文学的任何作品，也就是由文化权威们认定可以算作文学作品的任何文本。”但他又接着说，当然，这样的结论是绝对不会令人满意的。它只是调换了问题，而没有解决问题：不去问“什么是文学”，而用是什么让我们或“一个特定的社会”把一些东西界定为文学的问题去代替。他又进一步解释说，“当语言脱离了其他语境，超越了其他目的时，它就可以被解读成文学。”“文学是一种可以引起某种关注的言语行为或文本。”解读这样的文本，读者不需要假定是某段言语让他们做某些事，他们会主动注意到潜在的复杂性，并寻求隐含的意义。
The“literariness”of non-literary phenomena indicates that the notion of literature continues to playa role and needs to be further discussed. What is literature after all？ The contemporary famous Americanliterary theorist Jonathan Culler concludes：“Literature is whatever a given society treats as literature—aset of texts that cultural arbiters recognize as belonging to literature.”But he continues： Such a conclusionis completely unsatisfying， of course. It simply displaces instead of resolving the question： rather thanask“what is literature？”we need to ask“what makes us (or some other society) treat something asliterature？”He also explains：“When language is removed from other contexts， detached from otherpurposes， it can be interpreted as literature.”“Literature is a speech act or textual event that elicits certainkinds of attention.”Reading such a text， readers attend to potential complexities and look for implicitmeanings， without assuming that the utterance is telling them to do something.
我们可以把文学作品理解成具有某种属性或某种特点的语言，我们也可以把文学看做程式（语言形式）的产物，或者某种关注的结果。从语言学的视角来看，文学是一种把语言本身置于“突出地位”的语言。文学是把文本中各种要素和成分都组合在一种错综复杂的关系中的语言。文学是虚构——文学作品是对“真实世界”言语的具有虚构性的模仿。文学是审美对象，即语言的美学作用。文学是互文性的或者自反性的建构。文学的互文性和它的自反性并不是一个界定特点，而是语言的某些方面的突出运用和有关语言再现的问题，在其他地方可能也会观察到同样的现象。看来，不论从哪种视角都不能包容另一种而成为一种综合全面的观点。
We can think of literary works as language with particular properties or features， and we can also thinkof literature as the product of conventions (language forms) and a certain kind of attention. From the linguisticperspective： Literature is language that“foregrounds”language itself. Literature is language in which thevarious elements and components of the text are brought into a complex relation. Literature is considered asfiction—literary works are fictional imitations of“real world”utterances. Literature is regarded as aestheticobject， i.e. the aesthetic function of language. Literature is considered as intertextual or self-reflexiveconstruct. The intertextuality and self-reflexivity of literature is not a defining feature but a foregroundingof aspects of language use and questions about representation that may also be observed elsewhere. Neitherperspective， it seems， can englobe the other to become the comprehensive perspective.
文学的界定是个见仁见智的问题。我国出版的《现代汉语词典》把文学定义为“以语言文字为工具形象化地反映客观现实的艺术，包括戏剧、诗歌、小说、散文等”。英国出版的《文学词汇词典》给文学下的定义是：文学是个含糊的术语，通常指属于史诗、戏剧、抒情诗、小说、短篇小说、颂歌等主要文体的着作。如果我们把某种东西叫做“文学”，相对其他任何东西而言，那个术语“文学”就带有质量的含义，暗指所谈的作品质量优秀，远在普通的作品之上。然而，很多着作并不能归入某种主要的文学类型，但由于它们的写作极有价值，具有独创性和普遍的审美及艺术成就，还是可以认为是文学的，如科学家达尔文的《物种起源》，历史学家J. B. 伯里的《罗马帝国衰亡史》等。《美国大学词典》对文学的定义是：文学是以表达永久而普遍兴趣的思想与有关的说法和形式为特征或基本特点的诗歌、虚构小说、历史、传记、散文等着作。文学是特定语言、时期、人民、主题等的所有作品的统称，如英语文学。《新牛津英语词典》定义文学为“是书写的，特别是那些被认为有优秀持久艺术价值的作品”。
Defining literature is a question that different people look at it in different ways and have differentviews. The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary published in our country defines literature as art of reflectingthe objective reality through images by the use of written languages， including drama， poem， novel， prose，etc. A Dictionary of Literary Terms published in Great Britain gives literature the definition： A vague termwhich usually denotes works which belong to the major genres： epic， drama， lyric， novel， short story， ode， etc.
If we describe something as“literature”， as opposed to anything else， the term carries with it qualitativeconnotations which imply that the work in discussed has superior qualities； that it is well above the ordinaryrun of written works. However， there are many works which cannot be classified in the main literary genreswhich nevertheless may be regarded as literature by virtue of the excellence of their writing， their originalityand their general aesthetic and artistic merits. For instance， scientist Darwin’s On the Origin of Species，historian J.B. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire， etc. The definition of literature given byThe American College Dictionary is that“writings in which expression and form， in connection with ideasof permanent and universal interest， are characteristic or essential features， as poetry， romance， history，biography， essays， etc.”It is the entire body of writings of a specific language， period， people， subject， etc.：
the literature of England. The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines literature as“written works，especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit”.
2．文学的特点
通过阅读文学作品和分析上述文学定义，我们明白了世界各国的文学都有下列共同的特点。
2．The features of literature
By reading literary works and analyzing the definitions of literature mentioned above， we’ve come to seethe common features of different national literatures as follows.
2.1 文学是语言的艺术
使用文学作品的作者艺术地使用语言。最重要的是，文学语言强调词的内涵意义而不是字面意义。不像科学语言主要强调语言的字面价值，文学家以一种更微妙的方式使用语言——充分发挥词可能含有的激起感情联系的内涵意义。“母亲”这个词就是个切题的好例子。它的字面意义只是“母亲”，但内涵意义却包含有“保护、温暖、关心、热爱、献身、家庭、童年的幸福记忆”等。因此，文学是言语的艺术，即语言的艺术使用。
2.1 Literature is the artistic use of language
Authors of literary works make use of language artistically. Most importantly， literary languageemphasizes connotative rather than denotative meanings of words. Unlike scientific language which mainlyemphasizes the denotative value of language， writers of literature use language in a more subtle manner—to bring into full play all the emotional associations that words may carry. A good case in point is the wordmother， whose denotation is simply the female parent， but the connotation may include such meanings asprotection， warmth， care， love， devotion， home， and a happy memory of one’s childhood. Thus， literature is theart of words， i.e. the artistic use of language.
2.2 文学是一种艺术
文学是“以语言文字为工具形象化地反映客观现实的艺术”。文学作品是一个语言活动过程，这个过程设计出一个虚构的世界，其中包括陈述人、角色、事件和隐含的读者。作者收集或想象一些或全部写作材料。这也许就是为什么文学常常被认为是想象的着作的原因。
甚至主要依靠实实在在事件的历史小说也是虚构的，因为历史小说中包含有历史上绝不存在的人物、对话、事件和背景。文学的虚构性也在于作家对其作品施行的艺术掌控。这种艺术掌控使写作作品的材料产生出风格化的效果，这样，就把文学作品与客观现实分开了。这种分开情况的发生只是因为在文学现象与真实生活之间总是存在着明显的差异。文学来源于现实生活，但文学作品中反映出来的生活却可以而且应该比普通的实际生活更高，更强烈，更有集中性，更典型，更理想，因此就更带普遍性。
2.2 Literature is an art
Literature is an“art of reflecting the objective reality through images by the use of written languages”.
The literary work is a linguistic event which projects a fictional world that includes speaker， actors， events，and an implied audience. Authors make up or imagine some or all the materials. This is perhaps whyliterature is often thought of as imaginative literature. Even historical fiction， which chiefly relies on factualevents， is also fictional， as it includes characters， dialogues， events， and settings that never existed in history.
The fictional quality of literature also lies in the artistic control that writers exercise over the work. Thisartistic control produces the effect of stylizing the materials of the work， thus setting it apart from the real.
This occurs simply because there always exists an obvious disparity between literary phenomena and real life.
The source of literature is real life. But life as reflected in works of literature can and ought to be on a higherplane， more intense， more concentrated， more typical， nearer the ideal， and therefore more universal thanactual everyday life.
2.3 文学是真实的
尽管文学大多是“虚构的”，但它生来就有真实的本质。这样，文学就存在着一种——其想象的特性与其真实的人类情况的再现间的似非而是的论点。换句话说， 我们会发现文学在虚构性与真实性间有一种悖论。文学的真实性主要存在于下列三方面。
2.3 Literature is true
Despite that literature is mostly“fictional”， it has the innate nature of being true. Thus， there existsa paradox in literature—its imaginative properties against its representation of actual human conditions. Inother words， we can find in literature a paradox between fictionality and truth. There are mainly three ways forliterature to be true.
首先，文学对真实生活的事实而言是真实的。文学直接说明对真人、真事、真地点的描写。更重要的是，从传达人生真实思想的动力这个角度来说，文学是真实的。
其次，文学由于间接地说明了作者在作品中表达的思想而存在着真实性，因为作者尽管在其作品中用所有的细节编造了一个想象的世界，但这个想象的世界是建立在作者对真实世界的思想基础之上的。
最后，读者在文学作品中读到的通常是典型人物和接连巧合的活动，那是作者把真实生活的混乱状况整理得有条不紊，把真实的人们典型化成各种人物，并详述他们在真实生活中可能进行的各种活动。这样，我们常能发现文学作品中的各种人物代表着我们真实生活的各种熟人。
First of all， literature is true to the facts of real life. It directly states the depictions of real people， actualplaces， and existing events. More importantly， literature is true in the sense of its power of communicatingtruthful ideas of human life.
Then， literature is true because of the indirectly stated ideas that the authors present in literary works.
Though all the details of a literary work make up an imaginary world， such a world is based on the author’sideas about the real world.
Finally， what we readers usually encounter in literary works are the typical characters and probableactions. By imposing order on the chaos of real life， authors present characters who typify real people， andthey recount actions that would probably happen in real life. Because of this， we are often be able to findcharacters who represent recognizable types of people in real life.
2.4 文学是审美对象
文学的美学特点在于其语言的美学作用。现代西方美学的重要理论家伊曼努尔·康德认为，美学就是在物质世界和精神世界之间架起一座桥梁的尝试，是沟通一个由力量和庞然大物组成的世界与一个由理念组成的世界的尝试。审美对象，例如文学作品、音乐和美术作品通过作用于感官的形式（语言、声音、色彩）和精神的内涵（思想理念）融为一体来实现把物质与精神结合在一起的可能性。一部文学作品就是一个审美对象，这是因为在暂时排除或搁置了其他交流功能之后，文学促使读者去思考形式与内容间的关系。审美对象具有“无目的的合目的性”。它们的建构具有一种目的性：使它们的各个部分都协调一致地去实现某个目的，但这个目的就是艺术作品本身，是蕴含在作品当中的愉悦，或者是由作品引起的愉悦。我们从文学中得到的愉悦能够在作者使用比如隐喻、情节、人物、象征、讽刺、悬念、主题、有韵律的语言等文学技巧的方式中发现。所有这些文学元素结合在一起就组成了一种艺术美的有机连贯性。并且，我们在感觉文学艺术美的过程中，还能探索文学的深刻意义。
大作家们无疑很能把文学的美学品质与作品要传达的思想紧密地联系起来，使用令人愉悦的社会习俗来提高和传达他们的主题。
2.4 Literature is aesthetic object
The aesthetic property of literature lies in its aesthetic function of language. For Immanuel Kant，the primary theorist of modern Western aesthetics， the aesthetic is the name of the attempt to bridge thegap between the material and the spiritual world， between a world of forces and magnitudes and a worldof concepts. Aesthetic objects， such as works of literature， music and paintings， with their combinationof sensuous form (languages， sounds， colours) and spiritual content (ideas)， illustrate the possibility ofbringing together the material and the spiritual. A literary work is an aesthetic object because， with othercommunicative functions initially bracketed or suspended， it engages readers to consider the interrelationbetween form and content. Aesthetic objects have a“purposiveness without purpose”. There is apurposiveness to their construction： they are made so that their parts will work together towards some end.
But the end is the work of art itself， pleasure in the work or pleasure occasioned by the work. The pleasure weget from literature can be found in the way authors use literary techniques， such as metaphor， plot， character，symbolism， irony， suspense， theme， and rhythmic language. All such literary elements combine together toform an organic coherence of artistic beauty. Moreover， while experiencing beauty of literature， we can tracethe profound meanings in literature. Great authors are undoubtedly very competent to make the aestheticqualities of literature inextricably bound up with the ideas conveyed by their works. They use pleasurableconventions to enhance and communicate their themes.
2.5 文学的类型
文学的类型不能认为是固定的标签，但可看成是具体历史、文化和意识形态的产物或构建，是不断变化的过程或繁复交错的流动。一般说来，文学分为四大类型：诗歌、戏剧、小说和散文。
如果说散文是语言使用的扩展，诗歌则力求简洁。诗歌用高浓缩的句法，向读者呈现出思想、感情、反思、感觉的制高点。诗歌常常表达人类最强烈、最深刻的感觉。很多优美的诗歌成了我们终生的朋友，我们反复读诵，以求对人生的平和反思、理解和顿悟。诗歌又分成抒情诗（包括颂歌、民谣、十四行诗等）、史诗（即叙事诗）和戏剧诗。
戏剧是通过演员为观众好和为观众高兴而在舞台上或影视中表演的文学类型。戏剧的本质是通过言语和行为来塑造人物和发展剧情。尽管现代剧使用的是散文对话，原则上戏剧语言应像日常用语一样，但很多过去的戏剧用的是诗歌形式。戏剧又分为悲剧、喜剧、悲喜剧、家庭剧和传奇剧。
小说，或叫散文小说，从广义来说，是用散文或韵文形式写的任何文学记事；从狭义来说，小说只指用散文写的记事，并且有时简直用作“（长篇）小说”的同义词。它通常有情节、人物、活动和对话。有时故事是“真的”，但更多时候不是。有的小说，如历史小说或自传小说，可能集中在真人上， 并且情节可能依托的是真实事件，但人物间的互动方式和情节如何展开就是作者自己的创造了。散文小说的本质就是叙事，叙述相连的一连串事件和活动。小说通常集中叙述一个或几个人物，如何处理与其他人物间的关系，如何试图解决他们间的问题，其结果也叙述了他们是如何变化和成长的。小说又可分成历史小说、心理小说、社会风俗小说、自然主义小说、现实主义小说、超现实主义小说、魔幻现实小说、后现代小说等。
散文指任何非虚构性文章，并且近来它又叫做创作性非虚构作品。它是所有文学形式中最灵活、最适应的一种。散文包括随笔、传记、自传、游记、回忆录、自然景观、人物特写、新闻报道、特写文章、历史着作之类的东西。散文的主要目的是陈述事实并对历史、科学、时事的真实世界给出符合逻辑的结论。
2.5 Literary Classifications
Literary genres can not be considered as fixed labels but can be considered as histotical， cultural andideological specifics or construct， ever changing processes or interlacing fluid. Generally speaking， literaturemay be classified into four categories or genres： poetry， drama， prose fiction and nonfiction prose.
Poetry strives towards brevity if prose is expansive in the use of language. It offers the reader highpoints of emotion， reflection， thought and feeling with highly compacted syntax. Very often， poetry expressesthe most powerful and deeply felt experiences of human beings. Many exquisite poems become our lifelongfriends， and we visit them over and over again for insight， understanding， and peaceful reflection about ourlife. Poetry may be subclassified into lyric (including ode， ballad &； sonnet)， epic poetry (i.e. narrative poetry)and dramatic poetry.
Drama is literature designed for stage or film presentation by actors for the benefit and delight of theaudience. The essence of drama is the development of character and situation through speech and action.
Although most modern plays use prose dialogue， on the principle that the language of drama should resemblethe language of everyday speech， many plays from the past are in poetic form. Drama may be subclassifiedinto tragedy， comedy， tragicomedy， domestic drama and melodrama.
Fiction， or prose fiction， in an inclusive sense， is any literary narrative， whether in prose or verse. Ina narrower sense， fiction denotes only narratives that are written in prose and sometimes it is used simplyas a synonym for“novel.”It normally has a plot， characters， action and dialogue. Sometimes the storiesare“true”， but more often they are not. Some fiction， for instance， historical or autobiographical fiction，may focus on real people and the plot may be grounded in actual events， but the way characters interact andhow the plot unfolds are the author’s own invention. The essence of prose fiction is narration， the relating of asequence of events or actions. Fictional works usually focus on one or a few major characters who change andgrow as a result of how they deal with other characters and how they attempt to solve their problems. Prosefiction may be subclassified into historical novel， psychological novel， novel of manners， naturalistic novel，realist novel， surrealist novel， magical realist novels， postmodern fiction， etc.
Nonfiction prose refers to any piece of non-fiction writing. And recently， it is also called CreativeNonfiction. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms. It consists of essays， biography，autobiography， travels， memoir， natural landscape， figure profile， news reports， feature articles， historicalworks， etc. The main purpose of nonfiction prose is to present truths and make logical conclusions about thefactual world of history， science， and current events.
3．结论
综上所述，我们得出多数人的结论。在学术界，大学教授们尽管喜好不同，但大都同意下述说法：大学文学课堂里讨论什么， 什么就是文学。从各种文本的文学性来看，文学可以下列方式定义：从广义来说，文学指在一个国家或在世界范围内，在一段时期或在整个历史时期内，用一种语言或多种语言写作的一切文章；从狭义来讲，文学指“世界上表达出来的最佳思想和言论”（马修·安诺德）。从人文主义观点来看，文学就是人生的呈现，文学就是人生的精髓。
3．Conclusion
To sum up what is discussed above， we’ve come to the conclusion of the majority. In academic circles，university professors， though having different favorites， most of them agree to the following statement：
Literature is what is discussed in university literary classes. From the literariness of texts of all sorts， literaturemay be defined in the following ways： In a broad sense， literature refers to all the literary compositions writtenin one or many languages， of one country or of the world， in one period or of the whole history. In the narrowsense， literature refers to“the best that has been thought and said in the world”(Matthew Arnold). From ahumanistic point of view， literature is the representation of human life. Literature is the essence of life.
