Text file: Download PDF file Authors: National Open University Of Nigeria Video Lecture: Not available Text size: 143 pages Preview: What is Literature? Literature springs from our inborn love of telling a story, of arranging words in pleasing patterns,
Text file: Download PDF file Authors: National Open University Of Nigeria Video Lecture: Not available Text size: 143 pages Preview: What is Literature? Literature springs from our inborn love of telling a story, of arranging words in pleasing patterns, of expressing in words some special aspect of our human experience. It is usually set down in printed characters for us to read, though some forms of it are performed on certain social occasions. There are a number of different branches such as drama, poetry, the novel, the short story; all these are works of the imagination arising from man’s capacity for invention. The primary aim of literature is to give pleasure, to entertain those who voluntarily attend to it. There are, of course, many different ways of giving pleasure or entertainment, ranging from the most philosophical and profound. It is important to note that the writer of literature is not tied to fact in quite the same way as the historian, the economist or the scientist, whose studies are absolutely based on what has actually happened, or on what actually does happen, in the world of reality.