Literature

"Literature," the latest volume in the highly successful "New Critical Idiom" series, is at once a compact mine of information about the development and more recent discrediting of the concept of "literature," and a reflection on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Comprehensive in scope, it offers a concise history of the consitution of a canonic concept of "literature" from its earliest origins to the orthodoxies that occurred through the later nineteenth-century to the middle of the twentieth. It also traces its dismantling from the late-60s onward. Finally, the book attemps to recuperate a notion of "the literary" by way of a series of readings of diverse texts. It is an excellent primer for anyone who loves the written word.

This introductory volume provides an overview of the history of Literature as a cultural concept, and reflects on the contemporary nature, place and function of what the literary might mean for us today. Literature: * offers a concise history of the canonic concept of 'literature' from its earliest origins * illustrates the kinds of theoretical issues which are currently invoked by the term 'literary' * provides a definition of the 'literary' for the twenty-first century With Literature Peter Widdowson provides a thought-provoking essay on the contemporary relevance of the 'literary' for students.

Acknowledgements 1. What Is 'Literature'? Some (Non-)Definitions 2. What Has 'Literature' Been? A History of the Concept, Part One: Origins to Orthodoxies 3. What Has Happened to 'Literature'? A History of the Concept, Part Two: After the 1960s 4. What Is 'The Literary'? 5. The Uses of 'The Literary': Newstories 6. Watch This Space Endnotes References Index