کتاب The Practice of Literary Terminology pdf و چاپی

What, we may begin by asking, is literature, and how can we best define it? The
answer is not at all self-evident, for the term can be used in several different senses.
It can mean anything written in verse or in prose. It can mean only those works
which have a certain distinction. Or it can refer to mere verbiage: “all the rest is
literature”. For our purposes, it may be best to start by defining it as broad and
neutral a way as possible, simply as a verbal art; that is, literature belongs
traditionally to the arts, as opposed to the sciences or to practical knowledge, and
its medium is the word, as opposed to the visual signs of painting and sculpture or
the tones of music.