What is Literature?

What is Literature?


Webster's dictionary defines literature as " all writings in prose or verse of an imaginative character, all such writings having permanent interest, and exellence of form." But what exactly does this mean? First of all who has the power to decide which works are of exellence and which aren't? And with whose permanent interests do these "works of exellence" deal with? In his essay "What is literature?" Terry Eagleton analyzes the different interpretations of the meaning of literature in different times and places, to then bring to light...