Language is the basis of literature.
Literature is the accumulation of knowledge needed to write and read correctly . The concept, which comes from the Latin term litterae , is closely related to the art of grammar , rhetoric and poetics .
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , literature is an activity with artistic roots that uses language as a means of expression. The term is also used to define a group of literary productions that have arisen within a country , a period of time or within the same genre (such as Persian literature, for example) and the set of materials that revolve around a particular art or science ( sports literature , legal literature , etc.).
Literary genres
It is important to emphasize that within literature there is a fundamental concept that serves to classify the different works. We are referring to the idea of literary genre , which is used to describe the different types of works that exist and that are characterized by highlighting certain semantic, formal or phonological aspects.
We can emphasize that there are major literary genres, going back even to the classification made by Aristotle in Ancient Greece . One of them is known as lyrical : under this name are included those works that are developed through poetic prose and what are all the compositions in verse , with which it is associated with poetry . Among the most important authors of the same are, for example, Rafael Alberti , Federico García Lorca and Emily Dickinson .
The narrative genre, meanwhile, emerged for the presentation of legendary events that were shown as real or true, appealing to narration. Subgenres such as the novel , the short story , the epic and the epic poem can be recognized. Miguel de Cervantes , Charles Dickens , Jane Austen , Fyodor Dostoevsky (also mentioned as Fiódor Dostoyevski ), Leo Tolstoy ( León Tolstói or Lev Tolstói ) and Ernest Hemingway are some historical exponents of the narrative genre.
Another literary genre is drama , which is a category of theatrical works. A dramatic work can be classified as a comedy , tragedy or farce , to mention a few possibilities. An example of this type of work would be "Life is a Dream" by Pedro Calderón de la Barca .
Didactics is one of the literary genres recognized by Aristotle . The essay , the biography , the treatise , the fable and the chronicle are among the didactic subgenres that have as their purpose the teaching or the dissemination of ideas expressed in an artistic way, with an elaborate language and resources of philosophy .
In literature there are numerous genres, subgenres and styles.
The origins of literature
It is important to note that the origin of writing did not mark the beginning of literature. Sumerian texts and some Egyptian hieroglyphics, considered to be the oldest recorded writings, do not belong to the realm of literature.
Among the first literary texts is the Poem of Gilgamesh , a story of Sumerian origin that was recorded on clay tablets and whose first version dates back to 2,000 BC. Before this time, stories were usually circulated from generation to generation through oral language .
Writers in our language
As for Spanish literature , its origins date back to the 10th century with the Glosas Emilianenses and the following century with the Jarchas , a set of short lyrical compositions of a love nature.
The Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes , author of "Don Quixote de la Mancha" , is often considered the greatest exponent of literature in our language. Figures such as Francisco de Quevedo , Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer , Benito Pérez Galdós , Juan Ramón Jiménez , Vicente Aleixandre , Camilo José Cela and the already mentioned Rafael Alberti , Federico García Lorca and Pedro Calderón de la Barca were also born in Spain .
Latin America has also produced great writers such as the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges , the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío , the Chilean Isabel Allende and the Peruvian César Vallejo . The region's international boom came with the so-called Latin American Boom in the 1960s and 1970s , driven above all by the magical realism that shines in books such as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez .
In addition to García Márquez , other authors identified with the Latin American Boom are Julio Cortázar , Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes .
The British William Shakespeare is the author of great classics of universal literature.
Classic works of literature
With such a rich history, literature boasts a wealth of classic works that transcended eras and borders. We can even go back more than 2,000 years and mention “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey ,” which are attributed to the poet Homer .
In the 14th century , the Italian Dante Alighieri 's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy , appeared. Later, the Englishman William Shakespeare became one of the greatest authors of all time thanks to works such as Hamlet , Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth , which are still performed in theaters today.
Moving forward in time, in the 19th century , books such as Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky , War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy , Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen , Moby Dick by Herman Melville , and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo were published.
Among the classics of 20th century literature, we must mention "Ulysses" by James Joyce ; "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka ; "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust ; "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov ; "1984" by George Orwell ; "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley ; and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury .
Literary classics include fantasy , romance , horror , science fiction, satire and other components. There is no genre, subgenre, style or theme that takes precedence, as there are many factors that can end up immortalizing a book.
It is worth noting that literature has its main award in the Nobel Prize , a distinction granted by the Swedish Academy that is awarded every year and whose first edition was awarded to the French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme . Beyond a certain consensus on the relevance of the Nobel Prize for Literature , these awards often generate controversy. The analysis of the quality of a literary work is always subjective and there are those who warn that behind the distinctions there are often political or commercial motives.