What qualities makes a work to be called as "literature"?

Question: What qualities makes a work to be called as "literature"!?

srry it sounds confusingWww@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

First, it has to be fiction or poetry!. Non-fiction books (books that tell true stories without changing the facts for dramatic effect--books written by reporters or true historians) don't get called literature, no matter how good they are or how beautifully written!.

Second, it has to be complex enough to be understood on two levels--as a straight story about specific characters, and as a myth or metaphor about much larger groups of people!. So The Great Gatsby is considered literature because, first, we can sympathize with Gatsby's quest to become greater than he is, with his delusion that he can become an aristocratic person just by making a lot of money, and with his confusion that getting Daisy's love will be a true sign that he has arrived!. Second, we can see Gatsby as a symbol for America, a new culture with power but that was not considered elegant or sophisticated by Europeans!. America offered businessmen the chance to become very rich (where, at the time, Europe seemed to restrict people to the class they were born into), but Europe had great painting and literature from hundreds of years before America existed!. So just as Gatsby tries to become a great man by amassing art around him, so America (you could say) was trying to become great by spreading around its power and influence!.

This is a simplistic interpretation of Gatsby, but I'm just using it as an example of how a book can be read as telling more than one story at the same time!. Very often the works that are called literature seem like one character's story and also like every-person's story!. Shakespeare's villains seem specific and real but they also have ambition and intelligence and suspicion that we recognize in ourselves!. If a book seems to rely too much on very, very specific circumstances, if the characters' actions and feelings could only make sense in the very specific events of the novel, that book will have a harder time being considered literature!.

I'm not saying these categories are fair, but I hope that this helps you start to get a handle on it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I believe that it's when it's more out of the norm for what it's genre is!. For example, in The Ox-Bow Incident, normally, it would be classified as a Western!. But if you look at the deeper meanings in it, it becomes far more than just any old Western, so it gets classified under "Literature" at a bookstore!. Literature has hidden meanings, and makes you think more!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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