Book Trivia | 100 random trivia & facts about literature [Part 1]

Literature is a collection of written works. We usually read books for our entertainment or for gaining knowledge about a specific topic.

But what is literatute, exactly? And how did it start?

Literature, most generically, is any body or collection of written works
More restrictively, literature refers to writing considered to be an art form or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value
Literature sometimes deploys language in ways that differ from ordinary usage
Its Latin root literatura/litteratura was used to refer to all written accounts
It derived itself from littera
Littera means a letter or handwriting
The concept has changed meaning over time to include texts that are spoken or sung (oral literature), and non-written verbal art forms
Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing distribution and proliferation of written works
This lead to electronic literature
Literature is classified according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction, and whether it is poetry or prose
Fiction can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel, short story, or drama
Such works are often categorized according to historical periods or their adherence to certain aesthetic features or genre
Definitions of literature have varied over time: it is a “culturally relative definition”
In Western Europe prior to the 18th century, literature denoted all books and writing
In the Romantic period we can find a more restricted mean of the term, in which it began to demarcate “imaginative” writing
Contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to older, more inclusive notions
Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of analysis both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works
The value judgment definition of literature considers it to cover exclusively those writings that possess high quality or distinction, forming part of the so-called belles-lettres tradition
This sort of definition is that used in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–11) when it classifies literature as “the best expression of the best thought reduced to writing”
Problematic in this view is that there is no objective definition of what constitutes “literature”
Anything can be literature, and anything which is universally regarded as literature has the potential to be excluded, since value judgments can change over time
The formalist definition is that “literature” foregrounds poetic effects
It is the “literariness” or “poetic” of literature that distinguishes it from ordinary speech or other kinds of writing
Jim Meyer considers this a useful characteristic in explaining the use of the term to mean published material in a particular field
Such writing must use language according to particular standards
The problem with the formalist definition is that in order to say that literature deviates from ordinary uses of language, those uses must first be identified
This is difficult because “ordinary language” is an unstable category, differing according to social categories and across history
Etymologically, the term derives from Latin literatura/litteratura “learning, a writing, grammar,” originally “writing formed with letters,” from litera/littera “letter”
In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spoken or sung texts
Literary genre is a mode of categorizing literature. A French term for “a literary type or class”
However, such classes are subject to change, and have been used in different ways in different periods and traditions
The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment, enlightenment, or instruction to the reader/listener/observer
As well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pieces
It is worth noting that not all writings constitute literature
Some recorded materials, such as compilations of data are not considered literature
Literature and writing, though connected, are not synonymous
The very first writings from ancient Sumer by any reasonable definition do not constitute literature
The same is true of some of the early Egyptian hieroglyphics or the thousands of logs from ancient Chinese regimes
Scholars have often disagreed concerning when written record-keeping became more like “literature” than anything else
Moreover, given the significance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier centuries, the historical development of literature did not occur at an even pace across the world
The problems of creating a uniform global history of literature are compounded by the fact that many texts have been lost over the millennia, either deliberately, by accident, or by the total disappearance of the originating cultur
Such an example is the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in the 1st century BC, and the innumerable key texts which are believed to have been lost forever to the flames
The deliberate suppression of texts and some authors by organisations of either a spiritual or a temporal nature further shrouds the subject
Certain primary texts, however, may be isolated which have a qualifying role as literature’s first stirrings
Very early examples include Epic of Gilgamesh, in its Sumerian version predating 2000 BC, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead written down in the Papyrus of Ani in approximately 1250 BC but probably dates from about the 18th century BC
Ancient Egyptian literature was not included in early studies of the history of literature because the writings of Ancient Egypt were not translated into European languages until the 19th century
Then was when the Rosetta stone was deciphered
Many texts handed down by oral tradition over several centuries before they were fixed in written form are difficult or impossible to date
The core of the Rigveda may date to the mid 2nd millennium BC
The Pentateuch is traditionally dated to the 15th century
Although modern scholarship estimates its oldest part to date to the 10th century BC at the earliest
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey date to the 8th century BC and mark the beginning of Classical Antiquity
They also stand in an oral tradition that stretches back to the late Bronze Age
Indian śruti texts post-dating the Rigveda, as well as the Hebrew Tanakh and the mystical collection of poems attributed to Lao Tze, the Tao te Ching, date to the Iron Age
It was worth noting that their dating is difficult and controversial
The great Hindu epics were also transmitted orally, likely predating the Maurya period
The Classic of Poetry is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry
It is called Shijing
It is comprising 305 works by anonymous authors dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC
The Chu Ci anthology is a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by Qu Yuan’s verse writing
Qu Yuan is the first author of verse in China to have his name associated to his work
It is also regarded as one of the most prominent figures of Romanticism in Chinese classical literature
The first great author on military tactics and strategy was Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War remains on the shelves of many modern military officers
The book’s advice has been applied to the corporate world as well
Philosophy developed far differently in China than in Greece
Rather than presenting extended dialogues, the Analects of Confucius and Lao Zi’s Tao Te Ching presented sayings and proverbs more directly and didactically
The Zhuangzi is composed of a large collection of creative anecdotes, allegories, parables, and fables
It is considered a masterpiece of both philosophical and literary skill
It has significantly influenced writers and poets for more than 2000 years from the Han dynasty to the present
Among the earliest Chinese works of narrative history, Zuo Zhuan is a gem of classical Chinese prose
This work and the Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian, were regarded as the ultimate models by many generations of prose stylists in ancient China
The books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium
The oldest texts seem to come from the eleventh or tenth centuries BCE, whilst most of the other texts are somewhat later
They are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together
The Old Testament was compiled and edited by various men over a period of centuries
Many scholars concluding that the Hebrew canon was solidified by about the 3rd century BC
The works have been subject to various literary evaluations, both secular and religious
Ancient Greek society placed considerable emphasis upon literature
Many authors consider the western literary tradition to have begun with the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey
This examples remain giants in the literary canon for their skillful and vivid depictions of war and peace, honor and disgrace, love and hatred
Notable among later Greek poets was Sappho
She defined, in many ways, lyric poetry as a genre
A playwright named Aeschylus changed Western literature forever when he introduced the ideas of dialogue and interacting characters to playwriting
In doing so, he essentially invented “drama”
His Oresteia trilogy of plays is seen as his crowning achievement
Other refiners of playwriting were Sophocles and Euripides
Sophocles is credited with skillfully developing irony as a literary technique, most famously in his play Oedipus Rex
Euripedes, conversely, used plays to challenge societal norms and mores
This became a hallmark of much of Western literature for the next 2,300 years and beyond
His works such as Medea, The Bacchae and The Trojan Women are still notable for their ability to challenge our perceptions of propriety, gender, and war
Aristophanes, a comic playwright, defines and shapes the idea of comedy almost as Aeschylus had shaped tragedy as an art form
Aristophanes’ most famous plays include the Lysistrata and The Frogs
Philosophy entered literature in the dialogues of Plato
Plato converted the give and take of Socratic questioning into written form
Aristotle, Plato’s student, wrote dozens of works on many scientific disciplines
His greatest contribution to literature was likely his Poetics
This lays out his understanding of drama
It thereby establishes the first criteria for literary criticism
John’s Book of Revelation, though not the first of its kind, essentially defines apocalypse as a literary genre