definition of literary

1. Quality associated with the field of literature.

2. Literary properties that are identified in a text. Examples: rhetorical figures, open or closed ending, rhyme, etc.

Locution

Literary genre (YE). Categories and sub-categories that allow organizing the types of works. Examples: dramatic, lyrical and narrative.

literary language (YE). Intelligent and thoughtful handling of words for the narrative or poetic creation of a work.

literary movement (YE). New style characterized by the imprint of the authors of the time and the tendency to develop it. Examples: neoclassicism, realism, romanticism, surrealism, etc.

Literary translation (nd). It maintains the original ideas using other terms, unlike a literal translation in which it tries to respect each word.

Etymology: by latin litterariusregarding littĕrafor ‘letter’, and the suffix -ary, in the Latin form -arius..

Grammatical category: Adjective. female form in literary.
in syllables: li-te-ra-rio.

Literary

The literary is nothing more than, in a very simplified way, that characteristic that is recognized in literary texts, as an adjective property. For its part, the term literature, in itself, is nothing more than the generic name given by humanity to a domain of objects, built with linguistic signs and with a determined communicative function.

Finally, the literary is the sign of literature. It is the visible (or perceptible) sign of linguistic manifestations with an aesthetic function. The literary thing consists of beauty in the expression, uses the denotative language in a more frequent and worked way. For this reason, in the history of literature, not all texts are considered literary works, but those that contain in themselves that language embellished by literary resources.

History of the concept

The word literature comes from the Latin term litterae (plural), associated with the Greek grammar. The singular means “letter”, so its plural includes everything related to the chaining of signs to form texts.

In its beginnings, what we know today as literature, that is, that has literary value, was collected as poetry, calling prose in its artistic form eloquence. This was due to the artistic and beautifying uses of speech, such as connotative language, that were used and that were defined and described by the work of Aristotle. He described, in a general sense, the culture possessed by someone literate: a lawyer.

It is in the second half of the eighteenth century when the great change occurs and the term goes from considering men of letters, to encompass the “activity of letters” and the resulting product, known today as literary product. At this time, moreover, it is considered circumscribed within a geographical area, limiting its reference only to the literature of one country: Spanish literature, German literature, French literature, etc.

Little by little it is being transformed, to be used in allusion to the literary phenomenon in general, no longer circumscribed to a particular national literature, although the use of geographical identification can be heard to refer to the product of a country. This notion goes towards the idea of ​​aesthetic creation, as an intellectual category and particular form of knowledge.

Characteristics

According to the ideas set forth by Aristotle, the literary work has certain functions and, above all, the possession of the aesthetic. Furthermore, he reflects on one of the most interesting extra-aesthetic functions of poetic discourse: catharsis. This is accepted as the purifying effect of the feelings and emotions that the spectator experiences before the theatrical performances. Although theater is considered a literary genre in Aristotelian theory, it is worth clarifying that its written representation is eminently literature, since the theatrical, the stage manifestation, is not always embodied in literature and has specificities that come from the interpretation and staging. in the scene of the director who adapts it.

In all literary creation, fundamental characteristics can be recognized, which differentiate their language from ordinary language. These are:

Grammatical value, construction or logical sense: obviously literary language has grammatical value, since it is built with linguistic signs. Except for certain avant-garde manifestations, the literary work takes care of the proper use of the structures dictated by the educated grammatical norm.

Phonetic value, sound and rhythm: the literary work is also careful not to fall into vices of language, also with respect to sound. This can be seen above all in poetry, which often uses rhyme as a fundamental element; but in the same way it can be seen in the prose, since it is sought that there are no cacophonies or unnecessary repetitions, to make the product more beautiful.

Stylistic value, emotion and spiritual quality: this could undoubtedly be the most relevant of the literary values, since, if there is no aesthetic intention, there will be no art.

What radically differentiates ordinary language from literary language is the deliberate use of connotative language, the explicit intention of endowing ordinary expression with beauty and perfection, with the artistic purpose that characterizes the literary. In any case, within literature you can find types –such as the essay or the biography– that have intermediate forms in terms of language.

Reception

The reception of the literary work materializes in reading. The existence of a reader is necessary for it to fully manifest itself and fulfill its communicative and aesthetic function. The reading process, contrary to what it may seem, is not passive, it is very active and dynamic.

This is due to the fact that each reader has an accumulation of prior knowledge, knowledge, that allows him to interpret and receive the work in accordance with it. This condition can bring, when reading certain works and under certain circumstances, stumbling blocks and difficulties for a reader who is not properly prepared. An example is reading the novel “Hopscotch”, which, due to its narrative structure and the amount of cultural references it contains, can be difficult to read.

Each generation receives a literary work from the past in different ways and based on three factors: its own doctrines and the literary production of its time, the production of the interval between the time the work was written and its present moment, and all subsequent interpretations of it. For this reason, the reading process also requires some preparation on the part of the receiver, without which it is not possible to complete and concretize the literary activity.

Following