Literature (academic discipline)

Literature is the academic study and interpretation of written works, especially works valued for artistic or cultural significance. It examines how texts create meaning and relate to their historical and social contexts.

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Literary theory: A body of ideas and methods for interpreting literary works and explaining how they produce meaning. It supplies frameworks that shape literary questions and interpretations.
Formalism: An approach to literature that emphasizes a work’s formal features and internal relations. It treats structure and language as primary evidence for interpretation.
Classical philology: The scholarly study of ancient languages and texts through linguistic, historical, and textual analysis. It supplied methods and institutional traditions inherited by literary scholarship.
Textual criticism: The study of textual witnesses to establish, compare, and explain versions of a work. It addresses which wording scholars interpret when a work survives in variant forms.
Literary canon: A body of works recognized by institutions and communities as especially significant or influential. Study and teaching help establish, preserve, and revise the canon.
Literary criticism: The analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works. It is the discipline’s central practice of making reasoned claims about texts.
Historical criticism: An approach that interprets texts in relation to the historical conditions of their production and reception. It links literary form and meaning to particular historical circumstances.
Romanticism: An intellectual and artistic movement that emphasized imagination, emotion, nature, and individual expression. Its elevation of authorship and literary genius influenced modern ideas of literature.
Literary history: The study of literature’s development across periods, movements, institutions, and cultural contexts. It places individual works within changing traditions and historical conditions.
World literature: Literature considered through its circulation and reception across linguistic and national boundaries. It challenges the assumption that literary history fits within national traditions.