A modest attempt to set out a theory

Summary

What is literature all about?

If one wished to give an extremely concise answer, which could serve as an entry in a short encyclopaedia, one could word it as follows:

Literature: A form of expression and communication by means of language, generally dealing with three set subjects in various contexts and combinations: 1. Sorrow or suffering. 2. Protest or complaint. 3. Consolation or semi-consolation or less, including submission. Full stop. It must also contain something new, either in the arrangement of the words and sentences, or in the arrangement of the subject-matter, or in some other way.

The following notes are intended for the reader who is not satisfied with this short description and requires further elucidation:

Sorrow: May be individual or collective, or both, interrelated, contrasted, one set against the other, etc., etc.

Protest or complaint: Either wistful, or irritable, or violent, or even rebellious.

Consolation or submission: Includes acceptance of punishment or suffering, willingness to be absorbed into the cosmic cycle, or resignation and subjugation of the will. Or reconciliation with one's fellow man or with some force or other. Or seeing the whole situation in a new light. Also includes religious illumination and the faith that lies beyond despair.

What is encompassed within this description of literature as a circle of sorrow – protest – consolation? Almost everything. Homer and Oedipus, Dante and Don Quixote, John Donne and King Lear, Andrei Bolkonski and Raskolnikov and the Three Sisters, Kafka, Hans Castorp, and those involved in trials and experiments at the present time.