Origins of Literature

In addition to defining literature, literary theory also asks questions obviously not unrelated, but which open up the field somewhat: What causes literature? And what are the effects of literature? And in a way, there's a subset of questions that arises from those to the effect, and this is, of course, what we'll be taking up next time, the question What is an author? That is to say, if something causes literature, there must be some sort of authority behind it. And therefore, we find ourselves asking What is an author? And by the same token, if literature has effects, it must have effects on someone, and this gives rise to the equally interesting EFFECTIVE question: What is a reader?" Literary theory is very much involved with questions of that kind. Uhm, and organising those questions is basically what rationalises the structure of our syllabus. You'll notice that we move in the syllabus, after a couple of introductory talks that I'll be... that I'll mention in a minute, we move in the syllabus from the idea that literature is in some sense caused by language to the idea that literature is in some sense caused by the human psyche, to the idea that literature is in some sense caused by social economic and historical forces.