Definitions of Literature According to Authors

Ada banyak pengertian-pengertian tentang sastra. Namun, berhubung aku dikasih tugas oleh my lecture harus mencari ten definitions of literature. So, hanya 10 pengertian dari terbaik yang terbaik yang aku ambil (itu menurutku sih...) dari hasil browsing. Well, let's check it out.....!!!

1.        Henry van Dyke

“Literature consists of those writing which interpret the meanings of nature and life, in words of charm and power, touched with the personality of the author, in artistic forms of permanent interest.”

Reference:http://www.scribd.com/doc/27042357/LITERATURE

2.  Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (Muslim Scholar and Philosopher)

“Literature is the garment which one puts on what he says or writes so that it may appear more attractive.”

Reference: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27042357/LITERATURE

3.        Roman Jakobson (Russian Formalist)

“Literature is organized violence committed on ordinary speech”

Reference: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27042357/LITERATURE

4.        Ezra Pound

“Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.”

Reference: http://www.scribd.com/doc/27042357/LITERATURE

5.        Salman Rushdie

"Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart."

Reference: http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_literaturequ.htm

6.        G. K. Chesterton

“Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity."

Reference: http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_literaturequ.htm

7.         C. S. Lewis

"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become."

Reference: http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_literaturequ.htm

 8.      Henry Miller

“Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”

Reference: http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_literaturequ.htm

9.        Alfred North Whitehead

"It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression."

Reference: http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_literaturequ.htm

10.    E.M. Forster

"What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote."

Reference: http://classiclit.about.com/od/basicsliteratureintro/a/aa_literaturequ.htm

Well, from definition above I can get point (sok...sok... nih pake english) bahwa "Literature" atau dalam bahasa Indonesia "Sastra" adalah sebuah hasil dari pemikiran, experience, imagination bin angan-angan alias ngayal dari seorang anak manusia (berarti anak embe kagak bisa ya....hihihi...) yang tertuang dalam bentuk kata-kata that beauty. Dan keindahan kata-kata itu akan ber-effect pada five sense kita. Ketika kita membaca karya sastra, contohnya sebuah novel, kita akan merasakan apa yang penulis katakan or gambarkan walaupun kita belum pernah merasakannya or berada di sebuah tempat yang penulis gambarkan. Kita seolah-olah dapat melihat dengan mata kita, mendengar dengan telinga kita, mencium dengan hidung kita, merasa dengan kulit or lidah kita, kita bisa menjadi orang lain. Itu lah sastra dalam versi ku, so how about you?