Question Details

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
this sense, one can think of literature less as some inherent quality or set of qualities displayed by certain kinds of writing all the way from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf, than as a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing. It would not be easy to isolate, from all that has been variously called ‘literature, some constant set of inherent features. In fact, it would be as impossible as trying to identify the single distinguishing feature which all games have in common. There is no ‘essence’ of literature whatsoever. Any bit of writing may be read ‘non-pragmatically’, if that is what reading a text as literature means, just as any writing may be read ‘poetically. If I pore over the railway timetable not to discover a train connection but to stimulate in myself general reflections on the speed and complexity of modern existence, then I might be said to be reading it as literaturE) John M. Ellis has argued that the term ‘literature’ operates rather like the word ‘weed’: weeds are not particular kinds of plant, but just any kind of plant which for some reason or another a gardener does not want arounD) Perhaps ‘literature’ means something like the opposite: any kind of writing which for some reason or another somebody values highly. As the philosophers might say, ‘literature’ and ‘weed’ are functional rather than ontological terms: they tell us about what we do, not about the fixed being of things.


What is the significance of the analogy drawn between “weed” and “literature” in the context of the passage?

Options

A

They do not serve any descriptive function.

B

They serve some prescriptive functions.

C

They are considered expendable by deterministic systems.

D

They are both subterranean beings.

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option C

They are considered expendable by deterministic systems.

Solution :

The correct option is: They are considered expendable by deterministic systems.

Let us analyze the passage to understand why this option is correct.
The passage discusses how "literature," much like the term "weed," is a functional rather than an ontological term. This means they are defined not by their inherent, fixed essence or being, but by how we interact with them and the values we assign to them.
Specifically, a "weed" is any plant that a gardener does not want in a structured, planned garden—making it expendable within that deterministic, organized botanical environment. Similarly, what is labeled as "literature" is defined by value judgments and human utility rather than a fixed place in a rigid, deterministic classification system.

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  • CLAT
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