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 implication of the phrase, “there is no ‘essence’ of literature whatsoever” in the passage?

Options

A

There is no sensibility in literary texts.

B

There is no central meaning in literary texts.

C

There is no aesthetic consideration in literature

D

There is no rational logic in literature

Show Answer

Correct Answer :

Option B

There is no central meaning in literary texts.

Solution :

The correct option is: There is no central meaning in literary texts.

Step-by-step Explanation:
1. Analyze the Passage Context:
The passage states that literature is not defined by "some inherent quality or set of qualities," and that it is impossible to isolate a "constant set of inherent features" that makes something literature. Instead, literature is described as a functional category—a "number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing."

2. Understand the Term "Essence":
An "essence" refers to the intrinsic, fixed nature or indispensable quality of something that determines its character. When the passage asserts that "there is no 'essence' of literature whatsoever," it implies that literature does not possess a fixed, objective, or universal core identity.

3. Connect to the Correct Answer:
Because literature lacks a fixed, inherent essence and is instead defined by how readers interact with and value a text (making it functional rather than ontological), it follows that literary texts do not possess a single, fixed, or pre-determined central meaning. The meaning is not a stable "being" inside the text; rather, it is dynamically generated depending on how a reader chooses to relate to and read the writing.

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