The Motab, Eminem, Sir Mix-A-Lot & Shel Silverstein in one post. BOOM.

1. Literature as the foregrounding of language:

"Literature is language that 'foregrounds' language itself: makes it strange, thrusts it at you ... so you can't forget that you are dealing with langage shaped in odd ways"

When listening to music we are aware that we are hearing language, although it is different than day-to-day language. It is a beautiful arrangement of words that create meaning and sometimes even cause emotion. In eminem’s song, The Monster, we realize that the lyrics are words, thousands of carefully crafted words, but they are even more than that. Their arrangement is literature, poetry—we hear rhymes both internal and end rhymes and alliterations that cause us to really listen to the words—it helps us focus and remember that this isn’t just a song, this is a compilation of words put in a certain order to jump out and grab our attention. The part of the song that really showed this ‘foregrounding of language’ for me was this:

I'm beginning to lose sleep: one sheep, two sheep

Going cukoo and cooky and Kool Keith

But I'm actually weirder than you think

After I hear these lines, I began to think about each individual word, and then sets of rhyming words (sleep, sheep, sheep). Then words that create an alliteration (CuCKoo, CooKy, Kool, Keith, thinK). All of these components helped me realize that I was ‘dealing with language shaped in odd ways”

Now watch the video and listen to all of the odd shaped language that makes this song great. 

2. Literature as the integration of language:

"Literature is language in which the various elements and components of the text are brought into a complex relation."

‘I Like big books & I cannot lie’ is on a popular graphic that has thousands of repins on Pinterest. I think this directly relates with ‘Literature as the integration of language’ because it brings these words into a complex relation with each other. Why? Because after reading it our minds think… Wait? That’s not right? Shouldn’t books say butts? This saying is really witty and clever because they use a famous lyric from a song and turn it into something that has a completely different connotation than the original. The new saying then has a complex relation between words because there is a word in the sentence that our mind doesn’t think should be there. Sometimes I think our minds are more powerful than we realize.

3. Literature as Fiction:

"Literary works often refer to imaginary rather than historical individuals ... {and those individuals are often called by} pronounes (I, you) which function in special ways in literature."

In Love by Shel Silverstein

If my face could only twist

Then I could five my cheek a kiss

And whisper in my lovely ear

"You're so beautiful my dear"

And look into my eyes and see

Just how much I'm in love with me.

Here we see a prime example of ‘Literature as fiction’. We see the author, Shel Silverstein, use several different pronouns in his poem knowing that the audience would completely understand that his pronouns are referring to a fictional character and not himself. Until reading this article I never realized that I always understood pronouns in fictional stories to be about the character. It is just something we’ve all been taught and now it has become second nature to us!

4. Literature as Aesthetic Object:

While reading about literature  as an aesthetic object I immediately thought about hymns. Immanuel Kant said that: “aesthetics is the name of the attempt to bridge the gap between the material and the spiritual world, between a world of forces and magnitudes and a world of conceps. It engages readers to consider the interrelation between form and content.” 

One of my favorite Christian hymns is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.  It was written in the 18^th century and I think it has stayed popular for this long because of its incredible power to bridge the gap between the material world and the spiritual world. When ever I hear this song sung, I literally feel the Spirit of God enter the room. This song is music for the sake of music. The combination of the melody and the lyrics creates a song that is so aesthetically pleasing, especially when sung by the MOTAB.

5. Literature as intertextual or self-reflexive construct

Often times literature is intertextual. Works of art build, repeat and change because of  an original piece of work. If we have not seen the original work, works that follow will not make sense to us. A prime example of this is a spoof I stumbled upon called “If Belle From “Beauty and the Beast” Lived In The Ghetto”. While watching this I recognized the song, similar lyrics and plays on previous words from the original song found in Beauty and the Beast. With out the original song this piece has no meaning or worth, but since it has taken ideas from the original work it has created a new take on a story and created something entirely different for a new audience. Original works of art inspire new pieces, which create a plethora of entertainment, art, and literature in our society.