The definition of literature is protean with personal interpretation. A broad meaning of literature is "anything written, even what you receive in the mail if you send for free information about a weight-reducing plan or motorcycle."" It is further defined as "a kind of art, usually written, which offers pleasure and illumination- (Kennedy, xxxviii). My personal definition of the standard by which to evaluate a piece of writing as literature requires the work to create a lasting impression that invokes the emotions of the reader. Alexander Solzhenitsyn in an open letter, to the Fourth Soviet Writers' Congress narrowed the description of literature by defining what does not qualify:.
Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society, that does not warn in time against threatening moral and social dangers "such literature does not deserve the name of literature; it is only a fazade (Solzhenitsyn, www.mercuryhouse.org).
By the aforementioned standards, Toni Morrison's Beloved has undeniably earned its place in contemporary literature. Disregarding the supporting fact that Morrison received the Nobel Prize in Literature for Beloved, I intend to prove that not only is this work literature, but it will become a classic (Morrison, cover). .
Beloved was written. This complies with the concept that anything written is literature. The pleasure that is mentioned as a requirement of literature is purely an evaluative judgement and therefore introduces a question of taste. When a reader becomes completely involved in the plot and characters of a novel, as I did, it becomes apparent that it is an enjoyable piece of work. To illuminate, a novel must enlighten the reader and inform. Much of Beloved is told from the perspective of freed slaves. Morrison, most likely had family who were slaves, which adds to the clout of this novel.