What is literature? The moment we start to answer this, what seems like a simple question becomes a Gordian knot. A chain of associated questions then appears and our mind starts ricocheting from one question to another, ebbing away, frantically trying to answer each question. Unless we answer each of these questions, we cannot reach the answer of the question with which we started this endeavour. And yet, literature remains indefinable.

However, the most modest answer we could give to this question is, “literature is life itself”. It encompasses everything that is connected to life. But then comes the question, why everything written about life fails to qualify to be in the literary canon. Philosophers, writers and critics have been trying to answer this question since time immemorial. We could find that all their answers converge at this point that those which made it to the literary canon are those which withstood the test of time. The sublime quality they possess makes them eternal.

It was Cassius Longinus, a classical rhetorician and philosophical critic, who first talked about this sublime quality a literary text possesses, which elevates the ordinary to the greatest with its portrayal of strong emotions and magnificent thoughts. But does writing about robust emotions and profound philosophical musings in pompous and highbrow fashion validate a work to endure the test of time? When we analyse all the works which form the grand literary tradition, the texts which withstood this test of time are those which portrayed the universality of human nature and its experiences. Their skillful portrayal of realities of life and human nature with such beauty and truthfulness enable them to connect with the reader. It is as if it touches their heart and enthrall their mind.

Have you wondered why we could relate to certain characters, situations and stories while reading? The answer lies in the universality of human experience. The greed, ambition and treachery of Shakespeare's Macbeth is still within us. The “spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions” dovetailed in the poems of the Romantics are experienced by every human being at least once in their lifetime. The harsh sufferings, agony and moral dilemma of Dostoevsky's characters are realities of our day-to-day life. The disillusionment and existential angst in the works of the Modernists are part of the late capitalist system we live in. Therefore, the universality of these works  transcends spatial and temporal boundaries and directly communicate with the reader. Though belonging to different eras in history, their concern with truth, originality in the portrayal of realistic characters and their emotional complexity thus touch the hearts of readers of the past, present and future.

In the process of this portrayal, every literary work mirror the society and the period which they belong to. Great literature transforms the mind of those who read it towards the condition of the people it portrays. It is the social, political, and economic conditions of the multitude that we witness in every literary work. It is the expression of their mundane life with its realities, the life they lived, and experienced. The literary tradition of every nation is thus a documentation of its people, their culture and life. And it also shapes and moulds the life. Thus literature will never die and it's purpose never cease. And the attempts to define it will also continue till eternity.