In Literary Theory, Jonathan Culler ends up defining literature (or at least describing it) as “language with particular properties or features” and “the product of conventions and a certain kind of attention.” He offers five points to clarify these perspectives.

First, Culler claims that literature is language that “foregrounds” language, that makes it stand out in new and unique ways. Second, literature integrates language, creating complex relationships between “various elements and components of the text.” Third, Culler looks at literature as fiction, “a linguistic event which projects a fictional world” that is open to interpretation. Fourth, literature is an “aesthetic object” that highlights the beauty of language. Fifth, literature reflects on itself and interacts with other texts. These five are, as Culler explains, the “properties of literary works, features that mark them as literature.”

Terry Eagleton in his chapter “What is Literature?” focuses on various definitions of literature, showing the strong and weak points of each. He explores literature as imaginative writing and as writing that “transforms and intensifies ordinary language.” Yet neither of these definitions fully works. He speaks, too, of literature as a “kind of self-referential language” but points out problems with this as well. Eagleton eventually settles on the concept of value-judgments, looking at literature as “a highly valued kind of writing” based on a judgment that it is objectively good in some way.