"The Norton Introduction to Literature", text

Introduction of text, Why Literature Matters
"Wonderfully, instruction and delight often go hand in hand in our experience of literature: we learn from what delights us or what leads us to appreciate new kinds of delight."(pp 2)
The introduction of the text offers many suggestions at what literature is how the opinions vary from what may actually be hailed as literature. The Canon, the revered list of literary "greats" which continues to grow and is the platform of much debate and discussion about literature itself.
The OED defines literature as "writing which has claim to consideration on the ground of beauty of form or emotional effect." But, the text raises the question, what would this actually include? Plus, who gets to decide what is literature? Of course, since I am a woman living in 2007, I feel all members of society in every socionomic and economic segment of every society should choose for themselves what literature is. No one person or body of "the powers that be" need to instruct others on what one finds pleasure in reading. There are so many genres, and so many readers. Surely, to debate what we each feel literature is would be a terrific battle of words. Would that conversation and debate become literature itself? It's a stretch, but we need to stretch our minds and remind ourselves that we have free will and we should exercise it.
We need to think critically about literature, detect the mode, the manner, and the aim of the text which commands us to read actively.
We can actually write around the literature we read! Wow, I almost feel like I'm committing a sin by writing in the book....bad Amy. But, we can catalog elements of the story and actually read better and participate while we read. Identifying the characters, highlight new vocabulary, circle names and details of when/where, write notes around phrases that cause certain emotions/reactions, retell the action, identify meter and rhyme, and use terms such as stanza, narrator, protagonist, antagonist, plot, conflict, speaker, heroic couplets, implied author, and metaphor. I need to read actively, so I will make note of the authors and consider their own personal/professional history as well as consider the audience.