“Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech.”

— Terry Eagleton

Introduction: What is Literature?, p. 2
1980s, Literary Theory: An Introduction (1983)
Context: Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language, deviates systematically from everyday speech. If you approach me at a bus stop and murmur "Thou still unravished bride of quietness," then I am instantly aware that I am in the presence of the literary.

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Terry Eagleton57

British writer, academic and educator 1943

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