Literariness

Literariness is feature that could turn an ordinary work into a literary work. Many would say the choices of word plays a huge role in determining the literariness of a work. Or maybe the uses of figure of speeches like metaphors, personification, simile etc. Yes. I agree. However, we cannot solely say that a work that uses colloquial and everyday language is not a literary work. I would love to give C.S. Lewis work as a reference;

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different…”

C.S. Lewis’ words are arranged in such beautiful and emotional manner and how could this, merely lacking of exquisite metaphors and wording, be dim as not literary? A work doesn’t need to have aesthetic choices of word to be a literary work. The most important thing is the meaning that it tries to convey and strike the reader. However, some writers use exquisite words to foreground their work. It catches people attention and gives deeper impact to the readers. All writers have their own writing styles, ‘what did they say’ and ‘how did they say it’ matters in the field of literature. Both of the aspects focus on meaning (semantic, pragmatic) and linguistic features (artistic devices), respectively. I think it is safe to say that there are absolutely no guidelines in distinguishing literariness. Anything could be a literary work as long as it gives impact to the reader in any 

way.