“What is Literature,” Terry Eagleton discusses four common definitions of literature (“imaginative,” “estranging,” “self-referential,” and “excellent writing”), each of which he believes to be fatally flawed.

In his essay “What is Literature,” Terry Eagleton discusses four common definitions of literature (“imaginative,” “estranging,” “self-referential,” and “excellent writing”), each of which he believes to be fatally flawed.

Select one of these definitions to defend against Eagleton’s critique, with reference to any one of the following texts: Dickinson, [Because I could not stop for death]; Wilde, Importance of Being Earnest; Aesop, “The Grasshopper and the Ant.”