part II: questioning classification

my previous post chatted about ben marcus' essay in harper's magazine. a phrase from the first paragraph i quoted lead me on the following tangent.

"to produce art from words"

how is literature classified? is literature art? is literature entertainment? is art entertainment? what is the relationship between literature, art, entertainment? who categorizes what is art, lit, entertainment? how and why could these classifications be useful? there are no immediate answers; questions spur additional questions. these questions do not invite an immediate answer from me, as i first want to build a definition for each word to plot its scope/focus/limitations/boundaries.

instead, i ask myself why i have snagged on this phrase, "art from words." at what point do i or does someone else choose to label text as art, as literature, as performance, as entertainment?

this questioning of classification and its relationship to art and writing reminds me of a curious example that an academic institution has batted about housing a creative writing program. york university's creative writing program is housed under the humanities department. as i understand it, the CW program used to be classified as a branch of english before it was taken over by humanities, and there may be continuing talks to have the program returned to english. to complicate this shuffling at york, the fine arts department offered a one-time course in 1997/8 that doubled as an intro to creative writing and workshop. the program's identity crisis surely raises interesting questions for its students and professors. how might a creative writing program housed in english differ from one in fine arts? similarly, how might a creative writing MA differ from the MFA? what factors go into shaping the program through its larger affiliation with a department?

exiting this example, i wonder about how we apply terms like "literature," "art," and "entertainment..." do we use them consistently, and what worlds of knowledge and definition does each word imply when spoken by me? by you? by ben marcus? etc.