Starting Over

So far, Terry Eagleton's Literary Theory has brought me no satisfaction. I had the same frustrations that Emily initially had, which was Eagleton was basically saying that there was no real definition of literature. One of the main reasons so many people love studying literature is the wide open spaces involved. There are so many ways to interpret a piece, and there are almost no limitations, but this is what scares me the most about reading and studying literature. To me, literature is a game, with no rules on how to play it. This book is simply adding more ambiguity to a subject that I feel is already ambiguous.
Before reading Literary Theory, and going to class last Thursday, I would not have considered Madonna's "she's no me" as literature. This might have been because (like Brandi said) I have never considered pop songs to hold true meaning. If this song had been handed out in another class that was not English, I would not have though twice about it. But being that I received this song in an English class, I began to think that maybe there was something I was not seeing. Reading Literary Theory, and thinking about what Eagleton was saying, made me I realized I have no Idea what literature is. I am falling down a hole, and Eagleton is saying the hole only gets deeper.
I really feel that I have grown up with the wrong Idea of what Literature is, and being pulled out of my comfort zone does not feel spectacular. It's like building a house with a bad foundation, the first step in fixing it is to tear the house down. My house is coming down, and I feel that reading the rest of what Eagleton has to say, and just talking this whole thing out with the geniuses in my class will help me lay a firm foundation so I can build a stronger house.