3. Connotative vs denotative language
Meaning in literature can be read at two levels:
*Denotative language: is the true, authentic, and literal meaning of a word as it is strictly defined in a dictionary.
-The Oxford Dictionary defines the word “home” as “The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.”
*Connotative language: It refers to the figurative, imaginative and emotional association surrounding a word. I.e. the first impressions we have when we hear the word.
-Home refers to comfort, love, warmth, safety, affection, childhood, nostalgia, roots, family, identity, souvenirs...etc.
4 English literature
It refers to any piece of literature written in the English language regardless of the writer’s origin. Examples include Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Vladimir Nabokov (Russia), William Faulkner (U.S.A), James Joyce (Ireland), Joseph Conrad (Poland), Dylan Thomas (Wales) and Ahdaf Soueif (Egypt) to name a few