ABSTRACT
At the heart of intellectual activity lies the ability to discern a pattern. A pattern suggests a relationship between separate phenomena or pieces of information, and allows us to draw general conclusions that have widespread applicability. When we classify literature - when we label it as Romantic, Modernist, or postmodernist; thriller, science fiction, or travel writing - we suggest that these different types of literature behave in different ways, and that a conclusion drawn from a few examples may apply to the whole category.
