relevant in literature definition

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relevant literature

Meanings of relevant and literature.

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(Definition of relevant and literature from the Cambridge English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

• Examples of relevant literature

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• Definition of relevant
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You are here, selecting relevant literature: focus and scope.

It is necessary to be selective about what you choose to include in the literature review, and it is useful to think about how you will limit the scope of the literature you identify as you search. Points to consider to help you in limiting the scope of your literature are:

• the relevance of research studies carried out in other countries to your research: it is necessary to reflect critically on whether the context that the research is so different from the one in which you will be working that the findings of studies in a particular geographical region would not provide any useful insights;
• the time period within which work has been published: sometimes there is a case for including older sources, for example where a particular research study is of particular significance or where little recent work has been published in relation to a theme being developed in your review;
• the age range of pupils / students in the studies you include.

Also it is important to critically evaluate the literature to identify whether a source is of high quality. Below are some criteria to help you to evaluate the quality of a piece of research published in a journal, or a research study accessed online:

• Are the conclusions supported by evidence?
• Does the research design give you confidence that the findings of the research are reliable and valid?
• Are arguments clearly articulated and are conclusions clearly linked to the evidence presented in the results?

(Adapted from Walliman, 2009)

• research methods
• literature reviews

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Definition of relevant

relevant , germane , material , pertinent , apposite , applicable , apropos mean relating to or bearing upon the matter in hand.

relevant implies a traceable, significant, logical connection.

germane may additionally imply a fitness for or appropriateness to the situation or occasion.

material implies so close a relationship that it cannot be dispensed with without serious alteration of the case.

pertinent stresses a clear and decisive relevance.

apposite suggests a felicitous relevance.

applicable suggests the fitness of bringing a general rule or principle to bear upon a particular case.

apropos suggests being both relevant and opportune.

Examples of relevant in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'relevant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Medieval Latin relevant-, relevans , from Latin, present participle of relevare to raise up — more at relieve

circa 1540, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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“Relevant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/relevant. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

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Kids definition of relevant, legal definition, legal definition of relevant, more from merriam-webster on relevant.

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Establishing Relevance & Evaluating Purpose

We discuss the following topics on this page:

• Establishing Relevance

Identifying Criteria

Considering the stakes, kinds of purposes.

• Evaluating Purpose

We also provide the following:

Establishing Relevance [Refresher]

Evaluating a purpose [refresher], establishing relevance & evaluating purpose [refresher], key takeaways, establishing relevance [1].

We enter the scholarly conversation by establishing relevance; we ask, “how is this work of literature, or my research about it, relevant and significant to my audience?” For example, Jada might ask why James Baldwin and “Sonny’s Blues” are still relevant to audiences today. What lessons can contemporary audiences learn from a story written in 1957? Conversely, how can new perspectives that we bring to old stories keep them relevant? Relevance is established by explaining why something matters, and things matter to us now because we have problems today that we want to solve (or address). Such problems may have broader implications for society, or for a specific group of readers such as scholars of African-American literature.

We don’t want to propose overly simplistic answers to the question of relevance. For example, it is not enough to say that racism was a problem in 1957, and that it is still a problem today. The issue demands specificity. How is the past relevant to understanding the present? For example, do we see information or perspectives in “Sonny’s Blues” that could help us address how black people deal with black history and preserve and develop black culture? Conversely, does knowing about the current movement against systemic racism help us better understand what Baldwin was writing in 1957? Can we read the story as a message to future generations? Is there a problem related to scholarship about “Sonny’s Blues,” Baldwin, African- American literature, or literature of the 1950s that your work can help us better understand? Becoming familiar with the conversations among scholars and the general public can help you assess whether or not, and how much, your claims are relevant.

Relevance and significance in literary studies are measured against established criteria.  Every field of knowledge establishes criteria. For instance, medicine establishes criteria to determine what counts as health. Political science establishes criteria for what constitutes a democracy. Mathematics establishes criteria for what counts as a formal proof. We advance in our fields by learning these criteria and making use of them in strategic ways. People who are very advanced in their fields may introduce changes to these criteria or introduce new ones.

Example [ Identifying Criteria ]

In scholar Ann Dobie’s chapter “More Cultural Studies: Postcolonialism and Multiculturalism,” [2]  she discusses the Black Aesthetic, a concept that artists involved in the Black Arts Movement [3] established in the 1960s when James Baldwin was in his prime as a prominent author and activist. The Black Aesthetic established criteria for determining what counts as “good” literature (at least among literary works that addressed black experience) and what doesn’t. In her text, Dobie discusses three key criteria for the Black Aesthetic: the materials its artists work with, the purpose of their work, and how they go about it.

• Materials : Black history is the source material, which Dobie says is unique because it creates a dual identity, “one that both partakes of America and doesn’t, one that shares the American experience but is denied it.”
• Purpose : Dobie says, “African American artists have a strong imperative to reclaim their culture by defining what is of value to them. Such a reclamation takes place by remembering history, defining identity, gaining recognition, and celebrating blackness.”
• Method : Dobie notes that while African American artists may not go about their work differently from others, they are unique in that they draw from “folk traditions that express their beliefs, values, and social mores.” She also cites Ron Karenga who states that the purpose of African-American art is “to make revolution. Its collective nature is evident in its presentation of real life and real people, and it is committed to permanent revolution.”

Dobie adds, “To approach a text from a multicultural perspective, a reader must look for more than material, purpose, and method.” Readers must also “anticipate specific characteristics that distinguish their work.” These characteristics could include issues such as voice and narration.

Thus, when reading “Sonny’s Blues,” we can read it with these specific criteria in mind and assess the story according to the criteria. Doing so is not the end of the research process for a critical paper, but is a crucial part. Keep in mind that the Black Aesthetic is one set of criteria but is far from the only one you could apply to “Sonny’s Blues.”

We assess things, like literary works, against a set of standards. Many literary theories establish criteria for evaluating literary works. Another set of criteria we could apply to Baldwin’s work comes from Cleanth Brooks and the formalist critics.

• Organic unity – all the parts of the literary work are interrelated and support its central idea.
• Tensions – paradoxes, ironies, and ambiguities that the literary work resolves into a thematic unity. In “Sonny’s Blues,” we might say that Sonny sought to destroy himself through drugs yet he also sought to express himself through music. The tension between self-destruction and self-expression is thematically unified in the blues.

You can create your own criteria. Before doing so, find out what criteria for assessing literary works are already out there and whether they will work for your purposes. When creating your own criteria, you need to justify it; explain why it’s needed, and how it differs from existing criteria.

In literary theories, which we discuss in another chapter, we find many sets of criteria that we can use in our literary criticism (notice the shared root of the word “criteria” and “criticism”). Your paper should explain and justify why you chose a set of criteria and excluded others.

Another way to establish relevance is by considering the stakes of an argument. The “stakes” means the consequences of an argument being accepted or rejected. What could be won or lost if the argument is accepted? For instance, could an argument about a particular literary work (or works) change the paradigm of how we study literature? If so, these are enormous stakes because it means established perspectives and methods might be abandoned and new perspectives and methods adopted.

Example [ Considering the Stakes]

• Henry Louis Gates’ Study of “signifyin'”   black tradition in literary works such as  Zora Neale Hurston’s  Their Eyes Were Watching God , Ralph Ellison’s  Invisible Man , and Ishmael Reed’s  Mumbo Jumbo.
• Edward Said’s study of “Orientalism”   in Joseph Conrad’s  Heart of Darkness.
• Mikhail Bakhtin’s study of “dialogism” in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels.
• Viktor Shklovsky’s reading of “defamiliarization”   in Leo Tolstoy’s novels.
• G illes Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s identification of a “minor literature”   in the works of Franz Kafka.
• Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s study of the “Madwoman in the Attic”   in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre .
• Marjorie Garber’s study of “transvestite logic”   in the works of William Shakespeare.

These works are now anthologized in collections of literary theory and criticism but were once seen as radical shifts or groundbreaking new directions in literary studies research. They achieved their exalted position because they were recognized as extremely relevant to the problems of their day. These literary researchers played for high stakes and won. But because the stakes of their work are high, it is not uncommon for other critics to challenge their work. For example, Gilbert and Gubar’s work has been challenged by Judith Butler, Mary Daly, and Tori Moi, among others.

“Low stakes” problems are still important to address. The size of the stakes are determined by the possible outcome. Generally, we ask “if X is true, what are the consequences”? So, for instance, if we produce a new interpretation of a Shakespeare sonnet, is it the kind of interpretation that changes our mind about one poem, about Shakespeare’s poetry, about poetry in general, about literature in general, or about life in general? A small stake would be an answer that revises our thinking about one poem but not so much beyond that.

Thomas Kuhn wrote a widely cited book titled  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions  in which he argued that most scientific research is “normal science,” meaning it doesn’t change our fundamental understanding of the world but just elaborates on it or solves smaller problems. “Revolutionary science,” by contrast, changes the way we see the world in fundamental ways. So, Darwin’s theory of evolution is revolutionary, whereas a particular study within that paradigm – such as a study about the evolution of a fruit fly population – would be normal science. Normal science is still extremely important. Maybe it matters a great deal that we know how fruit flies evolve, but the answer probably does not involve a paradigm shift. Basically, the higher the stakes, the greater the relevance. Darwin’s theory of evolution was extremely high stakes and extremely relevant to all of science, particularly biology, as well as to almost all human thought. The “problem” Darwin was addressing seemed to be fairly low stakes at first; why do finches on one island have short beaks while finches on another island have longer beaks? Yet the answer – that species changed through natural selection – was enormously relevant to many other problems. Low stakes means the research has narrow implications and high stakes means the research has broad implications. Your assignment may not require you to aim for low or high stakes, but it is good for you to know where you are aiming.

We will discuss the importance of establishing relevance more in-depth once we get into the “Refining Your Research Question” portion of this book, but it is important to keep relevance in mind during your early research process.

Evaluating Purpose [4]

Joining the scholarly conversation about literature involves more than just stating an interesting fact or making an appropriate observation here and there. The conversation moves along rhetorical lines (it aims to persuade); therefore, to join the conversation, we need to think rhetorically. The major purposes in rhetoric are:

• Docere – teaching on an intellectual level.
• Movere – touching the feelings.
• Delectare – keeping interest alive.

Skilled literary theorists and critics treat these purposes as interrelated. Thus, to succeed at  docere , we also need to succeed at  movere and  delectare. We need to know our audience: what please one audience may upset another, and what interests one audience may bore or annoy another. For example, humor may be useful to express feelings and keep an audience interested, but if the audience has strong feelings about a subject, you should know which kind of humor (i.e. ironic humor, parodic humor, witty humor) is most likely to work, or whether it’s appropriate to use humor at all.

Beyond these general aims, you should have a specific purpose related to one of the three types of rhetoric, which are (according to Aristotle):

• Deliberative (or Political) – future oriented, it persuades people into action or dissuades them from action.
• Judicial (or Forensic) – past oriented, it persuades people to judge an action as justifiable or unjustifiable.
• Epideictic (or Ceremonial) – present oriented, it persuades people to praise or blame a person or work.

Victor Shklovsky’s essay, “Art as Technique,” discusses Leo Tolstoy’s novels. Shklovsky praises Tolstoy’s artfulness (epideictic/present) and persuades us to judge Tolstoy’s work (judicial/past) in terms of its techniques:

In terms of its effects, Shklovsky says they “[prick] the conscience.” Overall, Shklovsky’s main purpose seems to be deliberative:

Shklovsky’s purpose, in other words, is to persuade artists to keep inventing new techniques for “making things strange” and to dissuade theorists from attempting to systematize such efforts. We might take Shklovsky’s essay and translate it into a set of things he tries to dissuade us from doing, and things he tries to persuade us to do. His lessons apply not just to art but also to life itself.

Example [Schklovsky’s Dos and Dont’s, generated from his essay]

When you plan your research project, develop a statement of purpose that answers the question “what is my goal?” until it is clear in your mind and makes sense to other people. In the discipline of literary studies, there are any number of purposes you can choose or develop. Among them are the following kinds:

• Elevate an overlooked figure or literary work
• Better understand major shifts around new literary forms, genres, and movements
• Understand the relationship of literature to historical realities such as colonialism, industrialism, and information technologies
• Better understand narrative, metaphor, and argument
• Explain the relationship of literature to other kinds of writing, to life, and to thought
• Explore the relevance of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology to literature
• Argue about which literary works should be included or excluded from the literary canon
• Understand the value of literature within education
• Develop better teaching strategies
• Reclaim identity for marginalized groups by celebrating their literature
• Build a more just and equitable society by highlighting worthy traditions within literary cultures
• Consider literary works as reflecting society, revealing its flaws and its potential
• Discover and experiment with poetics (ways of making) found in literature
• Apply new practices to literature and literary studies; for example, by creating literary-critical hybrids
• Experiment with new information technologies (such as text-generating Artificial Intelligence) to test approaches to literary or critical prompt engineering.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, more possible purposes for work in literary studies. Your goal is to articulate your purpose clearly, concisely, and directly in such a way that it guides your work. Of course, you may change your purpose along the way, since the process is iterative and doesn’t always go in a straight line, but you should work with an end in mind.

Michael Baxandall, an art historian, provided some terminology that can help us think constructively about developing our own purpose. [5] The key terms Baxandall uses are charge ,  brief , and  troc.

• Charge: The charge is your primary purpose. Your purpose relates to a problem you choose to address. Baxandall discusses the relationship of these things to the bridge-builder Benjamin Baker, who designed the Forth Bridge in Scotland. The problem Baker faced was straightforward; the previous bridge, the Tay Bridge, had been destroyed in a storm and now there was no bridge. Baker’s charge was to   span  a distance over a body of water (additionally, he had to span it in such a way that the new bridge would not collapse). The charge for a literary scholar might be similarly broad: understand ,  elevate , and teach come to mind.
• Brief:  the specific local conditions, or the situation, that you found yourself in. The brief includes the resources available to you. Baxandall classifies these as “resources of medium, of models (both positive and negative), and of ‘aesthetic'” (35). To grossly oversimplify, Baker’s medium was structurally-deployed metal, his positive model was the Oriental cantilever system, his negative model (an example of what not to do) was the Tay Bridge, which was blown down by side winds, and his aesthetic was ‘functional expressionism.’ Your brief is to contribute something valuable to the discipline of literary studies, as it exists currently. Your resources include not just literary works but ideas about literature. These ideas can include both positive and negative models. The positive models are the works of literary scholars that you wish to emulate. The negative models are works you wish to push against. These negative models are not necessarily “bad”; they may simply constitute resources that don’t fit your goal. For instance, you may wish to pursue historical ends and therefore push against formalist ideas about literature.  
• Troc: Baxandall defines troc as “no more than the form of relation in which two classes of people, both within the same culture, are free to make choices in the course of an exchange, any choice affecting the universe of the exchange and so the other participants” (48). The troc is a market model, “a coming into contact of producers and consumers for the purpose of exchange” (47). In our field, literary scholars are producers and our readers are consumers. Baxandall explains that, within a market, there is “a degree of competition among both producers and consumers” and “parties on either side can make statements with their feet, as it were, by participating or abstaining” (47). A troc includes the cultural resources available to a literary scholar (which, when selected, become elements of the scholar’s Brief), as well as the rewards a scholar may find for their work. Such rewards include belonging to a community of literary scholars, recognition, and career advancement.

When you think about your own purpose for the literary research project you are undertaking, consider charge, brief, and troc.

Establishing relevance:

Evaluating purpose:

• How does the issue of relevance change your understanding of the research process?
• Notice the ways that literary critics and theorists try to persuade their audiences. Choose one work of literary criticism or theory and discuss its rhetorical purpose. Evaluate the work and assess it using the rubric below.
• If there are any elements of your assignment that need clarification, please list them.
• What was the most important lesson you learned from this page? What point was confusing or difficult to understand?
• In the “Back Matter” of this book, you will find a page titled “Rubrics.” On that page, we provide a rubric for Establishing Relevance. ↵
• Dobie, Ann. "More Cultural Studies: Postcolonialism and Multiculturalism," Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism. Third Edition.  Boston, MA. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 216-226. ↵
• Note: This course uses Wikipedia (and other open sources) to provide background information on a variety of topics. Wikipedia, like any source, does have deficiencies, some of which are discussed on their own site. Wikipedia articles also include links to other sources, which makes them good places to start the research process. ↵
• In the “Back Matter” of this book, you will find a page titled “Rubrics.” On that page, we provide a rubric for Evaluating Purpose ↵
• Baxandall, Michael. Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures . New Haven, Yale University Press, 1985. ↵

a standard by which something may be judged.

Strategies for Conducting Literary Research, 2e Copyright © 2021 by Barry Mauer & John Venecek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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