From the following quote, decide whether the statement is more progressive or traditional. There is no 'essence' of literature w
hatsoever . . . any writing may be read 'poetically'. If I pore over the railway timetable not to discover a train connection but to stimulate in myself general reflections on the speed and complexity of modern existence, then I might be said to be reading it as literature. (Terry Eagleton) traditional progressive
This is a clearly progressive statement because it departs significantly from traditional notions, i.e., conceptions established at a previous time that persist historically through repetition, in this case, about what makes a piece of writing count as literature. The author rejects the traditional and broadly accepted idea that there is an intrinsic essence to literary texts that differentiate them from non-literary texts.
