In this essay, the issue of the relationship between literature, world and expression of thought is discussed. Starting from the notion that literature, due to its special character, "betrays", to a certain point, the objective possibility of expressing ideas and concepts (without denying that possibility), we propose the idea that the language of art portrays a different characteristic, which may be theorized on basis of the concept of icon elaborated by Charles Sanders Peirce. Without being, at the same time - according to the formulations of this author - symbolic and indicative, such language is open to ambiguity and may, thus, express a plus of sense that is not necessarily conveyed in its formulation or in what is said objectively in it.