What is meant by a "central question?"Can a central question be an issue that comes up in the book?

A "central question" is something that drives a particular
work.  It does not have to be something that comes up outside of the book.  It can be
something that comes within the book.  A central question is something that allows the
work to develop.  It is a concept that the book is committed to developing and
enhancing.  The central question of a work is what the work seeks to answer.  What does
the work seek to address?  The central question lies at the base of the work and is
something that the work places its focus upon.  The central question can be an issue
that comes up in the work, but it is an entity that is recurring.  It is not something
that appears once and disappears.  It is something that is present throughout the work,
and appears in different forms.  The central question is something that helps to define
the work in its own right and how it exists with other works.  This element of
intertextuality and how it and similar works address the central question is something
that becomes of vital importance to literary scholarship.