Swarna Kamal Chowdhury’s Academic Discourse

Essay
Literature influences life no less than life influences literature

Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, literature is used to describe
anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works
of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction and non-fiction. The quest to discover a definition for
‘literature’ is a road that is much travelled, though the point of arrival, if ever reached, is seldom satisfactory. Literature
reminds us of stories, epics, sacred scriptures and classical works of the ancient and modern times. Literature is defined as
the body of written works of a language, period or culture, produced by scholars and researchers, specialized in a given
field.
Literary works are portrayals of the thinking patterns and social norms prevalent in society. They are a depiction of
the different facets of common man’s life. Classical literary works serve as a food for thought and a tonic for imagination
and creativity. Exposing an individual to good literary works, is equivalent to providing him/her with the finest of
educational opportunities. On the other hand, the lack of exposure to classic literary works is equal to depriving an
individual from an opportunity to grow as an individual. Prose, poetry, drama, essays, fiction, literary works based on
philosophy, art, history, religion and culture had also scientific and legal writings are grouped under the category of
literature. Some of the great literary works like the Bible and Indian epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, among
others, provide society with the guiding principles of life. Ancient poetic works by poets like Homer, Plato, Horace and Virgil,
Shakespeare’s sonnets and notable poetry by W.B. Yeats, John Keats, Wordsworth, Tennyson and William Blake are
timeless. ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Godfather’, ‘ A tale of Two Cities’, James Bond series are some of the best-selling
books of all time. ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ were some of the
greatest works in children’s literature. The relatively recent ‘Harry Potter’ series made record sales across the globe and
carved a niche for J.K. Rowling. However, a discussion about children’s authors would be incomplete without the mention
of all-time popular authors like Aesop, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Mark Twain.
It is through reading such great literary and poetic works, that one understands life. They help a person take a closer
look at the different facets of life. In many ways, it can change one’s perspective towards life. Lives of brilliant achievers
and individuals, who have made a valuable contribution to society, are sketched in their biographies. These works give the
readers an insight into the lives of these eminent people, while also serving as a bible of ideals. Literature serves as an
enormous information base. Research works by famous inventors and literary works by notable scientists often narrate
stories of their ground-breaking discoveries and inferences. Ongoing developments in the fields of science and technology
are documented so that the world can know about them. Several ancient scriptures relating stories of human evolution and
narratives of human life in those times have been of tremendous help to mankind. Thus, literature has always served as an
authentic source of information from all around the world. Literature, is definitely, much more than its literary meaning,
which defines it as ‘an acquaintance to letters’. It, in fact, lays the foundation of an enriched life; it adds ‘life’ to ‘living’.
Most forays into the question of ‘what is literature’ go into how literature works with the reader, rather than how
the author set about writing it. It is the reception, rather than the writing, which is the object of enquiry. Largely, what we
call ‘literature’ is often a subjective value judgement, and naturally, value judgments, like literary tastes, will change.
Etymologically, literature has to do with letters, the written as opposed to the spoken word, though not everything that is
written down is literature. As a classification, it doesn’t really have any firm boundary lines. There is also general agreement
that literature foregrounds language and uses it in artistic ways. The three main ways of approaching a definition of
literature was relativism, subjectivism and agnosticism. With relativism, there are no value distinctions in literature;
anything may be called good literature. Subjectivism, as the term implies, means that all theories of literary value are
subjective, and that literary evaluation is a purely personal matter. Agnosticism follows from subjectivism, though it argues
that though there may be real distinctions in literary value, our subjective value systems prevent us from knowing anything
about the real values.
Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is more important than just a
historical or cultural artefact. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. We learn about books and literature;
we enjoy the comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories and plays; and we may even grow and evolve through our
literary journey with books. In academic circles, the decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of literary
theory, using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical or other approach. Whatever critical paradigm we use
to discuss and analyse literature, there is still an artistic quality to the works. Literature is important to us because it speaks
to us, it is universal, and it affects us. Even when it is ugly, literature is beautiful.
Philosophical thoughts are considered as the most ancient pensive creativity. Literature has also emerged from
creativity. Literature enhances creativity. Literature and life of a society reflect upon each other: Life moulds literature of a
society and literature reflects the life pattern of any society. In most cases, literature does not render economical benefit.
Yet, it is closely related to the heritage, culture and social-political-religious aspects of life. Religion leads life of a human
being in a rectified way. Literature deals with ethics of various religious and thus possesses a grave influence upon
individuals. As an educative source, literature plays a significant role upon human. Literature works with direct or implied
moral in its regard.
Appreciation of art is a part of intellect. Literature evokes the dormant sense of beauty through its artistic
representation. Aestheticism is far away from coarse sensuality or poignant vulgarity. Thus, one’s soul can be rectified by
the enkindling of beautification. James Joyce’s novel ‘A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’ is a good example of
distinguishing that art of soul and corporeal desire of lust. It reveals that art is sublime, spiritual and above all vulgarity.
Probably, one of the most influential aspects of literature is to broaden vision of the readers. It helps to make a person
better. It motivates people towards tolerance and inculcates the sense of justice in Human soul. In ancient Greek literature
like ‘Oedipus Rex’, sense of justice evokes in fate-bound protagonist Oedipus, and he punishes himself following his sense
of guilt by self-blinding and prolonged self-banishment.
Literature is a means of reading – reading for pleasure. A general reader can attain delight from some light literature
as well as from thought provoking one. ‘Sherlock Holms’, ‘The Mysterious Island’, ‘Harry Potter’ or the Mythological writings
is a good example that fulfils the appetite of readers of all kinds. Aesop's Fable is full with advice for the readers. Through
literature, life of the individual as well as the whole civilization can be enlightened. Alexander Pope's magnum opus ‘The
Rape of the Lock' believed in the education of social morality, classic culture; it denounces and satirizes the feminine sham
egoism; it fights against social corruption and debasement. T. Hardy's 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', or Dostoyevsky's 'Crime
and Punishment' can be the announcement of feminine suppression and liberation simultaneously.
Patriotism is one of the inevitable, prerequisite traits of human. A great deal of examples on patriotic issue can be
drawn from different literatures. Even the national anthem written by Rabindranath Tagore or poems by Nazrul Islam can
be a few examples of patriotism. It is therefore transparent that literature shows versatile dimension and deals with every
aspect of life more or less. One point is to be mentioned, the viewpoint of grasping and the degree of infusing in the
conscience of the same literary work can be different in case of different people from different social, political, economical
or intellectual background. There is a lot of stimulating ingredients in literature that can influence life. One has to grab that
accordingly.

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Written and drafted