Essay: Making Sense of Literature

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Written by: Saqib Wazir 》

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Definition and Explanation

Exact definition of literature is assumed to be difficult, if not profoundly impossible, for several reasons. Some basic reasons include: the expansion of literature, meaning the introduction of new genres into the domain of literature; geographical diversifications that has resulted in the birth of new styles and manners of peculiar natures, limited to a particular region; and the assumption that the readers already know what literature is, because of its multitudinous manifestations, in one way or another, in our daily life. At the same time, it’s been defined in a great many ways by some tremendous literary wizards, and interestingly, all such definitions are rather effective in describing literature.

Etymologically, the word ‘literature’ stems from Latin litteratura which means “writing, learning, or grammar”. Irrespective of its literal meaning, the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary considers literature to be “writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.”

Likewise, in his book discussing the history and significance of English literature, William J. Long, describes literature as “the art that expresses life in words that appeal to our sense of beautiful.”

In a recent meeting with a learned scholar, Professor Tariq Mahmud Danish, I asked him what literature was. He said that literature was “any piece of writing, whether in prose or poetry, that is mingled with the feelings and emotions of the writer.” He further elaborated his point through an example, which goes this way: “Two and two make four, is not literature, though, two and two make five, is literature.”

When asked how, he said, “In the first instance, there is followed a certain mathematical rule, and thus no personal feelings and emotions of the writer mingled with it. In the second one, however, there is inventiveness on the part of the writer, having added to the writing his own feelings and emotions.” By this, we mean that literature is not merely a reporting of a plot and setting, but expressing life artistically and creatively.

Similarly, many dictionaries and encyclopedias define literature as “the body of writing”, which seems to be misleading. According to Britannica’s article on literature, “the art of literature is not reducible to the words on the page; they are there solely because of the craft of writing. As an art, literature might be described as the organization of words to give pleasure, and, more broadly, it functions in society as a means of both criticizing and affirming cultural values.” Hence, this coincides with Danish’s view of literature.

As far as literature is concerned, it is deemed a complex notion, but things get even more complex, when the question is to draw a line between what is literature and what is not. This is mainly because, in our time, literature is a few kernels amidst piles of chaff of what we may call as pseudo-literature. William J. Long writes in his book that to assimilate the marrow of literature and to separate the seeds from the chaff, we need to determine some of its essential qualities.

Qualities of Literature

1. The first significant thing is the essentially artistic quality of all literature. Literature is, after all, an art itself. And art is the expression of life in the forms of truth and beauty. It is unanimously held by all the critics that artistic taste is a sine que non – an essential requisite – of every genuine work of literature.

If it seems altogether Greek, then we may better explicate it through an example. In this regard, seems to me apt enough, the magnum opus – seminal work – of William Wordsworth, the daffodils, to take as an example.

One day, William Wordsworth was taking an aimless walk in the bright and breezy spring morning in the countryside with his sister, Dorothy that he came upon a sight of daffodils that arrested his attention. Unlike thousands those who may pass the daffodils and see nothing more than a kind of plants, Wordsworth pauses by the daffodils, looks at them deeper and deeper with unblinking eyes, sees truth and beauty and composes, the daffodils.

I wondered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Critically speaking, it is the artistic elegance of the poem that has adorned the sight of daffodils in the minds of ours. And that is what distinguishes the work of a literary person from that of a matter-of-fact, unimaginative person. 

In the last stanza of the poem, the poet reveals to us the aftereffect of the scenery of daffodils on his mood and mind.

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

William J. Long writes that literature is the reflection of some truth and beauty which are in the world but which remain unnoticed until brought to our attention by some sensitive human soul. Similarly, Wordsworth has done a great job by bringing to our attention the gorgeous vista of daffodils and the healing and refreshing power of nature, which may have been hidden from our eyes until Wordsworth found them.

2. The second quality of literature is its suggestiveness: that it opens up to its readers, the doors to the world of imagination and speculation. While reading a piece of literature, you enter a new world full of beauty, love, and such other emotion of human kind.

To appreciate it profoundly, we will look at William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, in which Launcelot Gobbo, the clown, is caught in a strong dilemma, to act with disloyalty and flee his devil-like master, the Jew or stay with him. Following is the boiled down excerpt of this part of the play.

Certainly, my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew: the fiend is at mine elbow, and tempts me, saying, “Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo … use your legs, take a start, run away. My conscience says “No; take heed honest Launcelot, do not run, scorn running with thy heels.” “Fia!” says the fiend, “for the heavens rouse up a brave mind … and run.” Well, my conscience … says to me: “My honest friend Launcelot” – being an honest man’s son … “budge not! ”

Literally, we could imagine a clown, wavering between two opposite decisions, but the fact is that, Shakespeare has quite unconsciously, or maybe deliberately, taken us to a realm where two opposing forces attract us to their side. The Fiend – Devil, Satan, or an evil spirit – entices the clown to run for the well-being of his life, and seemingly, it could have been a very much wise decision, but Conscience, an inner voice that guides a human soul to know what is right and wrong, applies an equal and opposite force on him, to remain true to his master and not to budge, what it takes.

3. Permanence is as crucial a feature of literature as the other two are. In fact, the permanence of a piece of literature emanates from its artisticness and suggestiveness.

It is of common observation that everything in the universe may perish with time but not a genuine literature, which will instruct, and more importantly delight, human kind forever. Let’s take fifth century B.C.’s Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, which is as widely read as a fresh literary piece, in our time as well. It is thanks to its artistic elegance and robust suggestiveness that it has maintained its all-prevailing influence on the entire human race.

Hir and Ranjha, an immortal tragic romance of Punjabi literature, seems a perfect example of the immortality of literature. The greatest of all the poems that are based on this story is the one by Waris Shah, from which Usborne made the present translation. At the end of his poem, Waris Shah has compared the transitory nature of world with the lasting quality of great poetry:

“The world is but a play and fields and forests all will melt away in the final day of dissolution. Only the poet’s poetry remains in everlasting remembrance.”

Writer William J. Long states that there are at least two more qualities of literature that determines its permanence. The first being ‘Universality’, the second is ‘Style’. Let’s dwell on each of them, to make them as lucid as possible.

4. Dictionary of literary terms defines Universality as the quality of literature which endows it with an appeal to all readers of all times. More narrowly, it is the significance of a work of writing that transcends the limits of space and time. What we mean by this, in simple words, that literature knows no bounds of age, religion, race, and nationality, save those of humanity.

Moreover, literature, primarily, portrays human characters and presents the great human emotions common to all civilization – jealousy, love, hate, pride, courage, joy, sorrow, fear, faith etc.

5. In a mechanical sense, Style is “the adequate expression of thought” or “the peculiar manner of expressing thought,” are any other of the definitions that are found in the rhetoric.

In a deeper sense, however, style is the unconscious expression of one’s own self. It is crystal clear to us that we, as human beings, know nothing as profoundly as our own selves. Then to portray a human being, a writer tends to garnish it with his own personal experiences and attitudes.

The best example in this sense is, Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, a heart-rending picture of a sensitive child labor, who works from dawn till dusk for a few pennies. Essentially, it is the touching and stirring reflection of Dickens himself, who was taken out of school in the age of eleven. At this time, he was, in his own words, a “queer small boy,” who suffered a lot as he worked.

In the end, we may now do the important job of distinguishing genuine literature from pseudo-literature, ranging from magazines to the present deluge of books pouring day and night from our presses. In algebraic brevity, writing, according to Stanford A. Brooke, is not literature unless it gives to the readers a pleasure which arises not only from the things said, but the way in which they are said.

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About the Writer

The writer is a matric student, who aspires to become a fiction writer.

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