QNo 1: Define Literature, how it works in society?

Ans:

Introduction:

Literature generally is a collection of written works, but it is also used more narrowly for writings
specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. Literature may be
classified according to a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical period, genre,
and subject matter. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and
entertainment.

"Literature provides insight into the minds of other human beings, into the mind of the author and the
minds of the character he or she brings to life,"

"It provides one with the opportunity to further one's education to continuously learn new things and be
exposed to a plethora of ideas."

Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such
as autobiography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes
non-fictional books, articles, or other printed information on a particular subject.

Definition:

A Latin word “litera” which means letter. This is a body of literary productions, either oral, written or
visual containing imaginative language that realistically portrays thoughts emotions and experiences of
the human condition.

Historical Background:

The term derives from Latin word “litera” which means "learning, a writing, grammar," originally
"writing formed with letters”. Developments in print technology have allowed an ever-growing
distribution and proliferation of written works, which now includes electronic literature.

There are some other forms of literature which we will discuss briefly.

Oral Literature:

Oral literature is an ancient human tradition found in "all corners of the world".  The earliest poetry is
believed to have been recited or sung, employed as a way of remembering history, genealogy, and law.
All ancient Greek literature was to some degree oral in nature, and the earliest literature was completely
also oral.

Oratory:

Oratory or the art of public speaking "was for long considered a literary art". [6] From Ancient Greece to
the late 19th century, rhetoric played a central role in Western education in training orators, lawyers,
counsellors, historians, statesmen, and poets.
Writing:

Around the 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia outgrew
human memory, and writing became a more dependable method of recording and presenting
transactions in a permanent form. [32] Though in both ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica, writing may have
already emerged because of the need to record historical and environmental events. Subsequent
innovations included more uniform, predictable, legal systems, sacred texts, and the origins of modern
practices of scientific inquiry and knowledge-consolidation, all largely reliant on portable and easily
reproducible forms of writing.

Types of Literature: 

 Poetry
 Prose
 Novel
 Novella
 Short story
 Graphic novel
 Electronic literature
 Nonfiction
 Drama

English Literature:

English Literature is one of richest literatures of the world. Being the literature of a great nation which,
though inhabiting a small island off the west coast of Europe, has made its mark in the world on account
of her spirit of adventure, perseverance and tenacity, it reflects these characteristics of a great people.
It has vitality, rich variety and continuity. As literature is the reflection of society, the various changes
which have come about in English society, from the earliest to the modern time, have left their stamp on
English literature. Thus in order to appreciate properly the various phases of English literature,
knowledge of English Social and Political History is essential. For example, we cannot form a just
estimate of Chaucer without taking into account the characteristics of the period in which he was living,
or of Shakespeare without taking proper notice of the great events which were taking place during the
reign of Elizabeth. The same is the case with other great figures and important movements in English
literature.

When we study the history of English literature from the earliest to modern times, we find that it has
passed through certain definite phases, each having marked characteristics. These phases may be
termed as ‘Ages’ or ‘Periods’, which are named after the central literary figures or the important rulers
of England. Thus we have the ‘Ages’ of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Johnson.
Wordsworth, Tennyson, Hardy; and, on the other hand, the Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Period, the
Age of Queen Anne, the Victorian Age, the Georgian Period. Some of these phases are named after
certain literary movements, as the Classical Age, the Romantic Age; while others after certain important
historial eras, as the Medieval Period, Anglo-Saxon Period, Anglo-Norman Period. These literary phases
are also named by some literary historians after the centuries, as the Seventeenth Century Literature,
Eighteenth Century Literature, Nineteenth-Century Literature and Twentieth Century Literature. These
‘Ages’ and ‘Periods’ naturally overlap each other, and they are not to be followed strictly, but it is
essential to keep them in mind in order to follow the growth of English literature, and its salient and
distinctive characteristics during the various periods of its development.

How it works in society?

Literature has had a major impact on the development of society. It has shaped civilizations, changed
political systems, and exposed injustice. Literature gives us a detailed preview of human experiences,
allowing us to connect on basic levels of desire and emotion.

Literature and Society:

We are going to start with some theories specified by practitioner/scholars.

“One hypothesis is that literature "reflects" society”

Second Hypothesis is

“literature influences or "shapes" society”

A third hypothesis is that

literature functions socially to maintain and stabilize, if not to justify and sanctify, the social order, which
may be called the "social-control" theory.

The idea that literature reflects society is at least as old as Plato's concept of imitation. The essential
function of the reflection theory is to "explain" in social and historical rather than individual terms the
quality and greatness of literature, as well as its content, style, and forms. In effect, it emphasized social
and cultural determinism instead of personal inspiration, and it became the broad orientation of
innumerable works dealing with the arts. To be sure, other phrases were often used, such as "expression
of society" or "mirror of life," but their meaning is practically identical with "reflection.

These phrases were applied to nearly everything social and cultural as well as biological and
geographical. At one time or another literature has been thought to reflect economics, family
relationships, climate and landscapes, attitudes, morals, races, social classes, political events, wars,
religion, and many other more detailed aspects of environment and social life.

This diversity results, apparently, from the fact that literature embraces a wide variety of subject matter,
representing "settings," behavior patterns, and ideas in their complex interrelationships.

Social Problems and Literature:

Within the last fifteen years several sociologists have explored or implied another variety of reflection
which has arisen evidently from accumulated sociological data and a concern for social problems. Their
basic assumption is that literature, mainly fiction and biography in "popular" forms, reflects social
"facts": vocational and divorce trends, population composition and distribution. This hypothesis is
perhaps the most mechanistic version of all, since it postulates that literary data somehow correspond
to certain types of statistical data; that heroines in popular fiction, for example, are portrayed as having
the same occupations, proportionately, as actually exist in society at a particular time. Although the
hypothesis seems hardly promising, the results have been somewhat profitable, for they indicate the
direction of the distortion of statistical facts. indeed, seems to be slanted in the direction of widespread
interests and ideals.

Literature and its influence on Human Life:

Literature grows out of life, reacts upon life, and fed by life. Generally, we can say that everything in
print is literature. But this would be a very vague description of literature. 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 drama, essays,
fiction and nonfiction. Any work of art in which the emotional content predominates is literature.
Literature is the expression of written words. Literature is distinct from all other arts. It has no medium
of its own. Many mixed forms of literature exist in it.

Though literature is beyond these definitions, it is more than what we see and perceive. Its boundaries
cross our lives, our traditions, culture, social relations, national unity and a lot more. It serves as a
reflection of reality, a product of art, and window to an ideology, everything that happens within a
society can be written, recorded in, and learned from the piece of literature. Whether it be poetry or
prose, literature provides insight, knowledge, or wisdom, and emotion towards the person who partakes
it entirely.

Literature contribution in Human lives:

Literature also functions to contribute several of human lives. In education program, literature may give
significant contribution for students‟ development and knowledge. The contribution of literature in
education covers intrinsic values and extrinsic values. The intrinsic values are the reward of a lifetime of
wide reading recognizable in truly literate person while the intrinsic values facilitate the development of
language skills and knowledge.

Literature as Social Document:

Used as a social document, literature can be made to yield the outlines of social history. Chaucer and
Langland preserve two views of fourteenth century society. The prologue to the Canterbury Tales was
early seen to offer an almost complete survey of social types. Shakespeare, in the Merry Wives of
Windsor, Ben Jonson in several plays, and Thomas Deloney seem to tell us something about the
Elizabethan middle class. Addison, Smollett, and Fielding depict the new bourgeoisie of the eighteenth
century; Jane Austen, the country gentry and country parsons early in the nineteenth century.

Conclusion:

Literature is an instrument of revolution. Political turmoil, societal injustice, and genocidal conquest can
all be ended and resolved in the form of literature. A writer can be a warrior with his words as his
weapon. He can be a revolutionist by writing literary pieces that exploits corruption in his fellow
countrymen. Literature in the present generation still exists as an expression of art, a source of
knowledge, and an instrument of entertainment. In short literature has very deep meaning in our
society it has it roots in every aspect of our society.