Introduction
Hi, this is Arup from the channel "Language and Literature." Today, I have decided to talk about literature. You know I have been posting videos on the Language part. I have posted many videos on language so far and I will continue to post videos on various aspects of grammar so that you can inform yourselves about various aspects of English grammar in English details. Learning grammar in English will give you many English expressions required for a fluent communication. By the way, today, I am going to make an introductory video on Literature. The lecture will respond to two questions. What is literature? Why should we read literature? What is Literature?
In general, literature means any written or sometimes spoken material. So, from that perspective, what we read in newspapers is literature; what our students read in their textbook, be it physics, chemistry, biology, history, geography, theology, etc. is literature. A vast number of written matter is coming out of the printing press every day and occupying the shelves of libraries. But this lecture is concerned with what we call literature proper which refers to the work of creative imagination. It especially means poetry, prose, and drama. Literature expresses life in words of beauty and truth. While history records our life outside, literature is the written record of our emotions, thoughts, hopes and aspirations, and spirit. William J. Long in his book English Literature has talked about three qualities of literature. They are artistic, suggestive, and permanent quality. Artistic quality refers to the portrayal of life in the forms of truth and beauty. Through the suggestive quality, he means that a literary work appeals "to our emotions and imagination rather than to our intellect" (4). This is what Shamsul Haque Shaidai says feeling intellect in his book Education Man And God. He says the mere collection of information and jumps to a conclusion through the generalization of information is inferior to our feeling intellect. The highest knowledge derives from our feeling intellect. William J. Long says that the object of literature is not only to entertain us but also to know the human soul rather than his action. He further says as literature "preserves to the race the ideals upon which all our civilization is founded, it is one of the most important and delightful subjects that can occupy the human mind" (9). The third characteristic of literature is permanence which arises directly from the other two. We do not live for only consumption but also we love to establish our ideals, our sense of beauty. Literature preserves every beautiful thing. Moreover, universality and style are the two more tests that determine the permanence of any literary work. William J. Long says that if any particular piece of literature has a sense of universality appealing to the widest human interests and the simplest human emotions, it finds permanence. He further mentions that "it is nevertheless true that good literature knows no nationality, nor any bounds save those of humanity. It is occupied chiefly with elementary passions and emotions,--love and hate, joy and sorrow, fear and faith,--which are an essential part of our human nature; and the more it reflects these emotions the more surely does it awaken a response in men of every race" (5). Personal style refers to the writer's manner of expressing thought. "Every permanent book has more or less of these two elements, the objective and the subjective, the universal and the personal, the deep thought and feeling of the race reflected and colored by the writer's own life experience" (6).
Branches of literature
Primarily, we can classify literature based on two criteria: (i) poetry and prose (ii) narrative and non-narrative. If we go to think about literature from the first criteria, we have poetry and prose. Each is different from the other based on the mode of expression. Poetry has different forms such as the lyric, the epic, poetic drama, and poetic romances. On the other hand, the biography, the autobiography, the prose drama, the prose romance, the essay belong to prose.
Difference between
Poetry and Prose
Both poetry and prose are written in the language. There is no particular type of word for poetry or prose; Both use sentences as the basic unit of thought. In prose writing, we connect one sentence with another one and form a paragraph and the paragraphs together make a chapter or episode. Generally, in poetry, a sentence may consist of one or more than one line to form verses. Both poetry and prose have an underlying rhythm of the language, but in poetry, this rhythm is pronounced. We also, in general, see a meter in poetry. Meter consists of stressed and unstressed syllables. Poetry has different types of meters such as pentameter, hexameter, etc. This particular type of meter is the result of several stressed and unstressed syllables consisting of the poetic foot. Rhyme is another distinguishing feature of poetry along with verses and meter. Rhyme refers to the convention of ending a line with a word that sounds similar to a word that ends another line in the same stanza. But, we should keep in mind that all poetry does not have stanzaic or rhymed form. But all poetry possesses rhythm or meter of some kind. Literature, be it poetry or prose, is distinguished from free, oral communication. Our daily conversation may include errors, hesitation, and non sequitur. But written language is more concentrated, well-controlled which is, generally free of such hesitations, errors, and random conclusions. There is controlled concentration in response to the plot of the story and The difference between prose and poetry lies in the fact that the language of prose is much closer spoken language than poetry. Moreover, literary language is different from journalistic, legal, historical, and psychological language. They provide a scientific description of things. But literature provides a description of life because literature is nothing but the reflection of human life. At that point, we find the importance of reading literature. Literature is about life. As life is many-colored, many-faceted, in literature, we find stories of joys and sorrows. Here, you find tragedies, comedies, romances, love stories, death stories. So, whatever it is there in life, it is there in literature also. Therefore, you cannot follow literature, unless you keep in mind that you are reading about life which is personal, emotive, the internal life, not the external life.
Why should we study literature? undoubtedly
Literature is about life; literature is the reflection of the human mind. Reading the literature of a particular community means knowing the minds of that community, knowing the dreams, wishes, and aspirations of that community. Through these dreams, hopes, and aspirations, liking and disliking we come to know their mental height. It is the height of our mind which determines how great our society is. Yes, Human beings cannot live whatever way they want. They must live in a way that is not only progressive but also meaningful, ideal, and human. Literature leads us to that path of supremacy because literature teaches us how we should live. To be specific literature deals with one question: how should we live? This is an ethical question. When we go to deal with the question, we actually make our life more refined, more human. We can also say that literature is a mirror of society. We cannot understand literature unless we understand the fact that we actually reading life. Reading our life is very important; we read and see how great life is portrayed in writing. Then we try to upgrade our existing life. This is how we learn from the literature of various languages and continue to upgrade our views towards life. This is how we can make our life more sophisticated, more human!
If science tells you about the external world, literature tells you about our inner kingdom. If science deals with our body, from our head to toe, literature deals with our mind. It should be kept in mind that it is our mind that drives our body. If our mind is great, it will drive our body to do great work. If our mind becomes beast-like, it will drive our body to do beast-like activities, making our society a hectic one. Without the human mind, an educated physician can poison children; trained nurses can kill infants; high school and college graduates can shoot women and babies to death. When we came to know these terrible real incidents from a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp after the end of World War II, we all felt shocked. This survivor sent a message addressing all the teachers. Through this message, he requested all the teachers to help students become human. He also said that reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.
Writing Essay
Characteristics of An Ideal Paragraph
ARUP ROY
WORKING AS A LECTURER IN ENGLISH
LITERATURE & LINGUISTICS
AT KANCHKHURA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF IELD
FORMER LECTURER OF STAMFORD COLLEGE
& DHAKA PUBLIC COLLEGE
WORKED AS A MEMBER SECRETARY
AT STAMFORD ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLUB UTTARA
AT STAMFORD ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLUB UTTARA
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