Why Literature Matters

Author(s): Tim Gillespie

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The English Journal, Vol. 83, No. 8, Literature, Queen of the Curriculum (Dec., 1994),
pp. 16-21
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/820324 .
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 Why Literature Matters
TimGillespie
hy should we teach literature?"is
the question on the floor.The prag-
matists, clear-eyedand realistic,are
unsure literature has sufficient
value. I'mattendinga before-school
staff meeting of teachersfrom vari-
ous disciplines to discuss restruc-
turing the high school; morning
light sifts through the classroom
windows. Here as elsewhere, prag-
matic demandsof the workplacedi-
rect much of the discussion about school
reform.Literature,it strikes me, has a hard
time adaptingitself to this languageof "job-
force
literacy."
Here is the pragmatists'argument:No
one needs literature to be a productive
worker,competitivein the global economy
In fact, one can be highly successful in the
marketplacewith no knowledgewhatsoever
of literature;real-worldexamplesare plenti-
ful. The importantreadingmatterof the fu-
ture will be information,and the main
readingskillsinformation-gathering and infor-
mation-processing. Literatureis more rightly
regarded as something like opera-an ar-
cane art form, a spice of life, to be sure; a
Practically
seasoning.But not a main course. So, since
speaking, literatureis not essential,why should it be
doesanyone such a majorpartof the curriculum?
need My friend Gloria wonders how she is
literature? going to revampher literaturecurriculumto
fit one of the school'snewly-stipulatedcareer
Theauthor
pathways."Ifthe theme aroundwhich I am
saysyes. to organizeall my curriculumis Traveland
Tourism,"she asks, "how am I supposed to
get literaturein? What happens to Romeo
andJuliet?"
"Maybeyour kids can make a travelbro-
chure for Verona?"a colleague tentatively
suggests.
"The question is," says a pragmatist,
"who really needs to know about Shake-
speare these days?This is an enthusiasm,a
leisure-time pursuit, but not a necessary
skill for the twenty-firstcentury"
Another English teacher earnestlytries
to make a claim for literatureas part of our
culturalheritage.As she talks,the words cul-
turalliteracyleak fromher lips. Immediately,
16
other Englishteacherschallengeher:"Waita
minute!Whose culture?Which books?"We
quarrelabout the literarycanon, tradition,
exclusion, multiculturalism. Meanwhile, I
notice, the pragmatists,ever oriented to the
future, are looking at the clock and rolling
their eyes skyward. See? I imagine them
thinking, thesebookloverswill endlesslyargue
aboutwhichliteraryangelsfit on the headof a
pin; meanwhile,the real businessof the world
goes on unaffected. So, our own in-family
English teacher disagreement scuttles the
discussion.The meetingwinds down with a
shuffleof dissatisfaction.The issue of the lit-
erary canon, though critically important,
nonetheless eclipses the larger question,
without which it appearstrivial:Who really,
in this modern world of commerce, needs
literatureof any kind?
The questionstayson the floor.Teachers
startto leave. The firstperiodbell rings,and
students pour in. One drops her eight-
pound literatureanthologyat my feet with a
clunk.
WHO NEEDS LITERATURE?
In the months since that earlymorning
meeting, these questions stick with me:
Who really does need literature, anyway?
What'sit for?How do we justifyits centrality
to the Englishcurriculum?They are reason-
able questions, I think. Next to claims for
helping studentslearn what it takes to get a
job and do meaningfullife-longwork, litera-
ture can appearextraneous.The discussion
pressed me to re-examinemy belief in the
importanceof literature.I want to have sen-
sible answersto offerthe pragmatists.
Aftermuch reflection,I decided that the
most traditionalclaims for literatureare the
ones I am most eagerto defend. Primarily,I
believe literatureis justifiablein the modern
curriculumfor its contributionsto the culti-
vationof imaginationand of empathyTomy
way of thinking, these are crucial skills for
the twenty-first century, essential for our
thriving,pragmaticto the core.
Why, then, is literatureso easily deval-
ued in the conversationabout communica-
tions skills of the future?Clearly,traditional
claims for the functions of literatureneed
December1994
reassertingand updating.Moreimportantly,
though, I worry that, in the words of the
literary characterPogo Possum, "We have
met the enemy,and he is us."That is, I fear
we too often neglect to addressin the con-
temporaryEnglishclassroomthose habitsof
imaginingand empathizingthat seem to me
literature'sgreatestbenefitand value.
Let me elaborate on these themes of
imagination, empathy, and teaching prac-
tices.
IMAGINATIONAND EMPATHY
PresidentBill Clinton often uses a line
thatregisterswith me as a teacher:"Children
can't be expected to live a life they can't
imagine." We rightly worry that many
youngsters'lives are circumscribedby pov-
erty, discrimination,low expectations,cul-
tural insularity,and other conditions that
may renderthem unable to see beyond the
limits of their immediate horizons. Litera-
ture does offer-inexpensively?a vision of
otherlives and othervistas.One of its poten-
tial benefits is to enlarge a reader'ssense
about the many possible ways to live. This
enlarged sense seems to me an important
part of our traditionalnationalethos. Hope
fora betterworld and beliefin the possibility
of re-makingoneselfor improvingone'ssitu-
ation breed optimism and elbow grease.
(Need I point out that these qualities have
economic implications?)We have rich testi-
mony about this imaginativefunctionof lit-
erature.
In the lovely essay,"Ghostsand Voices:
Writingfrom Obsession"(1990), for exam-
ple, SandraCisneroswritesof her childhood,
of checking out from her neighborhoodli-
braryVirginiaLee Burton'sclassic TheLittle
House seven times in a row, of being en-
tranced by books such as Island of the Blue
Dolphins and Alice in Wonderland.Through
those books, she says, she was transported
to other worlds, instructed about other peo-
ple and possibilities, offered hopefulness,
and inspired to be a writer herself.
Richard Wright tells in BlackBoy (1945)
of being forced to pretend he was checking
out books for a white co-worker, since Jim
Crow laws didn't permit him to borrow the
books himself. In these forbidden works,
Wright found himself electrified by the fiery
writing of H. L. Mencken, which gave him
the idea that words could be effectively used
EnglishJournal
as weapons.Menckenled him to SinclairLe-
wis' MainStreetand Babbitt,then to Theo-
dore Dreiser's fiction, then to novel after
novel that revealed to him new ways of
thinking about his own circumstancesand
the wider world:
I hungeredforbooks,newwaysof
lookingandseeing.Itwasnot a mat-
terof believingor disbelieving
whatI
read,butof feelingsomethingnew,of
beingaffectedby somethingthatmade
the look of the world different. . . it
wasnothinglessthana senseof lifeit-
self.(272-74)
In a speech made at last year'sInterna-
tional ReadingAssociation conference and
reported in ReadingToday(1994), editor
WalterAnderson,who grew up in a violent,
impoverished environment, said his place
of solace and retreat was the library: "I
could open a book, and I could be anything.
I could be anywhere.I could be anyone...
I read myself out of poverty long before I
workedmyselfout of poverty"(1).
This is the firstargumentI would like to
offer for literature,its capacityto stimulate
the imagination,to offer differentperspec-
tives and widerworldsthatthe young reader
can wander at leisure and experience in
safety, without pressure or judgment. We
read ourselvesimaginativelyinto other lives
and by this act expandthe pagesof our own.
If we keep following the track of our
imaginativeresponse, other argumentsfor
literatureemerge.As a reader,I readnot only
to find myself, I also read to lose myself.
Sweptalongby the magicof narrative,I give
myselfover to otherlives, landscapes,points
of view. In this experienceis the cultivation
of a deeper form of imagination,the empa-
thetic identification with other humans,
often people quite unlike ourselves.
Through literature, readers travel to different
locales, to the past and to the future, and
learn during their travels about other cul-
tures and peoples. Literature offers students
diversity that their neighborhood may not.
As Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has said, "No hu-
man culture is inaccessible to someone who
makes the effort to understand, to learn, to
inhabit another world" (1991, 1). And lit-
erature can be a form of this habitation.
The effort to understand advances what
Percy Bysshe Shelley called the "moral
imagination," a capacity to occupy another
17
 mind and feel the emotionalpulse of an-
otherheart."Moral" is a trickyword here;
people such as former U.S.Secretary of Edu-
cationWilliamBennettare speakingmuch
latelyaboutthe moralvalueof stories,but I
hope the moralopportunitiesof literature
aren'toversimplified.Literaturedoes not
teach moralsin a didacticway; rather,it
givesus a chanceto experience moraldilem- nings that grab readersby the collarand
mas. And qualityliteraturedoes not over-
simplifythe dilemmasof the world.Unlike
the glib,materialistic,quick-solution visionscriptions. Many had snappy dialogue.
of life offeredon much literaturepor-Someone,I thought,has been talkingwith
TV,
trayslives thathave complicatedproblems
and toughchoices,andinvitesus to engage
withthem,to imaginelivingoutlife'svexing
dilemmas along with the characterswe
meet.By its truthfulportrayalof life'scom-
plex moralchoices,literaturedrawsus in,
submerges us intoa story,andsummonsour
imaginativepowerto identifywith charac-
ters.Literature thusmightbe oneantidoteto
the diseaseof disconnectionthatafflictsus.
Assaultingsomeone, tagginga wall with
spraypaint,sexuallyharassinganother,or
yellinga racialslurareall actsthatshowan
incapacityto empathize, to imagine an-
other'sdeepestresponses,to considerthe
real consequencesof actionson others.In
the fractiousworldwe inhabit,empathyis a
much-neededskill,and literatureis a form
in whichwe canpracticethisskill.
CONNECTIONS TO THECLASSROOM another
The fuzzyrelationshipbetweenmy be-
lief in this empatheticfunctionof literature
and my classroominstructioncame into
clearerfocusforme lastfall.AfterI agreedto
help judge a fiction-writingcontestfor ex-
ceptionalhigh schoolwritersin my state,I I was
foundon my frontporcha cardboardbox
filledwith 121 manuscripts,averagingabout
ten pages apiece. For the next two weeks, I
kept the box in my car. Wherever I went,
whenever I could, I read stories: during
lunch break,in the quiet of late night, wait-
ing for soccer practiceto finish.
Reading all this student fiction offered
equal parts delight and dismay,and caused
me to ask myself againone of the firstques-
tions of the educationalendeavor:Why are
we doing this?What on earthis the value of
having students write fiction, or poetry, or
any form of literature?And this, of course,
sent me back to my ruminationsabout the
18
valueof reading
literature.
So,evenwhenthe
contestwasover,I keptluggingaroundthat
box.
Therewasmuchto admirein those121
stories,particularly the ampledisplayof so-
phisticatedwriting craft.Lotsof the young
authorshadmasteredthe trickof writingat-
tention-gettingleads, high-impactbegin-
yanktheminto the story.Manystorieswere
ripe with sensoryimagesand detailedde-
thesestudentsaboutliterarytechnique.
Yetin all thisexerciseof writerlycraft,I
felta kindof emptiness.Whatseemedmiss-
ing fromtoo manyof the storieswas that
rareexperienceof gettinginsidethe skinof
anotherhumanbeing.WhenI thinkof the
fictionI love, I think of vivid characters,
fromJaneEyreto MarieKashpaw, YuryZhi-
vago to Huck Finn to WillTweedy,Scoutto
Setheto JuneWoo.ThesearepeopleI have
come to know well. In theirengagingsto-
ries, I learn somethingabout them, and,
throughthem,othersandmyself.A handful
of the studentswho enteredthe contestdid
createsuchabsorbing in theirsto-
characters
ries.I won'tsoon forgetthe dyingfarmerin
one student'sstorywho leaveshis homeand
startshitchhikingwith his dog to see the
countryin springtimebloomone last time.
And I won'tsoon forgetthe young girl in
story,livinga constrictedlife as a
servanton a turn-of-the-century Oregon
ranch, dreaming of escape to the nearby
townto the onlylifethatseemsa liberation,
thatof a barmaid.Forthegiftof allowingme
to cometo knowandunderstand theselives,
exceedinglygratefulto thesestudents;
thiswasthe delightofjudgingthecontest.
The dismay came from the shortageof
such vivid charactersand what I felt was an
insufficient exploration in many of the
pieces of characters'motives, complexities,
and changes.What I mostly found was non-
stop action, special effects,and greatgobs of
violence in many forms. Charactersin vari-
ous storieswere:shot, knifed,hit by a truck,
killed in an earthquake,attacked by killer
midgets, beaten with an ax and fireplace
poker, bashed with a sledgehammer,
stabbedwith a broomstick,eaten by croco-
diles, conked on the head with a gravestone,
rippedup by a grizzlybear,and on and on. I
December1994
know we live in a violence-drenched cul-
ture,and I believewritershave to confront
the givenworldanddealwiththeirdeepest
fearsanddesires,but I wasstilltakenaback
by all the violence.My surprisewas less
aboutthe quantitythan aboutthe poorly-
imaginedqualityof muchof it. Mostof the
mayhemin these storieswas unnecessary,
unearned,emotionallyflat, painless,and
lackingconsequence,likewhatwe see in so
manymoviesandTVshows.
Readingthisworkfromsomeof thebest
writersin mystatecausedme to re-thinkmy
claimthatliterature canenlargeourcapacity
forempathy,thatreadingfiction-and writ-
ing it-offers us a chanceto imaginehow
anotherhumanmight live, think, dream,
and feel.Believingfictionto be a meansfor
practicingmoralengagement,I was con-
cernedafterreadingthissmallsampleof sto-
ries.I wishedmoreof theseyoungwriters'
imaginative andempathetic skillswereasre-
finedas theirtechnicalskills.
TECHNICAL PERFECTION VS.
MORALINSIGHT
My thinkingon theseissueswas deep-
ened when I re-readRalphEllison'sessay
"Twentieth CenturyFictionand the Black
Maskof Humanity" (1964)notlongafterhe
died.In the essay,Ellisoncriticizesmodern-
ist writerswho seek "atechnicalperfection
ratherthan a moralinsight"(38) and frets
about excessive absorptionwith literary
techniqueandwhathe seesin moderncriti-
cismas a confusionof technicalsophistica-
tion with significance.This intriguedme,
comingfromthepen of a greatliterarytech-
nicianandinnovator, authorof thesophisti-
catedandexperimental Man.Yet,I
Invisible
mused,Ellison'snovelspeakseloquentlyto
me not becauseof his masteryof innovative
form and technique, but ratherbecause of
the movingly-renderedhuman being who
calls out from his invisibility,tryingdesper-
atelyto be known.
This threadof thoughtled me to consid-
er my own teaching.I looked at some of the
writing resourcebooks on my shelf, and I
looked at my own habitsas a teacherof crea-
tive writing. The sight was striking: both
tended to stress,in Ellison'swords,technical
perfectionover moral insight. That is, more
time was spent on writing techniques than
on the human issues in students'stories. I
realized that my students need more than
EnglishJournal
just hints on techniquewhen they are ex-
perimenting with fiction.Tipson writinga
catchylead,usingsensorydetails,or "show-
ing insteadof telling"maybe lessimportant
to young fictionwritersthan supportfor
imaginingwhat might be motivatingan-
otherperson,payingcloserattentionto hu- Unlike
man interactions, and portraying life in its theglib,
fullcomplexity. I need to focuson the peo- materialistic,
ple in my students'fiction,notjuston tech-
nique.
quick-solution
Don'tgetme wrong;I lovethecraft-talk visionof life
of writing,andI enjoysharingauthors'lore offeredon
with students.Youngwritersareinterested muchTV,
in colorfullanguage,dialogue,richdescrip- literature
tion, invitingleads,all thatgood stuff.Yet
craftin writingmust servecontent;tech-
portrayslives
thathave
niqueoughtto be employednot forits own
sake but in the serviceof some truththe complicated
writeris pursuing.Whena fictionwriteris problemsand
usingflashytricksbut lacksfeelingfor the toughchoices.
characters, it feelslike manipulation to the
reader, a lack of commitment, stylewithout
substance.Wemissmuchin ourteachingif
we don'taddressdeeperreasonsbehindthe
devicesof writing.Forexample,I havetold
studentsin pastclassesto "describe charac-
ters using lavish details,"as if this were
merelya ruleto followor anotherrhetorical
device for the writer'sbag of tricks.It is
more,of course.Offeringcharacters in their
fully-detailed complexity is notjuststraining
foreffect,it is tenderingrespect.Totreatour
characters respectfully is to makea generous
effortto get to know themwell, the same
way we show respectin our nonfictional
walking-around life.
WhatI wantto learnas a teacherof fic-
tion-writing,then, is how to help young
authorscultivatethisspiritof generosityIn-
steadofjust teachingcraft,I needto talkto
them in ways that challenge them to learn
more about their characters:Why did that
characterdo that? What's motivatingher?
What do we know about her background,
her dreams,her fears,her wishes? I would
like to discipline myself so my first re-
sponses to a piece of fictionwould centeron
the qualitiesof empathyand understanding:
What'sat the heart of this human you are
workingto portray?And if you do decide to
knock aroundor kill off this character,how
will you make it so we all feel the true hurt?
19
 LITERATURE AND HUMAN This is the way we want studentsto experi-
EXPERIENCE
ence literature,a way that allows them to
All this thinking about writing finally
exercisetheirempatheticimaginations.
brought me back around to literature.I'm Think, then, about how literature is
ready to talk to the pragmatistsnow. Here's often taughtin high school:Outlinethe plot.
A skillat what I will say:
Identify the theme. Detail the setting. List
ormal The callingof literatureis to explorehu-
main charactersand supportingcharacters.
man experience in all its dimensions and
iterary Commenton the structureof the work.Note
possibilities.Literaturedeals with our most
analysismay descriptiveand supportingdetails.Analyze
pressing concerns-family, death, religion, the mood. Look for certain literary tech-
be usefulfor a love, good and evil, destiny, will, justice,
niques: irony,symbolism,author'ssignature
few college character,courage-issues not oftencovered
style. Considerthe narrativepoint of view.
courses,butit in an Applied Communicationsor Business
Definethis work in termsof the SevenMajor
is nota highly Writingunit. Informationmost often repre- Plots, the Seven Forms of Ambiguity,Four
sents humanexperiencein abstractand gen-
marketable Universal Themes, Kohlberg's Stages,
eralized forms: facts, statistics, data.
skill,nora Literaturerepresentshuman experience in
Bloom'sTaxonomy,whatever.Writeup some
cornerstone
of the very specific individualterms of a story biographicalinfo on the author.Answerthe
questionsat the end of the selection.Makea
workplace or poem.
list of new vocabularywords. And on and
competence, Furthermore,literatureoffersa different on. I am as guiltyas anyone.
norsomething form of learningthanjust processinginfor-
Jumpingtoo quicklyinto these kinds of
mostfolks mation;it requiresus to experience,to par-
follow-up activities, we miss the boat, I
needas ticipate. Works of literature are not just think. Certainlythere are formal and aes-
abouthuman issues; the power of literature
theywalk is that it makes issues come alive for the
thetic issues to explorein all worksof litera-
aroundin ture, and I want my students to have a
reader. Think of the experience so many
theiradult vocabularyof literaryanalysis.But if that is
young readershave with Anne Frank'sdiary.
my primaryor only instructionalconcern,
lives. Whatis learnedof the Holocaustin thatlittle
the pragmatistsare completelyjustified in
book is learnedin a powerful,moving, pro-
questioning the value of the literaturecur-
foundlyintimateway.Withchillinglyevil in- riculum, their criticismcorrectlyaimed. A
sight, Hitler's propaganda minister Josef skill at formalliteraryanalysismay be useful
Goebbelssaid thata singledeathis a tragedy,
for a few college courses, but it is not a
a million deaths a statistic. We must, of
highly marketableskill, nor a cornerstoneof
course, confront the statistics about the
workplacecompetence,nor somethingmost
Holocaust, we must know the information folksneed as theywalk aroundin theiradult
thatmillions of lives were taken.Butto fully
lives.
understand,we also mustfeel the tragedyof If the heartof literatureis its exploration
single deaths, experiencethe loss in a way of human experience,considerationof the
we can shed a tear over, put faces on those
formaland aestheticpropertiesof a work of
numbers.Thatis the functionof literature.
literature must be secondary to consid-
Manyyounger readers,it seems to me, eration of the social values and ethical di-
already know this. As a parent and some- lemmas presented by the work. Bertolt
time teacher of elementary schoolers, I am
Brecht once said he didn't want people to
often amazed to see what can happen when
leave his plays thinking about the theater, he
avid young readers plunge into literature.
wanted them to leave his plays thinking
They may cry when the dogs die in Where about the world. In like fashion, our stu-
the RedFern Growsor the father comes home
dents want to use literature to think about
in Sounder. They feel in their marrowbones
the world, not just to think about the formal
the awful injustice of racism when they read
Rollof Hear My Cry.They share pio- aspects of literature. To explore the deepest
Thunder, with Laura Ingalls Wilder human concerns is why people read litera-
neer hardships
ture, and why they write it. That is what
and rehearse the demands of friendship with
enthusiastic younger readers know, and
Katherine Paterson. They care desperately
that'swhat we don't want to stifle in our high
about the fate of characters, laugh out loud,
school students by focusing too soon or too
gasp, sigh, get scared, or shiver as they read. much on technical elements of literature.

20 December1994
The skill our studentsmost need to learn "Sharing of Storiesis CommonThreadin Wide-
fromliterature in this pragmatic go-getter of Ranging LiteracyConference." 1994. Read-
11.5
ingToday (April/May): 1.
a societyis how to betterunderstand them-
Stotsky,Sandra.1989. "Literature Programs and
selvesandothers. theDevelopment of Civic TheLeaf-
It behoovesus then,to startourdiscus- let88 (1): 17-21. Identity."
sion of everyworkof literature open to the Wright,Richard.1945. BlackBoy.New York:
human issues dramatizedin it. Our first Harper& Row
questionsoughtn'tto be about form,vo- TimGillespie,pastpresidentof the OregonCouncil
cabulary, or literarymoves.Wehaveto give of Teachersof Englishandco-directorof theOregon
studentsa chance first to chew over the at WritingProjectat Lewisand ClarkCollege,teaches
LakeOswegoHighSchoolin Oregon.
quandariesof the characters, the questions
of rightandwrongtheyface,justifiableand
unjustifiable actions,admirable or antisocial 11I.
.v..E. .$.A.O .
qualities,choicesand limitations.(In this AXat~~ eflv
We......
way, as both SandraStotskyand Robert
Coleshavepointedout,civicsandsocialin- W
....................
.
quirycanbecomethe provinceof literature world
i~th... .w .de .$...... s
study as much as it is of the social studies
curriculum.) In our classrooms, we haveto th.Th~~h I~ss ~
teflctbn~t0$ X.
use literature's mainattractions, the oppor-
~oo~r~ye*s pbi~iXon
tunityto tryoutotherlivesandconnectwith
otherhumansthroughtheexerciseof imagi- ~ o ....p
.........,.....
Tenys~n~ . ........
t41 e wh
nationandempathy
Tosumup, themainclaimforliterature
thatI wantto offerto myworkforce-oriented
colleaguesis this:Weneedliterature to learn
to get along.Literature andlife convergein
thefieldof humanrelationships. Whatchar- tT~1ox
acterizes quality literature-refusal to 1NT~cON ~ .......
... E
or
stereotype generalize, fidelity to the
.OE~tLO..........M
whole complicatedtruthin all its breadth 9 .....
..$.........nb..
and subtlety,energyandinventiveness, elo-
quence,payingcarefulattention,discomfort .Nahsi
at patanswers,anda generosity andsympa- .6..t .......e
thy with others-also characterizes thought-
ful life.Thegreatdangersof ourfindesiecle
period-nihilism,barbarism, theinabilityto
the
acknowledge humanity othersoutside
of Th~p i~....... .~
......we
.N~W xr~mbev (o~
~ar~seIX.
one's own tribe, cynicism,boredom-are
perilsliterature attemptsto combat.
So let's be clear-eyed,realistic,prag-
matic.Who needs literature?We all do.
WorksCited .9: eve, t~a ynti4g
Sandra.1990."Ghosts
Cisneros, andVoices:
Writ-
ing fromObsession."
MexicanAmerican
Litera-
ture.NewYork:
Harcourt
Brace
Jovanovich. ST... .......
.... Ui . na,
Coles,Robert.1989. TheCallofStories: and
Teaching ...t ......
......y ~*
theMoralImagination. Boston:HoughtonMif-
flin. T61801,1.1*iau~ ~i~
Ellison,Ralph.1964. "TwentiethCenturyFiction p e.r.h. .........
and the Black Mask of Shadow
andAct.New York:Random Humanity."
House.
Gates, Henry Louis,Jr. 1991. "'Authenticity,'
or
the Lesson of Little Tree."New YorkTimes
BookReview(24 November):1.

Journal
English 21