INSTITUTE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE UOS JAMSHORO

SUBJECT: INT TO LITERARURE PART 2

TEACHER: MA'AM ISHRAT RANJHANI
BS PART 1, 1ST SEMESTER

LITERATURE SECTION II
OUTLINE:
1. Introduction to literature
2. Impulses, elements and classification of literature
3. Literature as an expression of personality
4. Study of an Author
5. The study of style as an index of personality
6. Literature as an interpretation of life and as a social product
7. Comparative method in the historical study of literature

INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE:
 Etymologically, the term derives from Latin litaritura/litteratura “writing
formed with letters," Literature, in its broadest sense, is any written work.

 Hudson says that the word literature is loosely used in everyday

communication. In common sense, literature means whatever that is written
or printed.
 Literature is an art of writing meant to give "aesthetic pleasure" And shows
time picture of life also influence the masses. anything which is in written
form is called literature. work of art specially novel, plays and poems,
books, magazines, newspapers etc. the piece of writing as printed the
information on a particular subject.
 literature deals with life and its facts, they also explain that everything are
written who are not literature and literature also depend upon human life,
and without life and without human being literature cannot completed.
literature holds a mirror up to life or is a time model of life. it is full of
human interest evaluated with the coloring of imaginations and thoughts,
there is no literature without imagination and thoughts. it is an expression of
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SUBJECT: INT TO LITERARURE PART 2

TEACHER: MA'AM ISHRAT RANJHANI
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life and language it is medium. all the major languages have their own
literature hence, it makes a language authentic. in a literature have also it is a
record of man's experience an observation, activates.

 Literature may be classified according to a variety of systems,

including language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject
matter.

 Hudson gives three criteria that make literature ‘literature’ in true

sense. These three features are:

1. GENERAL HUMAN INTEREST

This refers to the portrayal of essential human experiences magnetizing
all irrespective of time, age, and place. The work of literature does not
appeal to particular mass of the people of particular era, but touches the
hearts of all from whatever corner of the world.A work of literature is not
gender-biased or time bound; it appeals to young and old, literate or
illiterate. Thus a work of literature always has subject-matter of general
human interest, where as mere writing is useful to particular group of the
people and is always time bound

2. ELEMENT OF FORM
Hudson is of the opinion that element of form is an essential factor that
constitutes literature. Mere writing does have particular form but this type of
form does not provide artistic pleasure, whereas form of literary work pleases
the hearts of readers.In poetic form the use of rhyming schemes, meters and
figurative language makes reading pleasant. Form of literary work changes
from writer to writer (except fourteen lines of sonnet), on other hand mere
writing has fixed format. Thus a work of literature has element of form which
imparts pleasure.

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SUBJECT: INT TO LITERARURE PART 2

TEACHER: MA'AM ISHRAT RANJHANI
BS PART 1, 1ST SEMESTER
3. AESTHETIC PLEASURE
The word ‘aesthetic’ denotes: a. innovative, complex use of language and form,
b. artistic unity, c. use of literary techniques, and, d. lack of obvious political
content. A work of literature is mostly created on the precept of “art for art’s
sake” – which means art does not have to serve any function except giving
pleasure. Literature’s primary function is to give pleasure, whereas a mere piece
of writing aims at providing information. Aesthetic pleasure is hallmark of good
literature. Thus, Hudson makes it clear that these three factors make literature,
‘literature'. He rightly says, “Literature is composed of those, and those books
only, which, in the first place, by the reason of their subject-matter and their
mode of treating it, are of general human interest.” On the basis of these
criteria, he defines literature in this way –

 DEFINITION:
 literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have
experience of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it
which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of these.
 It is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of
language.”

 literature is first and foremost humankind’s entire body of writing; after that
it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or people; then it is
individual pieces of writing.
 Literature comes out of human life; it reflects the life of the era in which it is
produced.
 Literature is nothing else but an important record of what men have
perceived in the world.
 In literature, the writer artistically reports his experiences of life; he gives
words to those interesting incidents of life which have general human
interest.
 Literature is an artistic expression of the best that is known and thought in
the world.
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 It is a record of man’s dreams and ideals, his failures and achievements, his
disappointments and pleasures; his motives and passions, and, his
experiences and observations.
 As literature is product of life, while reading it we are brought in large,
close, and, fresh revelation of most enduring aspects of life.

 As an art, literature might be described as the organization of words to give

pleasure.

 It is fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language.

 Literature deals with the great drama of human life and action

 The very Existence of literature is Art.

 MAJOR FORMS:
 Poetry
 Drama
 Prose
 Fiction

 QUALITIES OF LITERATURE:
 Literature should have a theme. ...
 It should explain the relevance of the theme. ...
 Literature should have a compelling idea. ...
 Literature should have good style and grammar. ...
 Literature should sound genuine.

 IMPULSES:
 Our desire for self-expression.
 Our interest in people and their doings.

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 interest in the world of reality in which we live, and in the world of
imagination.
 Our love of form as form.
1. Our desire for self-expression:
 Hudson says that, “we are strongly impelled to confide to others what we think and feel.”
All of us have a natural desire to express ourselves.
 We always want to open our heart to others. We wish to express our feelings and
thoughts to others.
 In this impulse writer expresses his thoughts of what one has to say and
write.
 This desire for self-expression results into the production of literature. A piece of
literature is expression of writer’s mind and heart, his emotions and ideas.
 It is integral in the making of literature because this impulse triggers first
thought in the mind of a writer from where and what a writer has to write.
 Initiating with good and powerful impulse can help a reader and writer to
keep an interest in reading and writing respectively.
 Thus our desire for self-expression is the first and primary impulses that give birth to
literature
2. Our interest in people and their doings:
 “We are intensely interested in men and women, their lives, motives, passions,
relationships”, admits Hudson.
 When a person loves someone or have an interest in someone’s life, this
impulse trigger literature of love, humanity and happiness.
 Our interest in the lives of other people and their doing gives birth to literature.
 As human beings we cannot live quite aloof from others.
 We always like to know about other people, their thoughts, their feelings, their problems,
and, their resistance to certain problems, their achievements and limitations, and, their
success and failure.
 In order to know other people, their thoughts, the ways of their life, and, their customs
and lives, we read-write literature.
 This impulse assists a writer to enhance and contemplate on one’s
personality, which in result can help comprehend the human behavior and
enlighten our minds.
 A piece of writing can help a human to heal from his wound.

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SUBJECT: INT TO LITERARURE PART 2

TEACHER: MA'AM ISHRAT RANJHANI
BS PART 1, 1ST SEMESTER
3. Our interest in the world of reality and imagination:
 Two important things stimulate the production of literature that is reality and
imagination.
 As a human one is always curious of what is happening around one’s life.
 It’s a human who is also interested in knowing the realities and truth about
the world.
 The eagerness triggers a writer to write and to contribute to the world of
literature.
 . There comes a time when a human wants to escape from the realities of the
world and tries to enter the world of imagination, where a human imagines
his own type of world and expresses those thoughts regarding how one
wants to survive and die.
 This also results into the making of literature which is a combination of
realities and imagination.

4. Our love for form as form:

 Hudson believes, “we take special satisfaction in the mere shaping of expression into
forms of beauty.”
 Man, by his nature, is unable to keep his experience, observations, emotions, ideas,
fancies, to himself, but he is on the contrary under the stress of constant desire of
expressing these to other and for that he chooses various channels of expression.
 This impulse helps a human to express his desire for self-expression, his
interest in the world’s realities and imagination, his interest in people and
their doings to give it a final touch.
 Man is also fond of particular form of literature. And many a times, his love
for particular form results in the production of literature.
 For instance: poem, novel, fiction.
 Through these channels of expression, literature is made.

 To sum up, these four impulses give birth to literature. All these
impulses work together and produce the best literature around the
world.
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SUBJECT: INT TO LITERARURE PART 2

TEACHER: MA'AM ISHRAT RANJHANI
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 ELEMENTS:
 Intellectual Element
 Emotional Element
 Element of Imagination
 Technical Element

 Hudson discusses the two major groups of elements: (a) elements furnished by life, and,
(b) elements furnished by the author. As literature is the product of life, the raw material
for any piece of literature – poetry, novel, essay, drama – is always furnished by the life.
There are certain elements contributed by the author himself. These elements turn such
into form of literary art. These elements may roughly be tabulated under the four heads:

1. INTELLECTUAL ELEMENT:
 This element helps a writer to put logic into work which is very crucial in
the production of literature.
 The intellectual element of the work makes it more appealing and heavy in
weight to the readers.
 These elements assist the writer to formulate and figure out the whole plan
to how to express the thoughts.

1. Most literary works are the result

2. EMOTIONAL ELEMENT:
In this element, the writer tries to trigger his desired feelings in the reader’s mind
to make one read and contemplate on the writer’s work.

Which is important if a reader does not find the work appealing then the whole
work of literature is in vain. of the emotional aspects of the writer.

3. ELEMENT OF IMAGINATION:
 this element is considered most important.

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 Through this element, the writer deliberates and wander in the world of
imagination which creates his own world.
 When the reader reads that piece of literature which enlightens the vision of
the reader.

4. TECHNICAL ELEMENT:
 If a writer does not know the fashions and principles of writings then one’s
work is nothing.
 The technical element helps the writer to make the work most effective,
beautiful, and aesthetic

 Thus, there are four types of elements that a writer furnishes to

written work to make it a piece of literature in real sense.
 CLASSIFICATION AND THEME OF LITERATURE:

Q: What are the subjects, purposes, or, themes of literature? How does Hudson
classify them in the first chapter?
ANS: There are various themes of literature. The five broad themes of
literature, according to Hudson, are:

 THEMES
1. The Personal Experiences of Individuals as Individuals:
 This includes the things which make up the sum-total of the writer’s
personal life.
 It suggests that literature deals with the personal thoughts, ideas, experience,
problems and achievements of writer’s life.
 Literature is an expression of writer’s personal life as well. Whatever
experience man is having as individual, he reports all these experiences in
literature with enough sincerity.

2. The Experience of Man as Man:

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 Some experiences of man as man are always the same, such as, the great
common questions of life and death, sin and destiny, God and man’s relation
to God, and, the general fate of human race.
 Literature deals with all these aspects of man’s life as man. In this way,
these form one of the major themes of literature.

3. The Relations of Individual with entire Social World:

 The relation of individual with his fellows, or entire social world, also forms
an essential theme of literature.
 Literature, in fact, is revelation of man’s relation with the whole world, his
response to the society and his problems with the world.
 How man acts or reacts to the world that literature shows us.

4. The External world of Nature and our relation to it:

 Man lives in lap of nature.
 Nature has a great importance in life of man.
 Man cannot think of his own existence without nature.
 Nature is a good friend of man.
 And hence, it is for sure that nature finds expression in all activities of man,
including literature.
 In literature, we find expression of writer’s love of nature and the relation of
human with it.

5. Man’s effort to create and express under the various forms

of literature and art:
 Man, by his nature, is unable to keep his experience, observations, emotions,
ideas, fancies, to himself, but he is on the contrary under the stress of
constant desire of expressing these to other and for that he chooses various
channels of expression.
 Thus man’s own effort to create and express under the various forms of
literature and art forms this theme of literature.

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 Followed by these five themes of literature, Hudson discusses “five

classes of production.” These five classes are the theme-based
classifications of literature. They are:
 The literature of purely personal experience.
 The literature of common life of man as man.
 The literature of the social world under all its aspects.
 The literature which treats nature.
 The literature which treats of literature and art.
 The second type of classification which Hudson suggests is the content-
based classification. Here he classifies literature into three groups. They
are:

1. PERSONAL LITERATURE
 Personal literature is literature of self-expression
 . It includes the different kinds of lyric of poetry, the poetry of meditation
and argument, and, elegy. It also includes the essay, treatise, and criticism,
written from personal point of view.
2. OBJECTIVE LITERATURE

 Objective literature means literature which deals objectively with life of

other people.
 This includes history and biography, the ballad and epic, the romance in
verse and prose, the story in verse and prose, and, novel and drama.
2. DESCRIPTIVE LITERATURE

 This is not an important division as above mentioned two groups may

include this. However Hudson says that it includes book of travel and
descriptive essays and poems.

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Literature as an Expression of Personality
 In the second part of “Some Ways of Studying Literature”, Hudson
deals with literature as an expression of personality.
 He starts with the much-discussed definition of literature by Matthew
Arnold,
 “literature is the criticism of life.” Literature is an interpretation of
life;
 the writer interprets the life in his own way and gives a commentary
over it in his work. According to a French epigram “art is life seen
through a temperament.” It means that literary art is an expression of
life through the temperament of the writer and literature mirrors this
temperament.
 The mirror the writer hold to the world is the mirror of his own
personality and individuality. And hence it is necessary to study
literature as an expression of personality.
 Hudson says that, “a great book is born of brain and heart of its
author; he has put himself in his pages; they partake of his life, and
are instinct with his individuality.”
 Therefore, it is essential to know the author in order to understand a
work of art.
 We cannot understand any piece of literature unless we understand
and know the first.
 Hudson suggests us to establish a personal contact with the author as
“personal experience is the basis of all real literature.”
 Hudson remembers famous quote of Milton, “a good book is the
precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on
the purpose of a life beyond life.”
 Thus, literature is an expression of life but it is essential for all to
understand the life of the writer first as literature is life-blood of the
author.

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 Hudson says that there should be sincerity, originality, and,
genuineness of expressing life in great literature as without this a
literary work becomes life-less.
 Hudson believes, “without sincerity, no vital work in literature is
possible.” Originality of experience makes literature “far more
accomplished art.” And genuineness of experience imparts to
literature quality of authenticity which is visible only in great works.
 In this way, Hudson suggests us to penetrate as deeply as we can into
the personal life of the author.
 Our reading should be actual intercourse between the author of the
book and ourselves.
 We should observe how the world of experience impressed him, and
how it is interpreted through his personality.
 While going through a book, we become familiar with the character,
outlook, strength, weakness, and, accent of the writer’s personality.

 Thus, the study of literature is actually a study of writer’s personality.

Hence one can say that literature is in fact an expression personality.

THE STUDY OF AN AUTHOR:

 The systematic study of an author starts with the close reading of his works.
 Hudson says that as literature is an expression of writer’s personality, we
must start our reading with the writer’s personality.
 A work of literature is the record of writer’s personality. These records of
writer’s personality cannot be understood without understanding writer’s
life.
 Hence it is essential for us to take this personal trait as a ‘corpus’ or organic
whole.
 We must consider the works of author not separately but as a whole body –
“not simply as works, but as his work.”

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 Hudson names some Shakespearean plays and says that we read and
understand them without any sense of sequence, but if we read them in a
systematic way by comparing and contrasting them in matter and spirit, and,
in method and style, we can understand his works in better way.
 Hence manifestly there is need of systematizing our reading.
 Hudson suggests us the comparative method of studying an author.
 We should use the chronological method of study. The chronological
method focuses on the study of writer’s works in order of their production.
 By following this method, we can understand the various phases of writer’s
experiences, the stages of his mental and moral growth, and, changes
undergone by his art.
 He gives an example of Shakespearean plays and proves that the
chronological method of studying an author will help us to know the
development of Shakespeare’s dramatic art.
 We should compare and contrast the writer with himself. We should
compare and contrast his earlier works with his later works and then we
should understand the author’s craftsmanship.

 The next step that Hudson suggests is to compare and contrast the writer
with the other writers – with men who worked in the same field, took up the
same subject, dealt with the same problems, and, wrote under the similar
condition
 He says that one who wants to understand Shakespeare in better way should
compare and contrast him with his great contemporaries like Marlowe,
Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, and, Webster.

 Then, we should try to compare the marking points in which they resembled
each other, the points in which they differ from each other, and in this way
we can come to know more about Shakespeare.
 If we want to know more about Tennyson, we should compare him with
Browning. The similar is the case of the classical dramatists like Sophocles
and Euripides as well as the Victorian novelists Dickens and Thackeray.

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 Thus Hudson says that as a student of literature our first business is to enter
in the life of the author and to understand the vital forces that shaped his
personality.

 Thus, to conclude, we can say that the line that Hudson quotes in his book,
“all higher knowledge is gained by comparison, and rests on comparison” is
really apt. Comparison is the basis of all higher knowledge

The Study of Style as an Index of Personality

In common sense ‘style’ indicates the use of language in writing of literature.
Many a times, while reading the literary work, we feel that “so and so must have
written that.” We feel sure that no one else can put the things in this way. The
reason behind this is that “the choice of words, the turn of phrases, the structure of
sentences, their peculiar rhythm and cadence” has a direct link to the individuality
of the writer.

Hudson cites the definitions of two writers to indicate how style is an index of
writer’s personality. For Pope, style is “the dress of thought”, whereas for Carlyle,
style is “not the coat of the writer, but his skin.” Hudson says that Pope failed to
understand the organic character of the style. For him, style is something external
form the writer which he can put on or take off at his will. Hudson says that style is
not something external but it is the skin of the author from which he cannot be
separated. It is possible that during the initial stage of his career, a writer might
follow another writer’s style but a stage comes when he moulds his own style.
Hence it is rightly said that “every spirit builds its own house.”

Hudson agrees with Newman’s idea that style is the shadow of writer. Shadow
follows the man wherever he goes; similarly style also follows the writer. Hudson
also agrees with style is the personal use of language. He says that the throng and
succession of ideas, thoughts, feelings, images, speculations which control the
author finds the best expression in his own language. The personal experiences of a
person cannot be other’s. Thus the personal use of language makes the style
personal in outlook. Hudson makes it clear that majority of the men use the

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language of their time “as they find it” but a man of genius uses the language “to
his own purposes, and moulds it according to his own peculiarities.”

The style is not only the living product of an author’s personality but also the
transparent record of his intellectual, spiritual, and artistic growth. A careful
observation of style will inform the reader of writer’s education, the influences that
shaped him and mould his nature, the makers of his personality, the books he lived
with, the development of his thoughts, his changing outlook upon the world and its
problems, and, development of his creative genius and art.

Thus, the style of writer makes the reader aware of his personality. Hence we can
say that style is the index of writer’s personality.

COMPARITIVE METHOD IN THE HISTORICAL STUDY

OF LITERATURE:
Hudson deals with the importance of making the historical study of literature,
definition of national literature, spirit of race, and the difference between list
history and history of literature. Hudson says that as we pass the individual books
to their authors, similarly we pass from an individual author to the age in which he
lived, and the nation to which he belonged. we cannot understand literature in
better way without making study of the history of literature. a writer is not an
isolated fact, he has even Hudson says that the literature is developing organism, it
has continuous its life and consist of many varying phrases, therefore historical
study of literature is important because of two reasons: (a) "the continuous life, or
national spirit in it and (b) the varying phrases of continuous life or the ways in
which it embodies and express the changing spirit of successive age". the history of
any nation's literature is the record of the unfolding of that nation's genius and
character under one of its most important forms of literature. Hudson says that a
writer may vary from the other writers of his age but he has many things common
with others because all the writer have the same national spirit in their works.
Hudson believes that the historical study of the national literature. history deals
with the external facts of the particular era, whereas history of literature deals with
the inner facts, moral characteristics, emotional energies that shaped intellectual

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and the spiritual life of the people. thus, the historical study of the national
literature is important as it reveals the mind and character of THE PEOPLE.

 Literature as an interpretation of life and as a social product

The Definition of literature makes relationship between literature and life clear.
Hudson says, " A great books grows x out of life; in reading it we are brought into
large, close, and fresh relationship with life; and in the fact lies the final
explanation of its power." literature comes out of human life; it reflects the life of
the era in which it is produced. literature is nothing else but an important record of
what men have perceived in the world. In literature, the writer artistically reports
his experience of life; he gives words to those interesting incidents of life which
have general human interest. literature is an artistic expression of the best that is
known and thought in the world. it is a record of man's dreams and ideals, his
failures and achievements, his disappointment and pleasures,; his motives and
passions, and his experiences and observations. As literature is product of life,
while reading it we are brought in large, close, and fresh revelation of most
enduring aspects of life.

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