Literature &Some Ways

To Study Literature
Specific Learning Objectives
 To define literature (Any two with reference)
 To enlist its elements
 To describe the characteristics of literature
 To elaborate the making of literature
 To highlight the function of literature
 To categorize various approaches to study
literature
 To examine each approach to study literature
 to create a critical commentary on it
 To estimate the effectiveness of each approach
 It is very difficult to offer a precise definition
of Literature, but we shall give a working
definition of it in line with what we shall be
studying.

 Literature can be defined as ‘pieces of

writing that are valued as works of art,
especially novels, plays and poems’. •
(Oxford Advanced Learner’s English
Dictionary).
“the body of written works produced in a
particular language, country, or age, or the
body of writings on a particular subject
(scientific, art, etc.)”
(Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus)
 written works with artistic value: written
works, e.g. fiction, poetry, drama, and
criticism, that are recognized as having
important or permanent artistic value
R A Scott James – The Making of
Literature
 It is with literature as an art that I am
concerned in this book, and at the outset it
should be clearly distinguished from the
literature which sets out to impart knowledge
or produce moral conviction.

 Obvious as the difference may seem to us, it

was not always obvious, and the border-line
is blurred even to-day.
 It is the distinction which may be made
between two drawings of a house, one being
a " picture," the other an architect's plan.

  The first has an aesthetic character. The

second is a piece of information its purpose
is didactic.
Knowledge and power
 How to draw line in between?  Thomas De
Quiency:
  Literature of knowledge = Didactic – to

teach
  Literature of power = aesthetic – to move

 Thomas De Quincey, "The Literature of

Knowledge and the Literature of Power" (First
Published in the North British Review, August,
1848, as part of a critical essay on Alexander
Pope)
Some universal characteristics of
Literature
 Timelessness,
  Eternity,
  universality,
  Permanence…
R.J. Rees
  Literature may be good, bad or indifferent;
but good literature will have same, if not all,
of the following qualities:
  Psychological truth or holding the mirror

up to nature
  Originality
  Craftsmanship
  A consciousness of morality
Literature is creative and imaginative
 Does this mean that Philosophy, History,
Natural Sciences are uncreative and
unimaginative?
  Perhaps another approach is required to

define literature:
  … uses language in peculiar ways.
 .
 Roman Jakobson – „organised violence
committed on ordinary speech‟.

  Literature transforms and intensifies

ordinary language, deviates systematically
from everyday speech
Literature.. Why ?
  Understanding social milieu
  Understanding culture
  Understanding human nature & behavior 

Develop historical sense

  Relish aesthetics of artistic expression
APPROACHESAND
METHODS OF STUDYING
LITERATURE
FORMALISTIC / LITERARY APPROACH
 Also called “PURE” or “LITERARY” approach

 The selection is read and viewed intrinsically,

or for itself; independent of author, age, or
any other extrinsic factor. 

 This approach is close to the “art for art’s

sake” dictum
FORMALISTIC / LITERARY APPROACH
 The study of the selection is more is more or
less based on the so – called literary elements
which is more or less boil down to the literal
level
 , the affective values,
 the ideational values,
 technical values,
 and total effects
FORMALISTIC / LITERARY APPROACH
  The literal level (subject matter)
  The affective values (emotional, mood,

atmosphere, tone attitudes, empathy)

  The ideational values (themes, visions,

universal truths, character)

  Technical Values (plot, structure, scene,

language, point of view, imagery, figure,

metrics, etc.)
  Total Effect (the interrelation of the

foregoing elements)
MORAL AND HUMANISTIC APPROACH
 The nature of man is CENTRAL to literature.
 The reader or teacher or critic more or less

“requires” that the piece present MAN AS

ESSENTIALY RATIONAL,
 that is endowed with intellect and free will;
 or that the piece does not misinterpret the

true nature of man

HISTORICAL APPROACH
 Sees literature as both a reflection and
product of the times and circumstances in
which it is written.
 Man as a member of a particular society or

nation at a particular time,

 is central to the approach and whenever a

teacher gives historical or biographical

backgrounds in introducing a selection, or
arranges a literature course in chronological
order, he is hewing close to this approach.
CULTURAL APPROACH
  Considers literature as one of the principal
manifestation and vehicles of a nation’s or
race’s culture and tradition.
  It includes the entire complex of what goes

under “culture” ---- the technological, the

artistic, the sociological, the ideological
aspects, and considers the literary piece in
the total culture milieu in which it was born.
PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
 principally, by FREUD, perhaps beyond his
wildest expectations, it considers literature as
the EXPRESSION OF PERSONALITY of “Inner
Drives” of neurosis.

 It includes the psychology of the author, of

the character, and even the psychology of
creation.
  It has resulted in an almost exhausting and
exhaustive “psychological analysis” of the
characters of symbols and images, of
recurrent themes, etc.
Conclusion
  Formalistic – based on the literary elements 
Moral / Humanistic – close to the morality of
literature , to questions of ethical goodness and
badness.
  Historical – sees literature as both a reflection and
a product of the times and circumstances in which it
is written.
  Cultural – an approach in knowing the culture of
the people and one of the pleasurable ways of
appreciating the literature of the people. 
 Psychological – considers literature as the expression
of “personality”, of “inner drive” of neurosis