| When we dip into the rich variety of novels, | | | | Good works of literature are not museum pieces, |
| poems, and plays which constitute English | | | | preserved and studied only for historical interest. |
| Literature we are reading works which have | | | | They last because they remain fresh, |
| lasted for generations, or centuries, and they | | | | transcending as well as embodying the era in |
| have lasted because they are good. These works | | | | which they were written. Each reader reading |
| say something worth saying, and say it with | | | | each work is a new and unique event and the |
| artistry strong enough to survive while lesser | | | | works speak to us now, telling us truths about |
| works drop into obscurity. | | | | human life which are relevant to all times. |
| Literature is part of our cultural heritage which is | | | | We don't have to read far before we find that a |
| freely available to everyone, and which can enrich | | | | writer has portrayed a character who is in some |
| our lives in all kinds of ways. Once we have | | | | way like us, confronting life-experiences in some |
| broken the barriers that make studying literature | | | | way like our own and when we find ourselves |
| seem daunting, we find that literary works can be | | | | caught up with the struggles of a character |
| entertaining, beautiful, funny, or tragic. They can | | | | perhaps we are rehearsing the struggles to come |
| convey profundity of thought, richness of | | | | in our own lives. And when we are moved by a |
| emotion, and insight into character. They take us | | | | poem it can enrich us by putting words to feelings |
| beyond our limited experience of life to show us | | | | which had lain dormant for lack of a way of |
| the lives of other people at other times. They stir | | | | expressing them, or been long-forgotten in the |
| us intellectually and emotionally, and deepen our | | | | daily round of the workplace, the supermarket, |
| understanding of our history, our society, and our | | | | the traffic jam, and the TV News. |
| own individual lives. | | | | We can gain a lot from literature in many ways, |
| In great writing from the past we find the England | | | | but the most rewarding experiences can come in |
| of our ancestors, and we not only see the | | | | those moments when we feel the author has |
| country and the people as they were, but we | | | | communicated something personally to us, one |
| also soak up the climate of the times through the | | | | individual to another. Such moments can help |
| language itself, its vocabulary, grammar, and tone. | | | | validate our personal experience at a depth which |
| We would only have to consider the writing of | | | | is rarely reached by everyday life or the mass |
| Chaucer, Shakespeare, Boswell, Dickens, and | | | | media. |
| Samuel Beckett side by side to see how the way | | | | So why do we need to study English Literature, |
| writers use language embodies the cultural | | | | instead of just reading it? Well, we don't need to, |
| atmosphere of their time. | | | | but when visiting a country for the first time it |
| Literature can also give us glimpses of much | | | | can help to have books by people who have been |
| earlier ages. Glimpses of Celtic Ireland in the | | | | there before by our side. |
| poetry of W. B. Yeats, or of the Romans in | | | | When we start to read literature, particularly older |
| Shakespeare's plays, for example, can take us in | | | | works, we have to accept that we are not going |
| our imaginations back to the roots of our culture, | | | | to get the instant gratification that we have |
| and the sense of continuity and change we get | | | | become used to from popular entertainment. We |
| from surveying our history enhances our | | | | have to make an effort to accommodate to the |
| understanding of our modern world. | | | | writer's use of language, and to appreciate the |
| Literature can enrich our experience in other | | | | ideas he is offering. Critics can help us make that |
| ways too. London, for example, is all the more | | | | transition, and can help fill out our understanding |
| interesting a city when behind what we see today | | | | by telling us something about the social climate in |
| we see the London known to Dickens, Boswell | | | | which a work was written, or about the personal |
| and Johnson, or Shakespeare. And our feeling for | | | | circumstances of the author while he was writing |
| nature can be deepened when a landscape calls to | | | | it. |
| mind images from, say, Wordsworth, Thomas | | | | We are not going to enjoy every literary work, |
| Hardy, or Ted Hughes. | | | | and there may be times when we find reading a |
| The world of English literature consists, apart | | | | critic is more interesting than reading the actual |
| from anything else, of an astonishing array of | | | | work. Reading the work of a good critic can be |
| characters, from the noble to the despicable - | | | | edifying in itself. Making the effort to shape our |
| representations of people from all walks of life | | | | own thoughts into an essay is also an edifying |
| engaged in all kinds of activities. Through their | | | | experience, and just as good literature lasts, so |
| characters great authors convey their insights into | | | | do the personal benefits that we gain from |
| human nature, and we might find that we can | | | | studying and writing about it. |
| better understand people we know if we | | | | Whether we choose to study it or read it for |
| recognise in them characteristics we have | | | | pleasure, when we look back over our literature |
| encountered in literature. Perhaps we see that a | | | | we are looking back over incredible richness. Not |
| certain man's behaviour resembles that of Antony | | | | just museum pieces, but living works which we |
| in Antony and Cleopatra, or a certain woman is | | | | can buy in bookshops, borrow from the library, or |
| rather like The Wife of Bath in Chaucer's | | | | download from the internet and read today, right |
| Canterbury Tales. Seeing such similarities can help | | | | now. |
| us to understand and accept other people. | | | | |