What is the Role of Literature for Individuals and Society?
Read also: Why we should read. I wrote up this post some time ago when I was asking myself, “what’s the purpose of literature and reading?” I think this is an appropriate follow-up to David’s post below, about literary criticism of the Bible.
The seemingly trivial nature of this question is perhaps the reason why it often goes over looked. This is a shame, because this question is an important one, and one that ought to be given more attention. So, what is the role of literature in the lives of individuals and society?
Literature has two roles, an active, engaging role and a passive, reflective role. The active role represents the very action of reading. This role is a significant part of an individual’s development. From reading, an individual forms ideas and concepts about the world in which they live. These ideas and concepts form together into an ideology of sort. From this ideology stems individual motivation, action, and engagement. For example, one’s decision to become a social activist may stem from a reading of Karl Marx and his discussion of the alienated worker or Gayatri Spivak and her musings about the subaltern. One’s decision to become a Christian – be it a ‘born again evangelical’ or a traditional Episcopalian – is heavily influenced by the act of reading John 14:6.
The second role is distinguishable from the first in that it is a thing observed, rather than a thing done. The reflective role of literature is to “show” to society the history of ideologies, of thought, and of action. It reveals what people thought during a particular time and how they thought about it. It allows the individual to understand how a society functioned and why it functioned that way. For example, an individual reading through Ernst Bloch will peer into the hearts and minds of the German people during the early 19th and late 20th century. There, one can find the ideas of the German ideology and how it functioned in central Europe during the given time period. Or, returning to the Judeo-Christian example, the principles upon which ancient and classical societies were built can be inferred from reading the Bible – Hosea’s rebuke of an immoral nation or Paul’s condemnation of discrimination based on class.
Of course there are myriad of other influencing factors, such as institutions, communities, and families; literature does not exist in a vacuum. It does, however, have a unique function in shaping and teaching society at-large. For such a seemingly petty question, it involves the contemplation of the essence of society and how individuals work within the confines of society’s structure. Understanding how literature motivates the individual and how it is reflexive of the individual’s society is something that ought to be given more attention and consideration.
I agree–this is an important question. Reading great literature can let you grapple with the big ideas/questions of life and “try on” worldviews to see which one best fits. Literature can also serve a cathartic purpose–both individually and as a society.
These are all important, but I don’t think we can ignore the fact that literature gives great pleasure to many people.
How Aristotelian of you.
Literature is surely a pleasure activity. I guess I consider that given. One has to move beyond the simple pleasures and ask the deeper questions – that’s what I was considering.
As the reading public grew in the 18th century, some critics worried that literature could make people fool themselves–they’d read something, feel the “appropriate” emotion–outrage, sympathy, etc.–and feel righteous about it without ever doing anything. Think that still happens today?
I”m sure people still derive satisfaction from types of entertainment (i.e. books). Peoples ideologies can be affected without them actually doing something active.
One of the capstone projects that I was lucky enough to attend addressed how not only is literature a guiding force for how a given society was, it was sometimes the only method of fully understanding the people of that time (like Steve mentioned with Bloch). I think literature is a greater force than most texts because of the pathos evoked in it, the raw emotion that is omitted when something is passed down by oral tradition or written by an observer.
It’s also interesting to note that people who wouldn’t normally be acknowledged in a past or present society, like women or slaves, wrote down their experiences not for them or their peers, but for those whom would follow. It’s curious to think that something people only partake in for pleasure today might have been their only hope for a better world.
I’m just curious– how many of your posts have come directly from lit crit? I think it will continue to pervade my own existence in a beautiful way for a long time to come.
In response to said essay question, I said something about literature’s role as an exposer of truths. (Truths such as societal oppression of women, minorities, the Oriental “other”; the evils of capitalism; insidious power structures and ideological state apparatuses.)
Literay circles are always ahead of political/social movements. This indicates that writing, and talking about writing, spurs those movements.
Literature is an important aspect as it preserves culture!Doesnt it?
literature helps to minimise mistake and plan a new idea.By reading literature we czn able to graw up our experience level.it gives us information about oir past.
literature helps us to define ourselves
Literature is the biggest mirror of our life.
- Это если девченка, а если мальчишка? Ты же не желал бы, чтобы твой отпрыск вырос голубым.
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Literature is the art of creating a meaningful words, then to a good sentence, to form a nice paragraph
and finally to create a good story…
Literature is a means of teaching moral
literature is life” anything that is not literature bores me and i hate it” It helps you study the absurdities in society and make the right decisions in life.
literature is life and ” anything that is not literature bores me and i hate it”…generally it helps you scrutinize society and make your personal life decisions
I have a question that
How literature corrupt the society
Any one can help me plzzzzzzzzzzz
my dear sonia, literature, like any other source of entertainment corrupts the society if not greatly censured, picture an eight year old reading a romantic novel….this greatly corrupts her emotions.
literature is basically food for lyf it depicts the society its ways nd everythng whch reflct the grooming of a particular
society.
literature is a form of art rather than it is a field on its own.As the doctor’s main interst to cure his patient .the writer’s dominant aim is to tell about the suffering of people…………………
literature is fun and also entertaining.when you meet someone and he wants to find out about your past,your origin this is literature because it is your bibliography that is oral not written.Also when you read a past time newspaper or magazine this is literature.Without literature the world would be bored.
literature helps us to promote our thinking level and also it compaires the difference between you and the world .It develops the culture and makes new society.
literature broadens our thinking by making us familiar with divergent social st-ups in various periods. Thus by dint of this familiarity literture helps us towards the establishment of ideal and refind social structures.
Nice one. It helpd wth me homework
every one around me thinks literature students are very proud and unapproachable but then i am always inspired by this quote in THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Ahebe a re-known African writer”…the lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree to the ground said he would praise himself if no one else did….”
what is the essence of literature — both in the individual and societal level? can u help me?