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| Whilst there is room to debate the issue within the creation of matter, humanity as we know it begins with language. |
In the beginning, reads The Bible, was the word and the word was with God. Not only that but the word is so powerful that God only has to use a few more words to create light, the universe and all life as we know it. The Bible holds words in pretty high regard and so it should, the Bible is all just words. Seems like a simple point to make, most books primarily consist of words. However, take a minute to stop and think about the profound effect that one collection of words has had on the world. Think about the wars, the conversions, the cultures lost suppressed and destroyed. Think about the personal sacrifices it inspired, the acts of compassion, of heroism and of generosity. Feel free to stop and make a cup of tea if you want, it always hurts my head to think about it too.
The Bible is only one book in one branch of literature; its influence on the world, however dramatic, is neither singular nor unique. Legend has it that in the midst of the US Civil War Abraham Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe and greeted her with the phrase, “So you're the little lady who started this great war!" There’s very little evidence to suggest that the story is true but that it has survived for so long is a testament to effect that her novel had on the white society of the time. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a flawed novel on several levels: its clichéd, filled with stereotypes and more crammed full of mushy sentiment than a Lifetime Channel drama. Furthermore, the concept of good slaves leaves a bad taste in the mouth of most reasonable modern readers. Nonetheless, there is a good amount of evidence to suggest that the novel inspired thousands of Americans to change their country for the better by rallying them to the abolitionist cause. I mention the two together because Beecher –Stowe’s primary inspiration to champion the abolitionist cause was that she felt that slaves were the ideal Christians so you get to see literature having an effect on both the author and the audience at the same time.
The above two examples are, I’ll admit, very simplistic examples of the effect of literature on culture and living conditions. However, they are both solid examples of how massively powerful literature is when it takes hold of the human consciousness and, I hope, enough evidence to keep you reading until I get to my principle argument (in two weeks time). Another reason I mention them both together is that although both Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Bible are stories whose primary intent is to persuade their audience of a specific mode of thought. However, one of these books is commonly classed as fiction whilst the other is commonly classed as theology and that raises the interesting question of classification.
It would bore me and would be an insult to you if I were to rattle off a thousand or so words explaining what I mean when I use the word “literature.” You’re not an idiot, you know what literature is. You know that there is a difference between fiction, poetry, theatre and non-fiction. I imagine that you know that right now I am using a literary device to tell you obvious and patronising things in a manner that seeks to flatter your intellect. The more observant of you have probably even spotted that I used meta-writing to try and diffuse the cheap flattery that this paragraph has descended into. Still, it’s useful to set a boundary of the study and so I will as briefly as possible attempt to clear the matter up in the next paragraph or so.
The trouble with definitions of literature is that most modern definitions have been arrived at by linguists and academics. These being the case, definitions of literature have tended to focus on either typographic study of specific forms of literature or comparative explorations between what is and what is not literature. Even when literary criticism was in its infancy there was little exploration about the true defining qualities that comprise of literature. Aristotle’s Poetics quickly and briefly establishes that all literature is mimetic (that it seeks to imitate nature) before explaining what makes tragedy possible in literature. Then, he leaves the matter at that.
Arguably, the most famous academic attempt at coming to a definition of literature was made by Richard Ohmann in his 1971 work, Speech Acts and the Definition of Literature. In this treatise, Ohmann argues, like Aristotle, that all literature is mimetic. However, Ohmann makes an important distinction from the Aristotelian definition by saying that literature “is discourse whose sentences lack the illocutionary forces that would normally attach to them.” (pg 14) Simply put, Ohmann’s argument is that literature is any construct of words that does not try to communicate in the way that general speech does. When you read an imperative sentence in a novel the novel does not expect you to act on it – which is just as well given that so many people read the Twilight series. Therefore, any illocutionary forces that occur within a literary discourse are imitation (or mimetic).
I like Ohmann’s definition a great deal but, the text isn’t easy to come by online so I can’t refer you to it. Instead, I highly recommend Wikipedia’s page Literature which, is a solid a definition as anyone could ask for.
With that out of the way, I will finally get to the point. Whilst I have the greatest respect for all branches of literature from scientific journals to Doctor Suess, the literature that I shall mostly be focussing on are those branches that seek to offer entertainment or philosophical enlightenment. Therefore you can expect me to be discussing:
• Novels
• Poetry
• Theatre
• Biographic literature
For reasons of pragmatism, I will be focussing heavily on forms of literature that are in print and within my own field of study. Therefore I regret that as much as I love radio and screen I will largely be overlooking them. The complication of an integral combination with visual art (of which I know precious little about) means that I will also be excluding comic books; at least for now anyway. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Next week’s instalment is going to be a brief look at the evolution of the story from explanation to inspiration during which it will become stirringly apparent that I am not qualified to talk at length about factual literature either.
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