My Recent Work At Oxford : Why Study Literature

When I think of the world without language all I can envisage is a desolate, dreary world; a world that has frozen in space and time, drifting silently in a sphere of oblivion. The concept of language bears a beauty that is taken for granted on a daily basis. If we, as humans, couldn`t communicate with each other in the form of speech our progress as a civilization, our singular existences would be meaningless, for even the Bluebird can hark to it`s fellow friend and communicate a warning or a Fish can transmit sound waves across the rippling waters of the Ocean if it is encountering a stressful situation. What is interesting in these examples is that the animals, of which we are included in the category, have need to communicate when they, as a species, need to work together. For me, that is what language and reading signifies. Through the act of reading one can delve into the inner thoughts of an author and their soul, can extract information from their experiences, or indeed the characters` experience, to make them more wholesome, earthly beings. Surely that is one point of our existence on Earth, to endure and work in unity to succeed in conquering the onerous battles of life and finally reach a state of happiness. Indeed, Epicurus, a Greek Philosopher, believed that happiness was characterised by the concepts of ataraxia (feeling free from fear), aponia (absence of pain) and the need to have many friends to elevate your being. I find that reading successfully parallels this hypothesis. Indeed, through the act of writing and reading we liberate ourselves from the fears of the world such as social constraints or norms, particularly in the form of the imaginary or in works such as Frederick Douglas where the fear of oppression is released as he explains "slavery as it is." Moreover through reading we reach Epicurus` concept of aponia, the absence of pain. When reading one finds themselves engrossed into a world far away from the pain of reality. It allows the reader to disconnect from their active suffering and empathise with others` lives. Finally, the idea of friendship. Studies do prove that those who study Literature tend to have a high EQ. An EQ is integral in the social aspects of our lives as it allows us to communicate and share with others at a greater spectrum than perhaps someone who relentlessly occupies their time with trying to understand an atom (sorry guys.) This leads me to also express that Literature and the study of it serves to amalgamate a number of subjects into one. Thus, through Eliot`s `Middlemarch` we learn of the rising of scientific ideas, of medicine and the advances made in the vital age of the Victorian era. We learn of history, philosophy, psychology, art, theatre and, most importantly, life! Without reading I believe that I would not be the person I am today. Without reading I would not have developed an understanding of the world and people around me as I do with it. Yet, I hear people interject- why Literature? Why study it and analyse it and bother trying to find out who this person was and why they felt the way they did? It is simply boils down to the belief that reading the thoughts of other people helps you, in this ever treacherous path of life, to try and discover who you are. I believe that no one knows who they really are. They may have pretences or facades that they manage to put on daily, for, as Shakespeare powerfully states, "All the world`s a stage/ and we are but players in it." Therefore the act of dissecting literature and extracting ideas from other human beings allows us to come closer to the truth of who we may be and why. If this doesn`t occur, then we certainly realise that we humans are all united. Those moments of reading are by far the most enriching when one delves into Literature. There have been many novels I have read that have made me stop and take a breath. Those thoughts that you think you have created and only you have ever felt such as is the colour blue the colour green in your eyes, how do others visually see the world, is our life the only life that is actually authentic and is everyone else merely movable beings in our life? The list of questions can go on forever. Yet it is those moments within a text that fill the reader inside with a realization that you are, indeed, human and that, despite feeling alone, everyone is indeed the same. The author almost reaches out of its era into your own and touches you. Throughout the ages you come to realise that, despite changes in the world around us, we are fundamentally alike. However, what if you don`t read? Does that make you a human being incapable of integrating well into society? Well, in honest truth, it will make it bloody hard. Without the ability to read how can one even know which aisle to go down when trying to find a breast of chicken in Tesco`s? Without reading how would one know whether the sign on the door saying DO NOT ENTER UNDER YOUR OWN PERIL means anything? In our progressive society, however, it seems a rarity for people to be entirely illiterate (just about.) This leads to the question, well, if I can read why do I need to read that 880 paged book "Bleak House" by some bloke who lived before my Granddad was even a foetus? I believe it is simply so one can live in another life other that the one it exists in. When you read a book you live their life. It makes me laugh when people have the audacity to castigate the act of reading literature yet gladly spend 30 minutes watching an episode of Friends. Surely the same foundations are being made? An episode of Friend`s allows you to become part of their life; to experience their daily existence and to feel a part of it. Yet, in reading this is done on an even deeper level. After a television show ends we can re-watch it, but there won`t be anything more to gain, other than the fact that hearing Joey`s joke over and over again becomes a bit strenuous. However when you re-read a book or a play, a poem or a journal you actually extract more the second time round than the first, and even more the third time round. Eventually you realise that you never will fully understand a text, no matter how many hundreds of years we spend on it. So why bother? Because I believe that, even though the answer may seem far off, that the answer the individual creates within his or herself is enough to extract a use from Literature. Moreover, for me the need for differing interpretations of Literature through differing criticisms such as Psychoanalysis, Marxism, Feminism and more is crucial. I feel that all interpretations are simultaneously valid and void. What is important in criticism is that the person utilizing them to understand a work can gain something to help them reach a conclusive ideology. For example, I am intrigued by Freud`s theory of Psychoanalysis. It works as a theory that offers a road of deep psychological understanding in terms of the characters, the author and the self. Indeed, upon psychoanalytical criticism of `Wuthering Heights` one engages with the impulsivity of Heathcliff`s Id and the fact that this stems from a lacking of maternal and paternal aid causing the psychosexual stages such as the Oral to constitute him to be the person he is. When reading into this study I find myself also scrutinizing my own self and how it came to be. I am an extremely untidy person and a smoker. Freud would therefore interpret that my mother overfed me on her bosom during the ages of 1 and 2. In all honesty, I accept and agree. If it weren`t for my mother`s extreme attempts in perfection then the opposing effect wouldn`t have happened in my own psyche. Thus, interpretation is interesting yet, arguably not always valid. Thus, Feminist interpretation has its place in criticism. Women have been oppressed. However, as the world has progressed I find Feminist criticism rather irritable and actually oppressive. Through feminist criticism there seems to be a belief installed that sex plays an important role and that women are inferior. Yet by preaching this belief we are actually making ourselves less equal. Through acknowledging and preaching that men are treating us unequally we are making ourselves, hypocritically, more so. I feel this way towards race. To notice and acknowledge it makes it a concept that is there. Thus, if one doesn`t acknowledge the differences between one another that is the only way to gain equality. In this sense, though not utterly void, Feminism becomes invalid to an extent. When I read I become a part of a world that only my imagination has created. Although many people would have read that same novel it is guaranteed that, although we are reading the same story, our idea of settings, our feelings towards a character, the appearance of the characters, will greatly differ. It is rather cliche, but I truly find reading an escape. The world around us can be daunting and at times miserable. Yet, when I get engaged with a book I no longer worry about the problems I face at that present time. I become enthralled and concerned at the problems of a character that has a relationship with my own mind: a unity in the sense that I can understand his troubles, the character is a figure of my imagination and so becomes a part of who I am. There are obvious alternatives to this. In another way literature acts a history. We only need to look at a poem such as Beowulf to take into account the fundamental foundation literature leaves in our lives. In 5000 more years time human beings who are 10ft tall giants with 3 eyes will read in awe about the lives that we once lived. The fact we used to use mobile phones! What is a mobile phone, they may cry! The same concept has already happened. When we read on Chaucer or Shakespeare we are delving into a world steeped in History which, through Literature, is so far off, yet so comfortingly near. To conclude, a word, a series of words, has the power to alter and transform our world. Without it we would not have become the race we are today. No matter what one believes it will always be the case that reading expands our minds, our souls, our beliefs, our principals. It shapes the world around us through its typed pages and sheds a light on who we were, what we are and who we will become.