Influence of the Past and Past Information on World Literature - Essay Example

? Influence of the Past and Past Information on World Literature Written about Past (Insert s here) (Insert of the here) (Insert date of submission here) Outline Introduction 1. What is the paper about and what is the thesis of the research? 2. What is the background of the study? 3. How has the research been done? How do these three authors in our study access information about the past? How does the past of the author influence their literal work? How does the literal work of these three authors compare with regard to treatment of the past? How does the past and information about the past influence the author’s ability to be creative? Conclusion References Introduction 1. What is the paper about and what is the thesis of the research? This research paper is about authors who have written about the past or with the past in mind. I will critically evaluate the literature written by three authors: Marcel Proust, Birago Diop, and Leslie Marmon Silko. These authors are in one way or another writing about the past or writing with past in mind. According to O’Neil (2004), the attributes of their writing vary according to the authors and the time in which the work was written. An analysis of these authors shows that their work was greatly influenced by the past; how they gain access to information, how they treat the past and their creativity. 2. What is the background of the study? Scholars have studied specific aspects of the world literature. Thomsen (2008) studied the changes that have been experienced in the world literature in the past five decades. Reddy (2008) studied the characteristics and features that can be found in various contemporary world literature. Sturrock (1997), on the other hand undertook a study to understand the aspects of writers who write contemporary world literature. In his study, he tried to analyze what motivates them to write as well as the factors that could influence their writing. Although some of the information in this research is similar to that of other scholars,none of them studied the literal work of the authors we study in this research. Therefore, this research is very crucial to the understanding of the world literature because it would explain why the writings of these authors have certain similar characteristics. 3. How has the research been done? Research presented by this research paper uses both primary and secondary sources of information. According to Hamilton (2004, p.4), “A primary source is an actual record that has survived from the past while secondary sources are created some times after an event”.Primarysources used in this research are the literal works of the three authors. Secondary sources on the other hand are the literal work written by other authors about the authors in our study. In this research, both secondary and primary sources of information are carefully evaluated and critically analyzed to draw a conclusion about the thesis statement. How do these three authors in our study access information about the past? Usingprimary source of information, I found out that the authors reviewed in this research obtain their information about the past in different ways. “Sometimes I would dream trying to put away my book and going to sleep” (Proust, 1928, p. 2). This statement indicates that Marcel Proust was a frequent reader. Therefore, he could have obtained his information about the past through reading. Birago Diop on the other hand obtained his information about the past through his experience. This is revealed by his literal works. Such a conclusion could be made based on his latest book that put into consideration the reactions of the readers on his previous books. The major literal work of Leslie Marmon Silko is her autobiographical mixed genre collection (Silko& Arnold, 2000). Autobiographical literatures mainly explain the past life of an author. This could make us to conclude that this author used her experience as her main source of information included in his work. The findings from the secondary sources of information support those obtained from the primary sources of information. Secondary sources also indicate that the authors obtain their information about the past in much similar ways. According to Proust (2006), Marcel Proust loved leisure and interacting with other people. This indicates that he might have obtained his information through interacting with other people. Interaction with people is part of personal experience, thus we could conclude that the experience of this author was his major source of information. Blair (1976) indicates that the literal work of BiragoDiop was an expression of his personal suffering and his compassion for the people who were suffering around. This indicates that the main source of information for Birago Diop was his encounter with other people. Encounter with other people is part of personal experience. We can therefore conclude that experience was an essential source of information for Birago Diop. According to Snodgrass (2011, p. 3), “The literal work of Leslie Marmon Silko is rich in ethomythography of her ancestry and memories of her sixty-plus years as a teacher, speaker, writer and activist”. This indicates that Leslie Marmon Silko used her experienceas her major source of information. Major ways of accessing information about the past are reading, listening to stories, and personal experience. Authors in this research study were involved in each of this ways in one way or another before starting their writing. Marcel Proust liked reading as well as interacting with both old and young people. Moreover, he started writing at his old age. Therefore, he might have employed each of the aforementioned ways of accessing information about the past. Literal works of BiragoDiop suggest that he used the stories told to him as a source of information about the past. These stories were told to him by the elderly people in his society. Furthermore, he used to undertake reading of past literature. He also started writing after gaining a lot of personal life experience. This indicates that BiragoDiop used all the three above-mentioned ways of accessing information about the past. The same is true about how Leslie Marmon Silko accessed her information about the past. How does the past of the author influence their literal work? Research findings from both primary and secondary sources of information indicate that the work of the authors in this study is influenced by their past in several ways. One of the ways is in the selection of characters. According to Gerard (1986, p. 483), “more than half of BiragoDiop’s total output in prose fiction is made up of animal fables”. This is because of the influence of his past. It is also because of the information he has acquired about the past. Marcel Proust has other people as his characters in some of his works. In others, like autobiographies, he is the main character. The same is true with Leslie Marmon Silko. The past also influences the phrases and words used in his work. “I could open my eyes to settle the shifting of Kaleidoscope of darkness” (Proust, 1928, p. 2). This could indicate the influence of the past on the choice of words and phrases by an author. The reason of this is that such wordings are associated to the work of a specific author. Past of these authors also influence the theme they select for their works. In addition, it also influences the topics they select for writing as well as their writing structure. This could be indicated by information retrieved from both primary and secondary sources. “Marcel Proust is a leisure man who is privileged to be from a well of family” (Proust, 2006, p. 4). This would indicate why the theme and the topic of the work of this author revolve around leisure and the social life of people. “The literal work of BiragoDiop is a satisfactory equivalent of the living realities of the oral performances of the best griots”(Gerard, 1986, p. 482). This could indicate that the theme and topic of writing selected by this author is influenced by his past. The influence the past has on the works of the authors in this study is identical although they have different information about the past. This is clearly revealed by the findings from both primary and secondary sources of information. The findings indicate that the main influence that the past has had on the work of this authors is in the content of their work as well as in its structure. Thethree authors in this study chose topics in which they have adequate information. Most of this information is derived from the past. This could indicate that the reason why the works of these authors vary is not the difference in the influence of the past but the difference in the information they have about the past. How does the literal work of these three authors compare with regard to treatment of the past? Literal works of these authors resemble each other in several ways with regard to treatment of the past. All of them treat the past as a source of information that guides them in their writing. This could be indicated by various statements obtained from primary and secondary sources of information. An example of such statements is “The important thing for any writer is to remember where he or she has come from and his own experiences when writing” (Silko& Arnold, 2000, p. 4). Another example is “all the literal works by Silkocontain aspects of Native American tradition of storytelling”Walther (2007, p. 4). Literal works of these authors also try to connect the past with the present. This is the other similarity revealed by both our primary and secondary sources of information. According to Dathorne (1975), the works of BiragoDiopuse the activities undertaken by the ancestors to explain current realities in the society.Marcel Proust’s work uses the activities experienced by the authors to explain the current situation (Bloom, 2003). Leslie Marmon Silko on the other hand uses the Native American aspect of storytelling to relate his work to the current realities in the society. Therefore, the works of the three authors studied in this research resemble each other in this treatment of the past. Literalworks of the authors are similar in a variety of ways according to my opinion. This is because all of them include an aspect of the past in their work. They achieve this through writing about the past or with the past in mind. As a result, the authors have to treat the past in a manner that would make their work to be both unique and interesting. Therefore, they use the past provide their work with distinguishable characteristics. This makes us to conclude that all the works these authors are identical with regard to their treatment of the past. How does the past and information about the past influence the author’s ability to be creative? The past of the author influences his ability to be creative in several ways. The ability of the author to be creative is defined by the materials and structure he uses in his writing. As indicated by our aforementioned research findings, these are greatly influenced by the past and the information the author has about the past. Therefore, this can be regarded as a major way in which the past of the author and his information about the past influence his ability to be creative. Creativity can either follow the writing structure, writing content or both. The authors we study about in this research use their past and information about the past to decide which path of creativity to follow. Due to this, we can conclude that creativity path definition is another way in which the past and the information about the past influence the author’s ability to be creative. From my own point of view, creativity varies from one individual author to another and it is influenced by several factors. Some of the factors that could influence the author’s ability to be creative are the author’s background, educational levels, and environment. All these three are influenced by the past or the information the author has about the past. Therefore, the past and the information about the past influence the author’s ability to be creative through these factors. Conclusion It is clear that the work of these authors was greatly influenced by their pasts. The use of the past creates similarities as well as differences on the works of the authors. One of the reasons why these works are different from the work of other authors is the difference in the ways in which they access information about the past. Some of the authors in this research use experience, others observation or stories given to them by their elders and others a combination of these two ways. The difference is also caused by the influence that the past have on their work. The past also influences the creativity of the author in terms of the content of the work as well as its structure. The structure that these authors decided to use in their work depended mainly on their pasts. We can conclude, therefore, that all the authors who write about the past have their work influenced by the experience they have obtained in their lives. Moreover, their work is also influenced by the information they have about the past. Reference Blair, D. S. (1976).African Literature in French: A History of Creative Writing from West and Equatorial Africa. London: Cambridge University Press. Bloom, H. (2003).Marcel Proust: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. Dathorne, O. R. (1975). African Literature in the Twentieth Century. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Gerard, A. S. (1986). European Language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, Volume 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company. O’Neil, P. M. (2004). Great World Writers: Twentieth Century. New York, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. Proust, M. (1928).Swann’s Way. New York, NY: Forget Books. Proust, M. (2006).Remembrance of Things Past: Volume 1. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Ltd. Reddy, P. B. (2008).Aspects of Contemporary World Literature. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors. Silko, L. M., & Arnold, E. L. (2000).Conversation with Leslie Marmon Silko. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. Snodgrass, M. E. (2011). Leslie Marmon Silko: A Literary Companion. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Publishers. Sturrock, J. (1997). The Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Thomsen, M. R. (2008). Mapping World Literature: International Canonization and Transnational Literatures. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. Walther, B. (2007). Story Telling in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Hamilton, J. (2004). Primary and Secondary Sources. Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing Company. Read More