The Nature of Literature - Assignment Example

American Literature Throughout the history of literature starting as early as Plato, humanistic studieshave included lengthy analyses, evolving definitions and ample criticism regarding written works in an ever-changing process now identified broadly as literature studies. While this development stemmed out of basic questions like ‘What is literature’, ‘Why study literature’ and ‘What is the usefulness of literature’, the answers provided within the field varied to a great extent. Even in these early days, it was recognized that literature involves the audience in a variety of profound, sometimes life-changing, ways. What do you categorize as literature? By appealing to the audience’s emotions, morals, thoughts and social understandings through symbolic and occasionally blatant means, literature is able to effect significant change within a short span of time. “Literature uses the normal means of communication – language images, symbols, codes, stories – but uses them with more complexity and subtlety than is normal in everyday communication” (Lye, 2003). In a definition such as this, it appears the basic questions of literature have been answered. Literature is an art form that uses the normal means of communication to greater complexity than the average conversation. What should not be classified as literature? According to Jean Paul Sartre, the art of poetry should not be considered literature. “The empire of signs is prose; poetry is on the side of painting, sculpture and music” (Sartre, 1978, p. 6). Just because poets string words together to create their poems, Sartre is not led to believe that they have any real concept of the signs behind the words. To prove this point, he describes how the poet uses words as interchangeable utterances that go together for their mere sound or makeup rather than their deeper meanings and submeanings. “The verbal image he chooses for its resemblance to the willow tree or the ash tree is not necessarily the word which we use to designate these objects. As he is already on the outside, he considers words as a trap to catch a fleeing reality rather than as indicators which throw him out of himself into the midst of things” (Sartre, 1978, p. 8). For the poet, then, words are not things that bring out deeper meanings and associations of and by themselves, but rather serve to reflect the attitudes and emotions of the poet. Literature, then, should be something that conveys deeper meanings and concepts underneath the language, which, in spite of what Sartre says, some poetry does manage to accomplish. What does it mean to be an American? Immigrants to the U.S. left the familiar surrounding of their country of origin, the homeland of their ancestors, to travel great distances then struggle to assimilate into a new culture and learn a new language. They were strongly motivated to embark on this life-altering journey into the unknown because they were impoverished with little hope of improving their situation within their home country. That the U.S. is a prosperous nation, that its people enjoy high standards of living is not and has not been a secret. The tired, poor and huddled masses that immigrated to the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century had heard of ‘streets paved with gold.’ In most cases, if the streets were paved at all, this would be an improvement from the despairing conditions the homeless and wretched refuse were suffering in their home country. Immigrants have flocked to the U.S. for the promise of prosperity during the entirety of American history. Thus, to be an American means to be hard-working, upwardly mobile and frequently, common. What qualities should a work have to be American literature? Matthew Arnold had a significant impact upon American literature in the 1800s by bringing it back into the European tradition as its (presumably) only means of gaining recognition and respect as a unique genre, thus helping to define American literature. His publication of an essay entitled “The Study of Poetry” in the mid-1800s insisted that American poetry must take a new interest in developing a sense of the excellent. “He points out the fallacies involved in the purely historical and the purely personal estimates. He uses lines and expressions of the great masters as ‘touchstones’ for detecting the presence or absence of high poetic quality” (Perry, 2001). Reining in the exuberant naturalism and ‘common man’ language of earlier days, Arnold refocused attention on the laws and standards that had been put in place even prior to that. Even as he worked to reintroduce rules and forms into the poetic works of the American continent, bringing style back into the lexicon of contemporary critics, he remained apart from true European critics in his insistence that art, like life, is unlimited in its forms of expression and inspiration. Should American literature do something different from other national literatures? Throughout What is Literature? Sartre argues that literature is a form of prose writing that engages with the world around it in such a way as to reveal the freedom and soul of the writer as well as appeal to the freedoms of the reader to affect a better world. This seems to be a strong conception of the importance of literature and its connection to life and thus shouldn’t be different from one country to another in this basic objective. By releasing the aesthetic joy of these freedoms, the writer writes to make others aware of their own freedoms and, in reveling in this knowledge, to work harder to bring about greater freedoms for others or even for themselves. “Drawing a distinction between prose, which can be committed, and poetry (basically nonrepresentational art such as music and poetry properly speaking), which cannot … Sartre proceeds to urge that the prose-writer reveal that man is a value to be invented each day and that ‘the questions he raises are always moral’” (Flynn, 2004). Sartre insisted on the social responsibility of the artist and the intellectual in general, revealing how literature, to a great degree, can help shape how a nation develops and defines itself. Should it focus only on American topics? Should it be written only by American writers? William Carlos Williams worked ceaselessly to try to develop a singularly American voice. “His major difference with Pound … lay in his desire to create a specifically American poetics based on the rhythms and colorations of American speech, thought, and experience” (Rosenthal, 2001). American topics frequently center around middle class women and is often characterized by plain language. However, it is in this colloquialism that American authors are able to capture the voice of the nation, “its multiracial and immigrant streams of speech and behavior, its violence and exuberance, its ignorance of its own general and regional history. … It is presented as a search for the elements of a ‘common language’: a shared cultural and historical awareness to counteract the fragmentation of American society” (Rosenthal, 2001). This effort to capture the voice of the ‘common’ American as well as to present the images that are most important to the country’s identity can be captured only by a true American. While other authors can easily set their stories within America, these deeper nuances to the character of regions and the nation would likely be lost if the author were not also American. What would it mean to be an American writer before America existed? To be an American writer before America existed would likely mean one writes about the common man’s condition as a circumstance of life that can be overcome while also glorifying the individual. It would also likely mean you wouldn’t be published and might be considered rebellious or an enemy of the state. What aspects of American life and character get left out of literary works, and why? Much of the everyday gets left out because it is not considered interesting. A lot of failure is left out because America is supposed to be the land of promise. Works Cited Flynn, Thomas. (2004). “Jean-Paul Sartre.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 31, 2009 from Lye, John. (8 January 2003). “The Uses of Studying Literature.” Literature in English. Ontario, Canada: Brock University. Perry, Bliss. (1909-14, reprnt 2001). “Criticism and the Essay.” Lectures on the Harvard Classics. William Allan Neilson, et al (Eds.). Vol. XLI. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son; Bartleby.com. Retrieved October 31, 2009 from Rosenthal, M.L. “Williams’ Life and Career.” Modern American Poetry. Cary Nelson (Ed.). Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2001. Sartre, Jean-Paul. What is Literature? Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1978. Read More