Literature in the Modern Age - Coursework Example

Literature in the Modern Age Introduction: Literature is often defined as imaginative writing that does not have any direct relation with reality; rather it is assumed that writers often derive certain traits of reality from the world and fusing with their creative impetus they produce literature. If an attempt is made to receive an overview of the human civilization, it will be found that starting from the ancient age to the modern time, human beings, mostly have provided highest degree of importance to utility and so-called reasons. Imagination, creative articulation and literary creativity have always been discouraged with strict suggestions that such efforts are mostly unfruitful and do not contribute to social or individual development. However, despite such prevailing hostility against literature, appeal of this specific Art form has never declined among common people; rather, in different times, literature emerged as a powerful device for common people that, on one hand, has inspired them to voice their protest against tyranny and on the other, an excellent medium to celebrate humanism as the highest moral philosophy. Judging from this perspective, literature can be viewed as a medium of social documentation, as it encompasses within its scope philosophical, historical and perspectives of natural sciences. Since early dawn of the human civilization till the recent times, human society has undergone several periods of change and in each of such phase literature has taken a crucial role to incite the reasons behind change. Attempts have been made from tyrannical or oppressive forces in order to curtail the power of common people or smother the voice of mass. It is through literature that revolts and protests against such anti-humanitarian forces have received a strong foundation. One of the basic features of literature has been to germinate the connection of empathy so that people can relate their respective conditions with that of their fellow members, breaching time, place, and socio-cultural obstructions. Literature helps an individual in self-evaluation so that through this process he can reflect over his condition and also develop an empathetic approach towards others, living in a different socio-cultural set up. The father of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud’s On Dreams and Henry David Thoreau’s Walking are two such instances that assert universal appeal of literature among people, no matter how much the social construction changes with the progress of time. Studying Literature: Self-Evaluation and development of Liberal Education What is liberal education? In common knowledge, liberal education refers to the process of education, which enables an individual to think and interpret incidents happening around him in such a manner so that he can reflect over those with his respective intellectual capacity, judge, analyze and finally take his decision. Most of the time, people exhibit a tendency of rejecting or interpreting a phenomenon that does not match their range of experience just by suggesting that Demonic or Divine forces are responsible behind such occurrence. Freud has made an excellent observation of this tendency though he has limited his observation only within the context of interpreting dreams, “In what we may term “prescientific days” people were in no uncertainly about the interpretation of dreams. When they were recalled after awakening they were regarded as either the friendly or hostile manifestation of some higher powers, demonical or Divine” (Freud 1). What Freud has suggested as common tendency of “prescientific days”, is also prevailing to a considerable extent among common people in modern society, despite emergence of scientific and intellectual thoughts. An individual with liberal education, quite in antithesis to such approach, would not be biased by such methods of interpretation on the basis on binary opposites; rather he would have the flexibility to accept all sorts of opinions or interpretation, even those are beyond the limits of his experience. Finally, he would come up with his own conclusion by fusing his own capacity of logical analysis and others opinions as well. William Cronon has observed in his essay “Qualities of the Liberally Educated Person” that a person with liberal education would possess ten features, namely, the capacity to listening and hearing, ability to understand different layers of meaning of what he reads, capable of communicating with all sorts of people, clarity of expression both in form of writing and verbal, problem solving capacity within limited opportunity, uncompromising attitude when it comes to exploring truth, flexibility to tolerate different approaches – continuous self evaluation and being open to respect and humiliation from others, complete understanding of his duties and goals, inspire and empower others to take initiatives and finally the empathetic approach to identify the universal bond of humanism (Cronon). In this context, it needs to be remembered that liberal education is not a particular system of education process that has been emerged through modern intellectual revolution. It actually depends to a great extent on a person that how he is utilizing the education and keeping himself flexible to inculcate the traits of liberal education. The progress of human civilization has witnessed several great figures that have influenced and helped in changing ongoing tend of human survival in a particular time with their respective intellectual capacity. Each of those figures can be regarded as eternal examples of liberal education, breaching the limits of time and place. However, the issue of liberal education has become so pervasive these days that on most of the occasions, people take a rigid opinion about being liberal and they also presume that it actually means being logical. Consequently, they also exhibit the common tendency to reject the conventional opinions as mere superstition and fail to recognize the positive aspects behind it. A truly liberal person is one who would acknowledge both modern intellectualism and conventionality and traits of such liberalism becomes clear in Freudian psychological discourse as he is successfully capable of churning the essential elements that would help in establishing his arguments, “One day I discovered to my amazement that the popular view grounded in superstition, and not the medical one, comes nearer to the truth about dreams. I arrived at new conclusions about dreams by the use of a new method of psychological investigation …” (Freud 3). The new dimension of psychology would not have opened unless Freud would have been flexible regarding conventions and modern intellectualism. It is also interesting to see that on one hand, he goes on supporting his arguments with adequate logical analysis and on the other he also provides evidences from works of early literary artists like Goethe, with a clear suggestion that what he actually attempting to prove as evident scientifically is already present with universal literally discourse implicitly – all he has done to explore those aspects from a newer perspective (Freud 6-7). Henry David Thoreau’s Walking can be viewed as an important piece of literature that emphasizes on existence of human beings as universal creatures, rather than inhabitants of a specified social construction, “I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil – to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather then a member of society” (Thoreau 7). Walking, in context of the book actually becomes metaphorical presentation of the intellectual and humanist journey that the author has undertaken. Through this journey he also reflects over the changes that human civilization has undergone both physically and intellectually. He also realizes that no matter how much people claim that civilization has advanced but such advancement is limited in its scope. While intellectual development is actually intended to introduce general benefit for common people, it actually has worsened the condition by separating people in name of material gains. Thus, the time has come that people must learn to respect the essential lessons of humanism and redeem the mistakes for the sake of a better existence, “… when fences shall be multiplied … and walking over the surface of God’s earth shall be constructed to mean trespassing on some gentleman’s grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let us improve out opportunities, then, before the evil days come” (Thoreau 18). Conclusion: Freud’s On Dreams and Thoreau’s Walking can be viewed as important examples of literary pieces that apart from emphasizing over the issue of liberal education, also have helped in re-realizing the fact that true intellectualism is unbiased and always aims for benefitting the mass. Despite both authors have treated Truth in different ways, but they are similar in the humanist context. With the help of scientific and logical interpretation Freud has helped people to look deep into reality that in the longer run has contributed to strengthen the voice of humanism. Thoreau, on the other hand, has taken a metaphorical approach to suggest that human beings, in name of mere intellectualism, have forgotten basic moral of existence and are responsible for their misery. Works Cited Cronon, William. “Qualities of the Liberally Educated Person”. Learning for Our Common Health: How an Academic Focus on HIV/AIDS Will Improve Education and Health. Washington DC: Association for American Colleges and Universities. 1999. Freud, Sigmund. and Eder, M. D. On Dreams. New York: Cosimo, Inc. 2009. Thoreau, Henry David. Walking. Maryland: Arc Manor LLC. 2007. Read More