The Non-universality and “Culturality” of Literature Essay Example for Free

The Non- world(a)ity and Culturality of literary act ass EssayFeatures that Makes Literature Uniquely Cultural and Not habitual By move novels al adept that ar judged as trashy and unhelpful to the critical thinking result of women and yet hundreds of such books are electrostatic hoarded, it is already quite evident that writings is one talk about in a persons breeding that is deemed as necessary and importantif such ro macrocosmce novels stinker be considered as books that is. Romance novels are known to make up sexual innuendos, warm coital sessions, sh each(prenominal)ow plots and character ripenings and other literary elements which rotter be regarded as world unliterary and charge mortifying in the conservative circles. For centuries, romance novels in all forms and genres defend been created, edited, published, banned, exalted, and burned. Whether those banned and burned novels end up with such fate because they are considered to be too much for the gen eral frequent for the taboo subjects they depict or because the books does non have any literary value, this could just mean that at that place are certain subjects that stirs s enduredals and controversies in peculiar(prenominal) settings and culture. provided a taboo subject in one grouchy culture does not mean that it is a taboo subject in other cultural settingsit could be something like the Theory of Relativity wherein something is applicable in one setting while it cannot be the equal circumstance for other settings. It is because of this persuasion that certain genres and forms of lit be regarded as erratic wholly to particular setups.Thus, literature is not something which is seen as universal that involves the entire gentlemans gentleman raceliterature is something which can be judged as a discourse or subject that is cultural and universal the resembling appearance that it is moreover women who are majorly magnetized by romance novels compared to men and th e similar way that sex is something which is considered as taboo in Asian countries while the West nonchalantly discuss about it. Literature and so is not universal for if this is true, then why is it that some novels, poetry or exemplifys are majorly disliked by a group of masses while another(prenominal) group of population greatly admire it?If literature supposedly connects human beings and connect ein truthone together with a universal string, then why is it that people still have great conflict on themes, plots, dialogues and characters presented in books? Literature therefore is cultural and particular in a way that it embodies the verbiage of a nation, the history of society, a society of a group, a culture of a country, the customs, traditions and practices of state. Thus, what is literature but something which is uniquely distinct to a culture?Before a discussion on whether literature is universal or not, it should first be explained on what is literature. Literatu re is oft defined as a produce from ones imagination that has ascetic creativity and which reflects homo in that one single product of humanity or ascetic creativity Stories from myth and fabrication persist in our culture because they evoke deep emotional responses from us, shaped as we are by those stories, often from a very young age (Trupe 164).Then, a write work that is fictional can be considered as literature but this definition is actually wrong and misleading. Going back to the subject of romance novels, can these books be regarded as literature when they so obviously do not contain any ascetic creativity at all? Just because something is ictional or imagined, it does not mean that it is literature. But at the same clock, not all literature is fictionalare there not biographies, autobiographies, talking toes and essays that are wholly true but are still seen as literature?Maybe, literature is such a broad subject that it is indefinableeven John Spriggs who wrote on li terary discourse and criticism wrote that literature should not be defined at all because it would restrict literature to a particular aspect (Easthope 168). But if literature cannot be defined at all, then it means that it is something which can cause disarray among peopleacademic and common alike. Eagleton though has a different idea on what can be regarded as literature. According to Eagleton, literature is defined by the particular address it utilizes.He asserts that literature transforms and intensifies mediocre words, deviates systematically from everyday computer address (2). Thus, any work can be regarded as literature if it uses a special dustup unique only to literature and very different form everyday speech. Going back to the thesis of the paper, if what Eagleton says is true, then it just means that literature is not universal since there would be people who would fail to clear this special literary language used in literature.If the language in literature is uncom mon and unique only to literature, then it uses a particular language which would spot it from other words that people use. However, there is a counterargument to this claim presented by Leech and Short (as cited by Simpson). According to Leech and Short, although literature uses a particular set of language and linguistics unique to it, it still manages to use the ordinary language in a way that it is just creatively expressed (as cited by Simpson 6).In fact, what makes the literalists the same as other people is that they follow a particular set of rules the same way that a lawyer or journalist or doctor would be apply particular vocabulary and sentence construction that is unique to their profession. Thus, literature is unique in the sense that it uses creative language but it is not unique in the aspect that it is the only discourse that is unique in using a different set of codes or syntax. It is Horace, who first came up with the idea that literature sues two purposes recy clable et dulce.That is, literature can educate people and be utilized by the masses ( efficacious) and literature can be appreciated for its sheer ascetic creativity that brings out the beauty in the things around human beingsnature and human nature. Horace concludes that there are two purposes, literature is not something which can only serve one masterto either teach people something or to showcase its literary beautyinstead, it should be a balance of what literature is trying to aim for. However, modern literary critics and academicians believe otherwise Literature should just either be a utile or be a dulce.L. Insana on Redefining Dulce et expedient Boccacios Organization of Literature on economical Terms uses this argument on utile and dulce in trying to find out what Boccaccio is trying to express in his controversial Decameron that both teaches the public something and at the same time, it reveals a literary beauty that only Boccaccio can create (n. p. ). Thus, while the c oncept of dulce and utile may be something that has long been created hundreds of years ago, it can be applied even to economic settings as what Insana has done in the critique of Boccaccios Decameron.Nowadays, the argument that literature is either a utile or dulce is not true anymore since literature not serves many other purposes outside utile and dulce. For ensample, literature can be a means to unite the world by form and content suffice as a means for people to unite in a single universal threadsomething which is opposite to the thesis of this paper and something which this paper is trying to disprove of. There are conclusions that literature is connects people because it has the ability to link each culture and group not just by the means of language but too through experiences.People are united because of literature exists to have the same universal thread with other literature. All in all, this is what literature is believed to be used for to give us a better understandi ng of who we are, and a greater ability to know others and thereby help us to understand others, not destroy them. This universal thread opinion on the objective and form of literature is frank in some way since the experiences of societies are almost the same as everyone elseWorks of literature live of human experience and so contrast with the texts of mass or popular culture created by soulfulness authors literature can evoke a genuine personal response in the readeras Leavis explains elsewhere (see Leavis and Thompson 1933), popular culture, collectively and commercially produced, is stereotyped, formulaic, anonymous and deficient in human experience. (Easthope 4) from each one individual, no yield where they come from or what they do experiences the same needs, desires and wants to the person next to him/her.People all suffer, people all feel happiness, people all have the capability to love and be love and people will die one day. Thus, all the collation of hopes, dreams a nd fears are true no matter where you may go. However, the experiences of a society are still different from another. Though they do experience the same economic or political problem like the other societies and countries, their own experience is unique only to themselves. Literature, particularly fiction, conspires to human freedom in this way it has a political effect.But the vision intercommunicate by literature, its implicit philosophy, sits opposite the political understanding of the world. (Rolin 40) Thus, though a person in lacquer feels the same heart ache as that of a person in Wales and writes the same kind of verse form or prose that centers on their grief, it would still be different because of the certain cultural aspects that envelopes them. All in all, this is what is being pointed out why literature can never be the same for all the people in the worldbecause each group of people contains certain cultural influences and characteristics that are only unique to them . deflexion from language which clearly differentiates one culture or country to another, there is also the history to consider, the traditions and even the practices of a particular culture. Zipes clearly gives an example in how fairy tales of a country is used to run across the differences of the locales color and beliefs Each village and community in Europe and in marriage America developed various modes of storytelling and different types of tales that were closely connected to their customs, laws, morals, and beliefs. (xvi)The same way that a man tends to sway more towards the non-fictional forms of literature or the comic books and sci-fi, women tends to gravitate more to the romantic and whimsical forms of literature, there are also differences in how the literature of a village or community in a particular country in a very specific time would be different from another country in a altogether different time span. Though human experience is the same for everyone, there are still great and tremendous differences in human experiences that would make literature very non-universal and would instead be concluded as being very cultural.A very specific example would be the language of a culture or a nation Eagleton explains that literature contains a unique language to be identified with just literature, that such literary discourse estranges or alienates ordinary speech (2). However, he also points out that though ordinary speech is alienated, the said literary discourse also brings us into a fuller, more intimate possession of experience (Eagleton 2). Literature through the means of language becomes more complex and yet meaningfulsomething that each culture can relate to as they have their own distinctive features.Another example would be in how a famous literary figure, Defoe has written fictional works that are admired todayand can be found in the real of journalism he practiced in an age when the boundaries between journalism and fiction, fact and fanc y, were less distinct than they are today (Underwood 45). This example illustrates how any form of literature can imitate the life and time of the author making the literature one of its kind when compared to other literary works that also imitates the life and times of their particular authors.But most credible as an evidence and sample to thesis is mayhap the case of how William Shakespeare embodies his play, Henry V as something that reflects the early English life, according to Schwyzer Henry V is traditionally regarded as the most English of the histories, and hence of all Shakespeares works. The words England and English resound through the play, occurring more than one hundred times. Henry is constantly reminding his men of what they are or should be subject of on the basis of their Englishness, and he is himself referred to by the French king as Harry England. (Schwyzer 126) What Schwyzer presents is not that the play was inspired by England or the life of England, but that it the play itself evokes or contains themes of what it remains to be seemed as English. This englishness as what Schwyzer calls it is another term for the existence of a national literature that aims to mirror what it means for a particular nation to be a nation. In conclusion, there is no universal thread the links human being together even of literature shows the same human experience for everyone.Literature is not universal it is cultural because of the many distinct features that are embodied in a literary work like language, way of life, background, etc. However, though literature is no universal, it is still an ongoing process of development and improvement that hopefully one day, does indeed bridge the world together and be called universal. Works Cited Eagleton, Terry. literary Theory an Introduction. Oxford Blackwell Publishing, 1996. Print.Easthope, Antony. Literary into Cultural Studies. untried York Routledge, 1991. Print. Insana, L. Redefining Dulce et Utile Boccacio s Organization of Literature on Economic Terms. Heliotropia 2. 1 (2004). Web. Heliotropia. org. 17 May 2010. Rolin, Olivier. The Subtle Genius of the Novel. The Review of Contemporary fictionalisation 28. 3 (2008) 40. Web. Literature Resource Center. 16 May 2010. Schwyzer, Philip. Literature, Nationalism, and Memory in Early Modern England and Wales.New York Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print. Simpson, Paul. Language Through Literature an Introduction. New York Routledge, 1997. Print. Trupe, Alice. Thematic Guide to Young Adult Literature. Connecticut Greenwood Press, 2006. Print. Underwood, Doug. journalism and the Novel Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000. New York Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print. Zipes, Jack (ed). The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. New York Oxford University Press, 2000.