What is Literature ?

...at base, a criticism of life.

When as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, man learned to put down his
thoughts and feelings on pieces of stone or clay somewhere between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers in Asia Minor and then on scrolls of papyrus in the Nile
valley, he began a quest for preserving a criticism of the life that he witnessed
around him. It was then on that the monumental striving towards literary
achievements began though ascertaining an exact date to it would be nearly
impossible. But if the inquisitive mind, for a moment, ponders over the question
as to why man recorded the events that he saw occurring around him or the
lifestyle that he witnessed around him? He is confounded with the most
fundamental question of literature. What is the function of literature at all?
Scholars of anthropology believe, that it was mans desire to pass down his
knowledge into the changed world of the next generation that drove man towards
literary achievements. In which case we have to assume that man has throughout
been aware and conscious of the process of change and metamorphosis that forms
the subject matter of some of the earliest literary achievements of Man both in the
Orient as well as in the Occident. The earliest epics, from Homers to Ovids have
been driven by the desire to pass on the legacy of their times into the future world-embodied in Achilles desire for immortal fame in the Iliad. And our earliest heroes
from Gilgamesh to Genji have sojourned through Change and Transformation-fundamental processes that have taken place to shape what we are today.
But if the real essence of literature is to portray the aspect of change, then
we must accept that in a wider sense, literature has a greater function and field of
service to the world, as well as towards the intellectual inquiry of the inquisitive
man. When the eminent British poet Matthew Arnold was confronted with the
question as to the purpose of his literary compositions, he answered it in absolute
and simplistic terms saying that all he wanted to do was to present an accurate
criticism of life through his poetry. He went on to explain that criticism of life
means, noble and profound application of ideas to life. Here, life should be
taken as a mere concept and impersonal entity in our understanding of the
human world. So, in Arnolds words, the purpose of literature is to place Man in
situations that are alien to his experience and explore how he functions in a crisis
that Fate has meted out to him. If the crisis is overwhelming and socially has
gone beyond the heros control catharsis will bring him to an end, to end the
social crisis. If the problem is limited and can be overcome, he will emerge
victorious from that shade and reenter the realm of light and joy. This in a way is

the summary of Mans life;--his helpless birth forces him into the crisis of the
world which is the Struggle for Existence where his socialization must either
save him or bring upon him his inevitable death.
This small example of one mans journey through life may be extended to
have an idea of what our ancestors thought necessary for maintaining the society
which must teach the new-born child how to fight against the forces of nature
and survive in the world. Thus Literature appeared to them as a preservative to
conserve the values that are necessary for the proper functioning of society. The
earliest examples of world literature include mostly the religious texts from the
Vedas to the Book of the Dead (considered to be the oldest) which serve as a
living legacy of the prophets who taught men to stand together.
In the western world, literature mainly originated in the form of Epic and
Drama in Greece. But even in the fifth century BCE, they were not free from their
religious roles. Mostly drama was a part of the Festival of Dionysus and later,
Dionysus came to symbolize the performing arts. German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche points out that in Greece drama almost inevitably involved a conflict
between two camps usually headed by the hero and the villain--the protagonist
and the antagonist. These two camps, he says are the yin and yang of any artistic
creation--the cadres of Apollo, the timid and Dionysus, the gallant. These two
forces of wildness and constraint are also witnessed in human life, what Sigmund
Freud calls the conflict of the Id and the Super-Ego. That means the very journey
of life as a conflict is inevitably portrayed in the process of artistic creation of
every kind.
The social value of literature cannot be undermined, which was in the ancient
world to hold society together has now translated into criticizing society and
thereby providing the anti-thesis to the hegemony that prevalent society tries to
implement. Thereby, through this criticism, dialectics progresses and as per the
laws of social development, society evolves through time. This function of
literature is clearly witnessed in the writings of Gogol, Dostoevsky and Dickens.
But this immense potential of literature to stir a revolution and change the social
life of man also poses a threat to social stability of no mean proportion. Plato, the
Greek philosopher was the earliest man to understand this potential and suggest
that literature should be banned in the ideal state because it stirs the soul too
much and may destroy the stability of the ideal society. In his Republic
Socrates, is seen to make a sarcastic comment that all one needs to create a public
opinion for or against a government policy is to get is praised or ridiculed in a
popular play.

Thus the elevated position that Literature played as a transmitter of

knowledge and lifestyle from generation to generation is proof of the importance
and effect of it on public life. From a guide to moral values to an evaluator of
social customs, literature is present as an omnipotent entity that presents a
criticism of life, both public and personal. By criticism here, we mean an
evaluation of actions committed by the protagonist in the backdrop of his society
and that too, with the surgeons precision. Literature when strictly associated
with religion acted to accomplish the function of what sociologists call, goalsetting and integration for at base, religion was Mans first identity and
binder. And through recording of these lifestyles and ways of life, it succeeded in
maintaining the other function of society that was latency--the ability to pass
on the customs and traditions of the a society into the future world. Thus
literature can truly be called a criticism of life.
If now, we are to draw upon examples, Dickens novels in the English
language expose the oppression of the lower-classes by those in power.
Oppression that he himself endured in his early years finds place in his writings
and it becomes a social satire to a certain sense. Jane Austen writing in a slightly
different situation and from a different view-point points out to the paradoxes of
the upper-class society. Both these may be taken as examples that criticize the
social life of man. On the other hand, if modern literature is considered, T. S.
Eliot, in his Waste Land, on the surface level, depicts the impending doom that
he imagines to be hovering over the western society going through the massive
changes that he witnessed in his life-time. In The Rock his chorus sings Where
is the knowledge we have lost in knowledge . . . he laments the loss of depth
from Human society. Russian novels dating back the fag end of the Romanov
Rule, mostly point out to the pitiful situation of the working class and the
intellectual class not patronized by the nobility. Examples may be given from
Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment the plays by Nikolai Gogol. Tolstoy
satirizes Russian nobility much in the same way as Austen. They all criticize
life in its most diverse manifestations around the world; after all, society is
just a magnificent projection of personal life--Plato.

--- Sagnik Bhattacharya.

Advanced-Subsidiary Level, 2015.
Garden High International School.