Why Is It Important to Critically Review Epidemiologic Studies?
For many folks, the word "literature" conjures upwards memories of loftier school English grade reading lists. While the Western literary catechism is expanding to include, and elevate, stories exterior of what white, Western readers accept dubbed "the classics," at that place are still some works that crop up in every student's career, from Frankenstein and the Epic of Gilgamesh to Dearest and The Great Gatsby. So, why is literature important — and why exercise we study information technology?
Merriam-Webster defines literature as poetry or prose that has "excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest." While it may audio trite to say, the globe'southward greatest works of literature have changed minds, sparked rebellions, and helped to alter the course of history. While it would be incommunicable to contain all of literature'due south contributions and multitudes here, we're going to take a look at some of the landmark moments in this art grade's history.
Literature Transports Us To the Past
Similar other recovered art objects, literature has the power to tell usa almost ancient civilizations. Not only can we empathize their community, values and lives, merely we tin can get a better thought of what their amusement looked like. The first-known examples of literature can be traced dorsum to aboriginal Mesopotamia. Around 3400 BCE, the Sumerians developed a system of writing called cuneiform, which immune scribes to record myths, hymns and poetry. Some of these earliest-known transcriptions include the "Kesh Temple Hymn" and the "Instructions of Shuruppak," both of which were written effectually 2500 BCE.
The Ballsy of Gilgamesh, a long-course Mesopotamian poem, was originally written effectually 2100 BCE. Fifty-fifty today, Gilgamesh is considered the kickoff neat masterpiece of earth literature. In fact, much of the Bible parallels this ancient work, furthering emphasizing just how universal and influential Gilgamesh was — and continues to be today.
In 375 BCE, Plato, the Athenian philosopher, authored The Democracy, a dialogue between Socrates and his fellow Greek thinkers, which explores idea-provoking questions nearly justice, order and the simply man. And, around the 8th century BCE, the landmark epics attributed to the poet Homer, The Odyssey and The Iliad, helped preserve Greek mythology and history in writing.
Literature Helps U.s.a. Reevaluate Our Worlds
Early on, literature was contained within poetry and dramatic works — after all, performing plays was another great source of entertainment. During the 11th century, or the Heian period, Japanese noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu penned The Tale of Genji, which is considered the first modern novel by many scholars.
Years afterward, in Europe, things started to shift in a meaningful mode in the wake of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a drove of 24 stories written in Middle English language between 1387 and 1400. Picking upward the prose torch around 1485, Thomas Malory published Le Morte d'Arthur, one of the first novels in the Western canon. During the Renaissance, writers similar Molière began satirizing everything from the church and government to society at large, showing that written works had the propensity to shift the remainder of ability and make people rethink their earth views.
During the 16th century, also known as the Ming dynasty, the Chinese novel Journey to the West was published. Attributed to Wu Cheng'en, this satire- and allegory-filled work is considered one of the Four Bang-up Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Effectually the same time, William Shakespeare was helping to lay the foundations of modernistic English language and craft the literary tropes and story formats we still enjoy today. And, of course, in 1615 Miguel de Cervantes penned Don Quixote, a romantic, archetypal novel that'due south considered one of the nigh influential works of all fourth dimension.
Literature Gives Folks a Voice and Platform — and Let's Readers Come across Themselves Reflected
Once again, it's impossible to fully encapsulate the breadth of literary history hither. Moreover, this article focuses on written works, but information technology'southward important to note that many cultures and groups of people record stories through imagery instead — or pass their stories down in oral traditions. All of this to say, our view of literature is a narrow one, and, in many ways, express by the way educational institutions have shaped our understanding of what works are of import.
James Simpson, head of Harvard University's English language Department, spoke about these limitations directly in an open letter to the Wall Street Journal entitled "Groovy Literature Magnifies Repressed Voices, Ever." For Simpson, the ages-old Western literary canon, which highlights the literary contributions of white (and frequently directly) men, "beguile[s] the fundamental function of literature and other art forms, which is to hear the voices repressed past official forms of a given culture."
Of grade, the literary canon has been refreshed in past, which proves that information technology's important to reshape and rethink the stories we deem essential. For example, at the fourth dimension of its writing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was kind of the scandalous (easily consumable) HBO-like story of the mean solar day. But, at present, information technology's largely considered a probing, essential work — not just entertainment. In the wake of World War I, authors like Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald penned novels, similar Mrs. Dalloway and The Nifty Gatsby respectively, that captured their disillusionment offset and foremost. Yet, these continue to exist must-read works due to the mode they exemplify craft and storytelling elements. (At least in function.)
More than mod literature also ushered in the more formal notion of literary sub-genres, ranging from science fiction — a genre created by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley — to romance, fantasy, and realism. By retracing certain tropes, conventions and character types, genre helps us understand the mode particular stories are shaped past categorizing them.
Without a doubt, literature helps us uncover — be it an uncovering of the past, a present cocky, or a possible futurity. The most distinguished literary greats, like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Kazuo Ishiguro, Chinua Achebe, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zadie Smith, and Maggie Nelson (and many, many more folks we don't have the infinite to name!), capture all of these facets. In short, by climbing into the minds of other characters and worlds — in stepping exterior of ourselves — literature allows us to understand universal truths; modify minds; stir empathy; and express our identities and values in lasting, far-reaching ways.
Source: https://www.reference.com/world-view/importance-literature-society-1a66a3cd21a90dd8?utm_content=params%3Ao%3D740005%26ad%3DdirN%26qo%3DserpIndex
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