In Which Way Is Doing a Research Literature Review Similar to Doing a Qualitative Study?
For many folks, the word "literature" conjures up memories of high school English language form reading lists. While the Western literary canon is expanding to include, and elevate, stories outside of what white, Western readers have dubbed "the classics," there are still some works that crop upwardly in every student's career, from Frankenstein and the Ballsy of Gilgamesh to Beloved and The Great Gatsby. So, why is literature of import — and why do we study it?
Merriam-Webster defines literature every bit poetry or prose that has "excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest." While information technology may sound trite to say, the earth's greatest works of literature have inverse minds, sparked rebellions, and helped to alter the course of history. While it would exist impossible to contain all of literature's contributions and multitudes here, we're going to take a look at some of the landmark moments in this art form's history.
Literature Transports United states To the Past
Like other recovered art objects, literature has the power to tell us virtually ancient civilizations. Not only can nosotros empathise their customs, values and lives, but we tin get a better thought of what their entertainment looked like. The first-known examples of literature tin be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia. Around 3400 BCE, the Sumerians adult a organization of writing called cuneiform, which immune scribes to tape 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 Epic of Gilgamesh, a long-grade Mesopotamian poem, was originally written around 2100 BCE. Even today, Gilgamesh is considered the showtime great masterpiece of world literature. In fact, much of the Bible parallels this aboriginal work, furthering emphasizing just how universal and influential Gilgamesh was — and continues to exist today.
In 375 BCE, Plato, the Athenian philosopher, authored The Republic, a dialogue betwixt Socrates and his fellow Greek thinkers, which explores idea-provoking questions about justice, order and the just man. And, around the eighth 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 Us Reevaluate Our Worlds
Early on on, literature was contained within verse and dramatic works — later all, performing plays was another cracking 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 past many scholars.
Years later, in Europe, things started to shift in a meaningful style in the wake of Geoffrey Chaucer'south The Canterbury Tales, a collection of 24 stories written in Heart English betwixt 1387 and 1400. Picking upwardly the prose torch effectually 1485, Thomas Malory published Le Morte d'Arthur, 1 of the first novels in the Western catechism. During the Renaissance, writers like Molière began satirizing everything from the church and regime to society at big, showing that written works had the propensity to shift the remainder of ability and brand people rethink their world views.
During the 16th century, also known as the Ming dynasty, the Chinese novel Journey to the W was published. Attributed to Wu Cheng'en, this satire- and apologue-filled work is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Around the same time, William Shakespeare was helping to lay the foundations of modern English and craft the literary tropes and story formats we nonetheless enjoy today. And, of course, in 1615 Miguel de Cervantes penned Don Quixote, a romantic, archetypal novel that'south considered 1 of the most influential works of all time.
Literature Gives Folks a Voice and Platform — and Let's Readers See Themselves Reflected
Again, information technology'southward impossible to fully encapsulate the breadth of literary history here. Moreover, this commodity focuses on written works, but information technology's important to notation 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 i, and, in many ways, express by the mode educational institutions accept shaped our understanding of what works are important.
James Simpson, head of Harvard University's English language Department, spoke near these limitations directly in an open letter to the Wall Street Journal entitled "Peachy Literature Magnifies Repressed Voices, E'er." For Simpson, the ages-old Western literary canon, which highlights the literary contributions of white (and often straight) men, "betray[s] the cardinal role of literature and other art forms, which is to hear the voices repressed by official forms of a given culture."
Of grade, the literary canon has been refreshed in past, which proves that it's important to reshape and rethink the stories we deem essential. For case, at the time of its writing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter was kind of the scandalous (hands consumable) HBO-similar story of the twenty-four hours. But, now, it'due south largely considered a probing, essential work — non merely entertainment. In the wake of Earth War I, authors like Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald penned novels, similar Mrs. Dalloway and The Corking Gatsby respectively, that captured their disillusionment first and foremost. However, these continue to exist must-read works due to the way they exemplify craft and storytelling elements. (At least in part.)
More modern literature as well ushered in the more formal notion of literary sub-genres, ranging from science fiction — a genre created by Frankenstein writer Mary Shelley — to romance, fantasy, and realism. By retracing sure tropes, conventions and grapheme types, genre helps us understand the way particular stories are shaped past categorizing them.
Without a doubt, literature helps us uncover — exist information technology an uncovering of the past, a present self, or a possible future. The most distinguished literary greats, similar 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 nosotros don't have the infinite to proper noun!), capture all of these facets. In brusque, by climbing into the minds of other characters and worlds — in stepping outside of ourselves — literature allows usa to understand universal truths; change 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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