3
LITERATURE AND SOCIETY
Literature is intimately related to society. Viewed as a whole, a body of literature is part of the
entire culture of a people. The characteristic qualities that distinguish the literature of one group
from that of another, derive from the characteristic qualities of that group. Its themes and
problems emerge from group activities and group situations, and its significance lies in the extent
to which it expresses and enriches the totality of culture. It is an integral part of entire culture, tied
by a tissue of connections with every other element in the culture.
Society influences literature in many ways, and the connections of literature with society are
integral and pervasive. In fact, the range of social influences on literature is as broad as the entire
range of operative social forces: the prevailing system of social organization-including the class
structure, the economic system, the poetical organization and the deeply rooted institutions; the
dominant ideas; the characteristic emotional tone; the sense of the past and the pattern of the
contemporary realities. There is nothing in the compass of social life that does not play its partsmall or large, directly or by deflection, giving literature the impress of its surroundings.
The relation between literature and society is highly complex, and it is very difficult to determine
which element of society has exerted what influence on literature. We cannot, therefore, afford to
isolate a single element in society-whether economic or ideological-and assign to it a cause arole
in the final determination of literature. The whole of the social process-including material,
conceptual, emotional and institutional elements-may be regarded as containing the potential
influences determining the direction and character of literature of a period. In each period in the
history of a nation, a certain social situation is brought into the area of operative influence, which
is different from any other social situation. The writer of that period selects those elements of
that social situation which have managed to produce an impact on him, and weaves them into a
pattern which is compatible with his own standards of art and his view of human life.
A very fine example of the effect of social conditions on the literature of the period is provided by
the literature of Shakespeare’s time. The thing that strikes every reader today, is the difference
between the vivid Elizabethan drama which, in its best examples, stands still as nobly as on its
first day, speaking directly to us, and appearing imperishable on account of its psychological
vitality and true representation of life-and the poetic literature, or the narrative literature, of the
same period, which in spite of the poetic talent it reveals, seems, to us centuries older, because it
lives in a world of ideas that no longer has anything in common with our own. The main reason
for this is that the determining sociological factors differ in two cases. Pure literature was
dominated at the time by the social group of the aristocracy. Any one who wished to get his
works printed had to seek the patronage of a great lord; anyone who wished to secure any return
from the printing secured it only in the form of the gracious presents made in return for
enthusiastic and fulsome dedications. The poets of that epoch largely obtained their sustenance in
their patron’s castles, where they did not occupy a place of honour, and were considered among
the servants.
Thus Spenser, the greatest poet of that age, says of his greatest work, The Faery Queene, that its
aim is ”to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline”. The didactic
tendency aimed at by him has only aristocratic world in view. Quite different was the position of
the theatre in that period. The Elizabethan playwright was no longer dependent on the
benevolence of a single patron.
It is true that the various companies of actors described themselves as in the service of great
aristocrats, but this was no more than a formality rendered necessary by certain provisions of law.
The influence on literature of the social power of the aristocratic group, restricted to some extent
only in the theatre, continued plainly in English literature down to the eighteenth century. Only
then did a real reading public develop on a wider scale. In place of patron came the publisher,
who for a long time used to fleece the writer. It was only in the nineteenth century that the writer
could liberate himself from the oppressive and humiliating dependence on the great, and win for
him the dignity of independence.
Thus we see that the sociological conditions exert a great influence on the writer. But the writer is
not only influenced by society: he influences it also. Literature not merely reproduces life, but
also shapes it. People may model their lives upon the pattern of fictional heroes and heroines.
They have made love, committed crimes and suicide according to great books like Goethe’s
Sorrows of Werther and Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. Addison, by means of his satirical
writings, changed, to some extent, the manners of his society; and Dickens’ novels incited
reforms of debtor’s prisons, boy’s schools, and poor houses.
Literature is a social activity. Every civilised society has its literature. Greek society and Roman
society left their distinctive imprint upon their literatures. Their pattern of literary development
was interwoven with the fabric of their societies. It was born with them, reached its greatest
height with them, and faded out with them on their collapse.
When we study the modern writers, we find that it is correct that they were expressing their own
individual awareness to life through their work, and that naturally they are applying their special
technique to those things that seem vital to them. As this is the case, but it is also true that they
are producing a social document, They are not only bringing to itght, the ideas, feelings, emotions
and judgments of human beings they describe, inducing themselves, but they are also exhibiting
for future renders what writers regarded as of vital importance in their own day.