Before You Read A What is Literature? What is Literature? L iterature expresses itself as a substitution for human experience. When we encounter a great story or poem, we are at a safe distance from the conflicts, crises, and environments of powerful stories. Often we would like to immerse ourselves in these stories and join with, or be, the characters that experience the effects and events of the story. Often we are glad that we are at a distance. As there is no substitute for experience, literature is the closest thing we have to gaining wisdom from inexperience. Literature is central to every culture and allows people to frame the remembrance of experience as something historical or something imagined. Literature, therefore, becomes a personal and social experience. We learn from inferences about literary experience and caution ourselves and others through the lessons learned from history and imagination. Literature raises compelling questions about experience and follows a pattern of inquiry regarding human nature. Genre study forms the blueprint of this inquiry. B Why Should We Read Literature? T here is concern from some child experts that today's children are living a life outside of personal experiences — living a 'vicarious life' — living through secondary experiences. Television, video, cinema, video games and personal media all play a role in replacing actual flesh and blood experiences in life, making children passive witnesses to life instead of active participants. The over-scheduling of a child's life robs them of the excitement of inventing their own time and the thrill of exercising spontaneity and invention. And because media activities usually consign children to the inside, the experience of the outer world is denied to them, exchanged for the safety and ease of the inner asylum or sanctuary of structured activity. Often without realising it, good parents referee their child's engagement in life, urging them to participate or watch. Too much of one inhibits the other: too much structure and participation denies a child the free time they need to invent their own "time"; too much spectator time denies the child the opportunity to actualise their life. Literature should not escape this scrutiny: 1. Is reading a passive experience? 2. Is it an experience that conjures, that activates? 3. Is there a point when literature denies a child more profound personal experiences by providing them with already conjured imaginary ones? When reading George Orwell's 1984, we discover a hideous world where language has been obliterated, reading and writing forbidden, and any stray thought has become a crime. The novel's protagonist, Alexander Myers English, Grades 7-12 agzmyers@gmail.com 1 Winston Smith, discovers through reading the rudimentary political structures that created this dystopia. Much to his misfortune, the act of discovery condemns him to torture and possible death. His discovery is a passive one, and considering the resultant catastrophe, would he have been better off if he had not read? C Essential Questions (to Apply to All Readings) 1 Perception & Self 1 How do we perceive our world? 2 What forces go into shaping the way we behave or perceive our world? 3 What forces distort or clarify our perceptions? 4 What role do we have or play in shaping our own experiences? 5 How accurate is our concept of self and the world? 2 Values & Judgments 1 How accurate are our value judgments? 2 As part of human definition, what values do we find valid and meaningful? 3 How does an author limit our concept of self and our ability to make judgments? 3 Power & Control 1 How much power or control can we achieve, if any? 2 What are the obstacles before us that prevent us from achievement? 3 Why does contemporary literature focus on our common humanity? 4 What has happened to the concept of the Hero in literature and culture? 4 Success & Failure 1 In whatever role we choose, what are the nature of success and the consequence of 2 How much choice, in fact, truly exists for us? 3 Are our destinies and the decisions we make to achieve these destinies pre-determined? 4 What forces outside of us do we invoke to find relevance, happiness and permanence? Alexander Myers English, Grades 7-12 agzmyers@gmail.com 2
