How to Present a Literature Review at a Conference
For many folks, the word "literature" conjures up memories of high schoolhouse English class reading lists. While the Western literary canon is expanding to include, and drag, stories outside of what white, Western readers have dubbed "the classics," there are still some works that crop upwardly in every student'due south career, from Frankenstein and the Epic of Gilgamesh to Dear and The Great Gatsby. So, why is literature of import — and why do we study it?
Merriam-Webster defines literature equally poesy 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 world's greatest works of literature take changed minds, sparked rebellions, and helped to change the class of history. While it would exist impossible to contain all of literature's contributions and multitudes here, nosotros're going to have a expect at some of the landmark moments in this fine art form'south history.
Literature Transports Us To the Past
Like other recovered art objects, literature has the power to tell united states of america about ancient civilizations. Not simply tin can we understand their community, values and lives, simply we tin can get a better idea of what their entertainment looked like. The first-known examples of literature can exist traced back to ancient Mesopotamia. Around 3400 BCE, the Sumerians adult a system of writing called cuneiform, which allowed scribes to record myths, hymns and poetry. Some of these primeval-known transcriptions include the "Kesh Temple Hymn" and the "Instructions of Shuruppak," both of which were written around 2500 BCE.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, a long-form Mesopotamian poem, was originally written around 2100 BCE. Even today, Gilgamesh is considered the kickoff cracking masterpiece of globe literature. In fact, much of the Bible parallels this ancient work, furthering emphasizing merely how universal and influential Gilgamesh was — and continues to be today.
In 375 BCE, Plato, the Athenian philosopher, authored The Republic, a dialogue betwixt Socrates and his boyfriend Greek thinkers, which explores idea-provoking questions near justice, society and the simply homo. 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 Us Reevaluate Our Worlds
Early on, literature was contained within poetry and dramatic works — after all, performing plays was some other great source of amusement. 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 starting time modern novel by many scholars.
Years subsequently, in Europe, things started to shift in a meaningful way in the wake of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English between 1387 and 1400. Picking up the prose torch around 1485, Thomas Malory published Le Morte d'Arthur, one of the beginning novels in the Western catechism. During the Renaissance, writers like 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 brand people rethink their world views.
During the 16th century, also known every bit the Ming dynasty, the Chinese novel Journey to the West was published. Attributed to Wu Cheng'en, this satire- and allegory-filled piece of 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 mod English and arts and crafts the literary tropes and story formats we however enjoy today. And, of course, in 1615 Miguel de Cervantes penned Don Quixote, a romantic, archetypal novel that's considered one of the near influential works of all time.
Literature Gives Folks a Voice and Platform — and Let'due south Readers See Themselves Reflected
Again, information technology's impossible to fully encapsulate the breadth of literary history here. Moreover, this article focuses on written works, but it's 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 1, and, in many ways, limited past the way educational institutions have shaped our understanding of what works are important.
James Simpson, caput of Harvard University'due south English Department, spoke almost these limitations directly in an open letter to the Wall Street Journal entitled "Great Literature Magnifies Repressed Voices, Always." For Simpson, the ages-sometime Western literary canon, which highlights the literary contributions of white (and ofttimes direct) men, "betray[s] the fundamental office 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 by, which proves that it's important to reshape and rethink the stories we deem essential. For instance, at the time of its writing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter of the alphabet was kind of the scandalous (easily consumable) HBO-like story of the 24-hour interval. But, now, information technology's largely considered a probing, essential work — not just amusement. In the wake of World State of war I, authors similar Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald penned novels, like Mrs. Dalloway and The Not bad Gatsby respectively, that captured their disillusionment first and foremost. However, these continue to be must-read works due to the way they exemplify craft and storytelling elements. (At least in part.)
More than modern literature too 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. Past retracing certain tropes, conventions and character types, genre helps us understand the way detail stories are shaped by categorizing them.
Without a doubt, literature helps us uncover — be it 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 we don't have the space to name!), capture all of these facets. In brusk, by climbing into the minds of other characters and worlds — in stepping exterior of ourselves — literature allows us 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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