Things/Myths related to English literature

English literature is still enigma for many people out there. Many people I encountered still have some fallacies related to it. Moreover, many high school students too are unaware of what is taught in English college/universities classes because most students don't suo motu read outside the limited excerpts taught in their curriculum. So, this post is chiefly for those school students who wish to study English in college, but any person curious about literature can read it, of course. Here are some things which I noticed, feel free to disagree and I would request you to share your experience in the comment section.

1) Study of English grammar : I have encountered many students who took admission in MA English just to hone their grammar knowledge or they expected to learn nouns and verbs once again. Some of them had been struck by lightning when they came to know that they were going to study love poetry. John Donne? Brothers, you could take a leaf out of his poetry to impress your crush. Girls, some of you will definitely wish a lover like him. It is true that knowledge of grammar is a prerequisite and an icing on the cake but that's not the only thing you will study in the classes. 


2) Critical thinking: Some people think that it is futile to study age old poems and novels, in other words, they question the need to teach old stories, which they believe, aren't going to be practical in the real world. This is untrue as it appears on surface because there are so many things which don't fulfill any practical purpose. Ask yourself, what is the practical purpose of music? It is for aesthetic purpose or as a means to entertain ourselves and break monotony of wake, work, sleep. Back to our point, literary books teach us to THINK, some may ask "Couldn't we already do that without it?" Yes, you could do but it gives us different perspective and point of views and make us think critically. We could read Orwell's major novels like Animal farm and 1984 to understand how we will live in a totalitarian world under the suspicious eyes of Big brother and people want to broaden their horizon like when Donald trump was elected president of USA, the sales of 1984 surged.  Now let me tell you that a book becomes a classic when it stands strong against the time, in other words, it is still relevant in some ways. So many things becomes obsolete daily and there are still some things which are still going. 


3) Not Just about Shakespeare : People, who know little about English literature, are aware of a fella named Shakespeare. Many even think that we, students of literature read only the works of the Bard. It is far from truth, I do admit that he and his works are indeed important in the canons of English literature, but apart from other English writers, we study American, Indian, African, Russian literature, etc. Colonization played a chief role in disseminating English language across the globe. Even after leaving their countries, these third world countries couldn’t conquer the ghost of English language. Emergence of another super power, USA further gives nudge to English and finally Globalisation and internet deliver English language to our homes.

Fast forward to twentieth century, writers from India, African began to write in the English language due to historical and other reasons. So, it doesn’t just comprise of Shakespeare but of Salman Rushdie, R.K Narayan, Chinua Achebe, V.S Naipaul and countless others.

4) Reading, Writing, speaking : You must have come across these sections in your school’s English classes that teach and assess these abilities. Having a good proficiency in speaking, reading and writing English not only gives you an edge in undergraduate literature programme but in any field you go. This subject will require critical and analytical abilities. Reading extensively always helps. Your active and passive vocabulary should be greater as it eases one's readings of texts and critical material and you don't have to slog less through the dictionaries (you must do). Speaking and writing with clarity and coherency is prized here. 


5) More ABOUT texts (poems, plays, novels etc.) than the text itself: You will come to know it in time but this is a little bit absurd. Think about it, you have a novel in your syllabus and you will read about its author in depth, detailed summary, critical material, etc., but you will sometimes unable to read the text of that novel.

6) Study of literature is mostly subjective: Subjectivity is prevalent here in literature classes. Here, you could say that one plus one is equals to eleven but you must give an explanation. You could interpret different from your teachers. You could disagree with the teachers’ opinion. That is the beauty of literature classes, teachers want you take active role and look at things and question things. Moreover, emotions are ingredients of poetry, especially Romantic poetry.

7) History is a good friend of literature, Psychology is a cousin of her: Another thing that I love about studying literature is that you get to read biography of authors along with the social, political, economic situations in which they lived. Psychology of characters is also studied in depth. You see background readings help us to understand and analyse in depth what some might think that a literary text is just simple figment of mind. We must note how a author is a product of his environment, his innate thinking and other complex factors. That’s why a literary text should not be taken in jest, it could also help us to understand many social discrimination and prejudices of the past like how Jews were discriminated or how mental illness and heresy in people were taken as a takeover of evil spirit and they were denigrated as witches (women) and burnt with sense of justice by church officials like in George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan.

8) All about interpretations: I know I have covered in one of previous points, but we may interpret differently what authors intended. You must have come across pieces of poetry where there is meaningful literal and figurative narratives like we read in Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken. Or you could take Satan as a hero in John Milton's Paradise Lost. 

9) Phonetics is study of speech sounds: In one of your masters class, you will learn how we speak meaningful utterances which is understood by others. Here, you will get to know how our speech organs produce sound due to workings of air, tongue, teeth, teeth ridge, soft-hard palate and vocal cords. God! I despise drawing the diagram of an organ (vocal cords, speech organ) long after doing away with Biology in school.

10) You must memorize text quotes and critics comment (some of them deceive readers by speaking elusive language, which could be spoken in a plain manner). For those who want to score high, this is a tip you must write on your heart.

11) Handwriting: You might find this one odd here. But my experiences in college tell me otherwise. Your handwriting plays a greater role in scoring marks. Bad or illegible handwriting is something I think English teachers inherently despise. Other factors matter in getting excellent grades but don’t ignore this one.  

12) Bonus tip: Before beginning your undergraduate literature classes, buy a good history of English literature and M.H Abrams’ A Glossary of literary terms and read as much as possible and thank me later.