Enjoying literature

K S Sivakumaran

Reading - a pleasurable experience

Depiction of society in a particular period

A teacher narrating a story to a group of children

I enjoy reading literature, because it gives me pleasure in discovering many things through epics, novels, short stories, plays and essays, criticisms and other forms of literature through journalism. Except for naturally inclined students, most of them do not prefer to study the subject because they think that it is hard to understand.

They want to pass the examination offering ‘easy subjects’ as they call and are keen to get out of the school system and be ‘free’ to enjoy life as adults do. In other words they want to grow fast as adults and behave like adults in every way claiming that in the 21st century ‘freedom’ as observed by students in the west. This is a funny situation. However, we shall try to persuade them to understand and enjoy literature. First of all we may take the narrative in a piece of creative work and analyze it. Narrator is a story teller. Narration is story telling. A narration can be `told in the first person or third person.

First person narrative is limited to one person’s point of view. That is why most stories are told from the outside–meaning through a third person’s view. The narrator does not come through a person’s voice at all. The author simply tells the story as if he or she is omnipresent at all places and knows everything that happens to every character. Readers are accustomed to this and do not bother to ask how the writer would know even what the character is thinking.

Sometimes the writers use techniques like the inclusion of diary form of writing or letters form of writing. Readers are privileged to know even when the letters or diaries are particularly meant for a few individual characters in the story.

Many plays have sub-plots. In the same way there maybe several narrative lines in a story. The separate strands of the story usually come together at some point. There would be a linking idea or theme between these narratives.

Next we can see what part the plots play in a creative work. Plots help us to arouse interest in the story or a character or characters in the story. The development of character or a situation depends on how the plot is constructed.

The development of relationships between characters, the solving of a problem or a mystery adds interest in the story.

The development and resolution of a conflict between character and groups would also be fascinating. The overcoming of some difficulty or disaster would also thrill readers. Likewise a search or discovery at the end would also surprise readers. The ending in a story should be written in such a way that the readers accept it as plausible one in terms of how the story develops.

Another important aspect in the narration is the way the characterisation is crafted. The writer controls the characters in the way he or she wants to behave or act. But the reader tries to understand that and interprets the story as he or she understands. The writer’s attitudes must be understood even when the readers interprets them as he sees it.

Diary form of writing and letters form of writing

As in drama characters play an important part in fiction. In fiction the writer controls everything-The reader understands and interprets what the writer writes.

Description of physical appearance of characters-personality, dress Speech, action all adds a picture of the characters.

The atmosphere or the surroundings too help us to place the characters in profile. Writers can go into the inside of a character’s mind X-ray his self to us.

Literature can be enjoyed in many ways. Most of the time one reads a good piece of writing several times to go deep into the subject to discover what the writer tries to convey in his or her work. Some classics can be enjoyed even to this day for their literary and other values like the depiction of society in a particular period.

Enjoying literature in a particular language and even translations from other languages enrich our experiences and knowledge of different cultures.

Even contemporary literature written in other languages entertain us in a different way-meaning the social contexts, the liberal and unbridled exposition of ideas and actions, the styles of writing, use of techniques via modern electronic devices all these takes to a different world.

The yardsticks in evaluating literatures too have undergone changes because of the one time fads like post-modernism, post-structuralism, feminism, neo-Marxism, etcetera. But still the old methods of literary criticism are preferred by old-timers like me.

It is through literature that the language develops and enriches the mind and soul of most of us.

I love literature and like to speak about it sharing my tastes with others who hold similar tastes.

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