Literature of Knowledge and Literature of Power is an essay written by

Thomas de Quincey in order to explain and define what literature really

is.
Literally, literature is everything printed in books; but according to
Thomas de Quincey, Literature has an important element of relating
general interests to mans life. To further explain this, he mentions the
two functions of literature: the literature of knowledge and the
literature of power.
The Literature of Knowledge is an element that refers to the teachings,
thoughts and lessons of a particular literary writing brought to us for
additional information only. On the other hand, Literature of Power is
an element, which causes us to move or take action because of the
literary knowledge we have gained; in other words, it is the application
of the Literature of Knowledge to human life.
In relation to our Literature subject, we can infer that the Literature of
Power has been present all throughout the lessons except for some
that we have taken. The Literature of Power is deeply rooted in
emotions. Therefore, Literature of Power and emotions have a robust
relationship with each other.
Instances upon which the Literature of Power were present in the
stories are: Sonnet 29--the degree to which the sonnet moved the
readers emotions from feeling sorry for the narrators misery, then
shifting the end into a feeling of contentment and happiness both for
the reader and the narrator; The Velveteen Rabbit-the impact of the
story on the readers about freedom by being real through knowing
ones identity according to ones point of view and how woeful it is to
be exposed to the obnoxious reality; Iliad- readers, upon reading this
epic, will feel the sorrow of losing a loved one and the delight to know
that conscience and goodness will always be present at a story;
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening- a feeling of fulfilling a desire
but brings the reader to focus more on their priorities rather than on
impulsive temptations; Chabela Wedding cake- mans yearning for
freedom which leads to sorrow because of the hindrances caused by
the characters and the traditions, it leads the readers to the exposure
of unforeseen circumstances that love can do; After Great Pain, a
Formal Feeling Comes- the emotion of numbness and painful
withstanding of situations hard to let go which soon directs the readers
into realizing that there is always a rainbow after the rain; and A Rose
for Emily- the feeling of wonder about why the characters did such
manners and the symbolism behind the story which refers to the
lifestyle, the effects of sociocultural events to society where the

readers can change their way of acceptance in order to prevent chaos

just as it happened in the story.
The only lesson we took which was more on Literature of Knowledge
was The Lawsuit because not much emotion had been poured into it
and the analysis of the story is more on intellectualizing who is telling
the truth and who is not; and what caused the certain events in the
story to happen.
The next topic we are to relate to our lessons is the essay written by
Paz Latorena entitled Educating the Literary Taste. In this essay, she
brings up the division of Literary Taste: good taste and bad taste. She
also mentions different people who gave contributions on the
foundation of the Literary Taste.
Baltazar Gracian came up with the term hombre de buen gusto,
which means tactful man. Later on, the French Baltazar Gracian
made the translation into good taste and bad taste, which later
became famous in Europe. Addison then defined literary taste as the
beauty of perfection and imperfection. Colleridge therefore defined
Literary Taste as both intellectual and with subjective bias. How did
that happen?
Literary Taste as being intellectual refers to the standards that Literary
Writings must meet but since people have different viewpoints on
standard, it is then subjectively biased. With this, Literary Criticism was
created in order to judge the literary pieces of different people. Literary
Criticism deals with universally accepted standards and these
standards include the grammar, spelling, rhymes, and the like. This is
where Literary Taste opens up. In Literary taste, personal points of view
are accepted and universal standards are disregarded. For as long as a
literary piece moves a readers heart or emotions, it will be
immediately accepted even if the literary piece becomes insensible to
the highest degree. However, to avoid this dissemination of insensible
literary piece, Educating the Literary Taste was created.
It was mentioned in the essay that to educate a literary taste is to start
helping the alienated students in engaging to Literature as early as
possible. The previous idea mentioned was by Sir Josh Reynolds. He
said that Literary Taste could be taught. The standards in teaching
literary taste are:
Intellectual value. The literary writing must make sense. There must be
truth and significance/relevance in the message conveyed in a literary
piece. For example: all the literary pieces we discussed- they all

presented the relevance of the stories to human emotion; and The

Lawsuit- the real Muslim tradition about marriage was showcased and
also the factual responsibilities of an individual to his relatives in
accordance to the law.
Emotional value. No matter how unpleasant the writing of the literary
piece is, the emotional value will become its saving grace. The
emotional value is about how a literary piece can move the heart of
the reader, how much it can arouse feelings, and how it reaches out to
the readers the feeling of belongingness because of the relation and
similarities of the stories to our personal lives. It is a bit similar with the
Literature of Power but its still different. As stated in the previous
paragraphs, all the literary pieces we have tackled aroused emotional
impact on the readers. Therefore, emotional value, which has been
present all throughout the stories, is as important as the intellectual
value. However, according to Paz Latorena, emotional value can be
classified into two: pleasant emotion and unpleasant emotion. Still,
both these kinds of emotions are neutrally present in each literary
piece.
The last and the most important value in the Literary Taste Standard is
the ethical value. This value is concerned with morality and goodness.
There might be confusion with this one since some of the literary
pieces covered immoral or unpleasant events: The Lawsuit- the
polygamy through existence of a second wife, the luxurious lifestyle
of the father, and the act of the gold-diggers (the mother and the elder
brother) upon judgmentally accusing the second wife as
homewrecker; Like Water for Chocolate- Rosaura cursing her sister,
lust of Pedro and Rosaura, and the earthly doings of the rest of the
characters; Iliad- the murder of Patroclus and Hector, the anger and
revenge of Achilles, and the dragging around town of Hectors body
which is an act of disrespectfulness; and A Rose for Emily- the murder
of Homer Barron, Emily refuses to pay her tax and violates the taxation
law, and the discrimination of the black race in Jefferson.
Moreover, the mentioned literary pieces are not to be referred as
immoral literary pieces because the immoral acts did not happen all
throughout the story; instead, it occurred for some time but later came
into a good solution since the main purpose of the authors were to
promote goodness in the end. The lessons and the aims of the writers
were to make us, readers, be hopeful and optimistic in dealing with our
daily lives: The Lawsuit- forgiveness; Like Water for Chocolate- love and
freedom; Iliad- the strength of the father-and-son relation, human
conscience, succeeding even after all the pain and the sufferings, and
the hope to a new tomorrow; and A Rose for Emily- the equality of all
races and what love can do.