What Is In Literature?

In this world of fast moving science and technology people have started to develop a very
snobbish and redundant attitude towards certain elements of life which tantamount to science
in importance, if not more. The banality of everyday life and its monotonicity has taken a toll on
the sensing capability of people. Their thinking has rot and ideologies clichéd, inhibiting any
sense of pure imagination, having said so, the mundane imaginations have been evidently
excluded. Emotions which are inherent and utmost natural have been transformed to a subject
of loath and despise. People hover upon the question of due authority which literature holds in
our life. The whole thinking process of condescending the value of literature is a result of
absence of critical thinking since the advent of the industrial age, which made man indifferent
to anything except themselves. The Industrial Age did bring in varied minds of genius thinkers,
the problem though was the restriction of thinking to those minds and not to the populace as a
whole, the very conspicuous result of which is curtailment of imagination of a normal human
being.
When we talk of literature, we unknowingly include all of the texts which have and shall be
written in the history of mankind, it maybe scientific, pseudo-scientific, fantasy, social, political
or philosophical. Thus, an attempt to loosely define literature would be, the exposition and
explication of the society and its elements in a given time frame and a given geographical
boundary. When we ponder upon its definition we are struck with the reality that what had
been considered appalling by us, is in practicality our very own identity , and when we have
realized it, we shall be able to relate to even the most abstruse of Milton’s epics and abstract of
Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Literature in its true sense is a reflection through a mirror not only of our character but the
character of lineages of our ancestors. It shows in the most articulate and cogent manner the
way we have evolved and the way we shall evolve. It presents to our short sighted physical eyes
the reality of eternal truth. It is a reminder of our horrible mistakes as well as our glorious past.
It manifests bravery as well as cowardice, success as well as failure and discoveries as well as
disappointments. Literature is the pram of future generation on the bough of our illustrious
past, and it shall be so no matter how obstinate we tend to remain.
The most frequently raised question is the practicability of literature as in contrast to science
and engineering. We may but only pity those people who are ignorant of the fact that literature
has always been the mother of all scientific quests. The earliest of scientific hypothesis and
postulates like that of Aristotle’s model of the universe were a result of sheer abstract
imagination ,which no matter how much we mock, was developed into the practical model
which we see today only and only due to centuries of literary criticism. The religious literature
has had always played a crucial role in eliciting the scientific ideas and stimulating scientific
minds ,sometimes due to negative connotations and at other times due to positive. Kings and
generals in history have won battles owning to their knowledge of previously recorded
literature, hence, when they themselves besieged a city and captured it, utmost care was taken
to export the literature of that place for future benefits. The renowned historian and twice
Pulitzer Prize winner, David Levering writes in his book God’s Crucible: Islam and the making of
Europe, that it was the export of Greek literature to Europe through Arabia which was solely
responsible for the European renaissance and the scientific revolution henceforth, which
ardently supports the fact that literature is the spirit of science, which has helped endure
rational ideas over centuries of barbarianism, bloodshed, hooliganism and savagery.
Science can closely be put as channelization of strong imagination and emotions, which are the
soul of literature, into realms of logical interpretation. A measly example which can be cited in
reference to the above statement is, when man was in his early age he did not know about
houses, but when and only when he imagined wildly about something which could protect him
from all odds, was then he could put that idea into a real and tangible structure. Thus,
imagination and intuition which transcends the boundaries of logic are the precursors of
scientific ideas and engineering structures.

Literature imparts an aesthetic component to the human conscience, removing the lull and
gloom in very crude concepts, transforming them into poetic beauties. Poetries have always
been the most misunderstood and jibed of the literary forms, but what is unknown of poetry is
that it transforms the writers as well as the readers psychology from natural to supernatural.
Poetries are the most powerful of literary tools which helps us mold our facts into such
emphatic forms of expression that the ordinary has an extra ordinary effect on the reader.
What can be admired of a woman with no beauty is what can be compare to ideas without a
poetic touch. Poets of all ages have included scientific ideas into their works, the most
prominent of which may be found in the Victorian literature. With much of said and done, it is
now quite easy to figure out that science is lame without literature and literature is blind
without science, both are the study of natural phenomena, of stark reality and esoteric
imagination, though with certain differing subjection but ,ultimately, the same objective.
Crudely expressing we may state that the inner cranium of a human being where its stalk of
thinking rests, has two demarcating parts, one which is bound by logical connotations and
interpretations while the other which is free to stray into the realm of infinity, the former
thinking is called science while the latter, literature, both being different facets of same entity.
Finally, to those who say, “What is in literature?” we ask, “What not is in literature?”