Elements of Literature: What is literature? What are the characteristics of literature?

 

In order to understand a nation, we need to understand its citizens, their religion, their costumes, their political, social and economic condition etc. An expert swimmer too has to examine closely the depth of the water, the quality of water (hot or cold) and the flow of water before jumping into it. In the same manner, a student of literature must also be well acquainted with the principal characteristics or elements of literature before studying it in detail. So now let's have a look at the salient features of literature.

 1. REFLECTION OF LIFE AND SOCIETY:

"Literature is the reflection of life and society." True literature is a mirror to life. It represents human nature and human life and society. It expresses happiness and sorrow, hopes and fears, dreams and desires, ambitions and aspirations of the people. Literature presents the social, political, economic and familial problems realistically. In short, it gives us the realistic picture of the society in which it is written. For example, G. B. Show has presented the social problem of love triangle in his play Candida.  Charles Dickens’ novel ‘Great Expectations’ expresses a young boy Pip's struggle against the oddities of life.

 2. IMAGINATION:

Literature is a creative art. The author is an artist who uses imagination to make his art or works more beautiful. Without imagination literature cannot exist. In fact, imagination is the prime characteristic of any good literature. Aristotle also talks about the use of imagination when he says that poetry is an imaginative reconstruction of life.  Without imagination a poet cannot write poetry. The author observes this real life and society and tries to represent the same but he adds the color of imagination to this life and society to make it look more beautiful. This element of imagination makes literature more pleasing and delightful.

 3. EMOTIONS:

Expression of emotions or feelings hold important place in all literatures. Where there is life, there are people and where there are people, there are emotions. Can you imagine life without emotions? No. In literature too, the author deals with some fundamental human emotions like happiness, sorrow, love, hatred, fear, pity and so on in his works.  For example, Shakespeare's play ‘King Lear’ presents an old father's feelings for his daughters. Wordsworth’s poem 'Daffodils' expresses the poet’s feelings of loneliness in the beginning and happiness at the end.

 4. MORAL AWARENESS:

It is believed that true literature makes the society a better society, makes man a better human being. In Sanskrit it is rightly said साविद्यायाविमुक्तये।Literature makes us free from ignorance and enlightens us. Hence, true literature teaches moral lessons to the society. When we read literature, knowingly or unknowingly we receive some deep messages for our life. It is strongly believed that literature should present ideals before the readers. It teaches different philosophies of life. There is the element of moral awareness among the writers while writing literature. For example, Ernest Hemingway's novel Old Man and the Sea unveils the philosophical idea "Man is not made for defeat; man can be destroyed but not defeated." 

 5. UNIVERSAL APPEAL:

True literature appeals everyone forever. It is universal in the sense that it has no barriers of time and place. True literature lives forever at all places. For example, Ramayana, Bible, Bhagavad Gita and so on were written before thousands of years but today people still read them and get inspiration from them. Literature has no barriers of geography or culture or society. True serious literature written in England is read and loved in other countries as well.  Serious literature written by an Indian is loved and respected in all corners of the world. Hence we can say that universal literature appeals to all in all times, at all places.

 CONCLUSION:

In nutshell, we may say that literature reflects life and society. It has the element of realism and imagination makes it more pleasing. It carries real human emotions. Literature holds some serious philosophy of life and it has the element of moral awareness. All these qualities make literature universal in its true sense.

Another video on features of literature.