Essay: Literature and Life
Essay: The Connection Between Literature and Life
Outline:
1. Introduction
2. What is Literature?
3. Literature Reflects Contemporary Times
4. Timeless Works: Ghalib's Poetry and Shakespeare's Dramas
5. Two Perspectives: Art for Art's Sake and Art for Life's Sake
6. Literature's Impact on Society
7. Conclusion
Describing what literature is can be a bit tricky. But generally, literature refers to writings that are seen as forms of art, like stories, plays, and poems, as opposed to technical books or news articles.
Literature is like a close friend to life. As George Eliot put it, it's a way to understand and connect with others beyond our personal experiences.
Hudson says literature makes us part of a bigger, richer life than our own. It's not just about new experiences and thoughts, but also about connecting with strong and interesting characters from great books. So, literature is really tied to life itself.
Writers, like novelists, playwrights, and poets, can't ignore the world around them. They often show what's happening in their society through their writing. This means literature reflects the different parts of life.
One smart person said that literature is a way society shows itself. That's why it talks about things like society's problems, how money works, how people think about things, and more.
Life is complex, so literature has lots of topics to write about. When writers write short stories, they often talk about problems in society. Novels also show how society and politics can affect people. Even poems can help people share their feelings about tough things.
Ghalib's poems and Shakespeare's plays are great examples of writing that's good for everyone, no matter how old they are. They show things that are always true in life. Saadat Hasan Minto, who wrote Urdu short stories, also did this. His story "The New Constitution" is still important today, even though it was written a long time ago.
To make great writing, artists use their imagination and creativity. They look at the world in many ways to make their writing beautiful and interesting. People like Ghulam Abbas and Saadat Hasan Minto did this really well.
There are two main ways people think about writing: some think it should only be about art, while others think it should also help society. Oscar Wilde believed in writing for art's sake, but his stories still had problems from real life. He had to leave his "ivory tower" to show the hard parts of life.
Some people, like Bertrand Russel and G.B. Shaw, thought writing should help improve society. Minto and Ghulam Abbas also thought this way. They used their writing to point out problems in society.
Sometimes, writers like Saadat Hasan Minto got in trouble for talking about difficult things in their writing. Minto said he was just showing how society had problems. He used his writing to show the truth, even if it was hard to look at.
George Bernard Shaw said writers should talk about what's happening now. Even though journalism isn't exactly literature, Shaw thought it could be because it talks about real life.
In a way, writers need to be creative to make their writing into literature. G.B. Shaw's ideas show that literature and life are connected. Literature comes from the time it's made, but people can still like it later on.
