Introduction
The field of literature is arguably one of the oldest ones known to man. The term literature may refer to any written production that has been authored by a man, be it in the form of a poem, biography, or any narrative. In fact, it does not matter whether the subject material has or does not have any artistic and or intellectual value. The fact that it is a written production written by someone from which; an idea or a message can be obtained is already enough for it to be considered as a form of literature. The history of literature can be traced back to as early as the early history of civilization, when humans first learned how to communicate.
There are numerous forms of literature that can serve as specimens to answer the research question on literature’s role to motivate people to establish meaning in life. The world’s oldest forms of literatures, examples of which include but may not be limited to works of literature authored by the Sumerians, Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and other earlier forms of civilization can all serve to attest this notion. However, despite the long history of man’s passion for writing, there are numerous questions about it and the practice of engaging in it that remain unanswered.
Sure, there are existing theories here and there that are aimed at answering those already existing questions. However, for many of the questions that have been raised, only a few key and universally accepted solutions have been offered and made. For instance, there are numerous theories that aim to explain why man has been so passionate about putting their thoughts and ideas into writing when they can simply express those in words. Often, the theories that were meant to address such questions were divided into two groups: the first group is where the obvious answers belong; the second is where the philosophical ones do.
In this paper, the author tries to address one of the longstanding questions surrounding man’s passion of literary works and the act of writing. The author also tries to answer the research question on whether literature motivates to establish meaning in life. Using the author of this paper’s critical thinking, backed by numerous secondary sources, all of which would be scholarly and peer-reviewed, this question would be answered.
There are numerous ways to answer this question. It can be answered by a yes or no or it can be answered narratively or philosophically. The author of this paper has chosen the latter. Basically, the operational hypothesis or thesis statement suggests that the existence of literature has many purposes and establishing meaning in life may be one but is certainly not all of them. This is because of the simple fact that an author can write for whatever reason he may like, regardless whether that reason is related to finding meaning in life or otherwise.
Discussions
Literature is an evolving entity. In a work authored by Adams (01), for example, he mentioned how the literature of travel as a component of prose fiction has evolved since the 1800s, saying that “equally important in the present study is its demonstration that just as early travel accounts were often a combination of reporting and fabrication, so prose fiction is not a dichotomy to be divided into the adult novel on the one hand and the childish romance on the other”.
In fact, it has evolved so much that is now hard to recognize and trace back every bit of changes that occurred in this field in the past decades, more so in the past hundreds and thousands of years. What modern society sees as literature or works of literature is only what they currently see today or in the past decades. The first argument that is in support of the existing thesis statement is that people write and get engaged in literature because it offers an avenue for them to create literary works that have artistic value.
Aside from this, it is also an excellent way for authors to express themselves in the form of art. A common misconception among non-artistically-inclined people is that art is all about paintings, sculptures, and other forms that only stimulate one’s visual sense. In reality, however, art can be anything. In this case, it can also exist within the realm of writing.
Following this reasoning, poets, historians, and writers of short stories and novels may also be considered artists . Humans were never made to hide their thoughts and ideas to themselves while sulking in a corner. Instead, they are made to be experts when it comes to expressing themselves. Even speech is a continuously evolving field in itself, with its dynamics changing from time to time as well .
Ever since speech was invented as a major form of communication, man’s conquest to find more innovative ways to promote art and find more avenues to express themselves did not stop. The field of literature is perhaps the greatest evidence to this for it would not have existed had man became satisfied with the way how speech (as a form of communication and expression) fulfilled these needs. Works of literature existed because man has always had this need to express themselves regardless of the means and methods .
Now, a way to relate this to the thesis statement would be to ask whether being engaged in literature for its artistic and freedom of expression-related benefits can be considered as a way of finding and establishing one’s meaning or purpose in life. The answer to this of course would be a yes. Jane Urquhart’s story on how she became a publication writer can shed light on this issue. In an article authored by Stopen (01), for example, she described Urquhart’s long journey to become a popular writer.
For Urquhart, being able to write was synonymous to finding and establishing meaning in life. She stated that “I realized that i could use my imagination in other ways; I began writing to try and I became serious about reading especially the modernist points; I was attracted to work I did not quite understand; I thought if you read something often enough and carefully enough, a wonderful mystery will be explained to you; I was probably right” .
Another good case in point would be the diehard poets and novel writers of the past centuries. William Shakespeare was perhaps one of the best persons that can be used as an example. He was engaged in perhaps all aspects and branches of literature. He was a playwright, poet, and a great writer—one of the greatest in fact. He wrote so many great and famous works (at least based on the standards of literature as set by modern society).
For him, literature was indeed his life. He started out as an actor in a theater in London. Throughout his career, he wrote many playwrights and poets, a lot of which still exist and are still being recognized and praised today. One can easily argue that for William Shakespeare and all the other people who spent the majority of their lives working in this field, literature indeed motivated them to establish their meaning in life.
But what about people whose career had nothing to do with literature, for those engaged in the medical, technology, and manufacturing sectors for example? Would it be valid to say that literature, at least in those people’s individual cases, did not motivate them to establish meaning in life? Well, if one is going to follow the logic used to answer the same question using William Shakespeare’s case that may very well be the case.
This response does not necessarily falsify the thesis statement that was posted earlier. It is just a way of saying that it may be true in some cases and may also be false in some; that it is a case to case basis. It may therefore be said that whether a person would be able to find literature as a catalyst for him to find and establishing his meaning in life depends largely on whether he would be interested to pursue a career or a hobby out of literature. Unfortunately, data would suggest that interest in literature is not universal. If this is indeed the case, then it can be argued that people who indeed find literature as a motivating factor for their quest to establish meaning in their life only do so because they are highly engaged and interested in literature after all.
When one asks the question whether literature motivates people to establish meaning in life, the person asking the question basically limits the purpose of literature to a singularity—that in this case would be its purpose in motivating one to establish meaning in life. An affirmative response to this research question would mean that the entire history of literature was all about looking for one’s meaning and or purpose in life, an idea which the author of this paper partially disagrees one as evidences presented earlier that it may indeed be true in some (but definitely not all people’s) cases.
If the earlier proposed idea was only partially true, there must be a completely true idea that may be supported by critical thought and literature. That idea would be the one that suggests that literature motivates people to establish a way to find meaning, not only in life but to a host of other things. The problem with the research question is that it was too restricting. Literature is an untamable entity. It cannot be confined to a singularity. It has evolved together with civilization. A more proper way to describe the way how literature motivates people is to relate it to how enables them to find and express meaning.
In a study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, for example, the researcher examined whether engagement in the process of generating meaning during various bouts of expressive writing intervention was associated with better outcomes for patients who suffered traumatic experiences in their past . The results showed that there was indeed a correlation between the process of generating a meaning through expressive writing and the occurrence of intrusive thoughts among the participants.
The variables were positively correlated where an increase in the incidence of expressive writing was associated with proportional increases in the occurrence of intrusive thoughts. This basically lets an individual vent out the distresses that he may have experienced during a past event, something which the authors of the said study described as beneficial for their recovery. In that study’s case, it may be said that literature played a key role in motivating the individuals to recover from their traumatic experiences, although this process may have happened without the participants’ knowledge because for all they know, they were only engaged in the process of writing meaningfully and expressively, not knowing whether what they were doing was helping them or otherwise.
The meaning that is being sought here may not necessarily be related to life, but to a host or a variety of things. It, for example, may be for non-artistic purposes such as education. In an academic journal authored by Atkins (12), for example, she stated that “students do read and write for their own purposes and increasingly, this reading and writing happens outside of school”, something which she described as a troubling paradox because the only reason why students are doing this is because they can, thanks to technology.
Before, the practice reading and writing (for one’s own purposes) was not so easy and convenient. Radical changes brought about by technology have allowed this to happen and this means that lots of new doors for learning and realization, for new quests for meanings have just opened. This basically justifies the recent finding that suggests that literature does not only motivate one to establishing meaning in life, it does so for other non-life-related aspects as well.
Conclusions
In conclusion, does literature indeed motivate us to establish meaning in life? While the author of this paper has disagreed with the idea being presented by that question, this question is not falsifiable. This is largely because there are indeed some people who are motivated by literature because it has made them establish meaning in life—based on the examples provided earlier. This means that at some point, the literature may indeed serve as a catalyst for establishing meaning in life. But it is important to note that this does not apply to all cases. A more universal argument would be the one that suggests that literature motivates people to establish new ways to find meaning to not just life, but a variety of things such as knowledge, to express themselves, to appreciate art, among other things. One finding obtained from Atkins’ (12) study even suggested that people tend to engage in literature for their (own) purposes, which only reinforces the argument that was just presented about the supposed universal thought about literature and how it motivates people.
Works Cited
Adams, P. "Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel." The University Press of Kentucky (1983): 01. Print.
Atkins, J. "Reading and Writing with Purpose: In and Out of School." English Journal (2011): 12-13.
Boals, A. "The use of meaning making in expressive writing: When meaning is beneficial." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology (2012): 393-409. Print.
Jiang, Zhi, et al. "Calling Patterns in Human Communication Dynamics." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2013): 1600-1605. Print.
Ryan, Michael, Nicole Kime and Gil Rosenthal. "Patterns of evolution in human speech processing and animal communication." Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1998): 282-283. Print.
Semingson, P. "Poets, Artists, and Storytellers: Bilingual, Bicultural, and Transnational Narratives." Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature (2013): 88-90. Print.
Stopen, B. "PW: Jane Urquhart: Writing for Art's Sake." Publishers Weekly (1997): 01. Print.
