What is Literature and What Can Be Gained By It?

To define literature into one sentence is a difficult thing to do. Literature can be defined by what a majority group of people think it should be. The boundaries for literature have never been fully understood and debates on underlining these mysterious boundaries never go far because of the limitlessness ideas in literature. It seems that what only can be defined is ‘what is not literature’, but even then debates have waged on distinguishing whether music is not literature, philosophy, history, geology (Longley nd, pg 1); but even then books, poetry, essays, verses or any writing piece that has been thrust into the literary term there have been some that do look at music, philosophy, history and geology.

The boundaries of literature are blurred because in any given context if a community of people think it is literature it can be. Does this mean books like 100% Official Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever: My Story can be defined as literature if enough people think it is? To some, comparing Shakespeare to Bieber would be an insult, but if literature is created by the majority there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it. The majority, it seems, is not produced by the everyday people but the people in the higher world of the arts, an elitist culture that decides what is, and what is not literature. In this case, it would seem that Bieber would most likely not make it to literature. It is the people who decide on literature that makes literature what it is; what then, can be gained from reading it? To understand this you have to look at why books like This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen and Hard Times are on par with literature.

What makes novels in literature is how they create their work to stand out among the rest.

Subtext does not hold a moral or message but through the subtextual meaning it creates a deeper significance for the reader to share a profounder understanding in what the written piece was trying to say. In This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tadeusz Borowski uses subtext to show the “cruellest of testimonies to what men did to men,” (Kott 1976, pg 12), what man would do to stay alive, and the blurring of who is good and who is not:

“But let them not forget that the reader will unfailingly ask: But how did it happen that you survived? ... Tell, then, how you bought places in hospital, easy posts, how you shoved the ‘Moslems’ into the oven… what you did in the barracks, unloading the transports… write that you, you were the ones who did this. That the portion of the sad fame of Auschwitz belongs to you as well,” (Borowski 1959, pg 22).

Throughout the book Borowski reminds the reader think about the holocaust; though he does not preach about the evil doings of the German Storm Troopers but through subtext he sends the theme of humans and humanity itself. “Things of this world are not a reflection of the ideal, but a product of human sweat, blood and hard labour. It is we who built the pyramids…we were filthy and died real deaths…what does ancient history say about us?...” (Borowski 1959, pg 131-2). To use subtext in sending the underlining theme it offers “new insights” (Brown, 2005, pg 21) of interpretation for the reader, not only that it engrosses the reader to wanting to understand more than to simply think that of it in another level.

The most well-known literary work are based in famous times in history, This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen was based during World War Two and the Holocaust, while Hard Times by Charles Dickens is set around the time where the Industrial Revolution was taking place; a time of change. This is seen in both of their works, and though these two novels are pieces of fiction both highlight the historical, social, and political aspects of their time. Charles Dickens and Tadeusz Borowski don’t merely state these aspects in the novel but they use the historical, social and political characteristics of the time as part of their story and setting. Dickens uses metaphors and imagery to convey the thoughts of the time and also an account of the Industrial Revolution.

“The time went on in Coketown like its own machinery: so much material wrought up, so much fuel consumed, so many powers worn out, so much money made… the only stand that was ever made in the place against its direful uniformity,” (Dickens 1854 , pg 90). The description of the town as something so mechanical, cold and conforming touches on Dickens’ view of what England was like during that time of mechanisation “inherent within human life:” (Flint 1995, 2003, xxxii).

“It is known to a single pound of weight, what the engine will do; but, not all the calculators of the National Debt can tell me the capacity of good and evil, for love or hatred, for patriotism or discontent, for the decomposition of virtue into vice…” (Dickens 1854, pg 71).

This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen highlights the political aspects of Nazi Germany, and the social sides of humanity; all of this tied in with the historical context of World War Two. Borowski shows a history that cannot be comprehended by anyone that was not part of the Holocaust themselves; nor could you imagine what it would have felt like. Borowski’s use of journal entries and letters create an intermit and provoking read, where Borowski makes his “human experience as its raw material and then transforms it,” (Longley, nd, pg 2) which makes you feel as a part of this story as much as fiction can.

Though both of these novels are compelling, creative, and thought provoking, what makes these different from another novel that is not classed as literature. If a label created by “high culture” (Longley, nd, pg 4), defines literature then you’ll look at the book as such (Longley, nd, pg 4). At the end of the day it’s the books, the poems and other written work that have caught your eye, your imagination and your heart; and whether it’s Justin Bieber’s autobiography, J.K Rowling’s magical world or Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, the fact and beauty of reading is much more beautiful than the boundaries and labelling of a text.

References

Reader:

• Brown, S, J., and S, T. Yarbrough. 2005. ‘The Act of Reading’. A Practical Introduction to Literary Study. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River.
• Connor, S. 1985. ‘Hard Times’, Charles Dickens. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Inc.
• Longley, O, K. n.d. Reading and Analysing Literary Text.

Books:

• Borowski, T. 1959. This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. Poland: Wybor Opowiadan. Pantswowy Instytyt Wydawniczy.
• Dickens, C. 1854. Hard Times. London: Bradbury and Evans. 11, Bouverie Street.