importance of literature to students essay pdf

Student Question

Why is studying literature important and what skills can be gained from it?

Quick answer:

When we study literature, our horizons are broadened, because we can learn about and come to understand people who are different from us. Conversely, we might discover characters or poems that we really identify with—it can be really exciting and validating to discover that your exact thoughts and feelings have also been experienced by someone else. Because of these effects, literature encourages us to be sensitive to the whole spectrum of human experience and to consider this when making decisions in our day-to-day lives. Academically, studying literature also helps us to refine our own writing skills and expand our vocabularies.

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Literature is also a form of time travel that helps put today in context. All those apocalyptic lamentations about how "things used to be so much better" are controverted in literature of the last generation, the last century, all the way back to Shakespeare and beyond. Conversely, reading about how people lived in the past can really make you appreciate what humanity is able to accomplish and endure. In the classics, you may read about political battles, domestic abuse, prejudice and civil rights, unwanted pregnancy, binge drinking on college campuses, gangs and juvenile crime, homelessness, nationwide economic crises caused by speculation--as Solomon wrote thousands of years ago, there is nothing new under the sun. History tells us what people did; literature tells us what they were thinking.

Cite this page as follows:

Long, Janet. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 4 Dec. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

Educator since 2013

Literature is important because it teaches the universal human experience.  Literature provides different meanings to different people or teach different lessons to the same person at different stages of their life. However, what they all books or poems have in common - and this is the talent of a great writer - is that they capture the universal human experience.  Regardless of what you learn from a book or what meaning an individual elicits from it, literature unites the reader with the universe, because there on the page is a moment, emotion, idea that they have felt or suspected, but never been able to express. . 

Lawler, Amber. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 28 Nov. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

Editor, Professional Writer

5,365 answers

I'm a freelance writer, editor, and independent scholar.

The study of literature has a civilizing effect on people. There is an extreme danger of education being used primarily to turn out engineers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, business men and business women and other professionals who are lacking in human feelings and who have been described as educated barbarians. The great Leo Tolstoy wrote a sadly neglected book titled What is Art in which he explained, among other things, the importance of all art to human society. Here is a critical excerpt which might induce some readers to look for the book itself. (See reference link below.)

As, thanks to man's capacity to express thoughts by words, every man may know all that has been done for him in the realms of thought by all humanity before his day, and can in the present, thanks to this capacity to understand the thoughts of others, become a sharer in their activity and can himself hand on to his contemporaries and descendants the thoughts he has assimilated from others, as well as those which have arisen within himself; so, thanks to man's capacity to be infected with the feelings of others by means of art, all that is being lived through by his contemporaries is accessible to him, as well as the feelings experienced by men thousands of years ago, and he has also the possibility of transmitting his own feelings to others. If people lacked this capacity to receive the thoughts conceived by the men who preceded them and to pass on to others their own thoughts, men would be like wild beasts, or like Kaspar Hauser. And if men lacked this other capacity of being infected by art, people might be almost more savage still, and, above all, more separated from, and more hostile to, one another. And therefore the activity of art is a most important one, as important as the activity of speech itself and as generally diffused.

A lot of what is offered as art in our modern world is what Tolstoy called "counterfeit art." It is totally insincere and produced mainly for money. Some of the characteristics of counterfeit art are imitation, and striking and unusual effects. In popular music it can be seen that amplified noise and screaming are substitutes for genuine feeling. Much modern painting looks like nothing more than blatant hoaxes.

Exposure to genuine art in school could conceivably help students to discriminate between real and counterfeit art, including real and counterfeit creative literature. If young people do not get such exposure in school—where are they going to get it when they leave school?

Delaney, William. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 25 Nov. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

College Professor

Ph.D. from Columbia University

Educator since 2009

I hold a Ph.D.

I agree with all of the above discussions; but I am especially gratified to read what spearfam has written: that literature enhances our capacity to empathize.

People talk about the intellectual values of literature: critical thinking, citing evidence and so on. But, I value literature most of all for its emotional and esthetic appeal.

Empathy is emotional; sympathy, intellectual. Literature evokes such human emotions as pity and terror (Aristotle), love and compassion (A. C. Bradley) and many other epistemic virtues (i.e., virtues that help us to know the world and make it better) like honor, bravery, honesty and integrity (Ramirez). But recently, Susan Zunshine has a written a book demonstrating how the human emotion of empathy is critical in our understanding and appreciation of the novel.

Think of any great novel: Pride and Prejudice , David Copperfield , Jude the Obscure , Lady Chatterley's Lover , Passage to India , Lincoln , The Namesake —all of these excellent novels need empathy to fully appreciate them.

But where do we get empathy from? Consider the odds against empathy. Even in real life we empathize with others without actually experiencing what they experience, a hard thing to do. How much more difficult would it be for readers to empathize with a character who is not actually going through anything!It is all fiction !

Yet we do. Prof. Zunshine says we do this because as we read our intellectual act of reading, i.e., making meaning from the text, triggers our neuro-cells "in some form of mirror effect," same as we would do in real life. However, because the novelist employs one more thing that is usually not present in real life events—esthetics—the emotional impact of novel events ( pun intended) enhance our empathy. Thus, because of our empathy we are able to not only realize the characters' emotions, we even anticipate them, Examples of what I am saying are legion, I need not give any more here.

Zunshine's book, and spearfam's reference to literature teaching us empathy, triggered this response from me.

I am grateful for your indulgence.

Billingsley, August. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 4 Nov. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

Students gain a percpetion of ife, an insight into the meaning of so many things

It is this perception and insight that makes literature worthwhile. If an individual can go beyond his or her actual experiences into literary experiences to draw upon when navigating the world, she or he will have better abilities at navigating the world.

Dives, Cynthia. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 3 Nov. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

I discuss this with my students, and I put it simply:

If you can understand why characters act the way they do, you can understand why people act the way they do. If you can analyze a character and situation, you can analyze any situation in life. If you can analyze a situation, you can make a better decision. Therefore studying literature is a study of life.

2,165 answers

I have a Masters of Science in Education with an English emphasis.

Everyone makes great points. A concise summary of reasoning would be:

• Studying literature is the only way some students will ever learn about other cultures and places. This expands their horizons.
• It shows them how characters think, react, and problem solve.
• The process students go through as they think and analyze literature builds their ability to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.
• Sometime studying literature exposes them to words and ideas that reach into their souls and change them forever.
• Thus, studying literature makes the world a better place.

Williams, Ruth. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 17 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

2,384 answers

I tutor high school students in English and maths and work with children of primary school age with learning challenges.

This is a question that high school students consistently ask as they sit through another lesson on Shakespeare or Animal Farm and so on.

Literature is the amazing tool that all the previous posts have alluded to and it gives insight into the culture of others and of other times.

How though do we convince our high school learners of this? Only upon analysis and by making comparisons do they show an interest, it seems to me. By then, however, it is too late for some students because they never paid attention in the first place. Teaching technique is obviously crucial - and that's another whole discussion on its own I think. I saw a discussion post from February 2010

time periods may change, but people and society basically stay the same. The same themes that were present in the past, are still true today, and will remain in the future.

The teacher pointed out how amazed her students were when she related The Scarlet Letter to an article from 2006 when a young woman putting her baby up for adoption

had to disclose in the newspaper her past sexual history, including every partner she had, with a full physical description of her partners, etc

Her students could then better relate to it and were more inclined to attempt to understand it.

Sheehan, Pauline. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 17 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

2,418 answers

I have been an attorney for over 25 years and decided to change careers one day. Between us, my late husband and I have had five children and nine grandchildren.

The study of literature enhances our ability to communicate with others by acquainting us with the worlds other people live in, their history, geography, and culture, for example.  Once we have a common reference, we can talk to anyone with greater ease.  For example, when I read The Kite Runner and actually met someone from Afghanistan, I was thrilled to be able to talk to someone, having some understanding of what his native country was like.  One term, I taught The Secret Life of Bees , and what was wonderful to me was that when I told my students I was the exact age as Lily and had lived through all the same times, it seemed to me that they were better able to communicate with me after reading the book because they had gained some insight into my world.  Literature allows us to talk to one another more empathetically and knowledgeably. 

Caplan, Lorraine. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 17 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

606 answers

Michael is a full-time freelance writer from Ontario, Canada. He is a published writer of newsletter articles, feature articles, SEO articles,and corporate profiles, short stories, and poetry. Creative writing works include short screen and play scripts, short stories, and poetry. His business experience includes report writing, administration, store management, accounting/internal auditing, and customer service. His short screenplay PARCHED won First Place in the American Gem Short Screenplay Competition in 2006. He has experience writing Book Reviews and Analysis of novels and poetry books. His short story The Cardinals of Avery Street was published by The Baltimore Review (Winter 2013). (baltimorereview.org/index.php/ winter_2013/ contributor/michael-ugulini) His poetry has been published by Foliate Oak Literary Magazine (University of Arkansas at Monticello), New Writer (UK), Wilderness House Literary Review, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, De La Mancha Literary Magazine, and Miller's Pond Poetry Magazine. He also writes/has written business articles for Seeking Alpha, QualityStocks, Motley Fool, Motley Fool Canada, B and H Photo and other offline and online publications. He and his wife Catherine live in Thorold, Ontario.

The study of literature is important because it, at its most basic, improves reading skills. From this involved reading of quality literature a student then develops their writing skills, as the two go hand in hand (the best writers are avid readers, typically).  Beyond these basic benefits is the development of critical thinking and analysis skills through the study of literature.

The study of literature also helps students see the world - people, places, things, events - through different eyes and by way of a different viewpoint. This contributes to a student forming and developing their own belief set, opinions, views, and such.

Good stories, whether novels, short stories, plays, or poems, help students experience, in their mind, new vistas, customs, cultures, and ways of life. This helps students see how life is different (and the same in some ways) in other countries. Reading international literature gives students a glimpse of how people live and view life in other lands.

From a purely academic standpoint, reading literature of high quality helps a student discern good writing from bad writing. This helps them in their own writing.

Ugulini, Michael. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 16 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

7,014 answers

I have 25 years of experience as a teacher and journalist and am currently pursuing an additional degree in graphic design.

Aside from the obvious rudimentary skills it hopefully develops--improvement in reading, composition and vocabulary--the study of literature opens the imagination to previously undiscovered aspects of the outside world. Continued study will reveal other specifics of the individual authors such as symbolism and thematic intent, leading to a wider scope of the reader's own comprehension and knowledge. 

Kelly, John. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 15 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

5,904 answers

An early career in finance as a licensed stockbroker and insurance agent was later followed by a return to college, studying literature and the poetry of Edmund Spenser and Geoffrey Chaucer, along with economics and environmental science.

If students are taught to analyze literature carefully, using all the tools available for analysis (which presupposes the exclusion of Reader's Response, which may or may not employ analysis methods) then students learn to think logically and critically and they learn to argue from cause to effect as well as from effect to cause.

This sort of detailed analysis requires the mastery of such analytical tools as rhetorical techniques, even obscure ones like litotes and chiasmus. It also requires an understanding of the fact that language carries delimiting properties that exclude a range of interpretations. It also requires a mastery of higher order syntactical forms: if a student cannot understand a third conditional, the student cannot understand the overt meaning, much less the subtle meaning, of what the author has written.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the world's greatest dictionary, defines chiasmus as, "A grammatical figure by which the order of words in one of two of parallel clauses is inverted in the other."

Hardison, Karen P.L.. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 15 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

Teacher (K-12)

B.A. from Texas Tech University

2,465 answers

Teaching in Texas for 11 years. *Graduated summa cum laude from Texas Tech University with a double major in English and history. *Right now I am currently teaching G/T English Language Arts for eighth grade, but I have also taught high school U.S history and World History.

Literature offers students the opportunity to discover, think, evaluate, and analyze the world around them in broader, more universal terms.  Studying literature naturally lends itself to involving those higher level thinking skills that we as teachers so desperately want for our students.  Whether its a novel-length text, play, or short story, a good piece of literature can be implemented in the classroom to train our students to be higher level thinkers. 

Not only do they build their vocabulary and reading comprehension skills, students can build their metacognitive skills while annotating literature, and then use those annotations to assist them in comparing or contrasting, or evaluating and analyzing the text in terms of theme, conflict, figurative language, tone or mood. 

Lentz, Kristen. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 14 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

College Professor, Professional Writer

B.A. from Swarthmore College

3,630 answers

Writer and educator with an MA in the study of English Literature.

As in the study of algebra and calculus, the study of literature builds thinking skills that are native to the subject but applicable outside the subject as well.

Skills of argumentation (logical thinking, citing evidence, etc.), interpretation, critical thinking, and writing are all a part of the study of literature.

Literature - seen as a body of works - offers a unique education in itself, representing a wealth of ideas, perspectives, world views, emotional insights and more, all of which enrich the reader's "ideational vocabulary", expanding the range of thoughts and ideas available to the reader.

Bergman, Bruce. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 14 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

Educator since 2010

15,884 answers

I am a middle and high school English teacher, as well as an instructor in a Master of Education program at a major university.

One of the most important skills children learn through literature is how to react to different situations. Reading allows children to experience situations vicariously, and think about what they would do in the character's place.

Even in the case of fantasy, this can be valuable. Our children may not fight evil trolls and wizards, but they could face challenges where they will need friends’ help, as Harry Potter did. They may not see their father defend a black man in an unwinnable trial, but they can appreciate the importance of standing up for what you believe in as Atticus Finch did.

Bibliotherapy, the process of using books to help those suffering from mental disorders, can be applied to children (sometimes called developmental bibliotherapy). Kids can be given books like Missing May when they lose a loved one. As with adults in therapy, children can come to understand their own problems and talk about them more easily through books.

Many are relieved to find that others have had the same disorder or problem and have coped successfully with it or recovered from it. (enotes, see first link)

I have used books like There's a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom with elementary school students who struggle with behavior problems, and books like The Great Gilly Hopkins for gifted kids trying to understand why they are different. Books are great levelers, and great healers. Sometimes it’s easier to talk about a character’s problems than your own, but you are really talking about yours.

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Tracy, Trinity. "Importance Of Studying Literature" edited by eNotes Editorial, 14 Oct. 2012, https://www.enotes.com/topics/lit/questions/why-is-the-study-of-literature-important-what-408329.

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1 What Is Literature and Why Do We Study It?

In this book created for my English 211 Literary Analysis introductory course for English literature and creative writing majors at the College of Western Idaho, I’ll introduce several different critical approaches that literary scholars may use to answer these questions.  The critical method we apply to a text can provide us with different perspectives as we learn to interpret a text and appreciate its meaning and beauty.

The existence of literature, however we define it, implies that we study literature. While people have been “studying” literature as long as literature has existed, the formal study of literature as we know it in college English literature courses began in the 1940s with the advent of New Criticism. The New Critics were formalists with a vested interest in defining literature–they were, after all, both creating and teaching about literary works. For them, literary criticism was, in fact, as John Crowe Ransom wrote in his 1942 essay “ Criticism, Inc., ” nothing less than “the business of literature.”

Responding to the concern that the study of literature at the university level was often more concerned with the history and life of the author than with the text itself, Ransom responded, “the students of the future must be permitted to study literature, and not merely about literature. But I think this is what the good students have always wanted to do. The wonder is that they have allowed themselves so long to be denied.”

We’ll learn more about New Criticism in Section Three. For now, let’s return to the two questions I posed earlier.

What is literature?

First, what is literature ? I know your high school teacher told you never to look up things on Wikipedia, but for the purposes of literary studies, Wikipedia can actually be an effective resource. You’ll notice that I link to Wikipedia articles occasionally in this book. Here’s how Wikipedia defines literature :

“ Literature  is any collection of  written  work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an  art  form, especially  prose   fiction ,  drama , and  poetry . [1]  In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include  oral literature , much of which has been transcribed. [2] Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.”

This definition is well-suited for our purposes here because throughout this course, we will be considering several types of literary texts in a variety of contexts.

I’m a Classicist—a student of Greece and Rome and everything they touched—so I am always interested in words with Latin roots. The Latin root of our modern word literature  is  litera , or “letter.” Literature, then, is inextricably intertwined with the act of writing. But what kind of writing?

Who decides which texts are “literature”?

The second question is at least as important as the first one. If we agree that literature is somehow special and different from ordinary writing, then who decides which writings count as literature? Are English professors the only people who get to decide? What qualifications and training does someone need to determine whether or not a text is literature? What role do you as the reader play in this decision about a text?

Let’s consider a few examples of things that we would all probably classify as literature. I think we can all (probably) agree that the works of William Shakespeare are literature. We can look at Toni Morrison’s outstanding ouvre of work and conclude, along with the Nobel Prize Committee, that books such as Beloved   and  Song of Solomon   are literature. And if you’re taking a creative writing course and have been assigned the short stories of Raymond Carver or the poems of Joy Harjo , you’re probably convinced that these texts are literature too.

In each of these three cases, a different “deciding” mechanism is at play. First, with Shakespeare, there’s history and tradition. These plays that were written 500 years ago are still performed around the world and taught in high school and college English classes today. It seems we have consensus about the tragedies, histories, comedies, and sonnets of the Bard of Avon (or whoever wrote the plays).

In the second case, if you haven’t heard of Toni Morrison (and I am very sorry if you haven’t), you probably have heard of the Nobel Prize. This is one of the most prestigious awards given in literature, and since she’s a winner, we can safely assume that Toni Morrison’s works are literature.

Finally, your creative writing professor is an expert in their field. You know they have an MFA (and worked hard for it), so when they share their favorite short stories or poems with you, you trust that they are sharing works considered to be literature, even if you haven’t heard of Raymond Carver or Joy Harjo before taking their class.

(Aside: What about fanfiction? Is fanfiction literature?)

We may have to save the debate about fan fiction for another day, though I introduced it because there’s some fascinating and even literary award-winning fan fiction out there.

Returning to our question, what role do we as readers play in deciding whether something is literature? Like John Crowe Ransom quoted above, I think that the definition of literature should depend on more than the opinions of literary critics and literature professors.

I also want to note that contrary to some opinions, plenty of so-called genre fiction can also be classified as literature. The Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro has written both science fiction and historical fiction. Iain Banks , the British author of the critically acclaimed novel The Wasp Factory , published popular science fiction novels under the name Iain M. Banks. In other words, genre alone can’t tell us whether something is literature or not.

In this book, I want to give you the tools to decide for yourself. We’ll do this by exploring several different critical approaches that we can take to determine how a text functions and whether it is literature. These lenses can reveal different truths about the text, about our culture, and about ourselves as readers and scholars.

“Turf Wars”: Literary criticism vs. authors

It’s important to keep in mind that literature and literary theory have existed in conversation with each other since Aristotle used Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex to define tragedy. We’ll look at how critical theory and literature complement and disagree with each other throughout this book. For most of literary history, the conversation was largely a friendly one.

But in the twenty-first century, there’s a rising tension between literature and criticism. In his 2016 book Literature Against Criticism: University English and Contemporary Fiction in Conflict, literary scholar Martin Paul Eve argues that twenty-first century authors have developed

a series of novelistic techniques that, whether deliberate or not on the part of the author, function to outmanoeuvre, contain, and determine academic reading practices. This desire to discipline university English through the manipulation and restriction of possible hermeneutic paths is, I contend, a result firstly of the fact that the metafictional paradigm of the high-postmodern era has pitched critical and creative discourses into a type of productive competition with one another. Such tensions and overlaps (or ‘turf wars’) have only increased in light of the ongoing breakdown of coherent theoretical definitions of ‘literature’ as distinct from ‘criticism’ (15).

One of Eve’s points is that by narrowly and rigidly defining the boundaries of literature, university English professors have inadvertently created a situation where the market increasingly defines what “literature” is, despite the protestations of the academy. In other words, the gatekeeper role that literary criticism once played is no longer as important to authors. For example, (almost) no one would call 50 Shades of Grey literature—but the salacious E.L James novel was the bestselling book of the decade from 2010-2019, with more than 35 million copies sold worldwide.

If anyone with a blog can get a six-figure publishing deal , does it still matter that students know how to recognize and analyze literature? I think so, for a few reasons.

• First, the practice of reading critically helps you to become a better reader and writer, which will help you to succeed not only in college English courses but throughout your academic and professional career.
• Second, analysis is a highly sought after and transferable skill. By learning to analyze literature, you’ll practice the same skills you would use to analyze anything important. “Data analyst” is one of the most sought after job positions in the New Economy—and if you can analyze Shakespeare, you can analyze data. Indeed.com’s list of top 10 transferable skills includes analytical skills , which they define as “the traits and abilities that allow you to observe, research and interpret a subject in order to develop complex ideas and solutions.”
• Finally, and for me personally, most importantly, reading and understanding literature makes life make sense. As we read literature, we expand our sense of what is possible for ourselves and for humanity. In the challenges we collectively face today, understanding the world and our place in it will be important for imagining new futures.

A note about using generative artificial intelligence

As I was working on creating this textbook, ChatGPT exploded into academic consciousness. Excited about the possibilities of this new tool, I immediately began incorporating it into my classroom teaching. In this book, I have used ChatGPT to help me with outlining content in chapters. I also used ChatGPT to create sample essays for each critical lens we will study in the course. These essays are dry and rather soulless, but they do a good job of modeling how to apply a specific theory to a literary text. I chose John Donne’s poem “The Canonization” as the text for these essays so that you can see how the different theories illuminate different aspects of the text.

I encourage students in my courses to use ChatGPT in the following ways:

• To generate ideas about an approach to a text.
• To better understand basic concepts.
• To assist with outlining an essay.
• To check grammar, punctuation, spelling, paragraphing, and other grammar/syntax issues.

If you choose to use Chat GPT, please include a brief acknowledgment statement as an appendix to your paper after your Works Cited page explaining how you have used the tool in your work. Here is an example of how to do this from Monash University’s “ Acknowledging the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence .”

I acknowledge the use of [insert AI system(s) and link] to [specific use of generative artificial intelligence]. The prompts used include [list of prompts]. The output from these prompts was used to [explain use].

Here is more information about how to cite the use of generative AI like ChatGPT in your work. The information below was adapted from “Acknowledging and Citing Generative AI in Academic Work” by Liza Long (CC BY 4.0).

The Modern Language Association (MLA) uses a template of core elements to create citations for a Works Cited page. MLA  asks students to apply this approach when citing any type of generative AI in their work. They provide the following guidelines:

Cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it. Acknowledge all functional uses of the tool (like editing your prose or translating words) in a note, your text, or another suitable location. Take care to vet the secondary sources it cites. (MLA)

Here are some examples of how to use and cite generative AI with MLA style:

Example One: Paraphrasing Text

Let’s say that I am trying to generate ideas for a paper on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” I ask ChatGPT to provide me with a summary and identify the story’s main themes. Here’s a  link to the chat . I decide that I will explore the problem of identity and self-expression in my paper.

My Paraphrase of ChatGPT with In-Text Citation

The problem of identity and self expression, especially for nineteenth-century women, is a major theme in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (“Summarize the short story”).

Works Cited Entry

“Summarize the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Include a breakdown of the main themes” prompt.  ChatGPT.  24 May Version, OpenAI, 20 Jul. 2023,  https://chat.openai.com/share/d1526b95-920c-48fc-a9be-83cd7dfa4be5 

Example Two: Quoting Text

In the same chat, I continue to ask ChatGPT about the theme of identity and self expression. Here’s an example of how I could quote the response in the body of my paper:

When I asked  ChatGPT  to describe the theme of identity and self expression, it noted that the eponymous yellow wallpaper acts as a symbol of the narrator’s self-repression. However, when prompted to share the scholarly sources that formed the basis of this observation,  ChatGPT  responded, “As an AI language model, I don’t have access to my training data, but I was trained on a mixture of licensed data, data created by human trainers, and publicly available data. OpenAI, the organization behind my development, has not publicly disclosed the specifics of the individual datasets used, including whether scholarly sources were specifically used” (“Summarize the short story”).

It’s worth noting here that ChatGPT can “ hallucinate ” fake sources. As a Microsoft training manual notes, these chatbots are “built to be persuasive, not truthful” (Weiss &Metz, 2023). The May 24, 2023 version will no longer respond to direct requests for references; however, I was able to get around this restriction fairly easily by asking for “resources” instead.

When I ask for resources to learn more about “The Yellow Wallpaper,” here is one source it recommends:

“Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper: A Symptomatic Reading” by Elaine R. Hedges: This scholarly article delves into the psychological and feminist themes of the story, analyzing the narrator’s experience and the implications of the yellow wallpaper on her mental state. It’s available in the journal “Studies in Short Fiction.” (“Summarize the short story”).

Using Google Scholar, I look up this source to see if it’s real. Unsurprisingly, this source is not a real one, but it does lead me to another (real) source: Kasmer, Lisa. “Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s’ The Yellow Wallpaper’: A Symptomatic Reading.”  Literature and Psychology  36.3 (1990): 1.

Note: ALWAYS check any sources that ChatGPT or other generative AI tools recommend.

For more information about integrating and citing generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, please see this section of  Write What Matters.

I acknowledge that ChatGPT does not respect the individual rights of authors and artists and ignores concerns over copyright and intellectual property in its training; additionally, I acknowledge that the system was trained in part through the exploitation of precarious workers in the global south. In this work I specifically used ChatGPT to assist with outlining chapters, providing background information about critical lenses, and creating “model” essays for the critical lenses we will learn about together. I have included links to my chats in an appendix to this book.

Critical theories: A targeted approach to writing about literature

Ultimately, there’s not one “right” way to read a text. In this book. we will explore a variety of critical theories that scholars use to analyze literature. The book is organized around different targets that are associated with the approach introduced in each chapter. In the introduction, for example, our target is literature. In future chapters you’ll explore these targeted analysis techniques:

• Author: Biographical Criticism
• Text: New Criticism
• Reader: Reader Response Criticism
• Gap: Deconstruction (Post-Structuralism)
• Context: New Historicism and Cultural Studies
• Power: Marxist and Postcolonial Criticism
• Mind: Psychological Criticism
• Gender: Feminist, Post Feminist, and Queer Theory
• Nature: Ecocriticism

Each chapter will feature the target image with the central approach in the center. You’ll read a brief introduction about the theory, explore some primary texts (both critical and literary), watch a video, and apply the theory to a primary text. Each one of these theories could be the subject of its own entire course, so keep in mind that our goal in this book is to introduce these theories and give you a basic familiarity with these tools for literary analysis. For more information and practice, I recommend Steven Lynn’s excellent Texts and Contexts: Writing about Literature with Critical Theory , which provides a similar introductory framework.

I am so excited to share these tools with you and see you grow as a literary scholar. As we explore each of these critical worlds, you’ll likely find that some critical theories feel more natural or logical to you than others. I find myself much more comfortable with deconstruction than with psychological criticism, for example. Pay attention to how these theories work for you because this will help you to expand your approaches to texts and prepare you for more advanced courses in literature.

P.S. If you want to know what my favorite book is, I usually tell people it’s Herman Melville’s Moby Dick . And I do love that book! But I really have no idea what my “favorite” book of all time is, let alone what my favorite book was last year. Every new book that I read is a window into another world and a template for me to make sense out of my own experience and better empathize with others. That’s why I love literature. I hope you’ll love this experience too.

writings in prose or verse, especially :  writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest (Merriam Webster)

Critical Worlds Copyright © 2024 by Liza Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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THE ROLE OF LITERATURE IN LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH

The article deals with the key role of literature in learning English. In recent years, the role of literature as a basic component and source of authentic texts of the language curriculum rather than an ultimate aim of English instruction has been gaining momentum. Among language educators, there has been a hot debate as to how, when, where, and why literature should be incorporated in ESL/EFL curriculum. Vigorous discussion of how literature and ESL/EFL instruction can work together and interact for the benefit of students and teachers has led to the flourishment of interesting ideas, learning, and improved instruction for all. Many teachers consider the use of literature in language teaching as an interesting and worthy concern. Thus, the place of literature as a tool rather than an end in teaching English as a second or foreign language will be unearthed.

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Language as a phenomenon is the basic means of communication. It is considered as the heritage of humankind. Indeed, it is language in its distinctive shape or form that separates the human race from other living species. Language is the source of comprehension, which sets one society apart from another. On the other hand, literature is the source of inspiration and expression of social, philosophical, theological, or whatsoever sort of ideas. Moreover, the history of any language will be powerful through the careful and clever use of literature. Using literature in ESL / EFL classes has been a matter of intensive debate, at least for those who devaluate teaching literature to non-native students in favour of employing only the traditional methods of language teaching. For such a group, using other than the well-known methods of teaching – including studying literary texts-is a waste of time and effort. Nevertheless, there has appeared another group of teachers with another perspective: why not using the rich language material of literature to achieve the best results as regards language learning? Therefore, the paper is intended to expose the helpful impact of literature-no matter what form it takes-on language and language proficiency. It has a vital role in acquainting the learners with the ways by which the target language can be expressed. 2

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The aim of this article is to consider the use of English Literature in the process of teaching-learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). In relation to current language teaching, it was not until the 1980's that this field of study has been of interest among teachers of EFL. Since literature provides us with a suitable source of content for a course in a foreign language several reasons should be considered. First, reading is the most autonomous ability in language work, and literature is a widely-appealing source of material for reading. Second, literature will not conflict with the claims of other subjects in the curriculum. Third, materials are readily available. This study aims to provide Spanish EFL teachers with a series of suggestions and tips on the wide range of activities that can be used to take advantage of the richness of English literature.

ABSTRACT—Language as a phenomenon is the basic means of communication. It is considered as the heritage of humankind. Indeed, it is language in its distinctive shape or form that separates the human race from other living species. Language is the source of comprehension, which sets one society apart from another. On the other hand, literature is the source of inspiration and expression of social, philosophical, theological, or whatsoever sort of ideas. Moreover, the history of any language will be powerful through the careful and clever use of literature. Using literature in ESL / EFL classes has been a matter of intensive debate, at least for those who devaluate teaching literature to non-native students in favour of employing only the traditional methods of language teaching. For such a group, using other than the well-known methods of teaching – including studying literary texts - is a waste of time and effort. Nevertheless, there has appeared another group of teachers with another perspective: why not using the rich language material of literature to achieve the best results as regards language learning? Therefore, the paper is intended to expose the helpful impact of literature -no matter what form it takes - on language and language proficiency. It has a vital role in acquainting the learners with the ways by which the target language can be expressed.

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En el presente trabajo se investigan y analizan el alcance y la importancia del discurso literario en la adquisición de una lengua extranjera. El enfoque planteado en esta investigación combina cinco perspectivas esenciales en la enseñanza de la literatura a los estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua: la herencia cultural, las habilidades del lenguaje, las funcionales, las de crítica literaria y las del crecimiento personal. Integradas en único modelo, no sólo ayudan a los estudiantes a desarrollar las habilidades lingüísticas y las diferentes áreas de una lengua, sino que también les ofrecen un contacto directo con la cultura de esta segunda lengua. Todo esto favorece entre los estudiantes una mejor comprensión de su propia identidad y de la complejidad del mundo que les rodea. Palabras clave: enfoque de género, literatura, cultura, currículo de la lengua.

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Nowadays, one of the major concerns of teachers is usually about the material they intend to present to the students. The challenge that faces English classes is literature. The benefits of using literary texts in English language classes outweigh its shortcomings that specified by some literary critics, for instance Chnara Khdhir and Mariwan Hasan pointed out this truth in their paper entitled, "The Importance of Literary Texts in Teaching Language in EFL Classes: The Waste Land as an Example", which we strongly agree that one can easily learn a language through the literature of the target language. To learn a language one needs to study reading, writing, listening and speaking; the four skills of the English language, which will all be available in literature. Materials are provided, which are sufficient for these skills, but literary texts have ascertained a worthy source that accomplishes these abilities. Moreover, culture information is inferred via language learning...

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Teaching of English to non native speakers of English has been a challenge for the teachers as far as methods and techniques are concerned. Teachers have been compelled to find the new and innovative methods and techniques time and again. Understanding the fact and the challenge, the researchers and publishers have started to encourage and find new techniques in the form of literature to eliminate the boredom of monotonous and boring activities that we use in so called "Communicative Language Teaching". The researcher will try to emphasize the use of literature as a technique for teaching both basic language skills (i.e. reading, writing, listening and speaking) and language areas (i.e. vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation). In recent years, the role of literature as a basic element and source of authentic texts of the language curriculum rather than an ultimate aim of English instruction has been gaining momentum. Among language educators, there has been a continuous deb...

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• Importance of Literature: Essay

What is Literature Essay

What is the Importance of Literature?

Literature is the foundation of life. It places an emphasis on many topics from human tragedies to tales of the ever-popular search for love. While it is physically written in words, these words come alive in the imagination of the mind, and its ability to comprehend the complexity or simplicity of the text. An essay about literature often explores these themes in depth, offering insight into how they resonate with readers.

The Importance of Literature in Our Life Essay

Literature enables people to see through the lenses of others, and sometimes even inanimate objects; therefore, it becomes a looking glass into the world as others view it. It is a journey that is inscribed in pages and powered by the imagination of the reader. Ultimately, literature has provided a gateway to teach the reader about life experiences from even the saddest stories to the most joyful ones that will touch their hearts. This is why understanding the importance of literature is crucial in any essay about literature.

The Journey into Literature

From a very young age, many are exposed to literature in the most stripped-down form: picture books and simple texts that are mainly for the sole purpose of teaching the alphabet etc. Although these are not nearly as complex as an 800-page sci-fi novel, it is the first step that many take towards the literary world. Progressively, as people grow older, they explore other genres of books, ones that propel them towards curiosity of the subject, and the overall book. These early encounters with books emphasize the importance of literature in our life, preparing individuals to appreciate and understand more complex works.

Literature and Empathy

Physically speaking, it is impossible to be someone else. It is impossible to switch bodies with another human being, and it is impossible to completely understand the complexity of their world. Literature, as an alternative, is the closest thing the world has to being able to understand another person whole-heartedly. For instance, a novel about a treacherous war, written from the perspective of a soldier, allows the reader to envision their memories, their pain, and their emotions without actually being that person. Consequently, literature can act as a time machine, enabling individuals to go into a specific time period of the story, into the mind and soul of the protagonist. This ability to foster empathy is a key point in any essay about literature.

Moral Lessons in Literature

With the ability to see the world with a pair of fresh eyes, it triggers the reader to reflect upon their own lives. Reading material that is relatable to the reader may teach them morals and encourage them to practice good judgment. This can be proven through public school systems, where the books that are emphasized the most tend to have a moral-teaching purpose behind the story. An example would be William Shakespeare’s stories, where each one is meant to be reflective of human nature – both the good and bad. Consequently, this can promote better judgment of situations, so the reader does not find themselves in the same circumstances as perhaps those in the fiction world. Henceforth, literature is proven to not only be reflective of life but it can also be used as a guide for the reader to follow and practice good judgment.

Literature in the Modern World

The world today is ever-changing. Never before has life been so chaotic and challenging for all. Life before literature was practical and predictable, but in the present day, literature has expanded into countless libraries and into the minds of many as the gateway for comprehension and curiosity of the human mind and the world around them. Literature is of great importance and is studied upon as it provides the ability to connect human relationships and define what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, words are alive more than ever before. Understanding what is the importance of literature can significantly enhance our appreciation of the world and the human condition.

In conclusion, literature is a powerful tool that shapes our understanding of life, morality, and human relationships. “A what is literature” essay can highlight the profound impact that written works have on individuals and societies. By exploring the importance of literature in our life essay components, we can appreciate its role in teaching empathy, moral lessons, and providing a deeper connection to the human experience.

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17 Comments

Indeed literature is the foundation of life, people should know and appreciate these kind of things

its very useful info thanks

very helpful…..tnx

Hi, thanks!

First year student who wants to know about literature and how I can develop interest in reading novels.

Fantastic piece!

wonderful work

Literature is anything that is artistically presented through writtings or orally.

you may have tangible wealth untold, caskets of jewels and coffers of gold, richer than i you could never be, i know someone who told stories to me.

there’s a great saying that “the universe isn’t made up of at atoms, its made of stories” i hope none will argue this point, because this is the truest thing i have ever heard and its beautiful…….

I have learnt alot thanks to the topic literature.Literature is everything.It answers the questions why?,how? and what?.To me its my best and I will always treasure and embress literature to death.

I agree with the writer when says that Literature is the foundation of life. For me, reading is the most wonderful experience in life. It allows me to travel to other places and other times. I think that also has learnt me to emphathize with others, and see the world with other´s eyes and from their perspectives. I really like to read.

This is the first time i am presenting on a literature and i am surprised by the amount of people who are interested on the same subject. I regret my absence because i have missed much marvelous thing in that field.In fact literature is what is needed by the whole world,it brings the people of different culture together and by doing so it breaks the imposed barriers that divided people.My address now goes to the people of nowadays who prefer other source of entertainment like TV,i am not saying that TV is bad but reading is better of.COME BACK TO IT THEN.

literature is a mirror; a true reflection of our nature. it helps us see ourselves in a third persons point of view of first persons point of view. it instills virtues and condones vices. literature forms a great portion of fun and entertainment through plays, comedies and novels. it also educates individuals on life’s basic but delicate and sacred issues like love and death. it informs us of the many happenings and events that we would never have otherwise known about. literature also forms a source of livelihood to thousands of people, starting from writers,characters in plays, editors, printers,distributors and business people who deal with printed materials. literature is us and without it, we are void.

I believe that life without Literature would be unacceptable , with it i respect myself and loved human life . Next week i am going to make presentation about Literature, so i benefited from this essay.

Thanks a lot

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