What I believe! Literature reflects the spirit of the age in which it is written? By ‘spirit’ it could mean the cultural, social, traditional and civilization etc., backdrop of the age, against which the ‘literature’ is laid or portrayed. I may be permitted to presume. Could we not grade the literature? It has different classes, depending on the content, the relevance, the portrayal, the language, etc. so on! In the literature of the pristine times like Iliad, Odyssey, Mahabharata, Ramayana etc. or the Vedas, the arms are of those times, the rituals are of those times, so on, which had been the time tested practices. These authors could not have imagined of those things beyond the times of their age, but- The people, the man, the woman and the society had the similar structure and a universal character which these authors could conceive and make a universal portrayal, because of which, these literature ever stays down the centuries, even today and for the posterity to come! I even wonder how they could think of the atom in those times and philosophize on it? The lesser literature of those times is not so alive today! They had the aesthetics, which was universal. Something of the cosmic intuition, if I may call it so. Down the centuries too, we have great litterateurs in William Shakespeare, John Milton etc. whose creations have the same cosmic appeal, whether the backdrop is of anytime be, in it flows the blood and the emotions of characters of all times and every era, with whom we may even identify ourselves. When the aesthetics is unable to conceive in the manner of a cosmic intuition, the literature goes down in value, and is forgotten. I feel there is a rebellion in every mind, an emotional rebellion. Man is rational and conventional at the same time. The man and the woman are made of a mind which has the same universal character of all times. He is the beast clothed with the culture the traditions civilization etc. As E.M Foster said, every man is naked within his dress. I feel that the man is ever himself, be of any age. Literature therefore is to be a brainstorming task requiring erudition, a deep sense of aesthetics and application to life, at the rational levels. What is expressed in literature should be Sui generis, a blend of the bhoutik and the spiritual with the emotional strands woven in the warp and the weft. The great writers of literature who translated life into great books have been transformers of the life in the society and its character of metanoia. “To be or not to be” The expression in itself is only a combination of words. But it assumes a meaning when uttered by Hamlet; when Hamlet presents himself in the play Hamlet; when the play is written by William Shakespeare. Don’t we identify ourselves with the character? Is not Iago one of us? In each of us? Macbeth of vaulting ambitions? Or the Old man who dreams of the Lions on the seashore? The meaning matters let the ‘spirit’ be of any time! (Linkedin)
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:07:17 +0000
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