Literature is the foundation of life.
It places an emphasis on many topics, from human life to tales of love. While most of literature is written in words, some of words come alive in the imagination when you develop an educated imagination, and its ability to understand the complexity or simplicity of the text. In Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination, the “language of literature” is our way of entering the wonderful world of imagination: “the world you build out of what you see.” (Frye 19) Learning this type of literature is writing in which expression and form are necessary characteristics to bring the reader into the world of the educated imagination.
Literature gives people the chance to see through the lenses of others; therefore, it becomes a looking glass into the literature world as others view it. It is a journey that is inscribed in pages, and powered by the imagination of the reader. Finally, literature has provided a gateway to teach the reader about true life experiences from the saddest stories to the most joyful ones that will touch the audience and readers hearts.
Literature can be defined many of different ways. Literature is all around us, it is in the form of art, paintings, and music. It can also be in any form of novel, poetry, or even graffiti on the side of a building, but it does not have to be in written form.
What is literature? This question has been asked ever since the beginning of time and to this day, no one has been able to come up with a solid answer, but a lot of different theories have been made. One of the many theories is Frye’s theory as to whether or not an educated imagination about literature will benefit us.Within The Educated Imagination, Northrop Frye wrote “The world of literature is human in shape, ..
passion and joy.” (Frye 28) Good writers can portray their emotions, and tell the reader how they are feeling without really having to say the words. Literature should be able to paint a picture within the readers head with words or images. Literature does not have to be words written in a book, it can be spoken and acted out. The people need to be educated on literature, and imagination to be able to have a clear understanding on the past and our present life. The reason why we need an educated imagination is to express ourselves not only throughout conversation with others but also to show our imagination through the poems, plays we watch or read. Without the ability to transfer whomever’s thoughts, ideas and overall imaginative points onto paper, the mass majority of the world would be at a great loss for not being able to experience the pure amazingness of those that take the time to write these ideas onto to paper for others to see. Because people are fond of nature and therefore feel secure in groups.
Unfortunately the majority of people are joining a group of uneducated people tend to take the easy way out of most situations and when one does this the others follow. It is very hard for the younger people to understand or become educated on the arts of literature. “The language you use on this level on the mind is the language of consciousness or awareness. It’s largely a language of nouns and adjectives”. (Frye 17) This level of the mind is concerned with what the reader can relate to. Reading is what whomever make out of it, not what the author sees but what the reader comprehends. The reader won’t want to read a book, play, etc.
. if they can’t relate to the writing. Also can’t relate to meaning of either one of these. Frye expands upon the level of the mind stating that there is a difference between consciousness and awareness. One can be conscious and not aware of one’s surroundings and this all depends on two main things, “The emotions are unreasonable: for them it’s what they like and what they don’t like that comes first.” (Frye 18)”We’d be naturally inclined to think that the arts follow the path of emotion, in contrast to the sciences. Up to a point they do, but there’s a complicating factor”. (Frye 18) To make things more difficult is the contrast between what the person likes and what they don’t like.
When reading, we truly tap into our emotions quite often, and those times are in instances of identification, a sense of understanding and acceptance. We can not take literature for the most part literally. Literature is not what one wants, but what one builds out of it.
