Gulyeri.com

Does literature misleading or enlightening?

Literature is all kinds of written works. It has been debated for centuries since writing came into being. Is it necessary or not? Is it harmful or necessary?

We learn many things from written materials, even some feelings. We read love poems to find a definition for our love. We search fort he same feelings. Sometimes we associate ourselves with the heroes in books. We get upset with them and we become happy with them, too. When they make a mistake, we associate him/her with ourselves and think that it can happen to us, as well. According to Plato, it’s useless because it’s not real. He expresses in his Republic that this world is already copy of the real world and literature imitates that imitation. So it makes us removed from the reality. For example, Homer represents gods as bad creatures and it is not suitable for children to read him as they can know gods as bad creatures. This also affects the future of society. When these children grow up, they don’t trust in gods and they become disrespectful. But according to Aristotle who is a student of Plato, it’s not necessary for literature to represent reality. He handles the situaiton like a scientist. He observes, measures and makes analysis. He explains this in his mimetic theory in his Poetics. He thinks that people like imitating. They get pleasure from this. He also defends Homer and says that he should be read from allegorical perspective. So we can understand that gods in fact represent human follies. They give us moral messages.

Whether literature harmful or not, it’s a part of our lives. We are side by side with it. It makes us more literate. We can’t be bad people by reading literature because it’s something related to our nature. We just release our oppressed feelings.