{"id":1712,"date":"2007-05-20T09:31:12","date_gmt":"2007-05-20T16:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janice-campbell.com\/?p=33"},"modified":"2022-11-14T18:21:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T23:21:35","slug":"why-read-classic-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doingwhatmatters.com\/why-read-classic-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Read Classic Literature?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Literature in its most comprehensive sense is the autobiography of humanity.”<\/em> Bernard Berenson<\/p>\n

“This is old stuff\u00a0\u2014\u00a0how can it be relevant to my life?” I’ve heard this objection from both students and adults, as I’ve spoken through the years on the importance of reading classic literature. I’ve been thinking more about literature and literacy and the\u00a0place of great books in life as I’ve worked on refining my high school l<\/a>iterature<\/a> series. I’m more deeply than ever convinced of literature’s importance\u00a0in every area of life.<\/p>\n

\"Why<\/p>\n

Literature is the cornerstone of literacy<\/h2>\n

With a strong foundation in literature, it becomes possible to put life into words. We read of the experiences of others, and they become our own; we are able to place our own experiences in perspective; we can grasp the significance, beauty, or tragedy of an event in a way that is impossible for a person who lacks fundamental literacy. We learn by example how to clearly express feelings, describe experiences, and empathize with others. Classic literature not only teaches us how to communicate, it also gives us a common basis for understanding one another.<\/p>\n

Literature connects across the ages<\/h2>\n

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his 1970 Nobel lecture<\/a>, said,<\/p>\n

“The sole substitute for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through is art<\/strong> [and] literature<\/strong> . . . From man to man, as he completes his brief spell on Earth, art transfers the whole weight of an unfamiliar, lifelong experience with all its burdens, its colours, its sap of life; it recreates in the flesh an unknown experience and allows us to possess it as our own.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and…<\/p>\n

“. . . literature conveys irrefutable condensed experience\u00a0. . .\u00a0from generation to generation. Thus it becomes the living memory of the nation. Thus it preserves and kindles within itself the flame of her spent history, in a form which is safe from deformation and slander. In this way literature, together with language, protects the soul of the nation”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and…<\/p>\n

“World literature has it in its power to convey condensed experience from one land to another so that we might cease to be split and dazzled, that the different scales of values might be made to agree, and one nation learn correctly and concisely the true history of another with such strength of recognition and painful awareness as it had itself experienced the same, and thus might it be spared from repeating the same cruel mistakes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Solzhenitsyn asserts that literature serves an irreplaceable transmitter of experience from person to person, generation to generation, and nation to nation. Is this relevant? It is important?<\/p>\n

I believe that it is. The transmission of experience is vitally important for many reasons. Think about it . . .<\/p>\n

Literature expands our world<\/h2>\n

Good literature broadens our world. Without literature, we live alone in the cage of our own experiences. We are limited by the confines of time and space \u2014 until we open the door to the experiences of others through reading great literature.<\/p>\n