Literature: "the" product
of the imagination
of the imagination
| You "educate" your imagination by READING! And, READING, in turn, expands your ABILITY TO WRITE - well! :D It extends your vocabulary making you MORE FLUENT! THE MORE READING you do, the MORE you know, THE MORE you have to say. This makes you MORE INTERESTING. :D WHY is literature RELEVANT? Literature FREES US FROM REALITY while it extends our human experience MAKING OUR HUMAN EXPERIENCE MORE RICH! |
| The many facets of
the mind - the conscious: - what the person is doing + thinking NOW - the subconscious: - the on-going RECORD of the person's - "conscious" behavior (that contributes - of personality definition + personal con- - cerns arising from the interaction the - person has with the environment - memory: - RECORD of the person's interaction - with the environment - intellectually - + emotionally - It's A MUSCLE that is strengthened - by reading + learning. - Incidentally, those having 3 or more - languages have the strongest me- - mories + consequently the greatest - facility of retaining what they learned. - In India, Grade One students work - in 3 languages: English, Hindi + - one of the 220 languages. - intellect (developed + undeveloped): - governed by level of literacy + learning - (both impacts the memory) to recognize - what is true + NOT true (geared towards - independence + survival based on the - person's troubleshooting ability) - imagination: - i. deals with fiction - ii. a "speculative" space for experimenting - ii. with theories + hypotheses - iii. the place where dreams originate in - iii. order to provide ("carthartic') relief to - iii. the main concerns + interests of the - iii. subconscious "the study of literature is supposed "to train and improve the imagin- "ation." (page 82) " ... we use our imagination all the "time: it comes into our conversa- "tion and practical life: it even pro- "duces dreams when we sleep." (page 82) |
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The following quotes come from University of
Toronto English professor, Dr. Nortrop Frye's world-famous 1963 seminal
book,"THE EDUCATED IMAGINATION": it summerizes beautifully the relationship between literature and the imagination, the source from which literature springs forth out of the darkness of the night into the light of the day. |
|
THE
QUINTESSENTIAL
QUOTE
states
that literature
is
the product of the author's imagination
"There is NO direct address in literature: it isN'T what you "say but how it's said that's important there. The literary "writer isN'T giving information, either about a subject "or about his state of mind: he's trying to let something "take on its own form, whether it's a poem or play or "novel or whatever. ... The writer of literature can only "write out what takes shape in his mind. ... all writers "have the same problem of transferring their language "from direct speech to the imagination." (page 24) |
"The native language takes prece-
"dence over every other subject of
"study: nothing else can compare
"with it in usefulness. ... . ... (it)
"turns into something called lite
"rature. ... . Literature ... is one of
"the arts, along with painting and
"music ... , and, ... what you use
"in understanding it ... is your
"imagination." (page 2)
Humour
"A person who knows nothing
"about literture may be an ig-
"noramous, but many people
"doN'T mind being that."
(page 3)
Language of the mind
"The language ... of the mind is the
"language of conscious or aware-
"ness. ... a language of nouns and
"adjectives. ... . This is the specu-
"lative or contemplative position
"of the mind ... ." (page 4)
Emotions: unreasonable
"The emotions are unreasonable:
" for them it's what they like and
" doN'T like that comes first."
(page 5)
State of the mind
"Your habitual state of mind is the
"feeling of separation which goes
"with being conscious ... ."
(page 5)
2 worlds: the natural + the human
" ... you ... realize ... there's a difference
"between the world you're living in and
"the world you want to live in . The world
"you want to live in is a human world,
"NOT an objetive one: it's NOT an en-
"vironment but a home; it's NOT the
"world you see but the world you build
"out of what you see. ... . You're NOT
"only separating ... yourself from na-
"ture ... , but constructing a human
"world and separating it from the
"rest of the world." (page 5)
"have to" for "want to"
" ... you go to work because you ... have
"to, ... because you want something at
"the end of the work. That means ...
"the important categories of your life
"... are what you have to do and what
"you want to do - in other words,
"necessity and freedom." (page 6)
The imagination makes
speculation possible
"The language ... . ... . ... the speculative
"level ... it's doing something about the
"world instead of looking at it ... . It's
"the process of ... transforming the en-
"vironment in the interests of ... human
"beings." (page 7)
The imagination where your vision
of a future takes shape
" ... a vision ... in your mind of what you
"want to construct. ... . The actions of
"man are prompted by desire ... . ... .
"... there's ... a desire to ... form ... cities
"... gardens ... farms that we call civi-
"lization." (page 7)
A "safe" place for conceptual
freedom of expression
"In the world of the imagination, anything
"goes that's imaginatively possible, but
"nothing ... happens." (page 8)
Literature: unchanging
"Literature doesN'T evolve or improve or
"progress." (page 9)
Literature: its context, the human world
" ... literature belongs to the world man
"constructs, NOT to the world he sees;
"to his home, NOT his environment."
(page 12)
Literature driven by emotions
(NOT the intellect)
"Our emotional reaction to the world
"varies from 'I like this" to 'I doN'T
"like this'." (page 12)
Literature: the separation of man
from his environment
" ... man is the centre of everything,
"surrounded on all sides by what
"he isN'T." (page 13)
The imagination: limitless
" ... in the imagination anything goes
"that can be imagined, ... the limit of
"the imagination is a totally human
"world. ... . ... in the human world
"the imagination has no limits ... ."
(page 13)
The literary language: associative
" ... the language of literature ... asso-
"ciative: it uses figures of speech,
"like the simile and the metaphor,
"to suggest an identity between the
"human mind and the world outside
"it, that identity being what the ima-
"gination is chiefly concerned with."
(page 17)
The imagination is about "your" world
" ... your imagination ... in terms of
"the world you know ... ." (page 18)
Your imaginative life:
"you" put it together
" ... you ... develop a ... imaginative
"life of your own." (page 18)
Literature was behind it
" ... it's ... embedded in religion,
"magic, and social cermonies."
(page 19)
Literary forms
"Poems used for certain occasions,
"war-songs, work-songs, funeral
"laments, lullabies, become tra-
"ditional literary forms."
(page 19)
Literary forms have a pedigree
" ... every form in literature has a
"pedigree, .. we can trace its de-
"scent back to the earliest times."
(page 19)
The literary impulse
"A writer's desire to write can only
"come from previous experience
"of literature, ... he'll start by imi-
"tating whatever he read ... ."
(page 19)
The author's literary sense
" ... his own distinctive sense of form
"will develop out of his knowledge of
"literary technique. He doesN'T create
"out of nothing; ... whatever he has to
"say he can only say in a recognizably
"literary way." (page 20)
Story-telling:
a timeless literary form
" ... the technical problems of shaping
"a story to make it interesting to read,
"to provide for suspense, to find logi-
"cal points where the story should
"begin and end, doN'T change much
"... . (page 20)
Literary writing:
unfolds "naturally" in the imagination
"The literary writer isN'T giving in-
"formation, either about a subject
"or about his state of mind: he's
"trying to let something take on
"its own form, whether it's a
"poem or play or novel or what-
"ever. That's why you caN'T pro-
"duce literature voluntarily, in
"the way you'd write a letter or
"report. ... . The writer of litera-
"ture can only write out what
"takes place in his mind."
(page 24)
Literary forms
" ... tragedy or comedy or satire
"or romance: certain typical
"ways in which stories get told."
(page 26)
The literary experience: relational
"You keep associating your
"experiences together: you're
"always being reminded of
"some other story you read
"or movie you saw or char-
"acter that impressed you."
(page 26)
Literature respects the "natural" cycle of things
"For constructing any work of art you
"need some principle of repetition or
"recurrence: that's what gives you"
"rhythm in music and pattern in pain-
"ting. ... literature ... . ... the most ob-
"vious repeating ... feature is the cycle.
"The sun travels across the sky into
"the dark and comes back again; the
"seasons go from springs or fountains
"to the sea and back again in rain.
"Human life goes from childhood to
"death ... ." (page 26)
Literature: about of our identity
"The story of the loss and regaining
"of identity is ... the framework of all
"literature. ... . "
" ... literature NOT only leads us
"toward the regaining of identity,
"but it also separates ... the world
"we doN'T like and want to get
"away from. ... . ... to detach us
"... in the imagination, from the
"world we'd prefer NOT to be
"involved with." (pages 30-31)
Modern writers
" ... modern writers ... . ... spend a
"good deal of their time on the
"misery, frustration or absurdity
"of human existence." (page 31)
Understanding the author's work
"We have to look at the figures
"of speech a writer uses, his
"images and symbols. ... .
"Above all, we have to look
"at the total design of a writer's
"work, the title he gives to it,
"and his main theme, which
"means his point in writing it ... .
(pages 30-31)
The people in literature
" ... once anyone gets into literature,
"... . Whatever he was in real life
"could hardly matter less."
(page 34)
The literary realm: NEITHER real NOR unreal
" ... what we meet in literature is
"NEITHER real NOR unreal. We
"have two words, imaginary,
"meaning unreal, and imaginative,
"meaning what the writer produces ... ."
(page 34)
Literature: expresses the human experience
" ... the poet, Aristotle says, NEVER
"makes real statements at all, cer-
"tainly NO particular or specific
"ones. The poet's job is NOT to
"tell you what happened, but what
"happens: NOT what did take place,
"but the kind of thing that always
"take place. He gives you the typical,
"recurring, or what Aristotle calls
"the universal event. ... . Our im-
"pressions of human life are ...
"for the most of us loose or dis-
"orgnized. But we constantly find
"things in literature that suddenly
"co-ordinate and bring into focus
"a great many such impressions,
"and this is part of what Aristotle
"means by the typical or universal
"human element." (page 35)
The Achilles myth
"Achilles was vulnerable except
"for his heel, and he was the son
"of a sea-nimph. Neither of these"
"things can be true of anybody,
"so how does that make Achilles
"a typical or universal figure? ... .
"Homer's Achilles represents the
"... technique, where the character
"is a hero, much larger than life.
"Achilles is more than what any
"man could be, and he does what
"most men would do if they were
"strong enough. He's ... a great
"smouldering force of human
"desire and frustration and dis-
"content, something we all have
"in us too, part of mankind as a
"while. ... . Nobody cares now
"about the historical Achilles,
"if there ever was one, but the
"mythical Achilles reflects a
"part of our own lives."
(pages 35-36)
Literary images as symbols
"What happens when a poet ... uses
"an image ... like a flock of sheep or
"a field of flowers? ... he's going to
"make a poetic use of them: they're
"going to become poetic sheep and
"poetic flowers, absorbed and di-
"gested by literature, set out in li-
"terary language and inside literary
"conventions. ... . There's always
"some literary reason for using
"them, and that means something
"in human life that they correspond
"to or represent or resemble. This
"correspondence of the natural
"and the human is one of the
"things that the word "symbol"
"means, so we can say that
"whenever a writer uses an
"image, or object from the
"world around him, he's made
"it a symbol."
"... one of the things that literature
"does is to illustrate them (symbols),
"putting their abstract ideas into
"concrete images and situations.
"When it does this deliberately,
"we have ... allegory, where the
"writer is saying ... I doN'T really
"mean sheep; I mean something
"political or religious ... . ... . ...
"if they're allegorical they're
"literary." (pages 36-37)
Allegory, a major feature of literature
"There's a great deal of allegory
"in literature ... . ... . ... allegory,
"where literature is illustrating
"moral or political or religious
"truths, means that both the
"writer and his public have to
"be pretty firmly convinced of
"the reality and importance of
"those truths, and modern
"writers and publics, on the
"whole, areN'T." (pages 37-38)
Allusion: another literary feature
"A more common way of indicating
"that an image is literary is by allu-
"sion to something else in literature.
"Literature tends to be very allusive,
"and the central things ..., the Greek
"and Roman classics, the Bible,
"Shakespeare and Milton, are echoed
"over and over again."
"This allusiveness in literature
"is significant, because ... in li-
"terature you ... enter into a com-
"plete world of which every work
"of literature forms part. ... . ...
"allusiveness runs all through
"our literary experience. If we
"doN'T know the Bible and the
"central stories of Greek and
"Roman literature, ... our know-
"ledge of literature caN'T grow
"... ." (pages 38-40)
Regarding "inspiration"
" ... the only inspiration worth having
"is an inspiration that clarifies the
"form of what's being written, and
"that's more likely to come from
"something that ... has a literary
"form." (page 39)
Reshaping literature
"... there's nothing new in literature
"that isN'T the old reshaped."
(page 40)
NO "private" domain in literature
" ... well-known poem, Wordsworth's
"'I wandered lonely as a cloud' ... .
"... . ... we have an image ..., a field of
"daffodils ... enclosed inside the
"human mind, which puts it into
"the world of the imagination,
"and the sense of human vision
"and emotion radiating from the
"daffodils ... is what gives them
"their poetic magic. The human
"mind is Wordsworth's individual
"mind at first, but as soon as he
"writes a poem it becomes our
"minds too." (page 41)
NO self-expression in literature
"There is NO self-expression in
"Wordsworth's poem, because
"once the poem is there the
"individual Wordsworth has
"disappeared. ... there is really
"no such thing as self-expres-
"sion in literature." (page 41)
The poet: a "wordsmith"
" ... the poet ... . ... a man with
"a special craft of putting words
"together ... ." (page 41)
Our literary "knowledge":
accumulative + interrelational
"We relate the poems and plays
"and novels we read and see, ...
"to each other. Literature is a
"world that we ... build up and
"enter at the same time."
(page 42)
Poetic "interpretation": allegorical
" ... whenever you try to explain
"what any poem means you're
"bound to turn it into an alle-
"gory to some extent ... . ... as
"soon as you 'explain' his rose
"and worm you have to trans-
"and them into some aspect
"of human life and feeling ... .
"... . ... the poem is NOT ... .
"... allegorical ... it's NOT
"allusive either." (page 43)
Blake's "The Sick Rose": a symbolic poem
"To understand Blake's poem,
"... you ... have to accept a world
"which is totally symbolic: a
"world in which roses and worms
"are so completely surrounded
"and possessed by the human
"mind that whatever goes on
"between them is identical with
"something going on in human
"life." (page 44)
The "subject" of poetry":
the human experience
"The poet, ... everything he sees
"in nature he identifies with
"human life." (page 45)
Literature: fictional
"In belief you're continually con-
"cerned with with quesitons of
"truth or reality ... . But literature
"... never makes any statements
"of that kind ... ."
" ... what is the use of studying
"a world of imagination where
"anything is possible and any-
"thing can be assumed, where,
"there are NO rights or wrongs
"and all arguments are equally
"good? One of the more obvious
"uses ... is its encouragement
"of tolerance." (pages 45-46)
Literature: "detachment" from reality
"What produces the tolerance is
"the power of detachment in the
"imagination, where things are ...
"out of the reach of belief and
"action. ... . ... experience is re-
"moved from us ... as the expe-
"rience of the Napoleonic war
"in Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'.
"... . There is an element of
"illusion even in 'War and
"Peace', but the illusion gives
"us a reality that isN'T in the
"actual experience of the war
"itself: the reality of proportion
"and perspective, of seeing
"what it's all about, that only
"detachment can give. Literature
"helps to give us that detachment,
"and so do history and philosophy
"and science and everything else
"worth studying." (page 46)
Literature: it's "magic"
" ... literature has something ... to
"give particularly its own: some-
"thing as absurd and impossible
"as the primitive magic it so
"clearly resembles." (pages 46-47)
Literature: "outside" the realm of the ordinary
" ... takes him (Marcel Proust) out-
"side his ordinary life and also out-
"side the time he is living it in. This
"is what enables him to write his
"book, because it makes it possible
"for him to look at men, NOT as li-
"ving from moment to disappearing
"moment, but as 'giants immersed
"in time". (page 47)
Literature: the "product" of limitless imagination
"NO matter what direction we start
"off in, the signposts of literature
"always keep pointing the same way,
"to a world where nothing is outside
"the human imagination." (page 48)
Literature: a "human" unvierse
" ... the imagination ... a universe
"entirely possessed and occupied
"by human life ... ." (page 48)
The poet versus the novelist:
the difference
" ... the poet ... his real effort is
"one of putting words togethers.
"What's important is ... what the
"words themselves say when the
"get fitted together. With the no-
"velist it's rather the incidents in
"the story he tells that get fitted
"together ... . (page 54)
The literary form "guides" the creative process
" ... so much of a writer's best writng
"is ... involuntary. It's involuntary
"because the forms of literature
"itself are taking control of it ... ."
(pages 54-55 )
On the imagination
"The constructs of the imagination
"tell us things about human life
"that we doN'T get in any other
" way." (page 77)
On the "educated"imagination
" ... the world of imagination ... . ...
"a vision of possibilities, which
"expands the horizon of belief
"and makes it both more tolerant
"and more efficient. ... . ... the end
" of literary teaching is NOT simply
"the admiration of literature; it's
"something more like the transfer
"of imaginative energy from liter-
"ature to the student." (page 80)
The imagination NOT limited to literature
" ... we use our imagination all the
"time: it comes into our conversa-
"tion and practical life: it even pro-
"duces dreams when we sleep."
(page 82)
A "badly" or "well" trained imagination
"Literature speaks the language
"of the imagination, and the study
"of literature is supposed to train
"and improve the imagination. ... .
"... we have only the choice be-
"tween a badly trained imagination
"and a well trained one ... ."
(page 82)
The language of the imagination
"Literature speaks the language
"of the imagination, and the
"study of literature is supposed
"to train and improve the imagi-
"nation." (page 82)
The imagination involves the intellect + emotions
"In practically everything we do
"it's the combination of emotion
"and intellect we call imagination
"that goes to work." (page 82)
The imagination in favour of a society we "want"
"The fundamental job of the imagination
"in ordinary life ... is to produce, out of
"the society we have to live in, a vision
"of the socety we want to live in."
(page 86)
The imagination: a "protective" wall
"The top half of literature is the world
"expressed by such words as sublime,
"inspiring, and the like, where what we
"feel is NOT detachment but absorption.
"... the world of heros and gods and ti-
"tans and ... giants, a world of powers
"and passions and moments of ecstasy
"far greater than anything we meet out-
"side the imagination. Such forces
"would ... annihilate us if they entered
"ordinary life, but luckily the protecting
"wall of the imagination is here too."
(page 61)
The origin of literature: mythology
" ... in the histry of civilization literature
"follows ... mythology. A myth is a sim-
"ple and primitive effort ... to identify
"the human with the non-human world,
"and its most typical result is a story
"about a god. Later on, mythology
"begins to merge into literature ... ."
(page 65)
Literature: human-centred
" ... literature, being one of the arts
"is concerned with the home and
"NOT the evironment of man: it
"lives in a simple, man-centred
"world and describes the nature
"around it in the kind of associ-
"ative language that relates it
"to human concerns." (page 77)
On the "value" of literature
"... literature refines our sensibilities."
"Literature gives us an experience
"that stretches us vertically to the
"heights and depths of what the
"human mind can conceive ... ."
"No matter how much experience
"we may gather in life, we can
"NEVER in life get the dimension
"of experience that the imagination
"gives us." (pages 60-61)
"Literature is ... man's revelation
"to man ... ." (page 64)
Literary criticism must be founded on
the "totality" of the work
" ... you doN'T react until you've
"taken in all of what he (the au-
"thor) has to say. ... . ... what you
"react to is the total structure
"of the story as a whole ... ."
(page 71)
The range of literature: boundless
"Literature as a whole is ... the range
"of articulate human imagination ... ."
(page 64)
The critic's role:
to keep "deepening" his literary experience
"The critic's function is to interpret
"every work of literature in the light
"of all the literature he knows, to
"keep constantly struggling to
"understand what literature as
"a whole is about." (page 64)
The "starting" point of literature: poetry
" ... literature ... at its centre ... is
"poetry ... . Poetry is the most di-
"rect and simple means of ex-
"pressing oneself in words ... ."
"Poetry is ... something very close
"to dance and song, something to
"walk down street keeping time to.
"... . ... poetry can be performed
"and listened to, like a concert."
(page 74)
"Rhythm" in prose
"... the first thing one should
"demand of prose is rhythm.
"My ... teacher, Pelham Edgar,
"... told me that if the rhythm
"of a sentence was right, its
"sense could look after itself.
"... . We're often told that to
"write we must have some-
"thing to say, but that ...
"means having a certain
"potential of verbal energy."
(page 75)
On rhetoric:
"the social ... use of words"
"In ordinary life, as in literature,
"the way you say things can be
"just as important as what's said."
"Society attaches an immense
"importance to saying the right
"thing at the right time. In this
"conception of the 'right thing',
"there are two factors involved,
"one moral and one aesthetic.
"They are inseparable, and
"equally important."
(pages 82-83)
Advertising:
product of the imagination
"... the element of illusion in the
"imagination, and advertising is
"one example ... of the deliberate
"creation of an illusion in ... real
"life. Our reaction to advertising
"is really a form of literary criti-
"cism. We doN'T take it seriously,
"and we areN'T supposed to ... .
"... . ... a world of illusion. ... it's ...
"the voice of the imagination
"doing its proper job. ... ."... it
"means something to us which
"is different from what is says.
"The end of the process is NOT
"to reject all advertising, but to
"develop our own vision of soci-
"ety to the point at which we can
"choose what we want out of what's
"offered to us and let the rest go.
"What we choose is what fits that
"vision of society." (page 85)
"The essential thing is the power
"of choice." (page 91)
Irony
" ... irony ... means saying one thing
"and meaning another, as a device
"which writer uses to detach our
"imaginations from a world of ab-
"surdity or frustration by letting
"us see around it." (page 85)
Social mythology
" ... a social mythology, with its own
"folklore and its own literary conven-
"tions ... . ... . Every society produces
"such a mythology: it's a necessary
"part of its coherence ... ."
(pages 86-87)
Imagination as self-protection
" If a society changes very rapidly,
"... we have to recognize the large
"element of illusion in all social
"mythology as a simple matter of
"self-protection. The first thing our
"imaginations have to do for us, as
"soon as we can handle words
"well enough to read and write
"and talk, is to fight to protect
"us from falling into the illusions
"that society threatens us with.
"The illusion ... . What it creates
" is the imaginary, which is far
" different from the imaginative."
(page 87)
Bureaucratese
" ... federal prose, the gabble of
"abstractions and vague words
"which avoids any simple or
"direct statements. ... a part
"of social mythology. ... . ...
"to suggest that the social ma-
"chine ... is running smoothly
"... . Direct and simple language
"always has some force behind
"it, ... the writers of gobbledy
"