What literature actually is
When you are an advanced level student studying literature without going to tuition classes, people have a lot to say to you. Most of the time, it’s something like,
You have to memorize entire poems and the biographies of the writers
Your marks depend on the way your teacher/ examiner thinks
It is very difficult to get marks and should be avoided if you’re attempting to get straight A’s
However, after studying literature for nearly five years, I can testify that these opinions are - in fact - rather correct, though there are certain things that I would like to clarify.
so, in short, literature is,
1. Understanding texts thoroughly and seeing society as presented by them.
2.Writing ALL the correct points rather than elaborating the ones with most examples.
3. Paraphrasing through most of the text because you can’t remember proper examples, then using certain words/phrases from the text in your sentences with the use of quotation marks.
4. Being open and frank about what you feel and sticking to one opinion.
5. Writing additional 2-6 pages yet still under the same time limit that you had in your junior years.
6. Being so invested in the text/question/argument yet being unable to savour it because you’re in a time crunch.
7. Just wasting pages and pages of what you think is the right answer just to get a handful of points.
8. Witnessing your confidence being torn to shreds while your teacher marks your paper.
9. Never knowing the right answer.
10. Never being able to predict anything; from questions to results.
11. Learning to never expect anything big out of what you write.
that’s all I can think of rn, but I still should the opinion that everyone should actively learn literature as it can impact humanity in marvelous ways.
