Literary Appreciation
by Ummy Khoirunisya’ M
Nowdays, It is believable
that everybody likes art. They can explore their feeling into music, painting,
even in written material. If we talk about written material of course we can
not separate it with literary appreciation. So that is way, it is beter to know
more about that including the meaning of literature and literary appreciation,
genres of literature, elements of each genre
and the advantage of literature.
Firstly, let us start with what is
literature? Literature
is a word that comes from a Latin word ‘Littera’ which means, ‘letter of the
alphabet’. Literature as a field of study has
many definitions. Some
of these definitions describe literature as writings valued as creative works,
as writings of a country or as anything in print. According to
Hudson (1965), he stated that literature
means whatever
that is written or printed that has three features including general human interest, element
of form, and aesthetic pleasure. However , it is wrong if we only limit literature as a written
material only because there are preliterate
societies, Nigeria for example. Nigeria began writing with the advent of
European education in the 19th century. Should we then conclude that
Nigeria did not have literature before the coming of the British Education? It
would be a wrong conclusion. Of course, the proverbs, songs, folktales, riddles
etc that existed in preliterate societies like Nigeria are forms of Literature.
So we can conclude that literature is words used to describe a variety of
creative works of imagination that may be written or oral that has three
features including general
human interest, element of form, and aesthetic
pleasure.
While literary appreciation means
understanding and mastering literary works. Ogenlewe (2006) posits that literary appreciation refers to
the evaluation of works of imaginative literature as an intellectual or
academic exercise. In the
other hand, literary appreciation is defined as the ability to understand,
enjoy and evaluate works of Literature. So we can conclude that literary appreciation is not only understanding and mastering, but
also enjoying and evaluating literary works of imaginative literature as an
intellectual or academic exercise. Evaluate
here means making judgment about the quality or value of literary work.
Evaluation is usually an opinion about a given work, but it must be based on
facts.
Then, how about the genres of
literature? If we talk about the genre
of literature it is better if we know first about the kind of literature. The
are two kinds of literature; informative and imaginative literature.
Informative literature deals with fact,explanation real people’s lives, and
history that has purpose to other knowledge, while imaginative literature aims
to arouse thoughts and feelings. According to Waren and Wellek (1963), they
said that It seems better if the genres
of literature are limited to the art of literature or imaginative literature.
We can devide imaginative literature into poetry, prose and drama. William
Wordsworth however defines poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings recollected in the moment of tranquility. While prose is written in
the ordinary spoken or written language of man that often has massage without
acting. Meanwhile a Greek philosopher called Aristotle defines drama as
“imitated human action”.
Each of the genres of literature
have the different elements. The
elements of poetry are diction, rhyme, tone, rhytm, mood, stanza, imagery, figure of speech, figure of
thought and figure of sound. These are the brief explanation of those elements.
Diction
is the choice of words of a poet, while rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds
in different words. Then, tone is the inner voice which sends the feelings of the poet
or the poet’s persona to the reader and mood is the author’s or poet’s state of mind at the time of
writing his poem, Next, rhythm means
movement from one part to another part and stanza in a poem is a group of lines considered as one
unit. After that, imagery is a language that produces
pictures in the mind of a reader or a listener. Then, figures of
speech
are expressions commonly used by poets in composing poems in order to arouse
feelings through evoking images in the mind. Furthermore, figures of thought are also literary devices employed by mostly poets to
convey their messages in a more aesthetic form. The last, figures of
sound are
expressions employed to give sound effect to a piece of literary work. Then, the
elements of prose are character, plot, setting, point of view, and meaning of
fiction. These are clearly understood. In addition the elements of drama are plot, characters, act, scene, dialogue, settings, stage,
audience, catastrophe, denouncement and comic relief. All of the elements can
be clearly understood except catastrophe and comic relief. Well, comic relief
is a humorous scene or funny incident or speech in a serious drama, and
catastrophe and denouement refers to the
turning point in the life or actions of the protagonist in an unfolding play.
So
far we have known about the
meaning of literature and literary appreciation, genres of literature and elements
of each genre, so in this explanation will be explained about the
advantages of literature. One of the advantages of literature is entertainment.
Then, by reading literary works composed in English, it will improve our
vocabulary and master the structure of English and also by expressing our
thought or our emotions as we often do through literary works or reading
literature books, we can release our emotions. Not only that literature serves
as a weapon of social control. Literature also functions as a means of direct
experience. Furthermore, literature mirrors life and it is a reservoir of culture. And the important point is literature
also means of education and enlightenment.
In conclusion, we have to study
about literature and literary appreciation because there are so many advantages
that we get in studying literature and literary appreciation.
References:
Dickinson, Leon T.1959. A Guide To Literary Study. Columbia: Pane art & Company
Wellek, Rene &Weren,Austin.1963.Theory Of Literature.London. Cox &
Wyaman Ltd
