2 Lines dedicated to my parents

Maa ki mamta mein khila phul hun mein
Papa ki ankhon ka tara aur maa ke charno ka dhul hun main.

Literature is the reflection of the society

Literature is the reflection of the society

Introduction:-  When we stand before a mirror it gives an accurate image of ourselves, in the same way Literature reflects society but only with the help of a master artist. Attempts are made to describe and define the influence of society on literature and to prescribe and judge the position of literature in society. This sociological approach to literature is particularly cultivated by those who profess a specific social philosophy.

Literature is an impression of society:-  

The relation between literature and society is usually discussed by starting with the phrase, derived from De bonald that, “Literature is an expression of society”. But what does this axiom mean? If it assumes that literature, at any given time, mirrors the current social situation ‘correctly’, it is false; it is common place, trite and vague if it means only that literature depicts some aspects of social reality. To say that literature mirrors or expresses life is even more ambiguous. A writer inevitably expresses his experience and total conception of life; but it would be manifestly untrue to say that he expresses the whole of life-or even the whole life of a given time-completely and exhaustively. It is a specific evaluative criterion to say that an author should express the life of his own time fully that he should be ‘representative’ of his age and society. Besides, of course, the terms ‘fully’ and ‘representative’ require much interpretation: in most social criticism they seem to mean that an author should be aware of specific social situation, e.g. the plight of proletariat, or even that he should share a specific attitude and ideology of the critic.

In Hegelian criticism and in that of Taine, historical or social greatness is simply equated with artistic greatness. The artist conveys truth and necessarily, also historical and social truths. Works of art furnish document because they are monuments. A harmony between genious and age is postulated. ‘Representativeness’, ‘social truth’, is by definition both a result and cause of artistic value. Mediocre, average works of art, though they may seem to modern sociologist better social documents, are to Taine unexpressive and hence unrepresentative. Literature is really not a reflection of the social process, but the essence, the abridgement and summary of all history.

                       The question how far literature is actually determined by or dependent on its social setting, on social change and development, is one which, in one way or another, will enter into all the three division of our problem: the sociology of the writer, the social content of the works themselves, and the influence of literature on society.

The social origins of a writer play only a minor part in the questions rose by his social status, allegiance, and ideology; for writers, it is clear, have often put themselves at the service of another class. Most court poetry was written by men who, though born in lower estate, adopted the ideology and taste of their patrons.

The social allegiance, attitude, and ideology of a writer can be studied not only in his writings but also, frequently, in biographical extra-literary document. The writer has been a citizen, has pronounced on questions of social and political importance, and has taken part in the issues of his time.

Much work has been done upon political and social views of individual writers. Thus L.C.Knights, arguing that BenJonson’s economic attitude was profoundly medieval, shows how, like several of his fellow dramatists, he satirized the rising class of usurers, monopolists, speculators, and undertakers. Many work of literature-e.g. the ‘histories’ of Shakespeare and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels- have been reinterpreted in close relation to the political context of the time. Pronouncements, decisions, and activities should never be confused with the actual social implications of a writer’s works.

We can distinguish between writers according to their degree of integration into the social process. Writers may succeed in creating their own special public; indeed, as Coleridge knew, every new writer has to create the taste which will enjoy him. The writer is not only influenced by society: he influences it. Art not merely reproduces life but also shapes it.

Much the most common approach to the relations of literature and society is the study of works of literature and social documents, as assumed pictures of social reality. Nor can it be doubted that some kind of social picture can be abstracted from literature. Indeed, this has been one of the earliest uses to which literature has been put to systematic students.

Used as a social document, literature can be made to yield the outlines of social history.
Chaucer and Langland preserve two views of 14^th century society. The prologue of the Canterbury Tales was early seen to offer an almost complete survey of social types.

Shakespeare, in the merry wives of Windsor, BenJonson in several plays, and Thomas Deloney seem to tell us something about Elizabethan middleclass. Addison,Fielding, and Smollett depict the new bourgeoisie of the 18^th century; Jane Austen, the country gentry and parsons early in the 19^th century; and Trollope, Thackeray, and Dickens, the Victorian world. At the turn of the century, Galsworthy shows us the English upper middle classes; wells, the lower middle classes; Bennett, the provincial towns.

But such studies seem of little value so long as they take it for granted that literature is simply a mirror of life, a reproduction, and thus, obviously, a social document. Such studies make sense only if we know the artistic method of the novelist studied, and can say-not merely in general terms, but concretely-in what relation the picture stands to the social reality. Is it realistic by intention? Or is it, at certain points, satire, caricature, or romantic idealization? In an admirably clear-headed study of Aristocracy and the middleclass in Germany, Kohn-Bramstedt rightly cautions us: “only a person who has a knowledge of the structure of a society from other sources than purely literary once is able to find out if, and how far, certain social types and their behaviour are reproduced in the novel…..what is pure fancy, what realistic observation, and what only an expression of the desires of the author must be separated in each case in a subtle manner.”

There is great literature which has little or no social relevance; social literature is only one kind of literature and is not central in the theory of literature unless one holds the view that literature is primarily an ‘imitation’ of life as it is and of social life in particular. But literature is no substitute for sociology or politics; it has its own justification and aim.

Conclusion: -In conclusion, literature is the brain of humanity. Just as in the individual the brain preserves a record of his previous sensations, of his experience, and of his acquired knowledge, and it is in the light of this record that he interprets every fresh sensation and experience; so the race at large has a record of its past in literature, at it is in the light of this record alone that its present conditions and circumstances can be understood. The message of senses is indistinct and valueless to the individual without the co-operation of the brain; the life of the race would be degraded to a mere animal existence without the accumulated stores of previous experience which literature places at its disposal.

Bibliography:-

·      JUDGEMENT IN LITERATURE- W.BASILWORSFOLD

·      THEORY OF LITERATURE-RENEWELLEK AND AUSTIN WARREN

·      WHAT IS LITERATURE?- JEAN-PAULSARTRE

·      A GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS-M.H.ABRAMS.http://www.amazon.ca/Glossary-Literary-Terms-M-H-Abrams/dp/1413033903#reader_1413033903

Luck

Come on luck give me a hug
Come and touch me with full force
Let me not get into remorse
No doubt I will work hard
But you dear luck is going to hold my place in rank card.

Shayari

Anjan ho kar bhi kuch log hamari pehchan baan jate hain...ban kar ate hain mehman par dil ke armaan ban jate hain..

Chachi (My Aunt)

She was a pretty woman
ever smiling face
an ideal in our race

Her sparkling eyes were radiant light
as if a strength to deal things and fight
her patience at height

Disease seized her
with a sudden spur

The unspoken words never does any harm
she was so kind and very warm

May her soul rest at peace
God decides how long the batsman stays at crease.

Friends

                                                      Days are going, friends are growing

                                                                    Jasmine;white
                                                                    Sunflower;yellow
                                                                    Roses;red
   
                                                 Such colourful friends around me are spread

                                                                   We quarrel and fight
                                                                    With a relation tight

                                                             The day when we don't meet
                                                            Something remains incomplete

                                                                This friendship shall last long
                                                       As I pray God through this friendship song.

Winter Morning

Early winter morning
Glittering drops of dew
Many still snoring
Eyes open are few

Leaves murmur in cool breeze
Watery looks the thirsty ground
Out of bed no one to freeze
But in middle rings the alarm sound

Light foot steps gear
As its snowy here and there
For cups to make everyone cheer
Sipping rosy lips lying in the chair

Disappear star and moon
Twinkling all winter night
Sun's arrival will not be soon
Anxious figures to warm up with its light

Pleasant winter day
These moments will get frost
Nothing else to say
As in enjoying such beauty we are lost!

http://www.shirleycason.com/WinterMorning_SUN325.jpg