Carefully considered thoughts on the purposes of Literature

For English A1 you need to have a carefully considered grasp of the functions that Literature can serve. You need to consider all of the points presented to you in class, keep an open mind and add new information to your growing understanding of the subject area. Your aim is not to make rash judgements based on first reactions. It is to think about the deeper message that is being communicated rather than the superficial appearance of what is first imagined - to allow flexibility or change of thought when new knowledge is added to the body of knowledge you already have. The IB learner profile traits which follow are needed to do this effectively - please note the overarching aim of the IB student at the top of the document.

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Here are some carefully considered thoughts of intellectuals, writers, peacemakers for you to think about:

“The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose”
Margaret Atwood (Canadian Writer, b.1939)

“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.”

“Books are humanity in print.”
Barbara W.Tuchman (American historian, writer, academic 1912-1989)

“Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time.”
Salman Rushdie(Indian born British Writer, b.1947)

“We read to know we are not alone.”
C.S. Lewis (British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)

"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean”
Robert Louis Stevenson(Scottish Essayist, Poet and Author of fiction and travel books, 1850-1894)

“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”
C.S. Lewis(British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)

“What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote."

“Every man's memory is his private literature.”
Aldous Huxley(English Novelist and Critic, 1894-1963)

“Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child”

“The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)

“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.”
Robert Louis Stevenson(Scottish Essayist, Poet and Author of fiction and travel books, 1850-1894)

“While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living”
Cyril Connolly (English critic and editor, 1903-1974)

“The crown of literature is poetry.” William Somerset Maugham.

“Whoever is able to write a book and does not, it is as if he has lost a child” Rabbi Nachman

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”
Kofi Annan(Ghanaian diplomat, seventh secretary-general of the United Nations, 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.)

“Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree”
Ezra Pound(American Editor, Poet, Translator and Critic, 1885-1972)

“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.”
William Makepeace Thackeray(Indian born English Author and Novelist of 'Vanity Fair', 1811-1863)

“When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.”
James Earl Jones