Instruction
Literature is often written by those who experience or experienced turmoil in their lives. Hemingway writes of a difficult, potentially life. Brooks writes about her background and circumstances of her childhood, as does Roethke. Respond to one of the quotes provided below and relate it to the readings. You should write NO LESS than 200 words. I will post the quotes shortly- Please read below and tell me which quote you will work on.
So, why is it that so many writers come from turmoil and trauma. Examine the following series of quotes, and reflect on what drives literature. Is literature a human coping mechanism? Why does every known culture have some type of literature? PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS!!!
Brooks
"I had no one to help me, but the T. S. Eliot helped me. So when people say that poetry is a luxury, or an option, or for the educated middle classes, or that it shouldn't be read at school because it is irrelevant, or any of the strange stupid things that are said about poetry and its place in our lives, I suspect that the people doing the saying have had things pretty easy. A tough life needs a tough language - and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers - a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.
Roethke
"I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.
"Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?