Why Literature?

Andrew Hudgins' poem “Day Job and Night Job” is a 36 lined poem with 9 stanzas, 4 lines apiece. The second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme, barely. It's about a young man whose life is divided by his day job, which involves pushing a broom (line 5) and stealing time to “read my masters.../Donne, Marlow, Dickinson, and Frost” (10-11). His father insists he study law or business, but the speaker defends his decision to study literature with, “Because I want to!” (26).

“Day Job and Night Job” is a fine poem but it's nothing great or grand, nothing revolutionary in the realm of literature and poetry. Its a nice, fun poem that reminds me of why I got into literature in the first place - “Because I want to!”

The pursuit and study of literature is, in its own way, a selfish endeavor. I realized this when I went through page after page of The Norton Introduction to Literature (eleventh edition) as I developed the first literature class I taught. I looked for stories, poems and plays I knew would fit the requirements for the course. There were plenty of texts I read for the first time in preparing that class, and many I’d only read a few times before I met my students. Thankfully, my education had prepared me to read and interpret. What I’m most grateful for though was the small but devoted group of students who dutifully applied themselves.

Some days went better than others and the value of some texts become apparent only as we discussed them. “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason became a surprising favorite for its depth, characters, and simple but descriptive language, and twisting of gender roles. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Kahn” fell flat when I tried to use it to discuss imagery, but the imagery did make for a perfect discussion on fantasy. Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev did not disappoint as an engaging text about art, culture, and religion, but also as a test for my students at the end of the course as I handed class over to them, one by one, to introduce the chapter for the day.

There are plenty of studies about why reading and studying literature are important or worthwhile. These studies have shown literature helps us become more empathetic, wiser about people and cultures, exercises different parts of our brains, and teaches new ways to see the world. These are great reasons to study literature, but it’s now why I do it. I study literature, and indeed, teach literature, because I want to and because people want to learn about it.

I don't have an agenda in teaching literature. I don't look at my students as future literary theorists, nor do I see them as the heads of book clubs, nor as people who resort to literature for any of the reasons specified in dozens of studies. I don't expect every student to enjoy every classic, but I do hope they read the stories, poems, plays, and novels and they enjoy some of them

Like I said above, teaching literature is a selfish endeavor. Reading it should be too. It should be something we do because we want to.

I am selfish in devoting my time and energy to the study of literature, but that's because I have found a good thing, and if I have a good thing, shouldn't I share it?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Works Cited

Hudgins, Andrew. "Day Job and Night Job." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. W.W. Norton, 2013. 882. Print.