Dahlia is a first-year Literature student at KCL, who chose the field due to a deep passion for prose, particularly from the A-Level syllabus. As a tutor, Dahlia often hears students express dissatisfaction with their texts, complaining about how dull they find them and how eager they are to finish the course. Recognising this, Dahlia decided to write this piece as a re-evaluation of the subject, aiming to show that Literature is not as boring as it is often perceived to be.
Literature is an art form, a way to establish our voices through characters, plots, settings and critiques. Shakespeare, Dickens, Fitzgerald – even Chaucer – were all critical masterminds who established the foundations of the Western literary culture and its works. Some of us may hate the complexity of Shakespeare’s unshakeable tragic heroes or Dickens’ monotonous, detached voice, but we cannot deny the huge impact they placed on us.
Firstly, Shakespeare’s innovative use of the iambic pentameter, the traditionally romantic sonnet and his subversion of comedies were all revolutionary in developing the English language and structure. His exploration of identity and power in Othello and Hamlet have political relevance today – as the issues in this play such as, authority, manipulation, legitimacy and struggles of self-perception mirror modern issues.
Additionally, Dickens’ blatant social critique of Victorian England helps us to understand the dire situation of the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). Poverty, the alienation of women, child labour – all themes which are relevant today. In looking at these great authors and their own political, social, and cultural contexts we gain an insight into the past. We can understand the past through literature; it can provide us a time machine – even into the future.
Fitzgerald’s prolific The Great Gatsby has been watched by everyone at least once – the yearning, the waiting for an unrequited love, the desire for materialism over intimacy – common tropes we associate with even the rom-com genre. Literature in this sense has had a profound impact not only on philosophical thought but on media and physical art forms.
As a Literature student myself, I found my voice in the A-level texts which focused on women in society. The arduous algebra in Mathematics couldn’t provide me the voice I craved. Sitting in those GCSE Maths classes bored me, solving equations and sticking to a set rule bored me. Nothing was inventive, new, radical in thought, every question had been answered before. Yet the English lessons where we spoke about politics, psychology, history, philosophy invigorated me. No longer was I this slave to the glorified STEM subjects and a mindless yes/no debate, but I was able to establish my voice through Literature. Debating and conversing with my classmates about the key questions: what’s the overall message, how can this relate nowadays? How would it look if it was adapted into modern times?
Mathematics and the STEMs doesn’t help us develop analytical thought, literature does. Literature isn’t as alienating and out-of-touch as we pose it to be. Literature allows us to explore the human condition, reflect back on the past in the present and create culturally significant moments. For many, literature is a way out of the mundane, technological world and an immersive experience into a new one.
When was the last time you read a novel that wasn’t part of the syllabus? A book you genuinely sat down and enjoyed? Literature for far too long has been branded a feminine subject, a subject seen as child’s play. Women have accounted for two-thirds of the degree recipients at the master’s level since the early 1980s and at the bachelor’s level (Gender distribution of degrees in English Language and Literature). The irony of course being the Bronte sisters, who used a male pseudonym to be taken seriously…
The love for literature and classical authors have sadly diminished. With the new age of social media and technology, our attention spans are poor and we often watch movies to replace the entertainment literature once provided. Literature was a chance to escape the real world, get stuck into a book, travel to new worlds, and reimagine your life. Now it’s a chore from our English teachers to read a copy of An Inspector Calls rather than a thrilling experience, a social critique of the world we live in. It has become a subject everyone resents.
Just 2 in 5 (43.4%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2023. This is the lowest level since we first asked the question in 2005.2 (Children and young people’s reading in 2023, 4th September 2023), Texts nowadays are not appreciated for their culture, their literary invention. Instead, the education system strips down a book to a few themes for GCSEs and removes any sense of humanity it could provide. Whilst adult fantasy soared by an impressive 85.2% over the first six months of 2023, primarily fuelled by heightened interest in the romantasy genre, classical books are slowly being forgotten and seen as too complicated and uninspiring. (Fantasy Drives Print Book Sales Surge in 2024: Publishers See Potential Turnaround, July 9th 2024)
For many book lovers, the Edward vs. Jacob saga in Twilight took centre stage, overshadowing the deeper moral boundaries and philosophical questions that Shakespeare challenges in his works. Educators have therefore lost the passion and interest in Literature. The mark schemes, the A0s, the set 5 paragraph length, the forceful use of PEEL in GCSEs have sucked the life out of these radical and engaging books. We need to rethink the way literature is thought, the mark scheme doesn’t embrace creativity, nuance and invention, it reduces students to a number. Whereby their ideas and originality are rejected based on the status quo.
Written by Dahila Farzi
References:
Sciences, Academy of Arts And. “Gender Distribution of Degrees in English Language and Literature.” American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 17 Apr. 2016, www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/higher-education/gender-distribution-degrees-english-language-and-literature.
“Children and Young People’s Reading in 2023.” National Literacy Trust, 5 Nov. 2024, literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-reading-in-2023.
Jones, Kiefer. “Fantasy Drives Print Book Sales Surge in 2024: Publishers See Potential Turnaround.” Books&Review,9July 2024, www.booksnreview.com/articles/19721/20240709/fantasy-drives-print-book-sales-surge-2024-publishers-see-potential.htm.