Natural Vs. Literary Narrative

...

suggests that we get our character from literature, our behavior is shaped by society; our real lives are penetrated by imaginary conceptions and individual narratives are related to the interaction order.

Not only dramatic forms of literature shape our social behavior but they also create special effects on us, which contribute further to the hypothesis of the continuity between “natural” and “literary” narratives. According to Coleridge, William Wordsworth understands the link between natural and literature, he is the first poet to create poetry that focuses on what he experiences, sees, or feels every day. He believes that people lose the capacity to appreciate things that are familiar, therefore to inspire his audience, he chooses to value what people perceive as ordinary “by awakening the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the loveliness and the wonders of the world before us” Coleridge (page 57). Likewise, Percy Shelley believes that poetry “lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.” (page 58). Shelley emphasizes the connection between beauty and life and trusts the power of poetry to improve society and people’s lives. Although poetry and art are, every so often, difficult to comprehend because they have an unfamiliar presentation or use sophisticated linguistic devices, they, however, convey people’s experiences, feelings, and thoughts into social lives. In the poem Tool by W. S. Merwin, the author turns to imagination as perception of a social life aspect. Indeed, he uses metaphor to compare the “tool” to the law or justice by writing “order order saying” (page 61). Furthermore, paintings exercise the same effects on our lives. For example, in his painting “Les Valeurs Personnelles”, Rene Margarite places some ordinary items together using unusual scale to make viewers rethink about their relationship to their familiar personal objects and that to evaluate the values they represent. What Margarite wants to convince his audience with through art can be applied to daily lives of everyone’s life basically as they should always value the things and people around them and not take anything for granted. This concept suggests that literary forms exercise an influence on individuals and their lives and alternatively, literature is inspired by the beauty of people’s everyday situations, thoughts, and feelings. Witch clearly contribute to the continuity between “natural” and “literary”.

Now that we have discussed some elements that make natural and literary associated, some people might argue that literature is something special, and it is above the used language of everyday situations and, thus, it should be used with precision and only by gifted persons. Certain that literature has the power of grammatical rules and organization that makes it different from other uses of language, but, it also overlaps everyday forms. Literary forms use simple ordinary facts inspired by everyday experiences, feelings, and thoughts and add emotional effects to make normal situations vivid and appealing to audiences, and manifestly shape people’s lives by dictating how they should interact in daily basis based on characters in plays, novels, and movies.

Natural and literary narratives are connected in a complex way, that explains how most people feel when they read compositions of celebrated writers and relate it to their lives. As writers, poets, and artists represent human nature with a comprehensive spirit, they shape our social life and they are, possibly, touched by the facts themselves as well. Although literature is considered as the “legislature of life”, the passage from natural to literary narratives is possible for any one of us. Literature is not some kind of fiction that only skilled people can perform, it is a talent that anyone can develop throughout life, a talent that will benefit from study, energy, and practice.

Works cited

Scholes, Comley, and Gregory L. Ulmer. Text Book Writing Through Literature. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2002. Print.

...