I like reading, and I have an internet
connection. So, it was only a matter of
time before someone linked me this.
Sadly, this reflects a common attitude
towards the study of English literature.
That it’s “wishy-washy”, and that English literature students just lounge
around in ivory towers, wearing scarves and trying to find the deeper meaning of texts where no such meaning exists.
I completely disagree with that idea, and
there is plenty of evidence to back up this view
Firstly, there are writers who have gone on the record saying that the literary devices in their work are intentional.
When you write, you have to describe a
whole universe. You may choose to describe a world that is
similar, or nearly identical to our own, but nevertheless, you have a very
limited amount of words to describe this world and put your ideas across. So if you go out of the way to point out the
colour of the curtains, it’s probably significant.
Writers could also include these devices
unconsciously.
Perhaps more importantly, maybe this isn’t
the question that we should be asking ourselves. Arguably, the whole point of studying
literature isn’t to determine what an author’s intentions were. If you can find
a metaphor in a piece of writing that makes you think, or see the world from a
different perspective, then does it really matter whether the writer wanted it
to be there or not?