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Literary theory. Just the name sounds boring, ancient, and predictable. The concept may make you cringe or even hide behind an education filled with far less intimidating subject matter. As a student you picture some tenured teacher attempting to enlighten you with his or her knowledge of authors who have been long gone or nearly there. You think of endless hours slaving over an anthology of stories you have already read. You do not understand how all of this pertains to your life, your present, or your future. Therefore, you do not go to class, or when you do go you eagerly count down the minutes of torture, and when the semester ends and you get a grade that reflects your misery with literature, you swear off all English related subjects for life. You are just happy it’s over. As an individual who has been down your road, I encourage you to rethink this plan. If you think about it, can you ever truly push English out of your life for good? In its very basic sense, English is communicating. You will always have a need for the language and you will always have a need for writing it down. English shapes your life more than you may think. I know I am repeating to you things you already know. So I will get back to the dreaded subject of literary theory. I will start by telling you I once had the same thought process as many of you as you begin your journey into the world of literature. I will also tell you to discard this negative notion of literature and prepare to begin a journey into the understanding of life. I bet you did not know it, but that is the essence of this concept students run away from in fear - life. When you begin to understand literary theory, you begin to understand how the world works and how we as people fit into it. I was once a skeptical student myself, that is why you should believe me when I tell you literary theory will lead you to profound understandings on the meaning of life. Enjoy the ride, for the best is all ahead of you. To fully realize the implications literature can have on your life you must forget the “old definition” of literature. Literature is not just the books on the library shelf, the texts you bought for class or the latest People magazine you read. Literature is not brainy intellectuals obsessed with the sound of their own words or people attempting to analyze all phases of life. Literature encompasses aspects of culture many people never thought about before. People do not recognize it as such because it is constantly changing form, particularly as we embark into the new century. Our world began based purely on an oral culture – those who spoke and those who listened. No papers, no pens, no information to seek, and of course, no computers. We may find this type of culture difficult to familiarize ourselves with as we feel we have divulged so far from it. However, Hobart & Schiffman describe in Orality and the Problem of Memory how our current culture is based on the layering of the cultures before it. We have not just fallen into this high-tech digital cyber world we are quickly finding ourselves submersed in. We have evolved here. Through this evolution from oral to print to our current digital world, we can begin to learn and understand people’s relation to the world. With each cultural layer we build, a parallel transformation occurs in the way individuals relate to the world. Studying the evolution of the literate world becomes more like learning about the evolution of people in various cultures. Hobart & Schiffman introduce their readers to literary theory using the cusp of human culture. As products of a print culture that was founded upon oral culture, we find ourselves living at a very unique time, that is within a cultural shift. We are headed into the digital world filled with virtual experiences and cyber reality. Now more than ever the study of literary theory becomes essential in understanding our place in this new culture. Hobart & Schiffman will have you asking questions such as: Could we live in a culture void of face-to-face confrontation, commemoration, information, memory, and experience, the livelihood of both oral and literate cultures? When literature is incorporated with life its importance and relevance rise to the surface. Literary theory will have you questioning life in ways you never knew possible, from our cultural origins to our very notions of self. Literary theory delves so deeply into the discovery of human nature that it not only describes various cultural effects, but also the effects on the notion of self. Everyone has wondered such things as whether or not life is a pre-determined ride or if free will guides all decisions. People have an innate desire to learn about the self and how it functions in day-to-day life. Before I began my study in this course I would have never believed that literary theory would help me understand the world, its people, and myself. I’m telling you it does. However, in order to truly be affected by the knowledge and study of intellectuals who work on literary theory, one must also be prepared for confusion and frustration. Many questions will be left unanswered and many more will arise, but your mind will expand with each new author you read or speaker you listen to. Literary theory will be begin to guide your thoughts and change the way you interpret the world and culture within which you live. At the heart of this greater understanding of life lie the roots of the various notions of self. Hence, lies literature. The self can be deconstructed into various models based on a modernist or a post-modernist view. When introduced with the terms modernist and post modernist, one may hit that point of confusion and frustration I spoke of earlier. This complex issue guides much of literary theory, hence the reason why it is important to take the time to understand these viewpoints. A starting point comes in the works of Richard Sennett, “Autonomy, An Authority Without Love,” and Stephen Frosh, “Social Experience and the Constructed Self.” They describe the concept of self as formulated by literary theorist such as themselves. It is works such as theirs that force the mind to think differently and generate more questions than answers – a sign of intelligence, learning, and understanding at their best. Understanding the self in terms of modernist and post modernist viewpoints created through literary theory expand and solidify notions of Sennett and Frosh while at the same time bringing those very ideas into question. That is what you find the study of literary theory to be focused around, many answers, but even more questions. However, do not think of yourself as lacking when in fact you are ahead of the game, as most people never even dare to question what cannot be answered.
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