China May G.

Sabangan BSED3-ENGL1

Nature, Essence and Significance of Literature in Education, History and Modern Society

Literature can be defined as an expression of human feelings, thoughts, and ideas whose
medium is language, oral and written. Literature can be medium for human to communicate what
they feel, think, experience to the readers. There are also many ways to define the term ‘literature’
based on different point of views. According to scylar (1998: 83) defines literature as “any writing
on a subject: the body of published work concerned with a particular subject.” A similar definition
was coined by Pollanen (1997) which says that “literature refers to published writings in
a particular style on a particular subject.” Hancock (2006) who believe that literature is a body of
written works: the body of written works of a culture, language, people or a period of time. These
scholars have different definition of literature because according to Kafimbwa (2005) it is difficult
to define literature for literature exists in many forms. Therefore, scholars have failed to come up
with one definition that will embrace all the types of literature in their varying forms.

Literature is the kind of subject that gives one the freedom to relate to it in whatever way
they choose to. When we examine a literature we thought hard over the writer’s perspective and
it makes us read and not just mere reading but also deciphering the meanings behind the writers’
words and then we link our own ideology with it. That is what literature gives us. To think, feel and
see deeply, while expanding our horizons. It allows our intellect to grow and open our imagination
by perceiving ideas provided to us in the form of words. Literature also gives us an opportunity to
think freely, imagine, experiment, create and put into words our ideas through creative writing.
This is the beauty of creative writing. It gives us liberty to pick from the sea of our ideas and put it
down on paper using our own creative styles. The end product is a piece of literature that will
reflect our own character and that is the essence of literature.

History and literature are entwined with each other. Literature allows us to step back in
time and learn about life from the ones who walked before us. We can gather a better
understanding of our culture and have a greater appreciation of our literary heritage. We learn
through the ways history is recorded, in the forms of manuscripts and through speech itself. In
education the very basic and probably the most important significance of literature is that
it teaches us to write and read. In a deeper level, we are taught to find symbols, make connections,
find themes, and learn about characters. Reading expands these skills, and we begin to look at a
sentence with a larger sense of detail and depth and realize the importance of hidden meanings
so that we may come to a conclusion. In the modern society where a lot of things are happening,
reading books enables us to escape from reality and live somewhere else for a short amount of
time especially to literature that aims to entertain. It is definitely much more than words in a book,
and even with the emerging technology where eBooks and Wattpad are gaining popularity, they
still create a conversation, a unique world, and new perspectives.