Literature is not dead – you’re just not looking in the right places
Since the beginning of time, human beings have always had this urge to express themselves in many ways whether it is to be heard or to teach or just to tell a story. Writing stories, poems, novels is a form of expression. Like it or not literature has always been a big part of human civilisation however, some people say that in the 21st century, especially in 2020’s literature has ‘lost its meaning’ and no one reads things like classics or ground- breaking novels. I however want to prove this statement to be wrong as in my eye’s literature is not dead rather people are just looking at it with the wrong lenses.
To start we need to look at trends and patterns from across history. The first line of literature was poems. Famous poets like William Shakespeare and Ben Johnson were influenced by the ideas of history as many of their plays take place in historical time periods like the Middle Ages or the Greek and Roman Empire . As well as this their poems were inspired by the idea of true love and being in relationships. Around the 18th century, romanticism became the focus of literature as it allowed poets and writers to express their love of nature and idealise human connections with nature. As well as this many people began shifting to the ideas of democracy and revolution which was a big part of many poets and writers of the time such as William Wordsworth and Lord Byron. During the 19th century and 20th century, education was available for all classes creating a multitude of genres for all people. The 19th century also saw a rise in genres like gothic horror and the supernatural as people were fascinated with the idea of ghost and spirits even though most people were religious and followed Christianity. Many famous writers like Mary Shelly and Charles Dickens were able to captivate readers by using the element of the supernatural in their writing while also addressing many societal flaws.
Moving onto the 20th century, the main trend was like many of the other centuries during the early years of the century. Famous writers like Virginia Wolf. Sylvia Plath, J.R.R Tolkien were known for their captivating and interesting storylines with Plath’s novel ‘the Bell Jar’ and Tolkien’s trilogy ‘ The Lord of the Rings’ create this idea of fantasy for escapism but also addressing issues in the world. The 20th century is known as the era of ‘Modernism’ as many writers like George Orwell famous for his novel 1984 which is a dystopian novel about how the world looks with the wrong people in power. As well as this the 20th century is also known for its fictional novels with authors like Agatha Christi who wrote 80 detective novels like ‘Murder on the Orient express and ‘ Miss Marple’ and Ian Fleming , known for creating the famous character James Bond .
But what happened in the 21st century, why are people convince that literature is ‘dead’ and not how it used to be? Well, the minority of people who say these things do not see the real picture. The 21st century has seen a multitude of genres such as Fantasy and Romance as well as mystery and thriller novels which appeal to the young readers of our generation as well as old. Another prompt of this statement would be the revolution of ‘BookTok’. BookTok is a community on the social media app Tiktok where people would share their opinions on books that they like or dislike and give bookrecommendation. However, there is a minority of people who recommend books that are poorly written and have no plot other than romance which defeats the whole purpose of reading as it gives people the wrong impression of readers who read to escape or to learn or gain a new perspective on the world. This brings a negative image of readers as whole and dehumanizes the community even though its only a small minority.
Positively, the Book Tok community has also been a active site of spreading awareness through literature as well as getting more people to enjoy reading. I myself have managed to get my friends into reading by focusing on what genres they enjoy rather than giving them something which doesn’t benefit them, which brings me to my final point.
People read books for many reasons, that doesn’t mean they are wrong. People have different perspectives on the world and that’s okay. You don’t have to be a literary genius to enjoy reading, you must understand different viewpoints. A friend if mine once said – “We read and write to be understood, not to be judged.”
