In this post, I want to discuss the perception that the analysis involved in studying literature is too far-fetched, that a lot of writing choices are less meaningful than some say, and to discuss literature for enjoyment versus study.
I have heard people complain about English teachers in school reading too much into things, plucking ridiculous, far-fetched analyses out of the air. I know people who have been put off studying literature, having had certain books spoiled for them from being analysed to death.
When I hear complaints like this, I do understand where these people are coming from, but this is what springs to my mind:
1) What if? - We must remember that writing is a craft and a profession. It is an author's job to carefully consider and craft a piece of work, and must be a painstaking process of imagining character developments and plot lines. Personally, I think most of an author's writing - and what your English teachers ask you to consider and analyse - is intentional, and we must view it as such.
A lot of writing is focused on expressing opinions and discussing issues, and a plot can simply be a device used by the author to do this.
In regards to poetry, I definitely think the majority is intentional - poetry is a condensed form of expression, words that must stick to a strict structure, so why would a poet be so silly as to waste valuable space to talk about something meaningless, and not to treat every word as sacred?
2) So what? - Even if it's not, we will probably never know anyway, and this doesn't even matter. Surely the point is to enjoy reading and reading into it; gathering your own interpretation, sometimes influenced by its relation to your own experiences and life, is one of the greatest things about literature.
And this is where enjoyment versus study comes in. For me, they can go hand in hand. But for many, studying literature does not equate to enjoying reading a book; they just want to simply read it. This definitely does apply to me in some cases, depending on the situation. Just because sometimes I love reading without stopping and to gather the sense of it as I follow the plot, doesn't mean that I don't also love discussing novels I have read, or loved sitting and contributing in English classes.
And I'm afraid that, in English classes, in the study of literature, you cannot just get away with reading through it and gathering the meaning. It is about developing a critical and analytical skill set, and also about understanding the context of the time the novel was written, and the views of the author.
Of course, people have different interests, and I do think that this is where a resentment can stem from. I personally got very frustrated with most of the technical, scientific subjects in school and had no interest in pursuing them.
But if you are discussing your annoying GCSE English teacher who would go on and on about pathetic pathetic fallacy, drilling ideas into you that the author 'probably didn't even think about', perhaps it's worth considering that you may not be giving enough credit to the men and women featured on your syllabus.
Evie x
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