by Akram Saqib

Created on: June 05, 2010

    Literature is now widely used word for any written    material .it is true in lexical terms but not right in as regards the term literature. In strict sense literature is the written material with some specific characteristics. Each and every hackneyed word can not be called literature. It is always in some specific form with artistic values. Universality, sincerity, lifelikeness and suggestiveness are its important elements. A brochure or a catalogue is not literature in strict sense. It is the record of spiritual progress of a nation. It reveals the aspects of life that are hidden from the common people. It is the literature that leads a nation to the path of progress and prosperity. It was the literary personality that sends the man on moon first in his stories and afterwards the scientists strived to achieve the goal.

Literature is quite different from science. Scientists tell us what the thing is while literature tells us how things should be. Literature is the kind of writing charged with the human interests and colored with the permanence of values, imaginativeness and artistic embellishments. It is the voyage of the centuries or ages embedded with the ornaments of the experiences of humanity. Science is just like the foundry where every thing is molded into same pattern while literature is the garden where the variety of fragrance colors and texture is in abundant. On this visor the visitor sees according to his own abilities and wisdom.

The scientist invents while the literature creates. The literary personality is the seer; harbinger of the new age. The spiritual change and enhancement is possible only through literature. It is the guardian of culture and traditions. Literature familiarizes us to new worlds of ideas and novel inner experience.  We acquaint ourselves with books and literature of all ages and times and enjoy the literary essence in these works. We take pleasure in comedies and catharsizes our selves through tragedies. The poems take us to eternal world of art and the short stories refine our thoughts. The prose has pedagogical effect and we feel elevated. We recognize our status in this universe and work for the betterment of the humanity. Any scientific invention can not lift our heart and soul as do the literature. The literature changes our inner self without our knowledge. Whatsoever critical pattern we use to converse and analyze literature, there is always a creative quality in all literary works. Literature is vital to us because it talks to us, it is cosmic, and it influences us. Even when it is unpleasant, it is striking.

When we peep into annals of the literature we are really lost in it and some outer influence bring us out of the enchantment of literature. ‘Divine comedy’ of Dante still strikes us, the works of Homer and Sophocles are still alive in our lives and thoughts and we feel proud of these works.

A collection of few words in the form of a single line of verse or prose often does the more than the hundreds of pedantic lectures and admonishments.

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