The importance of the history of literature
In many ways literature bears similarities with the inherent identities of any social group. It captures the richness, beauty and value of the diverse facets of a people highlighted through either spoken or written language, or even capturing all these pieces into a single whole. Inferring from the forgoing, it is evident that, the art of literature defies the conventional limitations placed on it, as a communicative tool.
A canonical case in point is in the words of Atkinson (n.d), when he asserts that “the literature of a community is the record of the nature of that community’s understanding at the time.” It is an art that is timeless in its manifestation and practice.
The legendary works of gurus of the art such as William Shakespeare and a host of others pay glowing tributes to this assertion. Once again, for illustrative purposes, it will be recalled that the scholarly works of William Shakespeare are hinged on realistic themes of his day and age without any excuse to contemporary experiences.
In addition to the above, literature has been said to be the custodian of all the forms of human civilizations ever known and where they are headed. A striking similarity sometimes appears to blur this role of literature with the work of history. The main difference is that, literature takes responsibility for the existent practices of that civilization as well as the mandate of consolidating the relevant aspects in order to make it wholly transmittable to posterity. In the case of English literature, whatever is left of our process is largely due to the pioneering efforts of preceding generations of scholars who bore the pain of living the legacy of knowledge to current generations. Therefore, literature in its absolute form should be an abiding legacy of the realities of society for the correction, restoration and preservation of the ideals of society, no matter how lowly the state of development of such a community.
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