Literature is a broad term for what it represents. Nothing about this term—which is so vital to our lives—can be placed into that black and white corner that this question endeavors to force it into. Though only professors and teachers can tell and teach unseasoned readers what to value, and what novels and texts we should value over others, there are still some guidelines that those texts should follow. In a way, literature can be anything the reader wills it to be, because in general, literature is a meaning production factory. It produces what is most valuable to us with every read and reread we do: knowledge. Literature is an escape, but it is also a teacher and a mirror. The only way to truly take a good look at our lives, worlds, and
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Coming from the German language, the term “Zeitgeist” refers to the feelings people feel in general during a period of time; the goal and desires the era had as a whole. In the 1970’s the Zeitgeist was about loving everyone, while in the late 1400’s and 1500’s it was about exploration. Literature should show what the true Zeitgeist is of the age it was written in, or for. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, we clearly see that the spirit of that age was about the question of whether there were or should be limits to science or even knowledge in general. When Frankenstein was written, scientists were learning so much about the human body, and how to properly treat wounds and injuries, as well as expanding our knowledge of safe, and effective was of treating such things as maladies. People back then were worried that if such research and advancement continued at the rate at which it was, that something bad, and even dangerous would result from it. Hence Frankenstein’s monster. For literature to still resonate with us today, however, something about that Zeitgeist must voice concerns we still have. It must enhance our awareness of the present as well as the past, either by reworking or maintaining our
Coming from the German language, the term “Zeitgeist” refers to the feelings people feel in general during a period of time; the goal and desires the era had as a whole. In the 1970’s the Zeitgeist was about loving everyone, while in the late 1400’s and 1500’s it was about exploration. Literature should show what the true Zeitgeist is of the age it was written in, or for. In Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, we clearly see that the spirit of that age was about the question of whether there were or should be limits to science or even knowledge in general. When Frankenstein was written, scientists were learning so much about the human body, and how to properly treat wounds and injuries, as well as expanding our knowledge of safe, and effective was of treating such things as maladies. People back then were worried that if such research and advancement continued at the rate at which it was, that something bad, and even dangerous would result from it. Hence Frankenstein’s monster. For literature to still resonate with us today, however, something about that Zeitgeist must voice concerns we still have. It must enhance our awareness of the present as well as the past, either by reworking or maintaining our