Literature Across Disciplines

Literature can be entertaining, but also very thought-provoking. I find it intriguing when a person writes to share an experience that others can learn from or tells a story with the intention of creating debate or improving someone’s life. Such texts can take the form of novels, poetry, biographies, and others—the idea is to present material in a different form than a text book.

John Rollin Ridge describes the life of a slave in 19^th century America in Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, An American Slave. This is a text that brings up topics such as slavery—quite obvious—racism, human interaction, and dynamics in a typical southern work environment for the time being. In poetry the meaning is often hidden, or less direct, and thereby demands more consciousness and interpretation from the reader. Other times it is quite direct, such as in Hubert Harrison’s The Black Man’s Burden from When Africa Awakes. He describes the suffering slaves have gone through and ends the poem with saying that it is a matter of time until justice will be done. 

             In my English 323 class it was several times said that English teachers have a responsibility that goes beyond teaching English as a language; in the texts students read during their time in school they come across a range of topics from various disciplines. One might read about climate change, human rights, war, religion, poverty or relationships. I remember thinking it was a bit overwhelming to expect English teachers to cover such a broad specter of topics, but later I realized what a great opportunity it represents. If one can show students of all interests what they can learn from reading literature, perhaps more will discover what the world of English has to offer.

            Imagine a student who is interested in going to college to study environmental science; the student is presented with Emerson’s Nature and because of the beautiful images that are described the student decides to study environmental law in grad school to help preserve nature. Another possibility is that This Lime-tree Bower my Prison could spark an interest in psychology or social work because a student recognizes the importance of providing social interaction to all people. Regardless of what direction literature might take a student, the idea is to connect it with other subjects. This will add meaning to a text and make it more enjoyable to work with compared to isolating it and only looking at it from a literary angle.