Said's View on the Nonpolitical Nature of Literature
Said claims that over the past ten years, an implicit agreement has developed that the study of literature is fundamentally and inherently nonpolitical. He was trying to say that literature is linked to a variety of skills that aren't present in politics. As stated by Said, for example, the use of textuality, rhetoric, and deconstruction as contemporary literary techniques only pertains to texts related to literature and not to political documents like newspapers or government booklets. (120). Said further describes the division of fields, disciplines, and objects as carefully studying literature being nonpolitical. This is because after separation, each discipline is tackled by the professions who are specialized in the area at the expense of the other. For instance literary professionals are knowledgeable on the literature as a discipline hence cannot incorporate other ideas from politics into literary texts. This makes literature stand on its own minus the politics.
The Views of Literary Critics
The meaning of Said's statement is also derived from the literary critics. Some for example Jameson argues that as a political analyst, he has no room for the literary texts that requires political inclusion. Occasionally, he claims that he gives priority to the politics interpretation without associating them to the literary text by different authors. His argument is grounded on believe that the literary authors have a conceived message that they want to pass through writing without inclusion of politics. This accounts for the study of literature as constitutively nonpolitical.
The Role of Literature in Preserving Cultural Practices
Furthermore, Said (128) believes that the role of literature is to communicate and preserve the cultural practices of various groups. This strongly was supported by Jameson who understood literature as underlying the utopian element of culture production of all human societies. Cultural appropriation is a phenomena widely used to define the society and bring out the elements that distinguishes it from the others without necessarily borrowing from political avenues. Said went ahead to launching the 1978 orientalism which was for the consensus that study of literature is a distinct discipline from the politics. He was influential in basing literature under the cultural norms extending to the western and the eastern attitudes. He constantly holds that literature is tied to its own basic impetus to academic and literary materials which disputes the societal politics and conflicts. Said (132) adds that the society's mind is what is addressed, informed, evaluated, criticized and reformed by the study of literature as a discipline.
Literature as a Solution to Societal Issues
Said believes that literature best solves racism, imperialism and class struggle issues within the society at the expense of political issues. In spite of said being a militant character, he strongly advocates for liberal humanism with an aim of providing a critical perspective on the simplicity of academic literary discourse attacking colored people everywhere. He also refers to literature as the common democratic model of democratic sovereignty with political matters kept outside its boundaries (Said 133). Although said acts as an ally of the popular majority, he does so by going against the terror of the corporate globalization with an aim of shunning the political ideals and values from the literature field.
Marxist Approach to Literature
The responsible critics for the consensus on the study of literature as profoundly nonpolitical
Marxism approach to literature clearly defines its study as constitutively nonpolitical. The Marxist proponents like Eagleton writes that readings of literary texts are not class collaborationism meaning that literature does not include any political notions as founded by Said (135). He even suggests that novels cannot help in answering a question on foundations of capitalism as they are deficient of the politics where capitalism is founded. To this extent, the proposition of such Marxist is that study of literature ignores the political issues thus responsible for the agreement.
Correspondingly, Marxist ideas on the disciplinary divisions is evident. They are against the intellectual solidarity of different fields including literature which they argue should be on its own or borrow from other disciplines excluding politics. Significantly, they define literature as an intellectual discourse existing solely on its own. Jameson as a Marxist is a real advocate of the study of literature as profoundly nonpolitical as he confesses that he does not care if the small world of the literary studies are inhibited for lack of politics inclusion. He holds that literature should speak its language and solve its problem alone as a discipline (Said 136). Political leaders are against the use of literature as an ideological platform since it may clash with the everyday reality that is found in the political realms.
Marxists claim that the literary critics have continuously talked about politics hopelessly and longingly. They dismissed the political identity arguing that several identities that can be used to define a person exists. The definition is complete without one being defined or identified politically. Said (139) states that the critics lack of interest in politics account for the study of literature as nonpolitical according to the Marxism methodology. Marxist proposes a methodological approach where the disciplines, fields and discourses involved should develop a means of questioning themselves without intervention from other disciplines. This bring the state of affairs in the literature which mainly takes literature as independent discipline not only away from politics but any other discipline that will lead to its development.
Literary scholars are singled out from the study of human history which incorporates element of politics. The critics who single out this believes that literary scholars only deals with texts which are only their departure as well as their culmination. Occasionally, literature involves reading and writing which demands flexibility and inquisitive of the scholars rather than politicizing the write-up thus bringing about absurdity within the text. Marxists encourages literary scholars idea of creating literature out of monuments thus communicates historical information rather than documents recorded about politics (Said 141). Though the monuments have little historical research and accuracy, they are best advocated by Marxists since they offer insights to the literature of the centuries that is necessary in the study of the current literature.
Personal Assessment of the Study of Literature
Literature cannot be on its own. For it to be complete, it must be associated with the aspects of life including politics. This will in turn qualify its study as a political platform for leaders to communicate their political ideals easily. Novelists, poets and dramatists are supposed to deal with political issues evident in the society and which mostly affects the citizens socially and economically. Political leaders are people within the society interacting with the ordinary common people whose issues needs to be addressed by any means possible. The current best means of solving political concerns by the citizens is by writing down to make the information available to all.
Personally, I assess literature study as a base for political criticism by the writers. Instead of depoliticizing literature, literary scholars are focused at ensuring the levels of governance are well represented in the texts so that people understands them better. In most cases, literary texts either criticizes or elevates the government under control. Similarly, the government responds to this by rectifying the loopholes so that writers do not focus on criticizing them.
Politics are believed to impact the society positively and negatively. Therefore use of politics in literature specifically novels offers a ground for praising the leaders who possess good leadership qualities thus impacting the society clearly in developments and improvement in general. Conversely, those leading to the erosion of society are castigated through various styles employed in the literary texts. Their ineffective leadership is demonstrated hence citizens are aware of the type of leaders entrusted on to them. It is for these benefits that literature should be counted as inclusive of politics since it is a general area to be studied.
Similarly, literature is believed to be a base for creating awareness both to the literate through reading and the non-literate who are informed through various performances. As a medium of communication, literature has to be broad and borrow widely from politics so that people may get educated and knowledgeable on the obligation of political leaders who rule them. The above personal assessment leads to my conclusion that study of literature is considered to be constitutively political.
Work Cited
Said, Edward. "Reflections on exile." Reflections onExile and Other Essay. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2000. Print.
