What Is

Literature For?

By Tzvetan Todorov
 About the author
- He grew up with many books
around him
- His parents were librarians

- He was passionate about reading

- He had high ambitions about
literature
 About the author
When he was reading as teenager it
helped him escape real life experiences
and avoid being hurt by others

However, reading as an adult helped him

understand the people and the world
around him in a better way
 About the author

The author expresses the feeling of

restriction in Bulgaria as it is a
communist country , so there is a
lack of freedom when it comes to
literary work
 About the author

For this reason the author moves to

Paris, in order to have the freedom
to study literary works that he
missed out on in Bulgaria
 About the author

In Paris, he was searching for a

place where he could study:
- Style
- Language
- Literature theory
 About the author

He settled in France and admired it as

he could engage with his own ideas
freely, and no longer had to conform to
ready-made ideologies
Studying literature in France

Instead of studying: (how to analyse?)

now he could (analyse the work itself)
and study the the author’s ideas
Studying literature in France

He also realised, he didn't just need to

look at the author’s ideas in order to
understand the text
Rather, he also needed to study the
history and cultures of the people
Studying literature in France

Although, he had the freedom to

write he found out that the studying
of literature (even in France) had its
limitations
Studying literature in France
They would split up literature study
into: nations and centuries
which the author and Genette
(a teaching assistance) wanted to
change
How?
By studying what literary works have
in common regardless of the nation or
century it was written in
Literature in schools
He was disappointed to see the way
literature was taught in schools
as students study what critics say about
the text
and not what the text is actually about
neither do they study how to criticise the
text themselves
Literature in schools

There has to be a balance between the

two approaches:

- Intrinsic approach: to compare texts

- Extrinsic approach: to study the
historical contexts of the texts
The author gives 3 examples
of types of literature:

writers use clever words and

Formalist view
language to generate meaning

writers use their works to

Nihilistic view represent the world negatively
(The world is bad, they are good)
writers use their works to focus
Solipsistic view on themselves ‘self-fiction’
(The world revolves about them)
 Nihilistic view and
Solipsistic view:
There are similar in the idea that
‘they both use their works to separate
themselves from the world’
- Nihilistic view:
‘The world is bad, so I must exclude myself’
- Solipsistic view:
‘It’s all about me, so the world must be
worthless and not important’
Science vs. Literature

Science Literature

Facts and statements Meaning

Could be accepted or Open to interpretations,

rejected therefore there is no right or wrong
Philosophy vs. Literature

Philosophy Literature
Helps live a unique
Manipulates concept
experience

Favours abstraction which allows Preserves the richness and diversity

the formulation of general laws of what is lived
What is literature for?
- It can cure depression
- It helps us understand people and the
world in a better way
- It can change us from within
- It helps us live unique experiences
- It can influence our opinion like tv can
Literature in quotes
- The study of man,
his relationship with himself, with others,
and with the rest of the world.
- Literature is like meeting new people,
it broadens our horizon
and enriches our universe.
- Life is not literature,
but literature is part of life.