ESSAY OF LITERARY APPRECIATION

LITERARY APPRECIATION

Appreciating literary works is one of the attempts to make those masterpieces to be more valuable. By doing this, all written materials are not supposed to merely a combination of words which is made to be read. We can get as many as possible the benefits served including the feeling of joy, interesting information, life experience and so on. In order to appreciate maximally, we need to know some aspects that are related to this subject such as literature, literary appreciation, the way to appreciate literary works, and the advantages of literary works.

The first thing we should know is the definition of literature itself. Although there is no definite meaning, but we can say that literature is anything that is written. The word literature is derived from a Latin word “Littera” which means letters of the alphabet. Later on, in The Study of Poetry, Professor Egudu stated that literature is a mode or method of expression. This definition implies that words are used to express one’s feeling or new idea. However, we cannot only describe literature as a written material because before we can read the printed forms of literary works, people are tend to tell stories from mouth to  mouth. This kind of literature is called oral literature.

In general, there are two types of literature; informative and imaginative. Informative literature offers us knowledge about history or real ‘great’ life figure completed with facts and explanation, while imaginative literature arouses thoughts and feelings wherein the author communicates through feelings and emotion, not fact and information only. Literature has three genres or branches called poetry, drama, and prose. According to William Wordsworth, poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in the moment of tranquilly which implies that poetry is natural, imaginative, and emotional expression. Then, drama is a work of art acted on the stage in front of an audience and usually copies actual life experience. Last, prose is ordinary written or spoken language of man, can be fiction or non-fiction, without metrical structure.

The term literature cannot be separated with literary appreciation. Literary appreciation is the ability to understand, enjoy, and evaluate literary works. It studies the writing styles and literary devices which are used within texts. Literature is the object that literary appreciation looks to study and the medium through which literary appreciation can be expressed.

According to Donelson and Nilsen (2009),  literary appreciation occurs in seven stages as follow:

1.    Pleasure and profit (literary appreciation is a social experience)

2.    Decoding (literary is developed)

3.    Lose yourself (reading becomes a means of escaping)

4.    Find yourself (discovering identity)

5.    Venture beyond self (assessing the world around them)

6.    Variety in reading (reads widely and discusses experience with peers)

7.    Aesthetic purpose (appreciates the artistic value of reading)

To help people to appreciate literary works easily, there are two ways they can do. First, understanding the idea and information. This may be difficult for some people since most of the idea is implicit, or placed beyond words. Thus, they should study the language by giving the meanings of words used, study the structures of  a literary work by listing the elements of each work, and study some approaches which can be useful to make a better understanding. These approaches include study the background (setting) of a literary work, find out the information of the author, identify the target readers, understand literary works as an entity in itself, and find other literatures that may be related to the one we appreciate before. By doing these, we will be able to conclude the idea and information the author wants to express so we will enjoy reading it more. Second, appreciating literary works can be done by performing them in many ways such as discuss the elements of literary works, write a note on certain aspect, recite poems, performing drama on stage and so forth. The second way is more to apply the literary works we have read in a real life situation.

As we know that literature is created for various purposes, hence, it also provides us with many advantages which range in different aspects of our life as follow:

1.    Entertainment: The main purpose of literature is to entertain, please, or delight the readers. Some people tend to read or play literary works mainly for recreation.

2.    Mastering of English language: By reading various kind of literary works written in English, we will develop our English ability especially in form of vocabulary and structures.

3.    Emotional relief: We can release our feeling by expressing our thought and emotions through literary works or reading literature books.

4.    Literature mirrors life: It means that literature is an imitation of one’s life. The experience happen in literature will make us laugh or sad because the situation is similar to real life situation.

5.    Literature is a means of education and enlightenment: It teaches us new things and informs us about the happening around us.

6.    Makes us wiser: Literary works sometime contains of a great value in which we can learn from them and view the things happening wisely.

In conclusion, even though literatures are every kind of written materials, we can distinguish them in sense of any writing and verbal works of art. Appreciating them is important because it will lead us to the higher level of understanding. Since there are many ways to appreciate literary works, we better combine those ways in order to get as many information to understand more. Enjoying literary works is a worth because we not only get the pleasure but also the advantages to make our life better.

REFERENCES

Delta. 2011. Literary Appreciation. Online. Available on http://offeroeduservices. blogspot.com/2011/02/literary-appreciation.html, downloaded on March 7, 2014.

Donelson, Kenneth L. & Alleen Nilsen. 2009. Literature for Today’s Young Adult. Boston: Pearson.

Dwinastiti, Marlin. 2013. The Definition of Literary Appreciation and Criticism. Online. Available on http://marlindwinastiti.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/ the-definition-of-literary-appreciation-and-criticism/, downloaded on March 7, 2014.

Hobby, Nathaniel. What is the Difference Between Literature and Literary Appreciation. Online. Available on http://education.blurtit.com /181314/what-is-the-different-between-literature-and-literary-appreciat-ion, downloaded on March 7, 2014.

Lecturing by Mrs. Dra.  Diani Nurhayati M.Pd. on March 04, 2014.

Risdianto, Faizal, S.S,M.Hum. 2011. Introduction to Literature. Yogyakarta: TrustMedia.