Impact+of+Literature+on+Reality

In //Mister Pip// we see how a single piece of literature can have a serious impact on a group of people. In the beginning it serves as a means to give children structure in a place where civil war has robbed them of their schools and teachers. Over the course of the novel the book changes from boon to bane and then back to boon again, and I think an exploration of this transformation as well as its impact on the history of the people it impacts could be rewarding. Matilda notes later that //Great Expectations// might not be relevant to all people. She feels that it only became relevant to her in a certain context, and she can't count on it reaching others. Perhaps students can write a reflection for themselves on the relevance of //Mister Pip//. I'm sure they would have opinions on who would appreciate this book more or less. What arguments can be made about some books being relevant to virtually everyone? What do we mean when we say a book is irrelevant or frivolous? I think an interesting co-assignment could be for students to go back through history and find works of literature (or even more widely art) influenced history in some way. It can be a study of how a piece of literature impacted the world or a group of people, or it can explore how a book impacted a just the students life just as the novel seemed to be for Matilda. In the first case a student might even be able to do a sort of New Historicism reading of the novel, comparing how it was received at the time, and how it might be received now. I think an important aspect of the lesson would be to ask students to focus on only literary works because I wouldn’t want them going home and picking the Magna Carta as their example. It is not that the Magna Carter did not impact history it’s just that it is not exactly literary in nature. The focus of the assignment should be in making a connection between a literary work (art) and reality. I do not know that I would do this assignment with every class, but I think it could be really helpful in instances where the class constantly doubts the value or impact of literature on their life. I think it could be a really interesting and informative assignment for students and teacher.

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