Literature as Exploration by Rosenblatt Louise M

Author:Rosenblatt, Louise M. [Rosenblatt, Louise M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Modern Language Association of America
Published: 2016-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Personality

Literary materials—the poem, the short story, the novel, the drama, and, by extension, the motion picture and television—can contribute powerfully to both phases of the twofold educational process that we have outlined. Contemporary psychology encourages the belief that “the really important things in the education of youth cannot be taught in the formal didactic manner; they are things which are experienced, absorbed, accepted, incorporated into the personality through emotional and esthetic experiences” (Frank 214).

Of all the elements that enter into the educational process—except, of course, the actual personal relationships and activities that make up the community life of the school—literature possesses the greatest potential for that kind of assimilation of ideas and attitudes. For literature enables the youth to live through—and to reflect on—much that in abstract terms would be meaningless to him. He comes to know intimately, more intimately perhaps than would be possible in actual life, many personalities. He vicariously shares their struggles and perplexities and achievements. He becomes a part of strange environments, or he sees with new emotions the conditions and the lives about him. And these vicarious experiences have at least something of the warmth and color and immediacy of life.

Any insight or clarification the youth derives from the literary work will grow out of its relevance to certain facets of his emotional or intellectual nature. The whole personality tends to become involved in the literary experience. That a literary work may bring into play and be related to profoundly personal needs and preoccupations makes it a powerful potential educational force. For it is out of these basic needs and attitudes that behavior springs. Hence, literature can foster the linkage between intellectual perception and emotional drive that is essential to any vital learning process.

The criterion for judging the success of any educational process must be its effect on the actual life of the student; its ultimate value depends on its assimilation into the vary marrow of personality. What, then, are the results in terms of personality and behavior to be expected from the kind of literary experience and training that has been defined as desirable?

This question will be answered first in the light of the individual student’s relation to books. The present chapter will thus deal with the potential influence on personality inherent in literary experiences themselves. Chapter 8 will then apply this question to the type of literature study outlined in the first half of this book. Both of these chapters will reflect the view of personality development sketched in the preceding chapter and will indicate how an awareness of the suggested approach to human relations may grow out of the experience and study of literature.

We are now venturing on ground that is thorny with unexplored difficulties. Much emotion has been expended on this problem of the influence of literature, but little careful or controlled study has been made of it. The following discussion is offered principally for the purpose of focusing attention on this extremely important problem. The aim is to arouse

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