What are the impulses behind literature?
Literature
grows directly out of life, so it is oblivious that in life itself we have to
search for its sources. Hudson, in “Some Ways of Studying Literature”,
discusses four major impulses that have given birth to the various forms of
literary expression. The four impulses that Hudson talks about are:
1. Our
Desire for Self-expression:
Hudson says that, “we are strongly impelled to
confide to others what we think and feel.” All of us have a natural desire to
express ourselves. We always want to open our heart to others. We wish to
express our feelings and thoughts to others. This desire for self-expression
results into the production of literature. A piece of literature is expression
of writer’s mind and heart, his emotions and ideas. Thus our desire for
self-expression is the first and primary impulses that give birth to
literature.
2. Our
Interest in People and their doings:
“We are intensely interested in men and women, their
lives, motives, passions, relationships”, admits Hudson. Our interest in the
lives of other people and their doing gives birth to literature. As human
beings we cannot live quite aloof from others. We always like to know about
other people, their thoughts, their feelings, their problems, and, their
resistance to certain problems, their achievements and limitations, and, their
success and failure. In order to know other people, their thoughts, the ways of
their life, and, their customs and lives, we read-write literature.
3. Our
Interest in World of Reality and Imagination:
The two reasons that stimulate the production of
literature are: man’s interest in the world of reality and man’s escape from
the world of reality to world of imagination. As a man, we are always
interested in what is going on around us, what is happening around us. As a man
of thoughts also we are eager to now the things around us, the realities of the
world. Our interest in this world of
realities results into the production of literature.
Many a times, man is fed up with the world of
realities. He wants to escape into the world of imagination where he
experiences mental bliss. Man creates his own world, the world of imagination
and lives a peaceful life away from the world of bitter realities. The world of
fantasy and fancy makes our life better than real world. This also results into
the production of literature. The world’s great literatures are the mix product
of world of realities and imagination.
4. Our
Love for Form as Form:
Hudson believes, “we take special satisfaction in
the mere shaping of expression into forms of beauty.” Man, by his nature, is
unable to keep his experience, observations, emotions, ideas, fancies, to
himself, but he is on the contrary under the stress of constant desire of
expressing these to other and for that he chooses various channels of
expression. Man is also fond of particular form of literature. And many a
times, his love for particular form results in the production of literature.
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