Literature of Knowledge and Literature of Power is an essay written by
Thomas de Quincey in order to explain and define what literature really
is. Literally, literature is everything printed in books; but according to Thomas de Quincey, Literature has an important element of relating general interests to mans life. To further explain this, he mentions the two functions of literature: the literature of knowledge and the literature of power. The Literature of Knowledge is an element that refers to the teachings, thoughts and lessons of a particular literary writing brought to us for additional information only. On the other hand, Literature of Power is an element, which causes us to move or take action because of the literary knowledge we have gained; in other words, it is the application of the Literature of Knowledge to human life. In relation to our Literature subject, we can infer that the Literature of Power has been present all throughout the lessons except for some that we have taken. The Literature of Power is deeply rooted in emotions. Therefore, Literature of Power and emotions have a robust relationship with each other. Instances upon which the Literature of Power were present in the stories are: Sonnet 29--the degree to which the sonnet moved the readers emotions from feeling sorry for the narrators misery, then shifting the end into a feeling of contentment and happiness both for the reader and the narrator; The Velveteen Rabbit-the impact of the story on the readers about freedom by being real through knowing ones identity according to ones point of view and how woeful it is to be exposed to the obnoxious reality; Iliad- readers, upon reading this epic, will feel the sorrow of losing a loved one and the delight to know that conscience and goodness will always be present at a story; Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening- a feeling of fulfilling a desire but brings the reader to focus more on their priorities rather than on impulsive temptations; Chabela Wedding cake- mans yearning for freedom which leads to sorrow because of the hindrances caused by the characters and the traditions, it leads the readers to the exposure of unforeseen circumstances that love can do; After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes- the emotion of numbness and painful withstanding of situations hard to let go which soon directs the readers into realizing that there is always a rainbow after the rain; and A Rose for Emily- the feeling of wonder about why the characters did such manners and the symbolism behind the story which refers to the lifestyle, the effects of sociocultural events to society where the
readers can change their way of acceptance in order to prevent chaos
just as it happened in the story. The only lesson we took which was more on Literature of Knowledge was The Lawsuit because not much emotion had been poured into it and the analysis of the story is more on intellectualizing who is telling the truth and who is not; and what caused the certain events in the story to happen. The next topic we are to relate to our lessons is the essay written by Paz Latorena entitled Educating the Literary Taste. In this essay, she brings up the division of Literary Taste: good taste and bad taste. She also mentions different people who gave contributions on the foundation of the Literary Taste. Baltazar Gracian came up with the term hombre de buen gusto, which means tactful man. Later on, the French Baltazar Gracian made the translation into good taste and bad taste, which later became famous in Europe. Addison then defined literary taste as the beauty of perfection and imperfection. Colleridge therefore defined Literary Taste as both intellectual and with subjective bias. How did that happen? Literary Taste as being intellectual refers to the standards that Literary Writings must meet but since people have different viewpoints on standard, it is then subjectively biased. With this, Literary Criticism was created in order to judge the literary pieces of different people. Literary Criticism deals with universally accepted standards and these standards include the grammar, spelling, rhymes, and the like. This is where Literary Taste opens up. In Literary taste, personal points of view are accepted and universal standards are disregarded. For as long as a literary piece moves a readers heart or emotions, it will be immediately accepted even if the literary piece becomes insensible to the highest degree. However, to avoid this dissemination of insensible literary piece, Educating the Literary Taste was created. It was mentioned in the essay that to educate a literary taste is to start helping the alienated students in engaging to Literature as early as possible. The previous idea mentioned was by Sir Josh Reynolds. He said that Literary Taste could be taught. The standards in teaching literary taste are: Intellectual value. The literary writing must make sense. There must be truth and significance/relevance in the message conveyed in a literary piece. For example: all the literary pieces we discussed- they all
presented the relevance of the stories to human emotion; and The
Lawsuit- the real Muslim tradition about marriage was showcased and also the factual responsibilities of an individual to his relatives in accordance to the law. Emotional value. No matter how unpleasant the writing of the literary piece is, the emotional value will become its saving grace. The emotional value is about how a literary piece can move the heart of the reader, how much it can arouse feelings, and how it reaches out to the readers the feeling of belongingness because of the relation and similarities of the stories to our personal lives. It is a bit similar with the Literature of Power but its still different. As stated in the previous paragraphs, all the literary pieces we have tackled aroused emotional impact on the readers. Therefore, emotional value, which has been present all throughout the stories, is as important as the intellectual value. However, according to Paz Latorena, emotional value can be classified into two: pleasant emotion and unpleasant emotion. Still, both these kinds of emotions are neutrally present in each literary piece. The last and the most important value in the Literary Taste Standard is the ethical value. This value is concerned with morality and goodness. There might be confusion with this one since some of the literary pieces covered immoral or unpleasant events: The Lawsuit- the polygamy through existence of a second wife, the luxurious lifestyle of the father, and the act of the gold-diggers (the mother and the elder brother) upon judgmentally accusing the second wife as homewrecker; Like Water for Chocolate- Rosaura cursing her sister, lust of Pedro and Rosaura, and the earthly doings of the rest of the characters; Iliad- the murder of Patroclus and Hector, the anger and revenge of Achilles, and the dragging around town of Hectors body which is an act of disrespectfulness; and A Rose for Emily- the murder of Homer Barron, Emily refuses to pay her tax and violates the taxation law, and the discrimination of the black race in Jefferson. Moreover, the mentioned literary pieces are not to be referred as immoral literary pieces because the immoral acts did not happen all throughout the story; instead, it occurred for some time but later came into a good solution since the main purpose of the authors were to promote goodness in the end. The lessons and the aims of the writers were to make us, readers, be hopeful and optimistic in dealing with our daily lives: The Lawsuit- forgiveness; Like Water for Chocolate- love and freedom; Iliad- the strength of the father-and-son relation, human conscience, succeeding even after all the pain and the sufferings, and the hope to a new tomorrow; and A Rose for Emily- the equality of all races and what love can do.