Essay on Analyis of Knowledge of a Possibility by JUllary Putnam

The historical fiction genre is more popular than ever, with masses of television programmes, motion pictures and novels being written around the subject. This influx has brought a new reception to the many time periods of history that had otherwise been forgotten and abandoned, and also to many that are heavily documented but rarely looked upon. However, with the need for a fascinating story to sell to the audiences some of the historical fact is being obscured in the process, thus causing a lack of respect between authors and historians. In this essay, I will be exploring the relationship to literature from both historians and authors, also examining their own beliefs on what defines a historical novel and whether or not these authors

The value of literature delineates an opportunity for humanity to achieve collective growth. The intellectual capability of both individuals and communities are affected by the importance assigned to literary works. Lack of such regard results in a limited capacity for sociological cohesion consequently shaping the discourse of an era. Austen inadvertently expresses the minimal regard for written material in her society through Pride and Prejudice. The exclamation “there is no enjoyment like reading!” highlights the passion felt for such an activity. However, this desire can be attributed to discourse. Austen exhibits this through the cultural expectation that a woman “must have thorough knowledge”, furthered by the dialogue of gaining cognizance

An intriguing point in this chapter is that Frye proposes that literature is neither real nor unreal. Literature has been around seemingly forever, however, distinguishing between the “real” literature and the “unreal” would serve as the key concept to this chapter. Literature is real because since it is directly derived from human experience. This makes

From start to finish, English this year had been unlike any other I had. From start to finish, each and every book had a deeper meaning than I, before, could possibly resolve from the text. The exposure I had to this deeper level of thinking forever changed the way I see literature. Less about “what” than “why”, Literature distinguishes a meaningful story from another. While what makes a book “good” is different for everyone, what makes a story meaningful is what it teaches. Each book I read this year had a story and logic behind it. Every story was real enough to have actually happened because the plot points are supported with real speculation backed up by the nature of humanity. I, personally, have never gone as deep into literature as I have this year, giving me a new appreciation for the genius behind the speculation these books present.

In other words, reading literature goes beyond just the words of the author. As readers, we become more aware of what the narrator and of what the characters might be feeling. There are feelings that form our underlying base of who we are and a lot of the times we avoid them because they’re a constant reminder of what’s real versus what we want to think is real. From time to time literature may make the readers thing of something personal that gives us a sense of reality. Through John Updike’s Rabbit Run, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Margaret Atwood’s Happy Endings, James Joyce’s Araby, Patrick White’s The Vivesector, and Jorge Luis Borges’ Pierre Menard, Author of the ‘Quixote’ readers come to find a sense of reality within the characters portrayed through these works.

Novels have become one of the most prominent literature outlets, owing to the appreciation they have garnered and inspired from multiple authors. With its prominence, a trend has arisen where authors tend to follow a standard line of thinking, be it regarding themes or writing styles. An example of a commonly adopted literature concept amongst most authors is the concept of magical realism, which is expressible through the use of magic in novel settings. Through analyzing Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion, the paper will determine why authors use magic realism in their literature pieces while connecting this concept to their themes.

Literature is often said to be used as a means of reflecting the times, society and climate the author is in and experiencing. Values, norms the ethos of a particular culture place or time is often interpreted through its literature. (Albrecht, 1954)

The concept of literary canon has undergone changes time-to-time. During the age of Enlightenment, the value of literary texts was determined on the basis of aesthetic properties the texts possess. The value-judgments that the Enlightenment era offered were considered universal, ethical, and rational. However, in the contemporary times, the category of

Whilst the ontology of fictitious things has been discussed since the beginnings of Philosophy, Radford first suggested the ‘Paradox of Fiction’ in his article ‘How Can We be Moved by the Fate of Anna Karenina?’ (“Paradox of Fiction”). The conclusion of the paradox leads to a contradiction of beliefs, drawn from premises which appear to be both true and not true at the same time. The basic paradox is presented below, although various additions have been made since its first introduction.

Barthes argues that relying on authors’ identities to uncover meaning is a limiting explanation for a text. He suggests abandoning romanticizing writers’ personalities to disrupt the idea that authors confide in readers by using characters as vehicles for personal meaning (Barthes 84). Instead, words are separate from the intentions of the author and act as agents of information in themselves as the action of writing knows a subject, not a person. Barthes claims a disaffiliation between author and reader should be enforced to free the text of an author’s interpretations so the reader can make personal connections.

It would be very difficult for anyone to find a person who stated that historical or descriptive narratives did not produce knowledge. Can the same thing be said for the genre of historical fiction? In an analysis between historical narratives and historical fiction, we will see what do these two topics share, and what kinds of knowledge does historical fiction produce.

Application of a Literary Theory to a literary work helps in analyzing the different modalities involved in the creation of a text. A critical approach enables learners to appreciate the textual content and abets their proficiency both in theory and analysis. This exercise throws the literary text into a new light, where different interpretations result in better understanding.

Literature has remained as a distinctive aspect of society for thousands of years. A society’s literature exists as a window in which one can peer into and discover more about its culture. Although a very diverse concept, literature is generally defined as written or printed material, either in the form of novels, poems, or journals. However, a more restrictive approach considers literature as “a higher art form” (Lombardi), or one that manipulates language to convey an experience. Ethan Frome serves as a notable example of literature at its best. The novella complements aspects of literature, such as strong characters and meaningful themes, with takeaway value and unpredictability.

Paxton’s (2002) research primarily follows the theoretical and conceptual framework of Putnam’s experiment. Although Putnam’s study created a collaboration between qualitative and quantitative methodologies, there remains insignificant quantitative data for this particular subject matter. To this end, Paxton has attempted to use additional data resources to extend on Putnam’s study. The methods and data utilized, however, are worrisome in relation to how it fits within the conceptual framework. First, Paxton uses data from the World Values Survey (WVS) (1980 and 1990) to measure two dimensions of social capital: associational networks and trust (2002, 260). Her dataset has individual-level information on trust and voluntary association memberships in 48 countries (2002, 260). However, Paxton does not state how these 48 countries ‘fit’ into the study. Are the data simply being used because they are available, or do these countries encompass the definition of a liberal democracy being utilized? If the latter, what are Paxton’s arguments for including countries that are democratic in name, but are masked with international contention such as Russia? Paxton also notes that several countries have no survey data on associational memberships which creates a cross-national sample of small proportion (2002, 260). Overall, one could argue the first data source does not seem be rather representative of the concepts being studied nor representative of the areas the data were pulled

There is high correlation between literature and real life. Life gives the means through which literature develops in an artistic form. Plato was the first one to give the thought of literature in relation to the real world. Although, he referred mainly to poetry but what he has said about poetry can be easily applied to whole literature. Plato’s findings are built on his theory of knowledge.