ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE AND CREATIVE COMMUNICATION

By Barkha
In order to understand the Elements of Literature and its creative art of communication; one
must realize the weight carried by the term ‘Literature’. Literature is not just written works of
a language but also about stories, poetry, origin and aesthetic.
Literature acts as an important crux in a sentence i.e., add value to the whole meaning. This
can be noticed by rearranging the words of a poem by Langston Hughes – “Dreams”. The
beauty and the elegance of literature comes to light when the same word combinations are
perceived differently to create various sentences. The newly formed sentences are set apart
from the original poem to have their own significance as they differ in positive and negative
reinforcement.
To sum up, Literature is fusion of words that has dual components of sound and sense
dimensions. The literature component is as deeply embedded into a human such that people
can also be referred as Homo-fabulans (story-telling beings).

Literature can never be defined in a singularity rather its complex nature needs to be
summarized from various forms. As the story about ‘Blind men and an Elephant’ describes
elephant upon different angles from comparing its body as wall, trunk as a large snake to ears
as huge fans. In the same manner, literature is in reality an amalgation of numerous
multidimensions that needs to comprehended altogether.
As evident from above, literature is a fluid construction of the words and its language. It is
forever evolving learning experience. The knowledge of literature has its roots in perceptual
and conceptual understanding. The conceptual route stands for thinking and realizing about
a concept whereas the perceptual route stands for sensing and experiencing phenomenon.
Though they showcase different ideas; these concepts complement each other such that an
abstract conceptual idea can be easily translated to a person with the help of concreting
perception (Example – concept freedom can be easily described with ‘bird in a cage’
perception).
Thus, literature is said to stem from perceptual route i.e., experience is the foremost factor
in appreciating literature.

‘Literature helps me live a thousand lives within a single life!’

People have their limitations and are confined within their finite resources. Every person is
subjected to live the roles of their lives that has been burdened upon them since birth.
Although, while reading a book or watching a movie, one feels the connection with the hero
or main character; in such profuse manner that the person feels like they are living/playing
that role. This constitutes the meaning of living a thousand lives within a single life.
Literature is the alchemy of language that transforms perceived feelings or emotions into
literary pieces. It has also been compared with spatio-temporal voyage. It contains the
instances of journey that one makes while reading; to another place and time by keeping at
single origin point. Hence, literature has been termed as glocal i.e., while being in local
settings; it appeals on a global level.
There is a significant purpose and relevance of literature in today’s society. It holds the power
to influence community by showing them the sufferings and struggles of earlier generations.
It acts as a beacon of light among darkness and despair.

Literary preserves and promotes the culture and origin. It has helped through generations in
order to conserve our old tales, fables, Vedic recollections and many others. It has successfully
taken care of our culture such that a sense of connection and belongingness have been
achieved within people in such advanced age as well.
The relation between literature and communication can be sensed by the statement – “Seeing
comes before Speaking.” – John Berger. Just like a new born interact with the world with
visual senses initially and then move on to olfactory sense and communicative senses. In the
same manner, the communication skills of a person are enhanced by observing the society
and surroundings.

The Elements of Literature comprises of –

1) Tone - The overall mood of a literature text, novel or a play. It may either be positive,
negative, neutral pr multiple tones.
2) Setting - It refers to the placement of a storyline in social, cultural, or political context;
timeline and location.
3) Plot - It refers to the sequence of a storyline.
4) Narration - Narrating a piece in regards to a specific impression and fixed point of view.
5) Language - It holds the literary and communication skills.

In a nutshell, literature develops sense of community. When relating to a piece of text, one
feels connected to a power that is beyond themselves. A literary piece helps one to perceive
and realize a text from multiple angles rather from a standard single point of view. And
therefore, it helps feel more in justice to other people. It creates a juxtaposition among the
readers whereas in one hand, a sense of validation, belongingness is enhanced and on the
other hand, conscious to other people feelings and sensitivity at whole.
The society and literature complement each other to extend to higher standards. They both
are directly proportional to each other such that value of high society is measured by more
literature vocabulary. Thus, neglecting literature may lead to decline of a developing nation.
It can also be said that literature is like a see-through window into society. Moreover, they
act like a correcting agent for each other and reflect on their responses.
The structure of literature can be divided into – Forms and Genres. Distinctively and
metaphorically, forms are compared to architecture (outer shell) and genres to interior
designs (inner shell). Literature can also be classified into prose and poetry sensibility. Poetry
refers to imaginative and creative approach whereas prose refers to straight-forward and
theoretical approach.
Prose and Poetry spectrum of communication can easily be understood by focusing the
difference between a novel and a poem. They have their own sets of identification. Prose
identifies as normal language texts written in complete sentences and paragraphs with an
easy-to-understand composition excluding any unnecessary rhythmic nature. On the other
hand, Poetry identifies as artistic language poems written in lines and stanzas with a creative
composition exclusively in the rhythmic nature.

Literary components hold onto world of languages (texts) and world of people (authors and
readers). Literary theories majorly focus on a triad among text, reader and an author. The
reading and interpreting of a text does not solely lies on reader rather the author’s
explanation and the provided setting as well. In the same manner, when one simply wants to
focus on an author; full image and background of the author can never be on par if the texts
are neglected.
It is a well-established fact that that the word ‘criticism’ in itself is a negative comment.
However, Literary criticism refers to act of reading, analyzing, interpreting and making
judgements about any literature body of works. Any comment and review that has been said
or written to express the emotions regarding a literary piece falls under the umbrella of
Literary Criticism.
Literary theory is about examining literary pieces through a specified lens that works upon
certain assumptions of and about a society. It reflects upon the cultural aspects and
production of a society. And therefore, it is beneficial for society. Literary theory produces a
systematic approach to texts to reveal required specific justifications attached to it. And thus,
it holds the higher power than literary criticism.

Throughout times, women have been ridiculed and criticized with poems and texts.
Therefore, the duty falls upon developing literature to increase sensitization feeling to this
topic and provides justice to women. Upon the onset of feminist literary movement, the rising
of several feminist critique of literature helped play essential role to distribute equality and
equity in the world.
Women’s literature has been suppressing the feeble minds of women as well as their mindset
on their bodies. Therefore, the necessity for women to write to women and to bring women
closer to writing and their bodies as well emerged a great deal. Literature, to this day; is a
patriarchal construct. The patriarchy literary concepts, if fought with the existing patriarchal
language; would never lead to solution. So, there is a need to devise a more sensitive
response; which accumulates to feminist criticism.

Similar to feminist criticism, Marxist criticism fights the unjust and inequality standards.
However, the only difference remains in the basis ground i.e., Marxist criticism emphasis on
the class and caste disparities. Marxism in itself, is a materialistic philosophy where there is a
dual focus; firstly, interpreting the society people reside in and secondly trying to change it
for the better conditions overall.
Marx was highly influenced by ‘base and superstructure’ concept. The superstructure holds
family, education, religion and so on. The base holds the means of economic productions (like
bourgeoise). These two concepts support each other for their own validation. So, this criticism
claims synthesis that produces from opposing ideas stemmed from thesis and antithesis.
Characteristics of Marxist Literary Criticism are discussed as follows –
- Artistic objects can never be understood without analyzing the context- cultural,
historical and social conditions.
- It does not neglect the categories which help measure the artistic objects rather be
evaluated for their own identity.

Postcolonialism literary theory acts as that philosophical tool which studies about the
political, cultural, ethnicity, race, gender, power, language, mindset of former colonies mainly
about nations that were under the command of British Imperial Rule. Colonialism refers to
the psychological and cultural beliefs of a particular race to reflect dominance of imperialism
agendas. It acts as subset of imperialism.
Colonizers implemented their power over the colonialized people by robbing them of their
rights, opportunities and their identity as well. This could be impactfully done upon
knowledge of colonized subjects. And therefore, postcolonial literary critiques studies the
measures by which colonialization took place, the methods under which postcolonial subjects
stroke back with the changes brought by hybridity.

Thus, in conclusion, it is safe to say that literary criticism is mainly an opinion, with evidence
as their backbone while keeping the political, cultural, historical, theme, style, genre in check.
Literary criticism benefits readers to expand their understanding of world, worldview and
their literature. It provides with them with vast number of opportunities and approaches to
form new style of writing.
Poetry has its origin at the beginning of any linguistic activity in human civilization. Any literary
activity at its initial core was in some form of poetry. Poetry initially was a verbal act that helps
demonstrating the emotions, feelings of a person with the help of words in a language. It is a
medium for imparting pleasure and entertainment. Poetry became crucial element of history
because its rhythmic nature helps in imparting important epics, fables and ancient texts into
memory of people with an ease. It enacts as a medium to retain or help store important
literary texts within majority of civilization neglecting the barriers construct.
The roots of the poetry are from Egypt and African civilization. The oldest evidence of poetic
expressions can be dated from pyramid texts. They were written on walls of pyramids as
funeral prayers for atonement and preparation for afterlife of kings. Similarly, African poetry
was performative in nature. Initially, poetry was told in the theatrical form or dance form. It
worked in the cumulative nature with an entire show to serve educative and entertainment
purposes.

The origins of the poetry can be established from Indian and Chinese civilization as well. The
poetry origin can be speculated from the known and recorded literary body of works from
various civilization such as –
i) One of the oldest epics – Gilgamesh Epic originated from Sumerian culture-
Mesopotamian civilization written in cuneiform i.e., the earliest noted language.
ii) The existing collection of 305 works during Han Dynasty reflecting upon Chinese
culture and poetry.
iii) The surviving works – two epic poems (The Iliad and The Odyssey) from ancient
Greek literature in support of European enlightenment.
iv) The fiction poetry - The tale of shipwrecked sailor about an Egyptian Voyage
written on the papyrus.
v) The earliest ever-recorded Indian literature – Rigveda (composition of 1028
hymns) was written in Vedic Sanskrit as well as the two ancient epics –
Mahabharata and Ramayana.
All these records highlight a single agenda that distinct civilizations primarily focused on
continuing their unique culture. Hence, using these literary texts as sample; one can identify
the origin of civilization and their rooted culture.

Poetry can never be stated as static in nature rather it is always found as kinetic nature as it
keeps on reinventing its form, structure, content and outlook. Poetry may not always be clear
in the outlook rather holds deceptive structure but the available rhythmic forms of sentence
help in clear identification.
Poetic forms can either be global or local. They could have been singlehandedly produced
from one cultural origin; or one such form can travel within cultures perceivable in various
forms.
There are three broad tributaries of poetry namely- Lyric poetry; where the poem is written
from a single perspective (highlighting mainly author’s views), Narrative poetry; where the
importance is on the story-telling like Epics, lastly Descriptive poetry; which focuses more on
the surrounding world itself with sensory attachment.

Some types of Sub-poetry are –

i) Sonnets – sonnet is a composition of 14 lines with exceptions of 12 and 16 lines as
well. They are used to express human feelings and emotions.
ii) Haiku – Originated from Japan, is a very straight forward discipline form with 3 line
stanzas revolving around natural phenomenon.
iii) Limerick – is distinct verbal rhythm with comical in nature. It is majorly composed
of five lines with a rhyming scheme of AABBA.
iv) Free Verse – it is not bounded by any set of rules which makes it the popular
modern poetry style. It may range between any number of lines with topic varying
from nature, sorrow, happiness and many more.
v) Acrostic – poem in which first letter of each sentence can be used as mnemonic
device. Due to its constrained nature, it was mainly famous during medieval times.
vi) Elegy – poem to reflect upon the feeling of love and lost. It usually laments about
the grief of losing someone (death).
vii) Ballad – a narrative poetry about romanticism, adventure which mainly uses
musical forms. It usually follows a rhyming scheme.
viii) Villanelle – it is a composition of 19 lines with a rhyming scheme of two major
sounds i.e., A and B. Lines also are repetitive in nature.
ix) Ode – A poetry that determines about a person, place or an event. It explores on
the universal elements.
x) Epic – refers to the narrative nature of poetry. It majorly represents heroic and
historical events.

A figure of speech is a deviation from the usual use of words to enhance their impact. They
take in effect in the sound form and therefore are also known as sound devices. There are
several figures of speech as follows –
i) Alliteration - It consists of a set of words that all start with the same letter and
therefore majorly use as taglines and captions.
ii) Assonance - Assonance is the term for the repetition of vowel sounds.
iii) Consonance - It primarily consists of words with repeated consonant sounds in the
centre or at the end whereas alliteration occurs when the repeating sound appears
at the start of the sequence.
iv) Onomatopoeia - Onomatopoeia is the term for when we use words to describe an
action by using the sounds associated with it. For example- thump, splat, whoosh.
 v) Anaphora - Anaphora is a literary device when several sentences or poems begin
with the same word.

The major Figures of speech that deal with relationship and resemblance as follows –
i) Simile - As a simile, two distinct things are contrasted with one another. Words
like "like," "so," "as," etc. serve as the beginning of a simile.
ii) Metaphor - A metaphor is when two dissimilar things are compared. There are no
'like' or 'as' terms used in this comparison.
iii) Personification - Personification is when the non-living things, abstract concepts
are described as people or other living things.
iv) Apostrophe - When missing or lifeless items are written as living. For example – O
Wild West Wind.
v) Metonymy - It is a figure of speech in which one term is used in place of another
that is closely connected to the same thing. It is majorly used in idioms.
vi) Synecdoche - In synecdoche, a smaller component is employed to represent the
larger whole, or vice versa.
vii) Euphemism - It is a word or a phrase that makes reference to a situation without
actually facing it by using figurative language.
viii) Hyperbole - it is used when combination of words exaggerates the overall meaning
or a point.
ix) Antimetabole - An antimetabole is when the first half of a sentence's words or
clauses are repeated in the second half of the sentence but in the opposite order.
x) Paradox - A paradox is a figure of speech that at first glance appears to contradict
itself yet, upon closer inspection, reveals some element of reality or logic.
xi) Oxymoron - When two words are combined in a statement but appear to be at
odds with one another, the sentence is considered an oxymoron.
xii) Irony - Irony is the use of language in opposition to one's actions and words.
xiii) Pun - A "play on words" is another term used for pun. Also, their wordplay depends
on a word or phrase having multiple meanings.