What Does Classic Literature Really Mean?
“Nobody in a hundred years is going to read Donna Tartt or Sally Rooney as Literature.”
“Loving you is like eating bread dipped in salt…” — Loving You, Nazim Hikmet
I will readily admit I am a huge fan of Classic Literature, and while this may come off as pretentious, I must insist that I am in no way arrogant with my love for it. Many people might ask: What is Classic Literature? What do you mean by that?
When we talk of ‘classic literature’, we are usually referring to books such as Hard Times by Charles Dickens or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. This is of course an entirely Eurocentric definition, for there are far more international books that would fall under the umbrella of ‘classic literature’.
When I saw this tweet, I not only thought back to post on shitposting, but I just felt sad for this person. If all you think about when you’re reading is whether a book is going to be hailed as a classic then you may want to rethink your choices.
Oh, I only read Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir, Chekhov, Turgenev, Gogol, and even more smoggy, brooding types.
See how easy it is to sound like an elitist crank?
The term ‘classic literature’ stems mainly from academic circles, hence the propensity for condescension, as illustrated in the tweet above. The general consensus is that classics stand the test of time, containing themes that are universal. There is a lack of nuance, however. Nobody cared about Franz Kafka’s work when he was alive. Similarly, a lot of authors who are now revered were not respected in their lifetime.
Rose Lyddon, the author of the tweet above, claims that today’s Literature isn’t ambitious enough to be entertained as future classics. What you must remember is that the books which are most ambitious for their time are often pushed to the side because society fears them. Lyddon upholds an incredibly ignorant and self-important view. Go figure, as it appears she is completely entrenched in academia.
Honestly, I don’t read as much modern literature as I should. I would be an utter fool to be against it. Imagine if we stopped at Shakespeare simply because people believed nothing else was worthy enough. I know for a fact that there is some revolutionary work being published today. What none of us can predict is what will happen to those books when we’re all dead and buried. Who knows what will become a classic?
The question remains, should we even care? Wouldn’t it be awfully sad to only read books which have been personally upheld by academic circles as ‘worthy’? Lyddon represents the type of Oxford candidate who isn’t in it for the love of books, but for the illusion of expertise it provides. A true lover of books is well aware of nuance when it comes to taste and arbitrary classifications. A true lover of books is fully aware that you must be sensible of everyone. A lot of non-Western cultures produce brilliant writers, but they are not afforded the same as us Westerners.
This is a reminder to us all to pick up more international books. Just a few feet away from me is Sabahattin Ali’s Madonna in a Fur Coat. Ali was a Turkish man who was born in Bulgaria. While working as a teacher in Konya, he was arrested for writing a poem criticising the policies of Atatürk, the President of Turkey at the time. Like many minority writers, his books weren’t appreciated until long after his death, which came rather tragically when he was killed trying to cross the border. Ali struggled financially after his release from prison, never seeing any success due to the authoritarian society he was surrounded by.
If we look at it like a panic attack, when we are in the throes of it, we can’t see anything clearly. When we look back on it a few days later, we are able to assess the situation. Often, during the time the writer is publishing their work, people don’t want to hear what they have to say, dismiss them, and are simply too afraid of the fallout that will come if they support them.
In conclusion, the term ‘classic literature’ is rather hollow. The best thing we can do is move forward without pretension, encourage others to read contemporary literature with a keen eye, and to completely redefine what society deems ‘valuable’.
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