The Teaching of English Literature

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of either The Christian Institute or the authors employer.

The Teaching of English Literature
A Biblical Perspective

©2000 The Christian Institute

A Lecture by given by Nigel McQuoid at Emmanuel College, Gateshead on 12 October 2000.

Contents

Introduction

Language: the heart's tongue

Literature: the soul's bequest

Literature as History

Literature as Worship

Literature as Soul Searching

Literature as Social Commentary

Literature as Propaganda

Literature as Entertainment and Indulgence

Studying Literature

The Bible: is it simply Literature?

How then do we teach and what do we teach?

Conclusion

Introduction

I spent the first nineteen years of my life missing the whole point of reading Literature and yet for some strange reason I was moderately successful at passing examinations in the subject! Now I'm not sure exactly what this proves: it may have been that my success was built on the low expectations of examiners or perhaps upon the even greater ignorance of my peers. But whatever the true reason, and for a Headteacher with a degree in English it may be best that the real reason is not pursued with too much vigour, this rather blunt confession may be of some value. I would like to argue that there is a clear and important lesson to be learned from my experience and, like every true lifestory, it is a mixture of both good news and bad news. However, and again like all good stories, I am going to keep you in suspense until the end of the lecture before telling you what the morals of my tale might be although there should be plenty of clues along the way for those who like a good detective story. Of course, for those either listening to the tape or reading the booklet, you can save yourself a great deal of time and huge bucketloads of suspense by simply fast-forwarding to the end. Suffice to say, however, 'it wasn't the butler'.

The two people who 'converted my thinking' to a far more real and absorbing reading of Literature were Joseph Conrad and Geoffrey Hill, one of whom I never met and the latter who was both Professor of English Literature at Leeds University and my personal Tutor in the final year of my degree. Until 1989, every essay I had ever written was a rather pedestrian re-telling of storyline, plot and structure with a little bit of character analysis thrown in along the way. It was when reading Conrad's 'Under Western Eyes' that I heard for the first time an author speaking, through, of course, the agonising psychological turmoil of his hero. I found myself being drawn into the writer's world, consumed by concern for the hero because I felt his pain and was looking through his eyes. The novel's structure had become an irrelevance to me and the plot was secondary; I had been caught under the writer's spell and I couldn't put the book down. Conrad almost had a hand on my heart and it was that realisation that has stayed with me. I saw for the first time the true power of Literature.

At the same time, Geoffrey Hill spent every one of my weekly English Tutorials politely and delicately smashing great holes in both my confidence and my essays. For hours upon hours, he studiously avoided any mention of the Literature at hand and removed me wholesale from my safe and happy hunting grounds of plot and character. Instead, he insisted on taking us 'around the houses' of social history, authorial biography and his own rambling philosophising. We all came out of those sessions bemused (on a good day) and scared (on every other day) because we felt lost without our familiar bedrocks and mechanisms for passing our examinations. Little did we know, but soon we came to realise, that we were actually being taught how to read Literature for the first time in our lives.

I want to put it to you that Literature is essentially two things: it is communication and it is revelation. It is the vehicle upon which we can communicate our thoughts and it is a method whereby those thoughts can be revealed and recorded. However, Literature is only the third element within a complex process. Firstly, our thoughts originate within and, secondly, we seek to find the words to express them. In many circumstances, that is enough. Our Language gives expression to our heart's thoughts. However, at times and for a variety of reasons, we want to go further and commit these expressions to writing; hence Literature. Once committed to paper, of course, these words take on an added formality and permanence. They become an extension of ourselves that can be read by others across space and across time; they become a personal legacy with the power to live beyond ourselves.

We have already said that such writings can have a variety of purposes although, as with Chinese Whispers, the process of translating ideas and emotions from the heart onto paper is not always a clean one. And even when one manages to achieve real clarity of expression, there are times when writers choose to disguise their true selves behind or within their writing, leaving the reader even more distant from the author's true thoughts. If we are going to teach Literature, therefore, we have got to know more about how this communication and revelation is to be read and taught and so we may be best served by looking at some concrete literary examples.

Firstly, we can consider Literature as History and its role in that sphere. We can look at Literature as Worship and the long and profound tradition of that genre. Thirdly, the history of English Literature since the Renaissance is laden with works in which writers search their soul and/or where they examine and comment upon the society around them. Finally, it is worth developing our understanding of Literature as Propaganda and as mere Entertainment or Indulgence.
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Language: the heart's tongue

Literature begins with Language. Clearly, this is communication. We don't exist in isolation from one another, obviously, and so we have a highly sophisticated ability to articulate our emotions, our instincts and our needs. However, on a level far higher than the animal kingdom, we also articulate aspirations and beliefs and we postulate and argue theories. Unlike the animal kingdom, we deal with far more than the simple instinctive questions 'What?' and 'How?'; we alone ask 'Why?'

Of course, Art, Touch, Music, Dance, Gesticulation and even Smoke Signals can transmit messages but we normally seek to communicate in words. And interestingly, even the deaf and the handicapped seek to do more than simply gesticulate; they make attempts to speak, both naturally and artificially, in order to communicate with the added flexibility and complexity of words.

Therefore, as well as being so vital to human communication, words also open a window through to our very soul. This concept is, of course, nothing new. Plato sums up what many others have said in various ways when declaring that 'Man's speech is like his life' and John Lyly calls the tongue 'The ambassador of the heart'. The Bible recognises that what comes out from a man is indicative of what is within and there are few who would seek to argue, however sophisticated our attempts from time to time to disguise our true feelings with mealy mouths, truth economy or downright lies. Worse still, we might stoop to use statistics!

The fact is, Language is revelation. It either reveals our hearts or it reveals the extent to which we are trying to hide our hearts from others. To rework the unkind witticism concerning feet and blunders, as far as language is concerned, 'Whenever we open our mouths, we put our hearts in it.' This said, we must learn to be a great deal more sophisticated in our listening than King Lear. It was he who so crucially misread the honest yet unpretentious declaration of his one true daughter, Cordelia, whose inability to 'heave her heart into her mouth' lead them both into such tragedy.
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Literature: the soul's bequest

Once we move into written words, however, we enter a new arena of communication and revelation. Here in the realm of Literature, my written words take on new life and this new dimension is one which I must recognise whenever I put pen to paper. Although words do not always encapsulate our intended meaning (for example 'I couldn't quite find the right words'), they do form a precise record of what we have actually said.

This is a reality that most of us recognise and usually results in us choosing our words very carefully when we write. In most contexts, therefore, writers will take a great deal of time and care over the words they choose, the phraseology they use and the overall tone of the piece that they are writing. Consequently, any serious student of Literature must make careful investigation of these points for, although it is particularly true of poetry and journalistic pieces, the consideration of word choice is a fundamental route into an understanding of meaning and intention within any piece of Literature.

With the probable exceptions of a private diary and a one-to-one letter, writers also intend their words to be read by others and it is therefore important that they convey their intended meaning as precisely and as clearly as possible. To this end, writers will re-read and often re-draft their work in order to fine tune both the precise effect of key passages and the overall impact of their work as a whole.

Finally, writers recognise the permanence of their work. If their aim is to be popular, or famous, or to have an effect upon the world (or all three!), they will both realise the immortality of the written word and they will seek to exploit it. They will recognise their writing as being a permanent record of what they believe or at least what they believed at the time at which they were writing. Sometimes this fact might come back to haunt them but it is often one of the key driving forces behind the urge for them to write at all. 'What I write is so important to me', many will declare, 'that it is important for me to write it' and this is further evidence of my assertion that what we write is a revelation of our souls and a legacy for others which enables them to hear us, debate with us and even to catch a glimpse of who we really are.
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Literature as History

A History of English Literature would show, of course, that much early writing was more a matter of fact than of fiction; that it was used initially more for public information than as a means of creative expression. Boosted by the Roman Occupation, this is certainly true of Law-making and records for all manner of uses, public and private. Through the feudal years and ever since, the need for such records has become an integral feature within civil and civilised life but up until then, major matters of property and power were organised and decided in rather 'less formal and rather more bloody' ways than through the record book. Incidentally, it would be an interesting study to ask whether or not the administration of justice has improved in proportion to the increase in written documentation but I shall leave that for the Lecturer on 'History in the Curriculum' to tackle at some future date!

This said, Old and Middle English do reveal a vibrant written record of legend, mystery, morality and religious thought. Whilst much of history and tradition was passed down by word of mouth or in song, the written word was becoming steadily more popular as an expression of personal and public thought. Indeed a study of the work of Chaucer is a milestone study in the sociological and psychological mindset of English society, including its tell-tale insight into the eternal human condition that has been with us since the Fall and which remains with us today. Writing as revelation again, I believe.
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Literature as Worship

It goes without saying that much of English Literature has had a religious flavour and, since the introduction of Christianity to Britain and over the ensuing centuries, many have written of their faith and the supernatural. Until medieval times, these writings concentrated almost exclusively upon pagan and pantheist legends and upon mystical devotional writing such as 'The Cloud of Unknowing'. Such devotional themes gained in strength within the Renaissance period and have remained with us ever since. With Renaissance Literature also developing itself as the vehicle for expressions of human love, the sonnet in particular became a popular working ground for both divine and secular themes and poets such as Herbert, Donne and Milton were more than keen to continue this focus in their work.

Before the age of Universal Education, access to Literature was naturally restricted to the wealthy and the medieval Church created the Mystery Cycles in order to bring Scripture to life outside of the exclusively Latin environment of the liturgy. In dramatic terms and in parallel, the co-joining of the divine and the secular emerged in the Everyman and Morality Plays in which Man is confronted by the Seven Deadly Sins and tracked through his battle to conquer them. The texts being written clearly had a didactic message and they were being presented en masse through drama to those who could not read the written word. However, when the Bible was translated into English and the Printing Press invented, serious consideration of Scripture became widespread.

This deployment of the extended metaphor (or allegory) which was at the centre of the Everyman Plays was to develop into an enormously important genre and has spawned great works of Christian writing ranging from 'The Pilgrim's Progress' to 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe'. Furthermore, the twin emphases of preaching and publishing brought the Christian message to an ever-widening audience through the middle years of the second millennium and right up to the supposedly enlightened and liberated days of the late 1900s. In modern times, although perhaps a little bloodied but certainly unbowed, Christian writing remains as a central means by which Christians seek to witness, discuss, explain and encourage. In short, Literature is an integral means of 'spreading the Gospel' and is already seeking to harness the new technology potential of Internet publishing to further this aim.
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Literature as Soul Searching

As time and society developed, unsurprisingly so did Literature although this development brought with it a greater degree of introspection. Rather than dealing with the external praise of God or the examination of public belief, Literature began to concern itself increasingly with the person and thoughts of the writer himself. 'The Pilgrim's Progress', which many consider to be the first novel, began this move towards a combining of fiction with autobiography and 'Robinson Crusoe' continued the move by co-mingling the factual Travel genre and historical realities of Alexander Selkirk's shipwreck with the allegorical messages of Defoe's own life.

Interestingly, Crusoe is predominantly a Christian text which traces Defoe's own running from his Christian upbringing in search of his fortune in the world of finance. The emptiness and ultimate despair of this search is symbolised by both storm and shipwreck and his subsequent salvation is secured as he rediscovers the truth about himself and about life in his encounter with the Man Friday, as strong a symbol as there could be of his meeting in real life with the Man who died on Good Friday. Sadly, the secular world has long since edited out these Christian passages because it seems disinterested in the message that they convey but, like Bunyan before him, Defoe was seamlessly and naturally weaving intensely personal writing within his literary work.

The generalised concept of fiction that perhaps many of us have, namely that everything is made up and unreal, is actually very hard to justify for so much of what is written can clearly be seen in these terms of communication and revelation between writer and reader. Writers very often speak of their work as being personal and therapeutic, whereby they are able to work through their ideas and feelings vicariously through their characters. In this sense, writing becomes for many a metaphor for their own lives, and for others it becomes a cry from the heart. It is hard to read Katherine Mansfield without sensing her desire to cling onto her childhood and escape the unhappinesses of her adult life or to read Beckett and fail to sense the nihilistic emptiness of his view on the world. It is perhaps only Shakespeare who manages to remain elusive in this regard. Many find it easier to read his plays as an insight into the England of his time rather than as an autobiographical 'soul-scripting' of his own views and feelings although his poetry can be intensely personal.
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Literature as Social Commentary

This path of observing society and reflecting it within Literature is a well-trodden one. Shakespeare managed to combine his in-depth consideration of the human condition together with various angles on culture and social and political history and in this he has many disciples. Perhaps the most notable and most prolific social commentator in English fiction is Charles Dickens but many others have also chosen to critique the society of their day. Jonathan Swift in many ways pioneered the move from allegorical autobiography to social and political satire and John Milton homed in on the religious and political shape of Restoration England with such strength and passion that it landed him in jail.

Political satire has remained as a vibrant medium through to modern day and, although much such satire is journalistic and destructive, there remains a tradition for using allegory as its vehicle for serious reflection; witness what is perhaps the greatest satirical novel of the 20th Century written by Eric Blair who penned 'Animal Farm' under the pseudonym George Orwell.

Orwell's second great novel, '1984', reveals another rising literary preoccupation with the future and the question as to whether or not technological progress is synonymous with the inevitable improvement of the human race. Interestingly, it is the 'scientific novelists' (and by that I mean novelists with a scientific background) who have painted the most disturbing visions of scientific and technological advance. Both HG Wells and Aldous Huxley write of their deep concerns and misgivings in thinly-disguised narrative.

Once again, we see the communication of inner-most thoughts and concerns in the work of the artist. And more than this, authors have not been content to remain simply as observers; many of them have seen their work as affording them the opportunity to act as agents of change.
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Literature as Propaganda

The link between being an agent of change and a propagandist is a very close one. However, the word 'propaganda' is generally interpreted negatively and narrowly in this context. However, the literal definition of the word is that propaganda 'effects change or reform through the spreading of opinions or principles'. As such, it covers any writing that believes in itself and wishes to spread its gospel. Herein lies the essential power of Literature in that it can have such an effect on the minds of its readers, especially upon the minds of the young. It is crucial, therefore, that we enable our students to recognise and critique the messages within Literature for, unless they do, they open themselves unawares to the seduction and persuasion of whatever writer they read.

Allow me to paraphrase what Dr John Lennox said recently to a Sixth Form audience when presenting his evidence for the Creator God: 'I am biased and I admit it; what you have to do is decide whether or not the evidence before us convinces you that my bias is justified'. Similarly, any writing which is introduced to the eyes of the young should open itself for similar scrutiny.

Almost without exception, the most powerful Literature is borne of the mind that is inspired to inspire others. Of course, the end in view may be either wholesome or despicable but the same aim exists in both: to persuade and solicit the support and agreement of the reader. Literature therefore has both the greatest power to motivate goodness and the greatest power to achieve exactly the opposite.

As I have said publicly before, a 'bad' English teacher is the most dangerous teacher that a child can have because they have the power to direct a child's critical reading of ideas. English teachers can encourage a liberal rejection of any faith position or they can develop a wholesome deference to and reverence for the God of the Bible. English teachers must ask ourselves how we are handling this responsibility, assuming that we have recognised it in the first place. Parents must ask themselves, "What kind of English teacher does my child have'"

Good teaching must predominantly teach the student to ask questions about the validity of whatever is set before them whether it be philosophical preaching such as J S Mill's 'On Liberty' or the presentation of a TV news documentary. Our young people, and we ourselves, have got to be able to discern between political treatise such as Hobbes' ' Leviathan' and the less honest attempts at mind control exercised by exploitative advertising, personality cults and totalitarian politics. Without such critical powers, we may gloss over the work of a God-fearing propagandist like C S Lewis and fall unwittingly for the work of a godless one such as Richard Dawkins.
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Literature as Entertainment and Indulgence

And our final category takes us further into the world of godless exploitation when we see the agenda behind so much 'popular-modern' Literature. Although by no means a modern phenomenon, it is the sheer volume of today's aptly named 'pulp fiction' that reveals so much about the morals and motivations of the human mind when it trades in the bedrock of Scriptural Truth for a humanistic voyage into hedonism.

Seductively innocent at one end of the scale, the same self-absorption rejoices in the justification and glorification of sin at the other. In worship of its alternative Commandments, the six guiding reasons for being in this genre seem to be 'Make 'em laugh', 'Shock 'em', 'Mock 'em', 'Use 'em', 'Please 'em' and, if all else fails, 'Write anything as long as people will read it!'

This may appear deeply cynical but history bears out the fact that there really is nothing new under the sun. Perhaps humour appears to be the least reprehensible of these motives but we have to ask ourselves if there is any substance to the piece, especially if the content is gratuitously destructive or downright rude. It is clear that Aristophanes' crude Greek playscripts have many descendants including Chaucer, Rochester and Ben Elton, each of whom also used shock tactics to impress their audience. Such irreverence is hardly shocking, however, in the pens of those who are so clearly challenging the very essence of the World View of the Bible as expressed by Paul to the Philippians when he encourages us to think only on things that are 'true.. noble.. right.. pure.. lovely.. admirable.. excellent..[and]..praiseworthy'
To put such things in front of anyone, let alone children, is to introduce them to the very base things that education should lift them away from. Nevertheless, in a society which appears to want to push back any remaining boundaries in life and Literature, are we really just to sit back and allow Jilly Cooper, Jackie Collins, Satellite TV Companies et al to set our moral agenda?

Although she probably did not mean it in this context, Jackie Collins' own allusion to her work is perhaps worth repeating: 'I write about real people in disguise', she writes, although that overview could perhaps be equally accurately expressed as ' I write about reality, thinly-disguised'. Nevertheless, it is one thing to repeat that Literature expresses the mind and mood of the writer and their times: it is another to ask ourselves whether or not we are to let such expression and influence go unresisted.
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Studying Literature

In brief summary, therefore, we could describe my recommended approach to reading English Literature as follows:

Know your Text,
Understand your Author and
Critique the Message that is being presented, however deep beneath the surface.

Knowledge of the Text implies a detailed grasp of content and the ability to apply critical vocabulary in the description of themes, structure, characterisation and technique. I hope to have also made a clear case for the need to understand the writer's historical milieu and the relevance of details from his or her own life. Thirdly, and I argue most importantly, we must seek to identify the overall message of the piece and to make an assessment of both how well it has been communicated and how convincing a message it is.

By tackling any written piece in this way, I contend that we have the opportunity to truly engage with the Literature of any period, genre or language.

I must ask, however, if there is any Literature that exists beyond the limits of such definition. Is there such a thing as a timeless classic that transcends all others and defies the descriptions above? I do believe there are timeless classics that represent the struggles of man, irrespective of time or location. This is the stuff of Shakespeare most particularly but, even at his very best, his is just the work of another human hand, with all of its limitations and with the propensity to raise more questions than it answers. What man has sought from the beginning of time is the Ultimate Truth underpinning all of his experience and the Ultimate Source in which it can be found.
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The Bible: is it simply Literature?

It is hardly surprising that, in a Lecture such as this, I would want to give consideration to the best selling book in the world and to ask the question as to whether or not the Bible is Literature in the terms already described.

Initially, it would appear that this most unique of books does fit the criteria discussed, namely that it is both communication and revelation. However, it extends beyond this in one crucial regard because, unlike the writings of created man, the Bible embodies the voice of Creator God. Many of those who have attended recent Christian Institute Lectures on the Science of Creation will have been confronted by the question 'As it appears clear that the world is the work of a Creator Designer, how might we get to know that Creator'? Given that the systematic study of creation and the development of the world both argue strongly that everything has been designed with the ultimate aim of supporting and sustaining Man, it is wholly understandable (indeed to be expected) that this Creator would want to maintain an active interest in the work of His hands. How then, shall He communicate with us? Scripture describes itself as being God's communication with us and yet it goes further. Although human Literature carries Man's ideas forward to future generations, God's revelation has mankind's eternal salvation as its ultimate goal.

Given the status of this text, therefore, it is not surprising that God has established these 66 books forever. The manner by which these books were brought together is more a cause for wonder than for academic deliberation because the men who were instrumental in decisions on what was to constitute the Canon of Scripture were exactly that: instrumental. They were acting under God's ordinance rather than through their own finite intellects. The preservation through History of a text which has been so hated and attacked by worldly powers is also testimony to its divinely-protected status. After all, how could God allow His Word to be cut off from the very people with whom He wants to communicate?

But there is far more to consider than this. The Bible is not simply a 'divine communication' which also goes by the title 'The Word of God'. As Hebrews Chapter One tells us, God's revelation is most powerfully communicated through the Person of His Son and The Gospel of John opens with exactly the same message: 'The Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory' thus establishing the True Word of Scripture as God Himself incarnate, Jesus Christ who came to reveal God to His creation in the most graphic, powerful and intimate way possible. God's Word, therefore, takes on the one reality that eludes even the greatest of human Literature: it is divine; it is flawless; it is revelation; it is Truth in its purest sense. As such, He is the Bread of Life and the only means by which man can truly live as Matthew Chapter 4 and Verse 4 declares 'Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'.
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How then do we teach and what do we teach?

Firstly, we must teach with honesty and discernment. We must be open with students and declare to them the very essence of Literature. We must know our subject and the very things that we are going to seek to help the students discover. It is not good enough to allow students to simply believe 'whatever they feel the text says to them' because such relativistic subjectivity robs the original of its very soul. We should choose carefully the texts that we are prepared to place before them and we must endow them with a full and proper respect for Scripture.

We should ensure that students engage both with the essence of the text and its comparison with the standards, morals and World View of the Bible. Of course they will have to make judgements on those comparisons for themselves but we must at least ensure that they are being encouraged to make such comparisons in the first place.

Secondly, we have a duty of care in relation to the subject matter we select. There is much that is salacious and/or blasphemous. We should not select such texts for the sheer controversy or shock value; if we do, we give such 'stuff' a credibility that it does not deserve. IF we choose any such text, it should be to highlight its emptiness and evil and not to give it gratuitous exposure. IF we choose any such text, it should certainly not be read aloud. However, at the right age and level of maturity, nor should we be afraid to tackle texts which stand against the Christian position. As long as we have fine-tuned our students' critical abilities, these World Views have to be confronted and it is better if they are first tackled with our help rather than without it in the world beyond our schools where no such support is likely to be on offer.

Thirdly, we should teach with both the soul and the intellect. Our study should be neither exclusively academic nor one-dimensionally pious. We should bring our critical faculties to play in such a way as to liberate the soul rather than to patronise it or leave it exposed to accusations of blind faith and ignorance. As created beings, we find our greatest reality when we engage the mind, the spirit and the body in proper balance and our approach to education should be no different.

No book should daunt us, but then not every book is good for us. Bearing in mind the age of the child and their critical abilities, select with care, courage and with a desire to bring forth the Truth.
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Conclusion

So what of the good news and the bad that I mentioned at the beginning? In short, my teenage reading of Literature had always been singularly one-dimensional; I looked for, and learned, plot and character to the nth degree and regurgitated with all my might. I asked only 'What?' and 'How?' without ever asking 'Why?' and, in doing so, I left myself completely open to the subtext whisperings of everything I ever read. Not once did I realise the dangerous impact that such lack of awareness might have had.

And that leads me on to the good news. Because I had always read Scripture as Truth since I was a child, rather than reading it simply as Literature, I had been subconsciously armed against the attack of godless belief. The sexual rebellion of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', the filth of John Wilmot and the gothic blasphemy of 'The Monk' all foundered on the scriptural rocks of The Ten Commandments and The Beatitudes that had been engraved upon my heart. Without fully realising it, my years of reading Scripture as a child and as a teenager had provided me with the belt of Truth spoken of in Ephesians upon which the Christian's spiritual armour is founded.

In teaching, therefore, we must ensure that Scripture has its proper place as the supernatural and flawless Word of God the Creator, epitomised in the Incarnation of Christ. We must ensure also that it is read regularly and in depth. The very reading of God's Word has a power beyond explanation, even to those who are not fully conscious of its effects. Secondly, we must equip our young people with the critical awareness and clarity of thought to be able to identify the messages being presented within the Literature written by the created.

'When I was a child I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.' (1 Corinthians 13). It is my prayer that the teaching of both English Literature and Scripture can be such that our young people can be given the faculties which will enable them to live in dangerous jungles with their understanding of Truth fully developed, their hearts wholly in tact and their childhood grown into proper manhood.

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