by Kirsty Dickson

The freedom The freedom of literature, of literature, does it change does it change anything? anything?

Image by Sabrina Mak Image by Sabrina Mak

The world’s literary timeline is saturated with written works of substantial artistic merit, with factual, fictional and all other genres making their mark. These may merely be modes of expression or they may be life altering works. How much impact they have and how this effects change has resulted in a debate which has evoked numerous perspectives. It is worth considering a range of these perspectives across the spectrum of genres in order to weigh up how literature creates freedom at both a societal and a personal level. In an age of instant, global communications, it is easy to overlook the power literature held when it ‘arrived’ and then grew to dominate dissemination. The invention of the printing press in 1476 was arguably one of the greatest advancements of mankind because it opened access to literature and mass freedom of thought. For Christians, this was empowering as The Bible, once translated into the vernacular from Latin, was widely and quickly disseminated and what had once been unintelligible for most became far more accessible. But all religions benefitted and some spread far beyond their origins as a result. A few faiths grew to dominate vast tracts of the globe. However, alongside the many resulting benefits, the spread of written scriptures also ultimately caused considerable conflict and loss of life – conveying the danger often found within freedom.

It is also worth considering the impact of literary freedom in the light of the claimed inspirations of the great historical architects of change: Ghandi read voraciously but was especially captivated by the Bible and by Tolstoy; Napoleon took Goethe texts on his campaigns and read them repeatedly; Nelson Mandela kept Shakespeare’s complete works on Robben Island; Freud gave further credit to the Bard by saying that much of his writing was aimed at giving scientific description to things he gleaned from Shakespeare’s characters. While all of these figures were remarkable, what is perhaps even more noteworthy is how readily so many of them give the credit for their inspiration to the freedom of accessing literature. If literature has led to large scale change, either directly or, by inspiring actions, indirectly, it is also important to consider the broader and more subtle impact it may have had on society. The author Michael Mack uses the novel ‘The Way We Think’ to demonstrate that literature is a way in which we are freely ‘conceptualising our understanding of representation’. This is supported by authors such as Mary Shelley, who was adept in her use of the novel to critique societal prejudices. In ‘Frankenstein’ she acknowledges the unreliable nature of appearance while also projecting her own views on both the Industrial and French Revolutions, perhaps criticising the realms of freedom. She promotes her fear of the mechanical world (similar to Huxley’s expression of his fear for the loss of identity through technological advancements in his dystopian novel - A ‘Brave New World’) and the damage wreaked by human desire, specifically when dealing with desire for knowledge. This is a relatable concept for all of those seeking to excel, often unknowingly abusing their freedom in the act. The view that our beliefs are often changed by the literature in the world around us is known as the narrative transportation theory and has been investigated by many psychologists such as Melanie Green, who states that the theory “suggests that readers who become immersed in a book are more likely to adopt attitudes and beliefs implied by the story”. Abraham Lincoln’s comment to Harriet Beecher Stowe, that her “book that started this Great War,” (apart from being great publicity for Uncle Tom’s Cabin) may have been a ringing endorsement of the narrative transportation theory. Richard J Gerrig also touches on this theory in his novel, ‘Experiencing Narrative World’, concluding that, just as attitudes towards slavery were altered to allow freedom, experiences in the real world can be altered by literature, encouraging a more liberal society. Without literature, we can only see the world through our own eyes. Even in fictional literature which is often considered less influential, we frequently see an effect on the real world. For example, fiction allows us into the mind of someone else, exposing us to a plethora of new ideas. Harper Lee’s character, Atticus Finch, argues, “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. This feeling was one of the primary objectives of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’; exposing prejudice and issues within culture and religion (yet, interestingly, the earlier prequel was not so liberally uplifting). The concept of literature expanding our minds is also often explored. Hermann Hesse conveys this in ‘Siddhartha’ through a spiritual journey of self-discovery. Literature provides the freedom to be taken out of our comfort zones and encourages us to learn in areas into which we might not otherwise have reached. The requirement for all US doctors to study a humanity and some form of literature before entering the world of medicine, so that they might better understand patients, would seem to add real-world ballast to this view.

The freedom of speech, and therefore its written manifestation of literature, has shaped civilisation, advanced sciences, altered political systems, exposed injustice and both developed and degraded society. However, the tendency to focus on such big-scale changes detracts from the truly impressive fact that, at a more individual level, smaller scale changes abound as a result of literature. The personal enrichment offered by literature has given people the freedom of choice they otherwise might not have recognised. Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the author of one of the best selling books of all time ‘The Shadow of The Wind’, stated that “books are mirrors. You only see in them what you already have inside you.” Here, Ruiz Zafón comments on the psychological impact of literature and its ability to bring out in the reader qualities which they previously may not have been aware of. The beneficiaries of such change – readers – may not have altered history but are perhaps the best testimony to the changes and liberality wrought by literature.