By Dr Satish C Aikant
‘Poetry makes nothing happen,’ wrote WH Auden in his elegy for WB Yeats who died in 1939. The line is often taken out of context as a critique of literary culture in general though a subsequent line of the poem disavows this interpretation with the affirmation that the arts are crucial to the survival of human culture. To reduce literature to its usefulness, in a utilitarian sense, is to miss the sheer pleasure of the word and sound that make it literature in the first place. The life that literature really equips us to live is not the one Wordsworth derided as devoted to ‘getting and spending’, but the other life of inwardness and imagination. Unlike the sciences, humanities are not considered utilitarian or having practical applications. Yet there is a persistent tendency in our culture to offer such pragmatic excuses for devaluation of art, as if something that helped us gain an advantage in the struggle for life alone was worthy of respect.
Obsessed with commercial gains and profit motive, nations, and their systems of education, are heedlessly discarding skills that are needed to keep democracies vibrant. If this trend continues, we shall soon be producing generations of useful machines, rather than complete citizens who can think for themselves, take a broader humanistic worldview, and understand the significance of pluralistic traditions. India, otherwise proud of her multifarious knowledge traditions, is following the globally mandated path of singular pursuit of technology that undermines lateral thinking. We ignore the faculties of thought and imagination that make us human and subject ourselves to manipulations by global agencies disregarding cultural specificities. With the overriding concern for profitability in the global market, values precious for the future of democratic societies, are in danger of getting lost.
Literature is about creating and recreating imaginative worlds and crafting stories. Indeed, it would be impossible to imagine human civilization without stories, whether recorded in writing or passed down orally in the form of legends or myths. The usefulness of literature has to be seen in a wider context of its production, dissemination and consumption. Literature’s capacity to influence political and societal opinions and developments, its shaping of public culture, its place as a commodity in the marketplace, and its educational value in developing creativity and intellectual dispositions are all part of its overall value and its place in society and in the life of the nation.
The study of literature introduces us to imaginary worlds and new experiences, so that our conceptions of human possibility transcend the boundaries and limitations of time and space. Arts and humanities also make us pause and reflect on the human condition. Sociologists have coined the term ‘liquid modernity’ to describe the ephemeral and the inconstancy that pervades contemporary social organization. Art takes us beyond these debilitating conditions and widens our horizon of ideas.
Reading and writing are solitary activities. But they acquire meaning and purpose in a social milieu. This is where the performative aspect comes into play. Public recitations date back to the Olympics in ancient Greece when poets and musicians prominently featured along with those who participated in the Games. They were the early precursors of the modern-day Writers’ Festivals. When the print revolution began with William Caxton setting up the first printing press in 1476, and the spread of literacy widened the reading public, authors began reading their works to large audiences. Several Victorian writers such as Dickens gave public readings of their novels. The practice caught on, as later on, coffee houses became popular haunts for poets, novelists, artists, and not the least, for the political leaders. In Bengal there is a fascinating institution called ‘adda’ which is a unique feature (now in decline) of Bengali culture with its attendant spaces of the coffee houses, bookshops, journals and theatre giving rise to a rich carnival of activities. It has become a mode of civilized living in the world, giving meaning to it and making it habitable.
The Australian critic Caroline Lurie in an article, ‘Festival, Inc.’, condemns literary festivals as uncritical sites of mass cultural production in their departure from traditional literary values, and decries their circulation of the literary celebrity as a replacement for the text itself. Lurie discusses the changing nature of literary festivals which, she argues, have become so fashionable that they are a tourist attraction in many towns. She goes on to say that the writers’ festival today ‘is a supersized, big-business blockbuster affair, with spunkier writers, sexier topics and a crowd who will have a latte with that. It’s great for books and great for publishing, but has it lost its soul?’
One could perhaps argue that literature festivals are market-driven spectacles and often turn out to be promoting a celebrity culture. But then we overlook the fact that these spectacles happen in a democratic space, which thrive on the support for popular culture where speakers and audiences break through all hierarchies and prejudices and share a common cultural experience, unlike what happens at exclusively elite events. In this sense, literature as a moving human gesture is empowering and enfranchising to individuals and to communities. During such interactions we open a space of deliberation where we encounter our human selves in a social setting.
It can be argued that the political is not necessarily visible, nor restricted to public actions, and that people cannot credibly say that art does not interface with people’s internal, private spaces in a political manner. We need to emphasize the agency and the active engagement of the reader or listener, and the huge significance that this kind of engagement can have for individuals. The false opposition between commercial and cultural spaces is characteristic of much of the discourse that sometimes circulates within the literary circles. It is part of the circulation of the myth of the disinterested artist that continues to pervade literary culture and colour the conceptions of cultural value.
Literary festivals provide us opportunities to actually see and talk to authors we may have only heard about or read their works. We can see them at close quarters, interact with them and have signed copies of their books. Valley of Words (VoW), the International Literature and Arts Festival, currently underway in Dehradun is in its seventh edition. The events at the festival are marked by impressive colloquia of authors, poets, translators, social scientists, military historians, musicians, teachers, students, environmentalists, book publishers, civil servants and social activists. There are sessions devoted exclusively to Hindi writing. Through the seven years it has been in existence VoW has expanded its initial function as an event for creative writers to meet, to become an important site of public culture that addresses the issues of creative writing as well broader issues of social interest. Besides being a veritable feast for the bibliophiles and culture aficionados what actually sets VoW apart from other literature festivals is its convergence of literature and arts with emphasis on regional culture and its environment. What is significant about it is that it does not delegitimize popular culture. Such festivals serve to enhance appreciation of literature through building knowledge, learning about the genesis of works, or supporting critical reading practices. Literary festivals give us an experience which is subliminal and elevating. The audiences may be attracted toward the festivals for various reasons. Commercial publishers use them as marketing exercises, schools and universities use them to promote intellectual, educational, and institutional objectives.
Further reasons why people attend festivals might be – to be entertained, to explore ideas, to be informed about issues, to gain a sense of community by being part of the festival performance – responding and being responded to, the feeling that as a reader or fan you have a stake in the work of an author, the desire for less mediated access to an author and his ideas, a wish to experience the unique timbre of an author read his or her text, and finally, for writers, to get useful feedback for their own writing. A wide range of urgent issues are debated and discussed at the festivals; issues ranging from language to religion, sexuality and gender, market to modernity. Audience members attend them seeking affective engagement, intellectual and cultural development, social connection, and political direction. There are people who are aren’t happy to settle for the black and white view of things presented to them by popular media.
VoW provides the perfect opportunity for new writers to find an audience and get a feel of the pulse of their readers. In turn the readers get an insight into the creative process of the writers and how their imagination forges new worlds. Literature also makes human beings conscious of the need to assert their unique individuality in the face of a world growing increasingly impersonal under the pressure of technology and consumerism. One hopes that VoW as an institution will continue to flourish inspiring more of such events in times ahead.
(The writer is former Professor and Head of the Department of English, H.N.B. Garhwal University)
