Studying liberal arts is something that many people choose for their higher education path. One branch of liberal arts education includes English. As someone who is currently studying English, I’ve noticed that it’s worthwhile to take at least one literature class during your time at college. Not only do these classes teach you how to write and communicate different ideas clearly, but they also teach you about the real hardships, socio-economic issues and the overall struggles people have faced throughout history. Â
You might be wondering, why not just take a history class to learn all of these things? By all means, do take a history class, too. However, when it comes to literature classes, you get a different sense of historical lessons and hardships than you would just by taking history classes. Â
To put it simply, literature is something that you can connect with on a deeper level. Classic pieces are works of art that tie in what was happening during the day and time. Not to sound like a teacher, but one of the biggest examples of this is Shakespeare. Shakespeare isn’t still studied today for just writing famous plays, he’s studied because of what he did in his writing. Â
During Shakespeare’s time, Great Britain experienced a golden age where art and literature was flowing like never before. There were also countless governmental changes happening during his time, like the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I. She was one of the first queens of England and changed a lot of what they did during that period. The reason we still study Shakespeare today is because you’re able to learn more about history than just the historical facts through his writing. This goes for other authors as well. Â
Literature classes aren’t just about reading. They’re about connecting ties from this day and age to back before many people in your own bloodline were born. You learn more on a deeper level about what happened in history than you ever thought you would. Part of these lit classes are to help you understand that and be able to point these things out. If we didn’t have literature courses and scholars of literature, we wouldn’t be able to understand the emotions of what people throughout history. Â
Now, I’m not the only one in my field of study to admit that many of the things you read in a literature class may be boring or do not make any sense at all. However, when you read one piece and start to begin to ask questions about “what happened during that time” or “why did they write this the way they did,” you begin to start making bigger and more meaningful connections. That’s the importance of studying literature: being able to connect to history and modern time on a much larger scale. Â