A couple of days ago, I clumsily manhandled the distinction between literature and how we use it. I would have done better to have followed the lead of Kenneth Burke, who thought about the problem by putting proverbs into categories, based on how people use them.
Some people use proverbs for consolation. Some as a form of vengeance. People sometimes put the same proverb to different uses.
Burke started with perhaps the simplest literary form. But he pointed out that what’s true for the proverb is probably true for all literature.
Proverbs are strategies for dealing with situations.
I’m no literary theorist. But Burke has his finger on how I use books: as tools to live a better life.
His suggestion also explains to me why some books that I read as revelations as a teenager don’t hold the same punch today. Approaching 70, I have naturally moved on from some situations that seemed crucial at 15.
And his suggestion also explains this: If I thought that life could be reduced to one essential situation, I suppose I’d be looking for one strategy. But I think life is full of situations, and a wise person would do well to have many strategies.
• Source and notes: Kenneth Burke, “Literature as Equipment for Living,” in The Philosophy of Literary Form; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1973, pp. 293-304. The essay is here:
Thanks to Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art for recommending the essay.
No comments:
Post a Comment