It was George Bernard Shaw, an American writer, who observed: “Imagination is the beginning of creativity.” Indeed, literature is a mirror through which we see the realities of life. This is considered to be true because life is creatively embellished in any piece of literary work, be it prose, drama, or poetry.
The aesthetics of literary works lie in the artistry of the artist, especially in relation to the work’s delivery and presentation. Doing this involves the use of language and culture.
Relating literature as a branch of art, Prof Jasper Onuekwusi of the Imo State University (IMSU), defines literature in his book titled: The prose in literature as “any imaginative and beautiful creation in words, whether oral or written, which explores man as he struggles to survive in his existential position and which provides entertainment, information, education and excitement to its audience.”
Literature belongs to the same category as other forms of art such as music, sculpture, film, painting, dance, photography and the like. This, therefore, explains the nexus between literature and beauty. In other words, art is any beautiful creation whether in words, wood, sound, plastic, stone, or any other medium, which has the ultimate objective of entertaining and granting relaxation by creating beauty as well as expressing truth as perceived by an artist, and provides pleasure. Literature is art and art speaks remote truth.
It is important for us to see literature as a slice of life that provides curious man with vivid knowledge of aspects of life, which he could not have known and, to subsequently imbibe the lesson to live a more fulfilled life. Little wonder then that early African writers such as the late Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa’thiong, Prof Wole Soyinka, Chris Okigbo, Ayi Kwei Armah and Laye Camara, among others, manifested literary aesthetics and sensibilities in their writing.
The first time I read Things Fall Apart, the popular work of Achebe, I was surprised to see my culture in a story. I was to confirm those oral stories told by my grandmother, which vividly described the life of my people in the East. For instance, how the elders in my village sat and discussed the affairs of village; how the maidens used to sing at the marriage of one of their own; how the children used to gather around a bonfire to listen to stories by elders; and how the masqueraders entertained villagers during festivals and ceremonies.
All these underscore the aesthetics, value and beauty of literature. Then, I came to the understanding that literature is, no doubt, a reflection of the socio-culture, economic, political and religious sensibilities of a people. It recreates people’s way of life as well as projects their yearnings and aspirations. Being a mirror of the society, literature responds effectively by promoting the dialect of the people.
Literature also responds effectively to cultures as portrayed in Achebe’s novel, Arrow of God. It is in this regard that we should view literature as a means of social engineering. The society cannot do without literature and vice versa.
As Denise Escarpit, a French critic of children literature, argued, “literature is a product of social funding; its subject changes according to changes in society and literature usually has no meaning outside society.
Prof Onuekwusi, during his inaugural lecture last June titled: A nation and her stories: Milestones in the growth of Nigeria, fiction and their implication for national development, observes: “A people who neglect the story, especially those that came from their cultural lives and backgrounds ultimately get into avoidable courtship of instability, rootlessness and indeed personal and community disaster.”
This evidently illustrates the facts why our nation is suffering from diverse moral decadence. The writer choice of words, techniques, devices, inventions, images and other literary paraphernalia which is creatively embellished into the beautiful piece of any literary work is certainly the artist’s effort to reach a certain distinction and excellence expression.
Longinus in Critical theory since Plato (1970) notes: “A work survives a first hearing or reading disposes the soul of high thoughts and leaves the mind more food for reflection than the words communication.”
Wole Soyinka, a literary icon enunciated the beauty of literature in his poetic engagement. This is explored in his poem Abiku, a powerful poem that brings out the beauty of African imagery and promotes the black culture. It is full of aphorism, paradoxical expression and also enriched with the aesthetics of metaphors.
In fact, the poem explained a primitive belief that a child is possessed by evil spirit, which can torment the mother with a painful experience of persistent death at birth. The line such as: “In vain your bangles cast charmed circle at my feet I am Abiku, calling for the first and repeated times” demonstrated this.
The poem explores the Abiku myth, which has occupied the centre stage in traditional African belief. Soyinka, through his creative ingenuity as a poet, recreates life with words in a written form. There is no doubt that a certain distinction and excellence in expression were achieved through the poem, invention of images and metaphors through which he presented a picturesque and description of an Abiku in the poem.
It is indisputable that literature is the mother of all human endeavours. Literature is perhaps God’s greatest gift to man for his peaceful and harmonious relationship with his fellow men. In other words, it is God’s means of presenting pleasantly an enduring roadmap for all manners of development of man. Indeed, literature is beautiful because it shares with other arts the quality of being beautiful.
Chidiebere, 300-Level English and Literary Studies, IMSU
