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For many folks, the word "literature" conjures up memories of loftier school English class reading lists. While the Western literary canon is expanding to include, and drag, stories outside of what white, Western readers have dubbed "the classics," at that place are nevertheless some works that crop up in every educatee's career, from Frankenstein and the Epic of Gilgamesh to Beloved and The Great Gatsby. And then, why is literature important — and why do nosotros written report it?

Merriam-Webster defines literature equally poesy or prose that has "excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal involvement." While it may sound trite to say, the world's greatest works of literature have changed minds, sparked rebellions, and helped to alter the class of history. While it would exist impossible to comprise all of literature's contributions and multitudes here, we're going to have a look at some of the landmark moments in this art course's history.

Literature Transports Us To the By

Like other recovered art objects, literature has the power to tell united states near ancient civilizations. Not only can we understand their customs, values and lives, but we tin go a better idea of what their entertainment looked like. The first-known examples of literature can be traced dorsum to aboriginal Mesopotamia. Around 3400 BCE, the Sumerians developed a system of writing chosen cuneiform, which allowed scribes to record myths, hymns and poetry. Some of these earliest-known transcriptions include the "Kesh Temple Hymn" and the "Instructions of Shuruppak," both of which were written around 2500 BCE.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, a long-form Mesopotamian verse form, was originally written effectually 2100 BCE. Fifty-fifty today, Gilgamesh is considered the first cracking masterpiece of world literature. In fact, much of the Bible parallels this ancient work, furthering emphasizing only how universal and influential Gilgamesh was — and continues to be today.

In 375 BCE, Plato, the Athenian philosopher, authored The Democracy, a dialogue between Socrates and his fellow Greek thinkers, which explores thought-provoking questions almost justice, guild and the just man. And, around the eighth century BCE, the landmark epics attributed to the poet Homer, The Odyssey and The Iliad, helped preserve Greek mythology and history in writing.

Early on, literature was contained within poetry and dramatic works — after all, performing plays was another great source of entertainment. During the 11th century, or the Heian period, Japanese noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu penned The Tale of Genji, which is considered the first modernistic novel by many scholars.

The 4 protagonists featured in Journey to the Due west. From left to right: Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang (on the White Dragon Horse), Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing. Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia

Years subsequently, in Europe, things started to shift in a meaningful way in the wake of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a drove of 24 stories written in Heart English between 1387 and 1400. Picking up the prose torch around 1485, Thomas Malory published Le Morte d'Arthur, 1 of the first novels in the Western canon. During the Renaissance, writers like Molière began satirizing everything from the church and government to gild at large, showing that written works had the propensity to shift the balance of ability and make people rethink their world views.

During the 16th century, likewise known as the Ming dynasty, the Chinese novel Journey to the West was published. Attributed to Wu Cheng'en, this satire- and apologue-filled work is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Around the same time, William Shakespeare was helping to lay the foundations of modern English and craft the literary tropes and story formats nosotros still savor today. And, of course, in 1615 Miguel de Cervantes penned Don Quixote, a romantic, archetypal novel that'southward considered one of the most influential works of all time.

Literature Gives Folks a Voice and Platform — and Let's Readers Run into Themselves Reflected

Again, it'southward incommunicable to fully encapsulate the breadth of literary history here. Moreover, this commodity focuses on written works, but it'due south important to notation that many cultures and groups of people record stories through imagery instead — or laissez passer their stories down in oral traditions. All of this to say, our view of literature is a narrow i, and, in many means, limited by the mode educational institutions have shaped our understanding of what works are important.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison performs "Jazz" at Lincoln Heart in 2005. Photograph Courtesy: Brad Barket/Getty Images

James Simpson, head of Harvard University'southward English Department, spoke about these limitations directly in an open letter of the alphabet to the Wall Street Journal entitled "Great Literature Magnifies Repressed Voices, Always." For Simpson, the ages-erstwhile Western literary canon, which highlights the literary contributions of white (and often straight) men, "betray[s] the fundamental function of literature and other art forms, which is to hear the voices repressed by official forms of a given civilization."

Of course, the literary canon has been refreshed in by, which proves that information technology'southward important to reshape and rethink the stories we deem essential. For example, at the time of its writing Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Ruby-red Letter was kind of the scandalous (easily consumable) HBO-like story of the day. Simply, now, it'southward largely considered a probing, essential work — not merely entertainment. In the wake of World War I, authors similar Virginia Woolf and F. Scott Fitzgerald penned novels, like Mrs. Dalloway and The Great Gatsby respectively, that captured their disillusionment first and foremost. Nevertheless, these continue to be must-read works due to the style they exemplify arts and crafts and storytelling elements. (At least in part.)

More modern literature also ushered in the more formal notion of literary sub-genres, ranging from science fiction — a genre created by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley — to romance, fantasy, and realism. By retracing sure tropes, conventions and character types, genre helps usa understand the way particular stories are shaped by categorizing them.

Without a doubt, literature helps us uncover — exist it an uncovering of the by, a present cocky, or a possible hereafter. The nearly distinguished literary greats, like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Kazuo Ishiguro, Chinua Achebe, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zadie Smith, and Maggie Nelson (and many, many more folks we don't have the space to name!), capture all of these facets. In short, by climbing into the minds of other characters and worlds — in stepping outside of ourselves — literature allows the states to understand universal truths; change minds; stir empathy; and express our identities and values in lasting, far-reaching means.