What is literature? What can be considered literature? The first two questions that came into my head when I first stepped into my literature class four years ago. I have not really found the perfect answer to that question, but I have a rough idea what it composes of; novels, plays and poems. I was content with this shallow definition until a friend of mine recently posed a question whether magazines can be considered literature too. Her questions have my mind reeling for answers. Then I realized there is no exact definition as to, what literature is and what it is not. It all depends on how the audience/ reader perceive them to be and how one interprets these texts. This is the aspect of literature that I know of; the freedom to criticize, explore and exploit without having certain guide lines to live by.
The beauty of Literature lies in the way that, language is used to create certain effects on readers/ audience. It is not really about the usage of difficult or sophisticated words, but rather how one juxtaposes different words together. Through Literature, I learn to appreciate the language more, for it is the basis of communication which bridges people of different cultural background together. Irrefutably Mandarin and French are slowly taking over English pole position as the most widely-learned language in the world, but its significance in constructing today’s international global community should not be ignored.
In the small community that I grow up in, such appreciation of the language and its literature isn’t widely acknowledged. Though almost half of the populace can converse and understand the English language, it is to my regret that not many realized how literary works such as that of Dickens’s and Joyce’s help the modern generation understand the socio-cultural history of the respective period they lived in. I wish to change this, by raising their awareness of how literature is as important as history. History like literature offers freedom of judgment and analyzing which strongly attracts me as I value unconventionality. I am curious about the past, of people and society who lives before me and I found that History and literature help to quench my curiosity.
When one ask what motivates me exactly to take up English literature at a higher level, I could not exactly pin point to one particular reason. But irrefutably, I was inspired Frank McCourt’s ‘Tis’a memoir’, to take up the challenge of studying English literature. Even if the issue of language as a barrier is of no existence, but still it’s not easy to teach the subject to a group of students who have the biggest misconception about the subject.
Being a member of my school Peer Group Helpers (PRS) and the official photographer for the student group gave me the chance to develop my inter-personal skills. My interest in journalism led me to PRS Publishing bureau and I was also the vice-president of my school own newsletter, MASA, where I get to learn how to work with different people and how to manage a newsletter under pressure. Aside from that by participating in the fourth Borneo Global Issues Conference, a Model United Nation, I gained a taste of working with international people, discussing current world issues and debating.
I came to appreciate the value of team work and flex my leadership skills when I participated in LiveWIRE Business Plan competition in which, my team was a finalists. The competition gave me a taste of professionalism, in terms of working together as a team in fulfilling every aspect of starting a business and giving out presentations in front of professional juries. Thus having worked with different groups of people help to strengthen my inter-social skills and thus seminars or group discussion would not be a problem for me.
I hope to acquire priceless experience, maturity in thinking and a more philosophical outlook on life, by the end of my three year course in University. Aside from taking up a challenge, I want to pursue the course in order to expand and further polish my knowledge on both literature and history at a higher level of thinking.
please leave any comments or suggestions concerning this personal statement of mine. thank you so much
desperate girl