About W.H.Hudson:
William Henry Hudson (4 August 1841 – 18 August 1922), known in Argentina as Guillermo Enrique Hudson, was an Anglo Argentine author, naturalist and ornithologist. Born in the Argentine pampas where he roamed free in his youth, he observed bird life and collected specimens for the Smithsonian Institution. The Patagonian birds Knipolegus hudsoni and Asthenes hudsoni are named after him. He would later write about life in Patagonia that drew special admiration for his style. His most popular work Green Mansions (1904), a romance set in the Venezuelan forest inspired a Hollywood movie and several other works.
In his preface of the book, "An Introduction to the Study of Literature" (1963) critically mentioned the purpose behind writing the systematic way of studying the literature that,
"Despite the large and ever increasing number of works which deal with special aspects of literature on the historical and critical sides, I believe that there is still a place for a compact and fairly comprehensive volume of this kind. This faith may indeed be taken for granted, as otherwise the book would not have been written. I should, however, add that the utility of the plan adopted in it has been established by practical experience."
He then gave such practical examples held at the Municipal Technical Institute, West Ham and the Polytechnic, Woolwich.
The Nature and Elements of Literature:
In the first chapter, 'Some Ways of Studying Literature' of his book, "An Introduction to the Study of Literature" Hudson elaborate the nature and elements of literature through points:
1. What is Literature?
2. Literature and Life
3. The Impulses behind Literature
4. The Themes of Literature
5. The Classification of Literature
6. The Elements of Literature
Here is detailed explanation of each point:
1. What is Literature?
Hudson started elaboration of this point that what we commonly describe literature as what is in written that is fixed as in written format and in literary sense are books. And for this concern with sevaral genuine questions, he described,
"Literature is composed of those books, and of those books only, which, in the
first place, by reason of their subject-matter and their mode of treating it, are of general human interest ; and in which, in the second place, the element of form and the pleasure which form gives are to be regarded as essential."
Subject matter - the subject thta author or poet carried out in his/her work that will impacts on reader's mind as per their interest
Mode of treating - how author used to take the narration to covey his/her message to the reader
General human interest - reader as an ordinary human being can relate the particular literary work
The element form and pleasure - the structure is required for the understanding and to maintain the quility of literary work and should be able to justify reader's interest and aesthetic pleasure.
Further, Hudson define how a piece of literature differs from a specialised treatise such as astronomy, political economy, philosophy or history because it is not about to a particular class of reader but to men to women as men and women.
2. Literature and Life:
According to Hudson, Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, experienced of it, thoughts and felt about those aspects that impacts immediate and enduring interest for all of us. And for this reason, Literature is an expression of Life through the medium of language.
Hudson explained that Why we care for Literature? Because of its deep and lasting human significance. Every aspects that can relate to our lives are bring out by authors or literary artist in books which will significantly impacts from present to future of our lives. He mentioned that,
"A great book grows directly out of life ; in reading it, we are brought into
large, close, and fresh relations with life ; and in that fact lies the final explanation of its power."
3. The Impulses behind Literature:
As per Hudson's point of view, these four Impulses are accurately enough for practical purposes,
I) our desire for self-expression - literature which directly
expresses the thoughts and feelings of the writer.
II) our interest in people and their doings - the literature which deals
with the great drama of human life and action.
III) our interest in the world of reality in which we live, and in the world of imagination which we conjure into existence - the literature of description and
IV) our love of form as form - the very existence of literature as art.
Hudson conclude this point by elaborating that,
"As these impulses merge together in life, so they will merge together in literature, with the result that the different divisions of literature which spring from them will inevitably overlap."
4. The Themes of Literature:
As per Hudson's description, that it is not these impulses that produced literature, but we must go farther about subjects that produce literature. He suggest that we may perhaps venture to arrange them into five large groups, that are:
I) the literature of purely personal experience :
the personal experiences of the individual as individual the things which make up the sum-total of his private life, outer and inner
II) the common life of man as man:
the experiences of man as man those great common questions of life and death, sin and destiny, God, man's relation with God, the hope of the race here and here after, and the like which transcend the limits of the personaL lot, and belong to the race as a whole
III) of the social world under all its different aspects :
the relations of the individual with his fellows, or the entire social world, with
all its activities and problems
IV) the literature which treats of nature:
the external world of nature, and our relations with this
V) the literature which treats of literature and, art:
man's own efforts to create and express under the various forms of literature and art
5) The Classification of Literature:
I) Self - expression :
- the different kinds of lyric poetry, the poetry of meditation and argument the elegy
- the essay and treatise where these arc written from the personal point of view and the literature of artistic and literary criticism.
II) Writer goest out himself:
- instead of going down into himself, goes out of himself into the world of external human life and activity ; and this includes history and biography, the ballad and the epic, the romance in verse and prose, the story in verse and prose, the novel and the drama.
III) The Literature of Description:
- description in literature is ordinarily associated with, and for the most part subordinated to, the interests of self-expression or narrative, but comprising in the book of travel, and the descriptive essay and poem, some fairly distinct minor forms of literary art.
6. The Elements of Literature:
I) Intellectual Element: the thought which the writer brings to bear upon his subject,
and which he expresses in his work.
II) Emotional Element: the feeling (of whatever kind) which his subject arouses in him, and which in turn he desires to stimulate in us.
III) Element of Imagination: the faculty of strong and intense vision, and by the exercise of which he quickens a similar power of vision in ourselves.
