1. AP Language Literature and Terms

2. Importance of Literature

3. Why Study Literature?

4. The Necessity of Studying Literature?
The subject of literature is human experience.

5. The Necessity of Studying Literature
C.S. Lewis said, “We seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves. Each of us by nature sees the whole world from one point of view with a perspective and a selectiveness peculiar to himself We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own We demand windows This, so far as I can see, is the specific value or good of literature ; it admits us to experiences other than our own My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others.”

6. The Necessity of Studying Literature
The Bible itself is literature – it is a piece of art.

7. The Necessity of Studying Literature
Christians with a high regard for God’s Word are often so preoccupied with its theological content they are scarcely aware of the artistic features of the Bible.

8. The Necessity of Studying Literature
The Bible encourages acquaintance with fictional literature and poetry.

9. The Necessity of Studying Literature
For recreation and enjoyment.

10. The Values of Imaginative Literature
Shows a language of concern – a vision not simply of what exists in the world, but a vision of reality as perceived by a valuing human being

11. Intellectual Value of Literature
Gain an historical perspective
Understand our own culture and civilization
Understand people

12. The Value of Literature as a "Fine (Beautiful) Art"
“For as God is infinitely the greatest Being, so He is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent: and all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation, is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory; God is the foundation and fountain of all being and all beauty.” Jonathan Edwards, The Nature of True Virtue

13. Beauty from a Biblical Perspective
The Bible teaches that beauty is an attribute or perfection of God and that He is the source of beauty, just as He is the source of truth.

14. God as Beautiful Creator
The lesson to be learned from the Bible’s portrait of God as Creator is that God values beauty as well as utility.
He did not create a purely functional world (the trees in the Garden of Eden were not only “good for food” but also “pleasant to the sight”).
We create because we are made in God’s image.
Our first glimpse of God in the Bible is as Creator.
To delight in the work of the human imagination is to value the image of God in people.
God values beauty. “[God] who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord.”

15. The Usefulness of Literature Learning something from the past about how to live in our culture?
Classicism – reason
Romanticism – emotions
Naturalism – drives and impulses

16. Usefulness of Literature - Knowledge
Writers are sensitive observers of reality.
Literature is the knowledge of human experience.

17. Usefulness ofLiterature – Knowledge of Human Experience
External world of physical objects
World of human emotions
General problems and/or social issues

18. Often, the knowledge of literature comes with greatest impact when a reader or viewer is so moved by the presentation that he or she cannot verbalize about the work of literature but only experience it

19. Reject This Common Model
Literature = truth given to the reader to form his life/worldview

20. Literature is a catalyst to thought.
Anyone's worldview should arise from considered and responsible deliberation.

21. Accept This New Model – Biblical Truth Literature/Worldview

22. Objectionable Elements
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day;
Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

23. Objectionable Elements
Five Categories
Profanity
Sexual perversion

24. Objectionable Elements – cont.
3. Lurid violence
Occultism

25. Objectionable Elements – cont.
5. Erroneous religious or philosophical assumptions

26. Positions on Objectionable Elements
Permissivist View –
allows for censorable elements in a work of compensating aesthetic qualities
allows for censorable elements because of the necessity in art of an honest view of life
Weaknesses –
too subjective and utilitarian – does not rest on absolute moral principles
ideas of the world and of life vary greatly

27. Positions – cont. 2. Exclusivist View –
Believes that because evil is evil , any unavoidable exposure to it is wrong for even the most praiseworthy of purposes.

28. Exclusivist View – cont.
2. The Bible contains all objectionable elements.

29. Exclusivist View Profanity Sexual Perversion Lurid Violence Occultism
Erroneous Religious and Philosophical Assumptions

30. Exclusivist View – cont.
Weaknesses –
based on a misapplication or misinterpretation of Scripture

31. 3. Pragmatic View
Consider some compromise is necessary if one is to get along in a fallen world
Weaknesses
Misapplication of I Cor. 5:10
Implies that it is impossible to live a life according to the will of a holy God.
Christians cannot accept a policy of convenience.

32. 4. Biblical View
The Bible itself is the supreme literary and pedagogical model
The image of God in redeemed man – Christlikeness - includes moral understanding

33. Criteria of worth Principle of Gratuitousness –
is the representation of evil purposeful or is it present for its own sake?
Principle of Explicitness-
is the representation of
evil, if purposeful, represented in an acceptable degree? Is it more conspicuous or vivid than the purpose warrants?

34. Criteria of Worth cont. Principle of Moral Tone
is evil presented from a condemning perspective? Is it made to appear both dangerous and repulsive? What is the attitude of the work toward it?

35. Inoculation Analogy Strength of dosage Resistance of the donor
Amount of exposure to evil
Resistance of the donor
condemning perspective provided by the teacher
Strength of the recipient
readiness of the student to benefit from the negative example