Hippolyte Taine's Theory Of Literature And Literature

Literature is considered as the criticism of life because it mirrors the society, people and the time in which it is produced. Corroborating this idea of connection of society and literature, Hippolyte Taine, a French critic gives a scientific approach to the study of literature through his theory of race, milieu and moment. According to this theory Men, Milieu and Message in literature cannot be separated. As mentioned on the website of encyclopedia Britannica that; “Race, milieu, and moment, according to the French critic Hippolyte Taine, are three principal motives or conditioning factors behind any work of art.” The philosopher analyses the scientific approach to the work of literature to find out the motivational factor which created that

Those are good lessons for the new generation, including leaders, to learn of past experiences from books, and not to repeat historical mistakes. If literature expresses social sympathies, naturally it is bound to exercise some positive influence on our mind and attitude. Society reacts to literature by following the message and motivation the work of literature gives. An inspiring poem creates general influence on society. It arouses our feelings and enthusiasm for welfare. Poetry and literature generally do this in a quiet and unobtrusive way. Novels are known to have changed the direction of the human mind and set in motion movements that have altered our ways of life. It is, however, clear that if we are interested in literature, and its influence is bound to move us amply. Literature is made out of the lore of life. No doubt, the realistic artist brings to a focus the oddities and cruder aspects of life overmuch. But to know life fully, not only the bright side but also the seamy and dark side of life is to be known. Thus, society creates literature. It may be described as the mirror of the society. But the quality and nature of the reflection depends upon the writer 's attitude of mind, whether he is progressive in his outlook or

The fourth chapter entitled “Socio-Historical Issues in Contemporary Pakistani Fiction” explores socio-historic issues in the novels of both authors. How partition, 1971 war, nuclear testing, Iran-Iraq war, 9/11 etc have shaped the lives of Pakistani people and also their thought processes is noteworthy. The chapter also tries to look into the problems of fundamentalism and extremism and how it can be overcome.

The last chapter sums up the findings and establishes the relevance of the research. Nation or a society is a macro unit comprising of micro units which make or mar the societal structure. Today when the world stands on the pedestal of a possible nuclear war, it becomes important for the entire world to understand the society which faces the problems of terrorism and also harbors terrorism.

It is very essential to understand what is Pakistani literature, who are Pakistani writers and when did Pakistani literature start? It’s very indispensable to comprehend if can 1947 be considered as the root year of Pakistani Literature? Defining the first question of beginning of Pakistani literature is very complex and different literary giants have expressed the heterogeneous opinions. There are numerous writers who have different backgrounds and history that can affect deciding whether the writer is Pakistani or not. There are two major types of