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By Lee Hyon-soo
What is literature? Literature commonly refers to creative writings in prose or verse that express ideas of permanent or universal interest and have superior and lasting artistic merit. The creation of literature is a uniquely human activity, born of man's timeless desire to understand, express and share experiences.
Not only does literature offer insights into the human experience and the world around us, but it can also serve as a reflection of the society and culture in which it is produced. What's more, literature is valued for its ability to entertain, educate and inspire readers.
Literature often detaches us from time and place and transports us to some imaginary world that we otherwise would never know, thereby allowing us to escape the problems and responsibilities of our everyday lives and to participate, however briefly, in experiences that differ radically from our own.
Literature can also be read for the sheer aesthetic pleasure that we take in good artistry of any kind. What distinguishes literature from other forms of artistic expression is its reliance on structure and style in language.
Literature encompasses both fiction and nonfiction. From time to time, I come across otherwise intelligent men and women who say that they don't read works of fiction in the belief that doing so would be a waste of time. If you only read works of nonfiction, you don't know what you are missing out on because fiction is the dominating literary form.
I am an avid reader of Western literature. To improve my command of English, I have read hundreds of literary works in English. In the case of works written in languages other than English, I have read their English versions. Having read a wide array of literary works by Western writers, I cannot resist the temptation to say a word or two about them when the opportunity presents itself ― for what it is worth.
To share the wonder of Western literature with as many people as possible, I have been writing a series of commentary articles on Western literary works over the past 10 years or so ― in the Canadian edition of The Hankook Ilbo published in Toronto, Canada.
As I am not well versed in poetry, I focus on prose, namely novels and plays authored by world-famous writers from North America and Europe, many of them being Nobel laureates.
In my articles written in the Korean language for my fellow Koreans residing in Canada, I provide brief synopses of selected works and include my explanatory comments together with biographical sketches of the authors concerned.
The themes of novels and plays vary, but the common thread is the human situation. By seeing how the stories unfold in them, we catch a glimpse of many deeply entrenched features and characteristics of human life and search for the meaning of life on Planet Earth.
So far, I have touched on 72 pieces of literary works by 60 writers of 12 different nationalities, namely, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Ireland, Canada, Spain, Romania, Czech Republic, Poland and Norway.
Furthermore, I recently compiled a collection of my articles into a book titled "Invitation to World-famous Works of Literature," which was written in Korean and published in Korea.
The writer (tomhslee43@gmail.com) is a freelance columnist based in Toronto, Canada.
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