Literature in the age of VUCA: Is it worth it?
At its core literature is filled with stories, stories about life and living, stories about the past, the present and the possible future. Is it worth the time and effort to study literature in today’s highly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world?
Here’s my five reasons how we can use stories to root our learners to the folktale and mythology, while harnessing their emotional, linguistic and even existential intelligences.
1. Connecting to the past
Stories have a link to ancient civilization in the way storytellers use archetypes to ignite our imagination. These archetypes include the hero, the hero’s journey, the shadow character, the old man motif, the trickster, the jester. Through stories readers are connected to myths and legends, folklore and fairytales of the land.
Consider the Malaysian National Laureate Muhammad Haji Salleh and his poem ‘Si tenggang’s homecoming’, where the central character of the poem is a revision of an Indonesian folktale Malin Kundang. In the folktale ‘Si tanggang’, or Malin Kundang is the son who travels the world in search of wealth and prosperity. Upon his return as a wealthy businessman, he meets his mother and rejects her. This tragic folk character is revisioned by Muhammad Haji Salleh into ‘Si tenggang’ and the theme of travels, prosperity and filial piety is played out in the poem. Using folktale as his premise, the poet makes the readers question the importance of travelling to foreign land and how those travels may transform us from the person we used to be. Literature has the ability to make us question such things.
2. Connecting the present with the future
Literature also connects us to our present and the possible future. Think of the science fiction that speaks about artificial intelligence such as I, Robot by Isaac Asimov which was published over 70 years ago. Today the idea of a robot living amongst us is an acceptable phenomenon. And yet, 70 years ago it was part of science fiction. The vision of a possible future that literature paints may be the seed or the muse that can generate a new perspective of how the future should be. Look around your environment and ask yourself, which of the things that you see were once considered unthinkable. Chances are those same things might have appeared in a science fiction decades before they became a reality.
3. Connecting to our emotions
Literature also connects us to our emotions. Storytellers use the art of storytelling to ignite different emotions in the readers including hope, remorse, sadness, fear, anger or laughter.
Consider this very short story written by the 20th century American writer, Ernest Hemingway:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn
Today such 6-word story is known as flash fiction.
What emotion does this 6-word story trigger in us? In 6 words the narrator paints us a picture of possible tragedy that had befallen a family with a lost of a baby. How do I know this? As a reader I need to infer what is being hinted at. That a never worn baby shoes are being sold, tells me that something had befallen the baby which causes him/her to not be able to wear those new shoes. If you have a different interpretation of the story, do share with us in the chat box.
The reader’s role is to fill up the gaps or silences in these 6 words. It is in the readers’ ability to de-construct what is in the story that allows us to understand what the author is trying to convey. There is power in these 6 words, not separated by strung together. It is in the reader’s linguistic intelligence that meaning making happens.
4. Developing Linguistic intelligence
The examples of critical appreciation that I briefly introduced us to requires a particular kind of intelligence. Howard Gardner the American psychologist in his seminal work Multiple intelligences identifies nine multiple intelligences including intrapersonal, interpersonal, linguistic, existential, bodily-kinesthetic, logical–mathematical, spatial, naturalistic, and musical.
I want to focus on 2 of the 9 multiple intelligences. The first is linguistic intelligence and the second is existential intelligence.
The characteristics of Linguistic Intelligence is the ability to “Remember written and spoken information, Enjoy reading and writing, Debate or give persuasive speeches, Are able to explain things well, Use humor when telling stories.” People with strong linguistic intelligence, research indicates, make good writers, journalists, teachers and lawyers. What other subjects, besides language and literature, allows the learners to immerse themselves in exercising their linguistic intelligence? Studying literature allows learners to explore their potential linguistic intelligence.
5. Exploring Existential Intelligence
Another type of intelligence that Howard Gardner identified is Existential intelligence. Some key characteristics of this intelligence include ability to see the big picture and “consider how current actions influence future outcomes, Interest in questions about the meaning of life and death, Strong interest and concern for others, The ability to see situations from an outside perspective.”
In the short story “and the earth drank deep” which recently won the commonwealth short story award, the writer Ntsika Kota forces the reader to see the big picture by providing a title that is missing a subject. Merely by having the word “and”, linguistically it tells us that some part of the phrase is missing.
What could the subject of this story be? Why did “the earth [drink] deep”? What happened before “the earth drank deep”? who caused the “earth” to drink deep? Asking these questions through an inquiry-based learning approach allows the reader to see the big picture being drawn merely from the title. Imagine reading the entire story and seeing how these questions are answered. That’s the power of engaging with literature.
To sum up, using these techniques of engaging with works of literature , I moot that studying literature allows learners the space to develop their multiple intelligences including linguistic, and existential. In today’s highly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, our ability to develop these intelligences in our learners through literary engagements may help them ride the wave of volatility with stronger sense of clarity, agility and fortitude.
