"Literature" is a term used to describe written or spoken material.

Broadly speaking,
"literature" is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or
scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the
creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.

Why do we read literature?

Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is

more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces us to
new worlds of experience. We learn about books and literature; we enjoy the
comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow
and evolve through our literary journey with books.

Ultimately, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author

says and how he/she says it. We may interpret the author's message. In academic
circles, this decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of literary
theory, using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or other
approach.

Whatever critical paradigm we use to discuss and analyze literature, there is still an
artistic quality to the works. Literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it
is universal, and it affects us. Even when it is ugly, literature is beautiful.

To understand as to why we should read Literature effectively it is necessary that we

delve into the evolutionary aspect of literature, if not in detail at least in it's brevity.
Though from the nascent stages of human evolution, the man's quest for gaining an
insight into the arts and culture was prevalent, the main thrust upon this quest had
got substantially triggered off with the advent of the Renaissance period of europe.
This instinctive quest was basically propelled by the man's curiosity to understand
the causal factors responsible for the individuality and the uniqueness among the
the sections of human beings.
If we take a look at the vedic period wich has its roots in the East, this quest
presumably had germinated much earlier to many of the other cultures the world
wide. The Vedas segmented into Upanishads [i.e. vedic treatises dealing with the

broad philosophical concepts and problems] had their basic focus upon the
necessity of socialization of the human beings, by debating issues pertaining to
moral, evil and of good, necessary for peaceful and hormonious co-existence.
Similarly when we take a look at the western culture, we find that literature was
dominated by the religion with church prevailing at the helm of the human affairs.
With the advent of the Renissance period the quest had got highly accentuated by
the humanist concepts and socialization.
The field of literature had foused its attention mainly on History and politics.
At this juncture it would be more appropriate to take a look at the master piece of
Spencer's "The FAERIE QUEEN" produced during the Renaissance period. The first
book personifies the Holiness, the second one Temperance, the third one Chastity,
the fourth one Friendship the fifth one Justice and the sixth one Curtesy.
Now if we take a look at the cardinal virtues we have seven of them 1.Justice
2.Prudence 3. Temperance 4. Fortitude 5. Faith 6. hope and 7. Charity. It is well
settled that if we keep all these virtues which when instilled among the people
would lead to proper socialization and socially hormonious co-existence. But if we
keep these in mind and launch a search for them no science or no other art would
be as complete and useful as the art of literature.
The different generes of literature in the form of poetry, prose,drama or any other
form of literature are the manifestations of this good social order. As Mahatma
gandhi had observed that of all the arts that a man tries and learns to cultivate
perhaps the most difficult art of accomplishment is the art of living. It consists in
true understanding of the life and so regulating ones conduct to reach that goal
nearer and nearer everyday. Let us learn that art and that literature which speaks
to millions and millions of people, it is justified that literature is the main source
usefull to learn the art of living.