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Literature: Potato in the curry of career

Published : Thursday, 7 September, 2017 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1151
Ahmed Tahsin Shams
In Bangladesh, most of the students and parents have two notions regarding studying literature: firstly, book-reading -- novels, poems, drama, prose -- do not have any place in the contemporary job market. By the word 'job market', stereotypically 'standardized', it is meant: Three Bs (which are thrust upon power position): BCS, Banking, and Business. Secondly, if it's English literature then it can be considered as a subject of academic field by particular classes (especially the petty bourgeoisie, also known as 'middle class') because of the colonized mindset in Bangladesh. If children study English, parents can tilt up the nose and tap the collar, and stride with their slippers, uttering: My son/daughter studies 'English'! 
For any job, apart from technical skills, most important requirement is 'Intelligence' which means one's capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, planning, creativity, problem solving, and eventually applying knowledge within an environment or context. To be able to fix up a computer or gadget, or a human bone is known as technical skill. But intelligence is something that makes human Homo Sapiens, which we do not get from robots or high-techs. Technical skills can be acquired within a fixed time frame, but intelligence has to be nurtured and practised over the years to put into use for the society, environment, and human kind. And it's a continuous process. Now the question is: Does literature enhance one's intelligence?
Let's jot down the names of the places a literature graduate fits in to be: journalism, advertisement or branding agencies, local or multinational corporate companies or communication agencies, research institutes, visual media, creative writing agencies, publishing industry, art and culture industry, education business and teaching, translation centers, foreign embassies, local or international NGOs or social welfare organizations etc. In Bangladesh, we have all these industries at present, and my hypothesis is such industries will flourish more in the next 10 years.   
Now following the first question, here is the second one: How does literary intelligence make one fit for the above-mentioned job sectors? Before answering this question, I would slightly touch the foremost query. Studying literature is also helpful for the three Bs: BCS, Banking, and Business. Let's have a glimpse: 
LITERATURE, AND THE THREE Bs:
Certainly, if one reads Gramsci's 'Hegemony, Intellectuals, and the State', Adorno�s and Horkheimer's 'Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception', Foucault's 'Discipline and Punish', and such critical and cultural theories, one can critically perform as a Statesperson as he would have sound sense on the State policies in relation to culture, politics and the public psyche. In addition, to crack high score in BCS exam, one has to be proficient in literature and language. 
In Banking sector, officials, if have read the theory of power and money in relation with society and civilization, to be specific: theories by Marx and Engels, one can value the role of banking in a different way in society. Here again, fair selection in job means high score in selection exam where English language plays a great role. And the best way to learn a language is reading literature. We will soon come to this note. 
Finally, entrepreneurship is one of the most creative sectors. To understand business, one has to understand how trends are made trends, how consumerism is connected to pseudo-individualism, how human psyche is hegemonized, and what role the industry plays in doing so. Reading Bakhtin's 'Carnival and Carnivalesque', and Guy Debord's 'The Society of the Spectacle' would give a clear idea how a product or knowledge is produced and promoted, as well as consumed in a capitalistic society through the process of hegemony that not only enhance the number of consumers but also create �taste� of consumers. These all are integral part of literature discipline.   

OTHER DISCIPLINES, ALSO YOURS:
Now it's time to talk of the literary graduates' areas. It is not unknown to us that reading literature can provoke thought through shock effect as it penetrates cultural psyche due to its ability to be transgressive (breaking boundaries) and it de-familiarizes the reality, or make the familiar strange, or by unsettling the reader it forms new insights. By reading global literature, one understands history, politics, culture, international relations, and human psychology. Thereby, literature smoothly in tune incorporates other disciplines, which makes it stronger. List of other job arenas have already been mentioned. Now let's take a ride on the journey of skills that literature produces:

TO BE COMMUNICATIVE:
The best way to develop communication skill is the practice of literature. Whether you recite, or perform drama, stage fear and hesitation in front of new faces will fade away! One can meet millions of characters only through reading which is not possible in one lifetime if one starts meeting face to face. Every job is a performance, and performance means: speech and gesture -- both are the pillars of literary practice. Novelists communicate through the characters, poets through their verses, and political activists through their slogans. It is all about having strong communication skill, whatever the job area is.

MASTER THE LANGUAGE:
Is there any mainstream profession where you won't have to write or speak? The most used medium of communication is language. If one wishes to develop their skill over the language, one has to read. Now what will one read? Certainly, the answer is literature. Whether Bacon's prose, or Eliot's poems - language unfolds and grows through literature. Even the teacher of language often wear the apron of literature to cook the dish called 'knowledge'! Whether you wish to develop speaking skills, or want to be expert in syntax, at the end of the lecture, you would need examples to convince your students, which would be undoubtedly extracted from films or literature. In any profession, impress your client or boss with a line from Chekov's, or Bertrand Russel's, or 'As You Like It'! 

TO HAVE SHERLOCKIAN ANALYTICAL APTITUDE:
Literature manipulates our minds; it breaks our presumed conventions, builds new insights. In short, literature communicates the best. It enables readers to think like Sherlock or Mishir Ali, and thus, critical thinking sets sail through studying literature. Who won't like to hire persons having such analytical aptitude? You must admit: novelists are no less than psychologists. Mishir Ali is a psychologist, but the author who created Mishir Ali is a novelist!    

MEDIA & CORPORATES:
Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man, says Francis Bacon. Journalism unites all of these. Whether print media, or visual media -- just drop the magic of literature from any television channel or newspaper. Now watch, if it doesn't get shut down!
Nowadays, NGOs, and few governmental organizations, or autonomous institutes, even multinational corporate houses have media departments who are actively into social awareness campaign, documentation of culture and history, and promotional activities. In short, another version of communication, and thereby, another face of literature!

TRANSLATION INDUSTRY:
At present, around the world, translation industry is on the rise because translation can cross language borders which are on handsome demand. Whether interpreter or transcreater, one of the biggest markets for literature graduates is translation centres. Whether you wish to translate a history book, or a poem, literature will tell you the difference within the same language -- "Mama, ek cup cha dao." and "Ki Mama! Kemon gelo first date?" -- and thus can save you from linguistic untranslatability! 
In conclusion, it can be said that literature has many forms. It is strongly tied to the movements of placards, static but effective street wall-scribbles, teenage slangs or childhood school-bench-verses, the elite-frames hung in art exhibitions, the silver screens, the floors of performances, the hope of political speeches or motivational lectures, the ink used for writing letters, the headphone pouring music -- literature is everywhere!

The writer is Lecture at the Department of English Language and Literature (ELL) in Notre Dame University Bangladesh (NDUB), and Editorial Assistant at The Daily Observer





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