Of all the factors contributing to the success of the literary endeavour -- subject matter, style or the human dimensions of the work in question -- the latter remains by far the most important, and certainly the most powerful element in any work of literature. Without such human values literature is reduced to journalism, becoming no more than a written treatment of one issue or another. In which case, however beautiful the writer's style, literature as such can never be the result.
Yet in addressing the human within a literary form the writer must possess a refined artistic style. The work itself must have an artistic structure that raises it from the level of mere writing to that of literature. As for subject matter, a good writer should be capable of making whatever he writes about interesting to people -- and that applies to all subjects, even the driest periods of ancient history. Shakespeare, for example, nominally dealt with themes very distant from his audience yet his works express an extraordinarily contemporary world view.
It is because they speak with such immediacy to the audience, and incorporate the kind of human value I've been discussing, that they remain great works of literature.
Of all the factors contributing to the success of the literary endeavour -- subject matter, style or the human dimensions of the work in question -- the latter remains by far the most important, and certainly the most powerful element in any work of literature. Without such human values literature is reduced to journalism, becoming no more than a written treatment of one issue or another. In which case, however beautiful the writer's style, literature as such can never be the result.
