This piece is about moments when reading literature feels extremely personal. It offers advice for two groups of people: 1) those who dream of studying English literature at university and 2) those who have already started on that journey with all its fun, frightening, intimidating and crazy twists and turns.

The advice is born from a specific kind of experience that students often encounter. I am referring to that warm, strange and even unsettling feeling that strikes when you read a novel or short story and feel as if you know these characters intimately. Sometimes, if feels as if you might actually be one of the characters. Have you ever felt like this? If so, here is some advice on how you can use this experience to write essays. I write as someone who teaches English literature and who enjoys witnessing students react in this fashion.

There is a potential contradiction that might hurt you when something like this happens. Perhaps you have been taught that study must be objective, neutral and devoid of your personal opinions. Has it been drilled into you that anything that feels like a personal attempt to make sense of a story is cute, but ultimately beside the point, because you had better memorise the real facts about a novel, or a poem, or a play for the exam? So, if a novel, for example, touches your heart… well then you had better set those feelings aside, because at the end of the day you have to pass the exam, right?

What if there was another way? What if the academic study of literature – which I am going to define here as: an honest attempt to figure out what a literary text has to say – does not have to stay completely separate from your personal reactions to a story that feels personally or culturally relevant?

Let’s just start by clearing up two things. First, when I say that some stories are personally relevant, I do not mean that they are only relevant to you as an individual reader. It can happen that you feel as if the story is addressing all of humanity, our relationships with each other and with the planet on which we live. Second, I am not going to say that your personal reactions to a novel is all that matters. Instead, I am going to offer suggestions (just suggestions not rules) for how you can build on that sense that a poem (or whatever) is personally relevant and use it to write an essay that will score the marks you deserve.

First off, remember that it is okay to be touched on a personal level by a novel, play or poem or short story. In fact, that is precisely WHY these texts were created in the first place. If you study English literature at university today, there is a very high chance that you will encounter stories about poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, substance abuse, physical violence and sexual crimes. Unfortunately, for many South African youth (and many adolescents around the world) these issues are part of real life. So, it’s okay to feel that a literary text is speaking to you. But what should you do with that feeling?

Second, it is also okay to use what you are feeling as the foundation for an academic essay. Really? How? Here are my suggestions. Start by explaining your own thinking to your readers. What does this mean? Tell them openly and honestly: This story felt personally relevant to me because it deals with issues that I deal with. Say it openly in your introduction. Then tell your readers why this matters. For example, you can say:

My opinion is that a novel that can make readers feel as if they are being personally addressed in an excellent novel because it has managed to touch people’s lives thus the novel addresses issues that are real and relevant to some readers. In this essay, I will explain exactly how this novel manages to portray real world issues, and I will explain why I found this portrayal of those issues personally relevant.

Third, admit the limitations of using a personal connection as the foundation for an essay. Is it possible that you have missed important aspects of a story because of the way it has touched you at a personal level? Yes. Admit it in your essay. Does this seem weird to you? It’s not. The people who mark your essays will be happy to see honesty. So, it’s a great idea to write something like this in your introduction:

I am building this essay on the specific ways in which the poem is personally relevant to me. I understand that, as a result, I might have missed other dimensions of the poem.

Is that enough? Well, there is one final thing you can do.

Fourth, consider other perspectives. So far, I have tried to convince you that it is perfectly acceptable to feel that a literary text speaks to you. I have said that you can actually use this personal reaction as the foundation of an essay. But I also encourage you to consider other perspectives beyond your own. Now, let’s be clear: this does not mean that you need to run out and search for answers on the internet! Instead, try this: sit down, on your own and think about what you might have missed. Think about how other people might see the story. Specifically, try to think about perspectives that contradict your own. If any of these perspectives are relevant to the essay instructions, try to include them. At this point, it is also a great idea to talk to fellow students. Discover how they interpret the literary text under study. See what they think. Contrast and compare views.

We are all part of a community, after all – a community striving to learn more and more about what literature can do for us, what it means to us as we navigate life. Good literature will touch you. It is worth your time to learn how to incorporate your personal reactions into an academic essay.

Dr Marthinus Stander Conradie

Department of English University of the Free State