"Myth Became Fact": Why I Study Literature

Tonight I had to write a "letter of interest" to accompany a scholarship application. It was supposed to be about my literary curiosities, passions, and why I am studying literature, among other things. Accordingly, I spent my entire night writing what should have probably taken about 15 minutes. It was quite therapeutic and refreshing to remember why I love books, so I decided to share a bit:

"My interest in English studies developed at an early age and has steadily grown in the last eight years. As a child I was constantly surrounded by literature. My parents were the type that not only encouraged my brother and I to expand our minds by exploring the world around us, but also spent many hours reading to us. Rather than growing up on “Full House” and “Saved By the Bell,” my imagination fed on The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Wind in the Willows and Anne of Green Gables. The nights my parents spent reading to me planted a literary seed in my heart, which my later education nurtured into full bloom.

"Although I grew up in a family where reading was highly valued, I first recognized a passion for stories as a high school student. My English classes became a haven from the stress of prep school life. I lost myself in classics like A Tale of Two Cities, To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice, and even learned to enjoy the labor involved in reading novels like Moby Dick, Tristram Shandy, and Anna Karenina. All of these stories touched me on a fundamental, human level and encouraged me to understand and experience thoughts and emotions I had never before grasped. When I got to college I felt somewhat guilty declaring myself as an English major—scarcely believing I was allowed to study something so utterly delightful.

"In my time at Covenant College I began to understand the profound effect of stories. Confronted by thinkers like C. S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, and Salman Rushdie, I realized the capacity of fiction to present truth. I learned that humanity is naturally drawn to stories, because each of us experiences what Paulo Coelho calls our “leyenda personal” (personal legend)—an idea which I find particularly prevalent considering the astounding number of memoirs currently published in America. The Inklings particularly inspired me with their conception of mythopoeia and subcreation—suggesting that every story effectively echoes the cosmic story of existence (which, being a Christian, I perceive to be the Biblical metanarrative of creation, fall, and redemption—although I consider the notion of story as relevant to all human experience, regardless of ideology). The more I read and study literature, the more I am stretched and challenged, and the more I understand my own world and my own heart. This is the literary inheritance I one day hope to share as a professor."

So, in case I was wondering... that's why I'm in graduate school. My SIP comes back to me at times and rebukes me for the apathy I frequently embrace--how could I be so callous towards the stories I get to study, these Christ-haunted myths? They would whisper heavenly anticipation to me, if only I would listen.

"Ac grace is a gyfte of god and of greet loue spryngeþ" (Piers Plowman)