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The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power

              The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power: According to De Quincy, “there is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is to teach, the function of the second is to move.” Literature of knowledge speaks to the discursive understanding of man. Literature of power appeals to the higher understanding of reason through affections of pleasure and sympathy. lt is nothing short of a paradox to think that literature aims at giving information only. It is inherent truth which makes literature great or small. This truth is present in all—-high or low—in the form of seed or germ. Literature only gives novel forms to truth, and helps to develop their birth in the hearts of man. But this can be done only in the literature of power.

              Literature of power represents in itself the Heavenly innocence that man has and also his original simplicity. Further, De Quincy gives the examples of literature of power. “When, in King Lear, the height and depth and breadth of human passion is revealed to us and for the purpose of a sublime antagonism, is revealed in the weakness of an old man’s nature, and in one night two worlds of storm are brought face to face—the human world and the world of physical nature–mirrors of each other, semi-choral antiphonies, strophe and antistrophe heaving with rival convulsions, and with the double within me, is his power, or what may I call it? Then De Quincy gives the example of Milton`s Paradise Lost which is definitely a great poem. It is an outstanding example of the literature of power that does it teach?

          We do not get much information out of it. We do not give great importance an ordinary cookery-book because it does not inspire us, although it gives more of information. Milton `s Paradise Lost is great because it helps man to develop or expand his latent capacity for sympathy with the infinite. All the steps of knowledge carry us further up towards the infinite. lt is concerned with the highest in man. It is relation to the higher moral capacity of man that the literature of power as different from the literature of knowledge lives and has its field of action. Great tragedies, romances, fairy-tales and epics restore to man’s mind to ideals of justice, hope, truth, mercy and retribution. Moreover, in literature of power there is poetic justice. It is a moral world in which virtue triumphs in the end and human dignity is maintained.

              Sometimes, these two types of literature are inseparable. De Quincy’s dichotomy gives no place in the map of literature to books which also “communicate knowledge” and others which impart power. There are books that give a new vista of life and open our mind to the marvels of nature. They reveal manifoldness, intricacy and beauty beyond words. They exhibit and unfold the story of civilization and culture. They make us aware of the mystery and paradoxes of events and character. They thrill us like a drama as well as illuminate our understanding. There are innumerable essays that take us to the obscure byways of the human spirit and reveal a profound significance in things that never happened to us before. In fact, knowledge and power are often found fused and dovetailed. So De Quincy’s sharp division does not appeal’ to us. There can be no water-tight compartments of literature of Power and Literature of Knowledge.  Literature has a double aspect, one is Knowledge and the other is Power.