APPLICATION LETTER

Application Letter

English Literature and Culture

Through my first years at the Ain Shams University, while I was attending one of my Arabian Literature class, my professor was able to succeed in attracting me towards studying the Arabian literature merely through nothing more than just a single sentence. He emphasized the fact that when a civilization is able to adopt the culture of writing and reading as one of its main form of social communication, it basically free itself from the fear of forgetting its own values, since the values of that society is no longer needed to be a part of a reality which was lived in order to have some sort of a significance. The idea had an immediate effect on fascinating me that a written word can literally alter the lives of individuals, ones identity, and even perhaps play a role in shaping the consciousness at a national level.

This assertion of my professor actually forced me into thinking in a drastically new way, as I was confronted with the concept of literature as a potential instrument of social stagnancy and stasis, and not just an agent of a vital change. It made me question my basic theories with which I had approached the field until then. How exactly does literature play its role in the lives of the individuals and the societies by functioning away from the written page? What exactly is the significance in a society, of that of a written word, where the building of the history is neither linear nor even documented?

Ruminating myself with such sort of questions, I realized the fact that the general scope of comparative literature is inadequately woeful, since it does not allow the students to inquire the subjectivity of their disclosure or the inherent integrity. The Arabic, American, Asian, African ...