What we talk about when we talk about literature

It's not unusual for me to say, at the end of a class discussion, "Well, that's it for today. Any questions? Problems with readings, assignments, meaning-of-life issues?"

I get questions on readings and assignments but rarely on meaning-of-life issues. I can think of several possible reasons for this:

1. Students don't think about the meaning of life.
2. If they think about the meaning of life, they don't do it in a literature class.
3. If they think about the meaning of life in a literature class, they don't believe I would have any answers--especially in the final 10 seconds of class.

But if we can't think about the meaning of life in a literature class, where can we think about it? 

Don't laugh. I'm really wondering: where do students these days go to seek answers for big questions, like what are we doing here, is there any justice in the universe, and what is my place in the world?

It seems obvious to me that such questions would come up when we talk about literature, but it does not seem so obvious to my students. Recently, for instance, I asked students to analyze what certain works suggest about the human condition, and many of them were puzzled: What does that mean, "the human condition"? What can literature possibly have to say about what it means to be human? What does it mean to be human? And so on.

It occurred to me this morning that one reason I'm comfortable tackling big questions in class is that I graduated from a college that required chapel attendance three times a week. 

Now required chapel sounds hopelessly old-school and out of touch, and it's certainly true that I sometimes struggled to stay awake through some of the less inspiring messages. But here's the thing: chapel pushed us to form connections between what was going on in our classrooms and what was going on in our souls. 

That's an old-fashioned concept, the soul. I'm not sure my students think much about whether they have souls or what it means to have a soul or, for that matter, what it means if the soul is simply a comforting story we tell ourselves to make our lives meaningful.  Is the exam going to ask about the nature of the soul? Then why talk about it in class?

But I teach literature because I believe it matters, because stories are a culture's way of talking about itself, because literature illuminates paths we might otherwise not have considered following. The best literature speaks to the soul and nudges us to examine those meaning-of-life issues, and that's why I keep asking the big questions.

I'm not claiming to possess the big answers, but I do enjoy creating a space where the questions can arise.