what is the role of art and literature in our life?

Answer 1

they shape the way we represent ourselves to the world.

they educate us in terms of our own living aesthetic.

they teach us that it is important to speak to others in a way that is recievable, that is provacative, that is original, and that to be able to do so is to cultivate a practice, a craft, a way of reaching to the other.

they teach us that speaking as we need to speak is important and requires faith and work.

Answer 2

Life is the most complex subject known to humankind. Trying to describe it is very difficult. Each artform attempts this difficult task in its own way. Some arts are more successful at conveying certain types of expirience than others. Music, for example, is particularly good at expressing human emotions. Art and literature are important at defining the spirit of an period of history. The early 19th century is characterised by the beginning of romanticism. Music such as that written by Beethoven towards the end of his life make attempts to express the complexities of human existence. If you agree that this is the case, musical commentary on modern life does not portray recent decades in a very complimentary light, but still it conveys zeitgeist.
Visual art has kept an important record of mankind's changes through the centuries, making subtle and perhaps not so subtle commentary on society.
Unfortunately, relatively few people have much significant art or literature in their lives. (I exclude TV and pop music, which is not really art, or at least not significant art - will posterity look kindly on most of the tripe put out by the networks these days?)
Maybe these low brow artforms have replaced religion to some degree as the "opiate of the masses."
The role of art and literature then seems to be declining in society in general, but becoming the interest of a narrowing segment of cogniscenti.
A case could be made that art was dead by the middle of the 20th century - certainly little of any significance was created after WWII.
Perhaps the damage to the collective human psyche caused by two world wars was too much to allow art to survive.
Certainly the period between that time and the begining of the renaissance will certainly be heralded as the golden age of art.
Perhaps then for many people is no longer has any role whatsoever.

Answer 3

I believe they can play many roles, actually. To experience art and/or literature is to see someone's expression of what s/he has seen, or heard, or felt. This may help us understand our world in a new way, or show a way of expressing something we have felt in a way that had not occurred to us. It can let us think about things about which we had not expected to think, and it may even surprise us in what it leads us to discover. It can distract us or engage us; it can teach us or arouse us. I think, ultimately, the role(s) that art and/or literature plays depends as much on the person experiencing it as it does on the artist/writer.

Answer 4

Art is beautifulto look at. Literature takes me away from the real world.

Answer 5

There is art, and there is Art. Of all the answers so far, all I've seen people talk about is art, so I'll talk about Art.

First, to answer your question: there is no role for Art in our life. Art is dead. Nobody understands aesthetics anymore, nobody understands Fine Art, and nobody understands Literature. And it gets worse and worse every day.

But this post isn't about that. It's about the value of Art. In order to talk about what Art is, we have to talk about what it is not.
1) Art is not self-expression. Anybody who tells you that has never understood a work of art in their life, and they can't tell the difference between art and Art.
2) Art is not open to interpretation. The artist had an idea. The artist tried to convey that idea. The success of an artist is measured by how well that idea is understood by the audience, and how well crafted the presentation of that idea was. Art and Literary criticism of classical works only ever dissagrees on the details, on the presentation and motivation, rarely on the overall meaning of a work.

Art is a process. Observation, absorption, reaction, reflection, presentation. We see something, take it in, react to it, reflect on our reaction, and show that entire process to an audience. Art is all about experiencing life and discussing what that experience means in relation to the rest of humanity.

People understand Art when they can understand the experience, usually only after they have experienced something similar, themselves. This is where people get Art confused with art. Anything is art, anything can be interpreted however it needs to be as it relates to the single reader, viewer, audience member in their personal life. But this is only on personal levels, not on a wide-spread humanity level, and is thus not Art. Of course, Art can fulfill the need for art as well.

In essense, Art discusses experience, sometimes very personal experiences, in terms of the world, the rest of humanity and their experiences, all of them combining and adding to the experience of living with humanity. In contrast, art only talks about a single individual's experience as it relates to their own understanding of the world.

Bad art is nothing more than masturbation, a spewing out of self-indulgence that serves only the individual creating it and the sicko audiences who like to see that kind of thing.
Good art is more like pornography, in that it at least involves other people that the audience can imagine interacting with, themselves.
On the other hand, Art is like sex. There is an active participation and dialogue between the creator and the audience. Good sex is great. Bad sex is still sex.

Answer 6

I don't know much about literature, but I know for a fact that I for one use art to represent meaning, thought, and emotion. Yes I am only 14 but I can tall an angry drawing from a happy one. It's easy to draw angry when you are angry, because youcan then capture the true representation of your inner feelings in the artwork.

Answer 7

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." ~~C. S. Lewis

To make us think.

Answer 8

those who enjoy such things and by reading and studying get tranquility make use of art and litrature.
besides the literature is suitable to strengthen the related language

Answer 9

Literature teaches you what to enjoy....and art teaches you how to enjoy...

Answer 10

They act as my spirtual source, to feed and fulfil my soul. It also enrich my thoughts.