"How do we know that literature is good?"

[bweissheimer]

I was thinking of doing "How do we know that literature is good?" for my TOK presentation. My real life situation would be that my English teacher thinks that Shakespeare is great but I don't. Any advice or tips for that?

[Hannah.M]

I think it's a bit too broad. 'Good' is an incredibly broad term, and at first I thought you meant morally good, even. Also your example kind of contradicts your topic so make sure of what you're trying to say. Your topic sounds like it'll be illustrating that literature can be definitively good and you'll explain how that's true, whereas your example seems to disagree with that and say that it can't be decided which works of literature are 'good' or not.

Perhaps make it an "How is it possible to..." or more of a "how can" question, as opposed to just a simple how.

Edited February 26, 2012 by Hannah.M

[kim luffy]

Well i agree with Hannah.M. Also for the real life situation, you could also talk about critiques, the people who criticize the literature of a writer based on whatever reason. That's a real life situation as well. Just a thought though!

[dessskris]

I actually wanted to do my presentation on beauty, but I read somewhere that we should avoid that sort of topic because it's cliche and highly subjective, so we can hardly come up with a good conclusion.

I think how lit is 'good' is also cliche and subjective, so be careful with this topic. if you know the right path to take, to evaluate this topic, then go ahead. but just be careful.

make use of the ways of knowing. they're very helpful.