Why I need English Literature as a CSE?

"The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." - Scott F Fitzgerald

I fell in love with English literature the way you fall asleep- slowly, and then all at once. Studying literature has helped me see the world in a different light; it's given me a bigger world of my own that I have wandered for years, and yet a majority of it remains vastly unexplored. We all have but one life to live, our own little forever that ends with our lives- unless you're studying literature. Literature gives us a myriad of those little infinities, some bigger than others, each capable of broadening our perceptions of the universe in ways we never knew possible. Even if we survive the collapse of the sun into the earth, we will not survive forever; and literature is how we preserve our legacy.

As a student of Computer Science and Engineering, I'm going to make a slightly controversial claim: English Literature is not all that different from Computer Science. Computer Science tends to hold a bit of a superiority complex over other disciplines, but the truth is, it's not that different from literature. Computer Science is a constantly developing field which will always hold relevance in our lives; and so is English Literature. That's not all that the two subjects have in common. Analysing prose and poetry is not that different from analysing a program code. Analysing prose and poetry requires us to read the text thoroughly, understand its syntax, compare it with other similar works, think about what the writer wanted to convey through their work and what would make it better, and require a thorough knowledge of the subject. Analysing a code works the same way.

Whether you're studying C++, Java, or English, they're all just languages in the end. They all give you their fair share of creative liberty, critical thinking, and logic. Choosing whether or not to see it that way is an individual decision, and getting the opportunity to make that choice is why we need English Literature in our curriculum.

We already have English For Communication in our syllabus, and that's great. Computer Science engineers, no matter how proficient they are in their field, require effective communication skills in order to move ahead in their careers. However, in my experience, literature has helped me with effective communication as well as fostering empathy, creativity, cultural awareness and many other skills necessary for a Computer Science engineer more than simply learning the rules of English grammar ever has. Besides, as a girl who has lived her life with her nose buried in storybooks, I have found literature to be a far more enjoyable way of learning the language than anything else.

As Oscar Wilde once said, 

"With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?"

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