Literature is a piece of art which has many purposes in human life. Serving for entertainment or information delivery, literature is a good source of religious and philosophical ideas which reflect specific culture. Being a world treasure which gathers many ideas, world literature shares specific knowledge of the author with others.
Speaking about world literature, it is essential to state that many books transfer cultural, religious and philosophical ideas followed by the author of the book. Thus, Inferno and The Thousand and One Nights are two examples which show that literature may be religiously and philosophically directed. Examining these pieces of literature, it becomes obvious that each of these woks has specific religious and philosophical purposes and they have successfully served these purposes for many years.
Inferno as a part of Dante’s The Divine Comedy is a reflection of personal author’s ideas about religion. The author is sure that people are divided into those who are in the hell and those who are in the paradise. Depending on the severity of sins, the author shows his nine circles of hell which divide people, their sins and the sufferings they are to be committed to for their sins.
Coming out of the first circle located closely to the surface of the earth and finishing with the final ninth circle in the middle of the Earth, the author presents his personal vision of suffering which is his consideration about the nature of sin, religion, etc. Even though the author provides the Christian vision of sins, some of the ideas discussed by the author may be inappropriate for human beings to agree with.
Placing such people as Aristotle, Euripides, and Homer to the first circle of hell, Dante explains it by their birth in inappropriate time, before Christ was born. Despite personal vision of religion and Christianity, Dante’s work is a great representation of religious ideas into the world. Reading this piece of medieval literature, the Christian ideas interpreted by the author are considered. The reflection of the author’s ideas on the world perception of Christianity cannot be overestimated.
The Thousand and One Nights is also a piece of work which managed to affect the vision of people about cultural life of a specific country. Everyone read this collection of West and South Asian stories. This book has created the vision of people about medieval Asia. Cultural peculiarities, the way of behavior, specifics of thinking and other particular aspects are discussed in the book.
The collection of fairy tales which have become popular all over the world has created a vision of many people about Arab world, about people there, the ideas and beliefs. The cultural representation in this source is extremely important for the whole world. Having particular culture and specific philosophic approaches, Arab people managed to share their vision with others and this is one of the greatest abilities of the world literature.
Therefore, it may be concluded that such pieces of literature as Inferno and The Thousand and One Nights are aimed at creating specific vision of those people who do not have an opportunity to feel culture of the mentioned countries and communities. Being aimed at delivering the information about the cultural peculiarities of the specific nations, literature successfully copes with the task and the sources mentioned above are a direct proof of this fact.