lol I did too , me and my brother like 4 minutes later said wait who the hell was that ? And went back and paused and realized what we had just almost subliminaly seen . <| sep |> a little low in my opiinion , but I will think about it <| sep |> Isn ' t literature supposed to be enjoyed , and then moved on from ? Is it ? That may be one purpose of literature , but it ' s certainly not the only one . Many of us do not read to enjoy or just to enjoy a book You can read literature to know and learn about ideas , societies , time periods , life experiences , fictional worlds . All this through the subjective lenses of the author , of course no other way to do that , really , as objectivity is impossible . So you don ' t do it for peerreviewed facts for that you can check an encyclopedia or a scientific article , where objectivity is attempted or claimed to be attempted you do it to experience a worldview in the same way each of us does through a biased , subjective , limited POV . But one that ' s different ~~ that ~~ from yours , every time you pick a different book . You can read it to sublimate feelings different than enjoyment , like the Greeks and the Romans used to do with their tragedies or I guess like we do nowadays with horror movies and games . You can read it to be part of what , to me , is the most fascinating understanding of literature an act of communication . You are reading something that someone created at a different point of time through the use of language in order to express themselves or their ideas . And not just everyday language , it ' s a crafted language , one that ' s been manipulated in a certain way in order to serve the writer ' s purposes . Like every act of communication , it ' s not perfect . There are things lost in the process . But it just never fails to blow my mind . I wanted to explore a little bit some of the reasons why we read literature or , as you said , the point of literature , but I know that ' s not what you asked . You asked what is the purpose of literary studies , which study literature . In my opinion it ' s to attempt to find answers about any meaningful aspect of a literary work why is it written like that ? what were the author ' s goals with it ? which interpretations of it , even if never intended by the author , resonate with its readers today or in different time periods ? etc . or a number of literary works what meaningful connections can be established between works of a same time or space or even through different times and spaces ? how has the treatment of certain themes or motifs evolved ? what overarching aspects can be found in all the works of a same author and how do they relate to their explicit poetics . Does this not sound grandiose to you ? Good . Because it isn ' t . It ' s just a discipline that studies an aspect of human culture for the simple reason that we , as humans , wish to understand ourselves and why we do what we do . The fact is we create literature , we read literature and we attribute a certain importance to it , so it ' s not wonder that literary studies and literary theory attempt to give us some answers in that respect . How does literary studies benefit society , in a way that study of economics or sociology or anthropology does ? You mean in a pragmatic , material goalsoriented way , right ? In my opinion it doesn ' t , not on the level of those disciplines at least and obviously , by that metric , those disciplines pale in comparison with other , more practical ones . There is no surer foundation for a humane society than cultivating a taste for literature among its adolescents . I am against this kind of ostentatious affirmations , which can be made about any discipline really . English is not my native language , I apologize for any mistake or weird use of words