I didn't ask for political asylum, and this opened doors for me when I returned. I rapidly became an official artist. A nation's literature is a product of many individuals in a society, an embodiment of that people's way of looking at the world. Literature makes the reader see how that nation or those people have defined themselves historically in their internal relation of all the parts that contribute to its wholeness. We can see these linkages if we relate to the totality of the activities and experiences of that community's struggle to live.
Literature also takes sides in societies that are divided.
A writer who comes from a particular class, gender, race and nation is a social product of eating, drinking, learning, loving, hating. And he has developed a certain attitude to all these activities in support or opposition. A writer tries to persuade his readers not only to view a certain reality but also to view it from a certain angle of vision. Sometimes we might think we are just presenting facts but often those facts are shaped by our own experiences in history. As teachers we may need to look at our own experiences as affecting the knowledge we are trying to impart.