I had this same experience with Western philosophy. Once I started to feel like I was just "filling in gaps" in a narrative I'd already been told, my interest started to wane. It's a lot more fun when you're reading each work as if it might secretly contain Absolute Truth.
I think this goes back to the tendency you and I have to see writing as, above all else, a form of communication. We're always looking for the individual personalities and beliefs behind the words. If one is the kind of person who sees literature as, say, the cultural heritage of a nation/ethnicity, then maybe this grand historical narrative approach to it is more interesting
I had this same experience with Western philosophy. Once I started to feel like I was just "filling in gaps" in a narrative I'd already been told, my interest started to wane. It's a lot more fun when you're reading each work as if it might secretly contain Absolute Truth.
I think this goes back to the tendency you and I have to see writing as, above all else, a form of communication. We're always looking for the individual personalities and beliefs behind the words. If one is the kind of person who sees literature as, say, the cultural heritage of a nation/ethnicity, then maybe this grand historical narrative approach to it is more interesting