Mayasim Adam

18-1-2659

2/1 Greek literature, body of writings in the Greek language, with a continuous history extend-
ing from the 1st millennium BC to the present day. From the beginning its writers were Greeks
living not only in Greece proper but also in Asia Minor, the Aegean Islands, and Magna Graecia
(Sicily andsouthern Italy). Later, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the
common language of the eastern Mediterranean lands and then of the Byzantine Empire. Liter-
ature in Greek was produced not only over a much wider area but also by those whose mother
tongue was not Greek. Even before the Turkish conquest (1453) the area had begun to shrink
again, and now it is chiefly confined to Greece and Cyprus.

Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written

works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the
one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500
to the beginning of the Florentine Renaissance in the late 15th century).
The literature of this time was composed of religious writings as well as
secular works. Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of
study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points
in-between. Works of literature are often grouped by place of origin, lan-
guage, and genre.

Renaissance literature refers to European literature which was influenced

by the intellectual and cultural tendencies associated with the Renaissance.
The literature of the Renaissance was written within the general movement
of the Renaissance which arose in 14th-century Italy and continued until
the 16th century while being diffused into the rest of the western world. It is
characterized by the adoption of a humanist philosophy and the recovery of
the classical Antiquity. It benefited from the spread of printing in the latter
part of the 15th century. For the writers of the Renaissance, Greco-Roman
inspiration was shown both in the themes of their writing and in the literary
forms they used. The world was considered from an anthropocentric per-
spective. Platonic ideas were revived and put to the service of Christianity.
The search for pleasures of the senses and a critical and rational spirit
completed the ideological panorama of the period.

2/2 Enlightenment
The 18th century in Europe was The Age of Enlightenment and literature
explored themes of social upheaval, reversals of personal status, political
satire, geographical exploration and the comparison between the supposed
natural state of man and the supposed civilized state of man.

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that origi-

nated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Scholars regard the
publishing of William Wordsworth's and Samuel Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads
in 1798 as probably the beginning of the movement, and the crowning of
Queen Victoria in 1837 as its end.[1] Romanticism arrived in other parts of
the English-speaking world later; in America,it arrived around 1820. The
Romantic period was one of major social change in England, due to de-
population of the countryside and rapid development of overcrowded indus-
trial cities that took place roughly between 1798 and 1832.

Victorian literature is literature, mainly written in English, during the reign of

Queen Victoria (1837–1901) (the Victorian era). It was preceded by Ro-
manticism and followed by the Edwardian era (1901–1910). While in the
preceding Romantic period, poetry had been the dominant genre, it was the
novel that was most important in the Victorian period. Charles Dickens
(1812–1870) dominated the first part of Victoria's reign: his first novel, The
Pickwick Papers, was published in 1836.

The history of literature in the Modern period in Europe begins with the Age
of Enlightenment and the conclusion of the Baroque period in the 18th cen-
tury, succeeding the Renaissance and Early Modern periods. In the classi-
cal literary cultures outside of Europe, the Modern period begins later, in
Ottoman Turkey with the Tanzimat reforms (1820s), in Qajar Persia under
Nasser al-Din Shah (1830s), in India with the end of the Mughal era and
the establishment of the British Raj (1850s), in Japan with the Meiji restora-
tion (1860s), and in China with the New Culture Movement (1910s).

Postmodern literature is literature characterized by reliance on narrative

techniques such as fragmentation, paradox, and the unreliable narrator;
and is often (though not exclusively) defined as a style or a trend which
emerged in the post–World War II era. Postmodern works are seen as a
response against dogmatic following of Enlightenment thinking and Mod-
ernist approaches to literature

3/ Genres of literature have two main categories separating the different

genres of literature are fiction and nonfiction. There are several genres of
literature that fall under the nonfiction category which are Narrative Nonfic-
tion , essays, biography autoiography, speach. Nonfiction sits in direct op-
position to fiction. the fiction are drama, poerty, fantasfable, fairy tales,
scince fiction, short story, realistic fiction, folklore, historical fiction, horror,
tall tale, legend, mystery, fiction in verse

4/ Think of a critical approach in reading literature as a prism which can be

altered as with a kaleidoscope. You read a text. I read that text. A third party
reads that same text. But we all wear a prism that twists how we see that
text. You wear the prism of say Freud and you look for Oedipal issues as
with Hamlet and his mother Gertrude. I wear the prism of Deconstruction so
I look to subvert the surface meaning of this text and announce that the
“real” meaning is its opposite. A third party may wear the prism of the New
Criticism which forbids the use of Deconstruction and announce that the
surface meaning is its “real” meaning.

5/ Literature is important because it develops critical thinking skills, fosters

empathy for others, reduces stress and develops readers' personal experi-
ences. It can also be a learning tool for subjects including medicine, history,
sociology and psychology.

One main benefit of literature is it engages the reader in an active learning

style, as opposed to a passive learning method such as gathering informa-
tion by watching television. It promotes intellectual engagement and stimu-
lation with the introduction of new subjects including math, law and the sci-
ences. People can learn about their identities and history through literature,
and they can even use literature as a way to improve their lives. Individuals
with depression, for instance, often benefit from reading books related to
depression in addition to attending therapy sessions.