ENGLISH LITERATURE
During the three centuries following
1. Anglo-Saxon or Old-English period
The literature begins with songs and stories
of a time when the Teutonic ancestors were living
on the borders of the North Sea. Three tribes of
these ancestors, the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons,
conquered Britain in the latter half of the fifth
century, and laid the foundation of the English
nation. The first landing was probably by a tribe of
Jutes, under chiefs called by the chronicle Hengist
and Horsa. The date is doubtful; but the year 449 is
accepted by most historians.
These old ancestors were hardy warriors
and sea rovers, yet were capable of profound and
noble emotions. Their poetry reflects this double
nature. Its subjects were chiefly the sea and the
plunging boats, battles, adventure, brave deeds,
the glory ofwarriors, and the love of home. Accent,
alliteration, and an abrupt break in the middle of
each line gave their poetry a kind ofmartial rhythm.
In general the poetry is earnest and somber, and
pervaded by fatalism and religious feeling. A careful
reading ofthe few remaining fragments of Anglo-
Saxon literature reveals five striking characteristics:
the love of freedom; responsiveness tonature,
especially in her sterner moods; strong religious
convictions, and a belief in Wyrd, or Fate;
reverence for womanhood; and a devotion to glory
as the ruling motive in every warrior's life.
The following have been noted:
(1) the great epic or heroic poem Beowulf,
and a few fragments of the first poetry, such
as "Widsith," "Deor's Lament," and "The
Seafarer."
(2) Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon life; the
form of the first speech.
(3) The Northumbrian school of writers.
Bede, the first historian, belongs to this
school; but all his extant works are in
Latin. The two great poets are Cædmon and
Cynewulf. Northumbrian literature flourished
between 650 and 850. In the year 867
Northumbria was conquered by the Danes,
who destroyed the monasteries and the
libraries containing our earliest literature.
(4) The beginnings of English prose writing
under Alfred (848-901). The most important
prose work of this age is the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle, which was revised and enlarged
by Alfred, and which was continued for
more than two centuries. It is the oldest
historical record known to any European
nation in its own tongue.
2. The Anglo-Norman Period
The Normans were originally a hardy race
of sea rovers inhabiting Scandinavia. In the tenth
century they conquered a part of northern France,
which is still called Normandy, and rapidly adopted
French civilization and the French language. Their
conquest of Anglo-Saxon England under William,
Duke of Normandy, began with the battle of
Hastings in 1066. The literature which they brought
to England is remarkable for its bright, romantic
tales of love and adventure, in marked contrast with
the strength and somberness of Anglo-Saxon
poetry.
Hastings, Normans and Saxons gradually united.
The Anglo-Saxon speech simplified itself by
dropping most of its Teutonic inflections, absorbed
eventually a large part of the French vocabulary,
and became our English language. English
literature is also a combination of French and
Saxon elements.
The three chief effects of the conquest were
(1) the bringing of Roman civilization to England;
(2) the growth of nationality, i.e. a strong
centralized government, instead of the loose union
of Saxon tribes; (3) the new language and
literature, which were proclaimed in Chaucer.
At first the new literature was remarkably
varied, but of small intrinsic worth; and very little of
it is now read.
The following have been noted:
(1) Geoffrey's History, which is valuable as
a source book of literature, since it contains
the native Celtic legends of
Arthur.
(2) The work of the French writers, who
made the Arthurian legends popular.
(3) Riming Chronicles, i.e. history in
doggerel verse, like Layamon's Brut.
(4) Metrical Romances or tales in verse.
These were numerous, and of four classes:
(a) the Matter of France, tales centering
about Charlemagne and his peers, chief of
which is the Chanson de Roland; (b) Matter
of Greece and Rome, an endless series of
fabulous tales about Alexander, and about
the Fall of Troy; (c) Matter of England,
stories of Bevis of Hampton, Guy of
Warwick, Robin Hood, etc.; (d) Matter of
Britain, tales having for their heroes Arthur
and his knights of the Round Table. The
best of these romances is Sir Gawain and
the Green Knight.
(5) Miscellaneous literature,--the Ancren
Riwle, our best piece of early English prose;
Orm's Ormulum; Cursor Mundi, with its
suggestive parallel to the Miracle plays; and
ballads, like King Horn and the Robin Hood
songs, which were the only poetry of the
common people.
3. The Age of Chaucer
The fourteenth century is remarkable historically for
the decline of feudalism (organized by the
Normans), for the growth of the English national
spirit during the wars with France, for the
prominence of the House of Commons, and for the
growing power of the laboring classes, who had
heretofore been in a condition hardly above that of
slavery.
The age produced five writers of note, one
of whom, Geoffrey Chaucer, is one of the greatest
of English writers. His poetry is remarkable for its
variety, its story interest, and its wonderful melody.
Chaucer's work and Wyclif's translation of the Bible
developed the Midland dialect into the national
language of England.
The following have been noted:
(1) Chaucer, his life and work; his early or
French period, in which he translated "The
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Romance of the Rose" and wrote many minor
poems; his middle or Italian period, of which the
chief poems are "Troilus and Cressida" and "The
Legend of Good Women"; his late or English
period, in which he worked at his masterpiece, the
famous Canterbury Tales.
(2) Langland, the poet and prophet of social
reforms. His chief work is Piers Plowman. (3)
Wyclif, the religious reformer, who first translated
the gospels into English, and by his translation
fixed a common standard of English speech.
(4) Mandeville, the alleged traveler, who
represents the new English interest in distant lands
following the development of foreign trade. He is
famous for Mandeville's Travels, a book which
romances about the wonders to be seen abroad.
The fifth writer of the age is Gower, who wrote in
three languages, French, Latin, and English. His
chief English work is the Confessio Amantis, a long
poem containing one hundred and twelve tales. Of
these only the "Knight Florent" and two or three
others are interesting to a modern reader.
4. The Revival of Learning
This transition period is at first one of
decline from the Age of Chaucer, and then of
intellectual preparation for the Age of Elizabeth. For
a century and a half after Chaucer not a single
great English work appeared, and the general
standard of literature was very low.
There are three chief causes to account for
this:
(1) the long war with France and the civil
Wars of the Roses distracted attention from books
and poetry, and destroyed of ruined many noble
English families who had been friends and patrons
of literature;
(2) the Reformation in the latter part of the
period filled men's minds with religious questions;
(3) the Revival of Learning set scholars and literary
men to an eager study of the classics, rather than
to the creation of native literature.
Historically the age is noticeable for its
intellectual progress, for the introduction of printing,
for the discovery of America, for the beginning of
the Reformation, and for the growth of political
power among the common people.
The following have been noted:
(1) the Revival of Learning, what it was, and
the significance of the terms Humanism and
Renaissance;
(2) three influential literary works,--
Erasmus's Praise of Folly, More's Utopia, and
Tyndale's translation of the New Testament;
(3) Wyatt and Surrey, and the so-called
courtly makers or poets;
(4) Malory's Morte d'Arthur, a collection of
the Arthurian legends in English prose. The Miracle
and Mystery Plays were the most popular form of
entertainment in this age; but we have reserved
them for special study in connection with the Rise
of the Drama, in the following chapter.
5. The Elizabethan Age
This period is generally regarded as the
greatest in the history of literature. Historically, it is
noted in this age the tremendous impetus received
from the Renaissance, from the Reformation, and
from the exploration of the New World. It was
marked by a strong national spirit, by patriotism, by
religious tolerance, by social content, by intellectual
progress, and by unbounded enthusiasm.
Such an age, of thought, feeling, and
vigorous action, finds its best expression in the
drama; and the wonderful development of the
drama, culminating in Shakespeare, is the most
significant characteristic of the Elizabethan period.
Though the age produced some excellent prose
works, it is essentially an age of poetry; and the
poetry is remarkable for its variety, its freshness, its
youthful and romantic feeling. Both the poetry and
the drama were permeated by Italian influence,
which was
dominant in English literature from Chaucer to the
Restoration. The literature of this age is often called
the literature of the Renaissance, though, as we
have seen, the Renaissance itself began much
earlier, and for a century and a half added very little
to our literary possessions.
The following have been noted:
(1) the Non-dramatic Poets, that is, poets
who did not write for the stage. The center of this
group is Edmund Spenser, whose Shepherd's
Calendar (1579) marked the appearance of the first
national poet since Chaucer's death in 1400. His
most famous work is The Faery Queen. Associated
with Spenser are the minor poets, Thomas
Sackville, Michael Drayton, George Chapman, and
Philip Sidney. Chapman is noted for his completion
of Marlowe's poem, Hero and Leander, and for his
translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Sidney,
besides his poetry, wrote his prose romance
Arcadia, and The Defense of Poesie, one of our
earliest critical essays.
(2) The Rise of the Drama in England; the
Miracle plays, Moralities, and Interludes; our first
play, "Ralph Royster Doyster"; the first true English
comedy, "Gammer Gurton's Needle," and the first
tragedy, "Gorboduc"; the conflict between classic
and native ideals in the English drama.
(3) Shakespeare's Predecessors, Lyly, Kyd,
Nash, Peele, Greene, Marlowe; the types of drama
with which they experimented,--the Marlowesque,
one-man type, or tragedy of passion, the popular
Chronicle plays, the Domestic drama, the Court or
Lylian comedy, Romantic comedy and tragedy,
Classical plays, and the Melodrama. Marlowe is the
greatest of Shakespeare's predecessors. His four
plays are "Tamburlaine," "Faustus," "The Jew of
Malta," and "Edward II."
(4) Shakespeare, his life, work, and
influence.
(5) Shakespeare's Successors, Ben Jonson,
Beaumont and Fletcher, Webster, Middleton,
Heywood, Dekker; and the rapid decline of the
drama. Ben Jonson is the greatest of this group.
His chief comedies are "Every Man in His Humour,"
"The
Silent Woman," and "The Alchemist"; his two extant
tragedies are "Sejanus" and "Catiline."
(6) The Prose Writers, of whom Bacon is
the most notable. His chief philosophical work is the
Instauratio Magna (incomplete), which includes
"The Advancement of Learning" and the "Novum
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Organum"; but he is known to literary readers by
his famous Essays. Minor prose writers are Richard
Hooker, John Foxe, the historians Camden and
Knox, the editors Hakluyt and Purchas, who gave
us the stirring records of exploration, and Thomas
North, the translator of Plutarch's Lives.
6. The Puritan Age
The half century between 1625 and 1675 is
called the Puritan period for two reasons: first,
because Puritan standards prevailed for a time in
England; and second, because the greatest literary
figure during all these years was the Puritan, John
Milton. Historically the age was one of tremendous
conflict. The Puritan struggled for righteousness
and liberty, and because he prevailed, the age is
one of moral and political revolution. In his struggle
for liberty the Puritan overthrew the corrupt
monarchy, beheaded Charles I, and established the
Commonwealth under Cromwell. The
Commonwealth lasted but a few years, and the
restoration of Charles II in 1660 is often put as the
end of the Puritan period. The age has no distinct
limits, but overlaps the Elizabethan period on one
side, and the Restoration period on the other.
The age produced many writers, a few
immortal books, and one of the world's great literary
leaders. The literature of the age is extremely
diverse in character, and the diversity is due to the
breaking up of the ideals of political and religious
unity.
This literature differs from that of the
preceding age in three marked ways:
(1) It has no unity of spirit, as in the days of
Elizabeth, resulting from the patriotic enthusiasm of
all classes.
(2) In contrast with the hopefulness and
vigor of Elizabethan writings, much of the literature
of this period is somber in character; it saddens
rather than inspires us.
(3) It has lost the romantic impulse of youth,
and become critical and intellectual; it makes us
think, rather than feel deeply.
The following have been noted:
(1) the Transition Poets, of whom Daniel is
chief;
(2) the Song Writers, Campion and Breton;
(3) the Spenserian Poets, Wither and Giles
Fletcher;
(4) the Metaphysical Poets, Donne and
Herbert;
(5) the Cavalier Poets, Herrick, Carew,
Lovelace, and Suckling;
(6) John Milton, his life, his early or Horton
poems, his militant prose, and his last great
poetical works;
(7) John Bunyan, his extraordinary life, and
his chief work, The Pilgrim's Progress;
(8) the Minor Prose Writers, Burton,
Browne, Fuller, Taylor, Baxter, and Walton. Three
books selected from this group are Browne's
Religio Medici, Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, and
Walton's Complete Angler.
7. Period of Restoration
The chief thing to note in England during the
Restoration is the tremendous social reaction from
the restraints of Puritanism, which suggests the
wide swing of a pendulum from one extreme to the
other. For a generation many natural pleasures had
been suppressed; now the theaters were reopened,
bull and bear baiting revived, and sports, music,
dancing,--a wild delight in the pleasures and
vanities of this world replaced that absorption in
"other-worldliness" which characterized the
extreme of
Puritanism.
In literature the change is no less marked.
From the Elizabethan drama playwrights turned to
coarse, evil scenes, which presently disgusted the
people and were driven from the stage. From
romance, writers turned to realism; from Italian
influence with its exuberance of imagination they
turned to France, and learned to repress the
emotions, to follow the head rather than the heart,
and to write in a clear, concise, formal style,
according to set rules. Poets turned from the noble
blank verse of Shakespeare and Milton, from the
variety and melody which had characterized
English poetry since Chaucer's day, to the
monotonous heroic couplet with its mechanical
perfection.
The greatest writer of the age is John
Dryden, who established the heroic couplet as the
prevailing verse form in English poetry, and who
developed a new and serviceable prose style suited
to the practical needs of the age. The popular
ridicule of Puritanism in burlesque and doggerel is
best exemplified in Butler's Hudibras. The realistic
tendency, the study of facts and of men as they
are, is shown in the work of the Royal Society, in
the philosophy of Hobbes and Locke, and in the
diaries of Evelyn and Pepys, with their minute
pictures of social life. The age was one of transition
from the exuberance and vigor of Renaissance
literature to the formality and polish of the Augustan
Age. In strong contrast with the preceding ages,
comparatively little of Restoration literature is
familiar to modern readers.
8. Eighteenth-century Literature
The period is between the English
Revolution of 1688 and the beginning of the French
Revolution of 1789. Historically, the period begins
in a remarkable way by the adoption of the Bill of
Rights in 1689. This famous bill was the third and
final step in the establishment of constitutional
government, the first step being the Great Charter
(1215), and the second the Petition of Right (1628).
The modern form of cabinet government was
established in the reign of George I (1714-1727).
The foreign prestige of England was strengthened
by the victories of Marlborough on the Continent, in
the War of the Spanish Succession; and the
bounds of empire were enormously increased by
Clive in India, by Cook in Australia and the islands
of the Pacific, and by English victories over the
French in Canada and the Mississippi Valley,
during the Seven Years', or French and Indian,
Wars. Politically, the country was divided into
Whigs and Tories: the former seeking greater
liberty for the people; the latter upholding the king
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against popular government. The continued strife
between these two political parties had a direct
(and generally a harmful) influence on literature, as
many of the great writers were used by the Whig or
Tory party to advance its own interests and to
satirize its enemies. Notwithstanding this perpetual
strife of parties, the age is remarkable for the rapid
social development, which soon expressed itself in
literature. Clubs and coffeehouses multiplied, and
the social life of these clubs resulted in better
manners, in a general feeling of toleration, and
especially in a kind of superficial elegance which
shows itself in most of the prose and poetry of the
period. On the other hand, the moral standard of
the nation was very low; bands of rowdies infested
the city streets after nightfall; bribery and corruption
were the rule in politics; and drunkenness was
frightfully prevalent among all classes. Swift's
degraded race of Yahoos is a reflection of the
degradation to be seen in multitudes of London
saloons. This low standard of morals emphasizes
the importance of the great Methodist revival under
Whitefield and Wesley, which began in the second
quarter of the eighteenth century.
The literature of the century is remarkably
complex, but we may classify it all under three
general heads,--the Reign of so-called Classicism,
the Revival of Romantic Poetry, and the Beginning
of the Modern Novel. The first half of the century,
especially, is an age of prose, owing largely to the
fact that the practical and social interests of the age
demanded expression. Modern newspapers, like
the Chronicle, Post, and Times, and literary
magazines, like the Tatler and Spectator, which
began in this age, greatly influenced the
development of a serviceable prose style. The
poetry of the first half of the century, as typified in
Pope, was polished, unimaginative, formal; and the
closed couplet was in general use, supplanting all
other forms of verse. Both prose and poetry were
too frequently satiric, and satire does not tend to
produce a high type of literature. These tendencies
in poetry were modified, in the latter part of the
century, by the revival of romantic poetry.
The following have been noted:
(1) the Augustan or Classic Age; the
meaning of Classicism; the life and work of
Alexander Pope, the greatest poet of the age; of
Jonathan Swift, the satirist; of Joseph Addison, the
essayist; of Richard Steele, who was the original
genius of the Tatler and the Spectator; of Samuel
Johnson, who for nearly half a century was the
dictator of English letters; of James Boswell, who
gave us the immortal Life of Johnson; of Edmund
Burke, the greatest of English orators; and of
Edward Gibbon, the historian, famous for his
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
(2) The Revival of Romantic Poetry; the
meaning of Romanticism; the life and work of
Thomas Gray; of Oliver Goldsmith, famous as poet,
dramatist, and novelist; of William Cowper; of
Robert Burns, the greatest of Scottish poets; of
William Blake, the mystic; and the minor poets of
the early romantic movement,--James Thomson,
William Collins, George Crabbe, James
Macpherson, author of the Ossian poems, Thomas
Chatterton, the boy who originated the Rowley
Papers, and Thomas Percy, whose work for
literature was to collect the old ballads, which he
called the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, and
to translate the stories of Norse mythology in his
Northern Antiquities.
(3) The First English Novelists; the meaning
and history of the modern novel; the life and work
of Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, who is
hardly to be called a novelist, but whom we placed
among the pioneers; and the novels of Richardson,
Fielding, Smollett, Sterne, and Goldsmith.
9. The Age of Romanticism
This period extends from the war with the
colonies, following the Declaration of
Independence, in 1776, to the accession
of Victoria in 1837, both limits being very indefinite,
as will be seen by a glance at the Chronology
following. During the first part of the period
especially, England was in a continual turmoil,
produced by political and economic agitation at
home, and by the long wars that covered two
continents and the wide sea between them. The
mighty changes resulting from these two causes
have given this period the name of the Age of
Revolution. The storm center of all the turmoil at
home and abroad was the French Revolution,
which had a profound influence on the life and
literature of all Europe. On the Continent the
overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo (1815)
apparently checked the progress of liberty, which
had started with the French Revolution, but in
England the case was reversed. The agitation for
popular liberty, which at one time threatened a
revolution, went steadily forward till it resulted in the
final triumph of democracy, in the Reform Bill of
1832, and in a number of exceedingly important
reforms, such as the extension of manhood
suffrage, the removal of the last unjust restrictions
against Catholics, the establishment of a national
system of schools, followed by a rapid increase in
popular education, and the abolition of slavery in all
English colonies (1833). To this we must add the
changes produced by the discovery of steam and
the invention of machinery, which rapidly changed
England from an agricultural to a manufacturing
nation, introduced the factory system, and caused
this period to be known as the Age of Industrial
Revolution.
The literature of the age is largely poetical in
form, and almost entirely romantic in spirit. The
triumph of democracy in government is generally
accompanied by the triumph of romanticism in
literature. At first the literature, as shown especially
in the early work of Wordsworth, Byron, and
Shelley, reflected the turmoil of the age and the
wild hopes of an ideal democracy occasioned by
the French Revolution. Later the extravagant
enthusiasm subsided, and English writers produced
so much excellent literature that the age is often
called the Second Creative period, the first being
the Age of Elizabeth. The six chief characteristics of
the age are: the prevalence of romantic poetry; the
creation of the historical novel by Scott; the first
appearance of women novelists, such as Mrs. Anne
Radcliffe, Jane Porter, Maria Edgeworth, and Jane
Austen; the development of literary criticism, in the
4
work of Lamb, De Quincey, Coleridge, and Hazlitt;
the practical and economic bent of philosophy, as
shown in the work of Malthus, James Mill, and
Adam Smith; and the establishment of great literary
magazines, like the Edinburgh Review, the
Quarterly, Blackwood's, and the Athenaeum.
The following have been noted:
(1) the Poets of Romanticism: the
importance of the Lyrical Ballads of 1798; the life
and work of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron,
Shelley, and Keats;
(2) the Prose Writers: the novels of Scott;
the development of literary criticism; the life and
work of the essayists, Lamb, De Quincey, Landor,
and of the novelist Jane Austen.
10. The Victorian Age
The year 1830 is generally placed at the
beginning of this period, but its limits are very
indefinite. In general it is thought as covering the
reign of Victoria (1837-1901). Historically the age is
remarkable for the growth of democracy following
the Reform Bill of 1832; for the spread of education
among all classes; for the rapid development of the
arts and sciences; for important mechanical
inventions; and for the enormous extension of the
bounds of human knowledge by the discoveries of
science.
At the accession of Victoria the romantic
movement had spent its force; Wordsworth had
written his best work; the other romantic poets,
Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and Byron, had passed
away; and for a time no new development was
apparent in English poetry. Though the Victorian
Age produced two great poets, Tennyson and
Browning, the age, as a whole, is remarkable for
the variety and excellence of its prose. A study of
all the great writers of the period reveals four
general characteristics:
(1) Literature in this Age has come very
close to daily life, reflecting its practical problems
and interests, and is a powerful instrument of
human progress.
(2) The tendency of literature is strongly
ethical; all the great poets, novelists, and essayists
of the age are moral teachers.
(3) Science in this age exercises an
incalculable influence. On the one hand it
emphasizes truth as the sole object of human
endeavor; it has established the principle of law
throughout the universe; and it has given us an
entirely new view of life, as summed up in the word
"evolution," that is, the principle of growth or
development from simple to complex forms. On the
other hand, its first effect seems to be to
discourage works of the imagination. Though the
age produced an incredible number of books, very
few of them belong among the great creative works
of literature. (4) Though the age is generally
characterized as practical and materialistic, it is
significant that nearly all the writers whom the
nation delights to honor vigorously attack
materialism, and
exalt a purely ideal conception of life. On the whole,
we are inclined to call this an idealistic age
fundamentally, since love, truth, justice,
brotherhood--all great ideals--are emphasized as
the chief ends of life, not only by its poets but also
by its novelists and essayists.
The following have been noted:
(1) The Poets; the life and works of
Tennyson and Browning; and the chief
characteristics of the minor poets, Elizabeth Barrett
(Mrs. Browning), Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne.
(2) The Novelists; the life and works of
Dickens, Thackeray, and George Eliot; and the
chief works of Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope,
Charlotte Brontë, Bulwer-Lytton, Kingsley, Mrs.
Gaskell, Blackmore, George Meredith, Hardy, and
Stevenson.
(3) The Essayists; the life and works of
Macaulay, Matthew Arnold, Carlyle, Newman, and
Ruskin. These were selected, from among many
essayists and miscellaneous writers, as most
typical of the Victorian Age. The great scientists,
like Lyell,
Darwin, Huxley, Wallace, Tyndall, and Spencer,
hardly belong to our study of literature, though their
works are of vast importance; and we omit the
works of living writers who belong to the present
rather than to the past century.
AMERICAN LITERATURE
American literature is the written or literary
work produced in the area of the United States and
its preceding colonies. During its early history,
America was a series of British colonies on the
eastern coast of the present-day United States.
Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to
the broader tradition of English literature. However,
unique American characteristics and the breadth of
its production usually now cause it to be considered
a separate path and tradition.
1. Colonial literature
There was articulation of Puritan cultural
ideas. Captain Smith was the first American author
with his works: A true Relation of Such Occurences
and Accidents of Noate as Hath in Virginia...(1608)
and The General Historie of Virginia, New England,
and The Summer Isles (1624).
a. Early Writing
> J. Winthrop’s The History of New England
discussed religious foundations of Massachusetts.
> E. Winslow recorded a diary after the
Mayflower’s arrival.
> I. Mather & W. Bradford wrote History of
Plymouth Plantation.
> R. Williams & N. Ward argued state and
church separation.
> Morton’s The New English Canaan
mocked the religious settlers.
> E. Taylor’s Preparatory Meditations was
written to prepare him for religious worship.
> W. Wigglesworth’s The Day of Doom
described the time of judgement.
> N. Noyes was known for his doggerel
verses.
b. Revolutionary Period
> B. Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac and
The Autobiography of B. Franklin helped in the
formation of budding American identity.
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 > Paine’s Common Sense and The
American Crisis influenced the political tone.
2. Post-independence
> T. Jefferson’s United States Declaration of
Independence and Notes on the State of Virginia
made him the most
talented early American writer.
> A. Hamilton, J. Madison, & J. Jay wrote
Federalist essays.
> F. Ames, J. Otis & P. Henry wrote political
writings and orations.
3. First American Novels
> T. A. Digges’ Adventures of Alonso
depicted sentimental novel tradition.
> W. H. Brown’s The Power of Sympathy
depicted a tragic love story between siblings.
> S. Rowson’s Charlotte: A Tale of Truth
was later entitled Charlotte Temple was about a
seduction tale.
> H. W. Foster’s The Coquette: Or, History
History of Eliza Wharton was about a woman who
was seduced and abandoned.
> W. Irving’s A History of New York from the
Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch
Dynasty supported himself
through the income generated by his publication.
4. Unique American Style
> W. Irving wrote humorous works in
Salmagundi and the satire A History of New York,
by Diedrich Knickerbockes.
> C. Bryant wrote nature-inspired poetry.
> E. A. Poe wrote The Masque of the Red
Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Fall of the
House of Usher, and The Murders in the Rue
Morgue.
> Cooper wrote Leatherstocking Tales
about Natty Bumppo which included The Last
Mohicans.
> R. W. Emerson formed the movement
Transcendentalism.
> H. D. Thoreau’s Walden urged resistance
to the meddlesome dictates of organized society.
> A. de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
described his travels.
> H. B. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
discussed slave’s narrative autobiography.
> N. Hawthorne’s collection of stories called
Twice-Told Tales.
5. Early American Poetry
> W. Whitman’s magnum opus Leaves of
Grass depicted the all-inclusiveness of American
democracy.
> E. Dickinson’s Because I Could not Stop
for Death was psychologically penetrating.
> W. Stevens wrote Harmonium and The
Auroras of Autumn.
> T. S. Eliot wrote The Waste Land.
> R. Frost wrote North of Boston and New
Hampshire.
6. Realism, Twain and James
> Mark Twain’s (Samuel Langhorne
Clemen’s pen name) Life on the Mississipi and the
novels Adventures of Sawyer and Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn spoke depicted real people and
sounded American, using local dialects, newly
invented words and regional accents.
> W. D. Howell’s The Rise of Silas Lapham
represented the realist tradition.
> H. James’s novellas Daisy Miller was
about an enchanting American girl in Europe and
The Turn of the Screw, an enigmatic story.
> J. Herne’s Margaret Fleming attempted at
bringing modern realism into the drama.
7. Beginning of the 20th Century
> E. Hemingway’s Edith Wharton
scrutinized the upper-class, Eastern-seaboard
society, and The Age of Innocence centered on a
man who chose to marry a conventional woman.
> S. Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage
and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets depicted the life of
New York city prostitutes.
> T. Dreiser’s Sister Carrie portrayed a life
of kept woman.
> E. Bellamy’s Looking Backward outlined
political and social frameworks of American society.
> U. Sinclair’s The Jungle advocated
socialism.
> H. B. Adam’s autobiography The
Education of Henry Adams depicted a stinging
description of the education system and modern
life.
> G. Stein’s Three Lives showed her
familiarity with cubism, jazz, etc. She was dubbed
as one of the Lost Generation.
> T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land embodied a
jaundiced vision of post-World War I society.
> K. Gibran’s writings absorbed modernist
European influences.
> F. S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby told of
the youth’s golden dreams to dissolve in failure and
disappointment.
> W. Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, As I
Lay Dying, The Sound of the Fury, and Light in
August showed the slave-holding era of the Deep
South.
8. The Rise of the American Drama
> L. Halllam’s troupe popularized minstrel
shows and the adaptations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
> T. Williams & A. Milles integrated script,
music, and dance in Oklahoma! and West Side
Story.
9. Depression-era Literature
> J. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath told
the story of the Joads, a poor family from
Oklahoma and their journey to California in search
of a better life. His other novels were Tortilla Flat,
Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, and East of Eden.
> N. West’s Miss Lovely Hearts plumbed the
life of its antihero introduced a reluctant advice
columnist and The Day of
the Locust which introduced a cast of Hollywood
stereotype and explored the ironies of the movies.
> J. Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
depicted the lives of three struggling tenant-farming
in Alabama.
6
 > H. Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and Black
Spring were banned because of obscenity but had
major influence on
succeeding generations of American writers.
10. Post-World War II
> H. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird depicted
the more realistic modernists along with the wildly
romantic beatniks.
> S. Bellow’s The Adventures of Augie
March and Herzog painted vivid portraits of the
American society.
> J. D. Salinger’s Nine Stories and The
Catcher in the Rye perceived madness of the State
of affairs in America.
> A. Ginsberg’s Howl set the tone of the
movement.
> J. Kerouac’s On the Road was a chronicle
of a soul-searching travel through the continent.
> W. S. Burrough’s Naked Lunch showed
his travels and experiments with hard drugs.
> J. Updike’s Rabbit Run discussed the
taboo topics such as adultery.
> R. Ellison’s Invisible Man told the story of
a black Underground Man who experienced racial
tension.
> R. Wright’s The Man Who Was Almost a
Man and Native Son depicted his childhood and
autodidactic education.
> W. Gaddis’ The Recognition portrayed
forgery, capitalism, religious zealotry, etc.
> J. Hawkes’ The Lime Twig addressed the
themes of violence and eroticism.
11. Short Fiction Poetry
> F. O’ Connor’s short stories A Good Man
is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must
Converge and her novels Wise Blood and The
Violent Bear It Away focused on the search of truth
and religious scepticism.
> J. Ashbery wrote Self-Portrait in a Convex
Mirror, E. Bishop’s North and South, and
Geography III, R. wilbur’s Things of this World, J.
Berryman’s The Dream Songs, A.R. Ammon’s
collected poems, Roethke’s The Wakings, J.
Merills’s The Changing Light at Sandover, L.
Gluckfor’s The Wild Iris, W.S. Merwin’s Carrier of
Ladders.
12. Contemporary American Literature
> T. Pynchon’s Gravity Rainbow showed the
most salient literary movement of postmodernism.
His other works were The Crying of Lot, V., Mason
and Dixon, and Against the Day.
> T. Marrison’s The Bluest Eye had an
elaborated description of incestuous rape and
explored the conventions of beauty. He
experimented in his works Song of Solomon and
Beloved.
> C. McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper,
Suttree, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Houses, and
The Road achieved both commercial and critical
success, several of his works having adapted to
film.
> D. Delillo’s White Noise tackled the
subjects of death and consumerism. His
Underworld chronicled American life. His other
important novels were Libra, Mao II, and Falling
Man.
> D.F. Wallace’s The Broom of the System
and Infinite Jest showed futuristic portrait of
America.
> P. King authored the short stories Girl with
Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
and Oblivion: Stories.
> J. Franzen’s The Twenty-Seventh City
centered about his native place St. Louis, and The
Corrections was about disintegrating Lambert
family.
> M. Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of
Kavalier and Clay told a story of two friends as they
rose the ranks of the comics industry in its heyday.
> D. Johnson’s Tree of Smoke was about
the falsified intelligence during Vietnam.
> L. Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves was
about the tribal experience set against the
backdrops of murder and The Round House which
was built on the same theme.
13. Minority Literature
> M. H. Kingston wrote fictioned memoir
The Woman Warrior, her novel China Men and
Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book.
> H. Jin’s Waiting was about a Chinese
soldier who waited 18 years to divorce his wife for
another woman and worried about persecution and
protracted affair.
> J. Lahiri’s first collection of short stories
Interpreter of Maladies and second collection of
short stories Unaccented Earth.
> A. Tan’s The Joy Luck Club traced the
lines of four immigrants families brought together
by the game Mahjong.
> C. R. Lee wrote Native Speaker, A
Gesture Life and Aloft.
> S, S. Far, T. Mori, C. Bulosan, J. Okada,
H. Yamamoto became prominent.
>S. Cisneros’ The House of Mango Street
was taught in schools across the United States.
> J. Diaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar
Wao told the story of an overweight Dominican boy
growing up as a social outcast.
> J. Alvarez wrote How the Garcia Girls Lost Their
Accents and In the Time of the Butteflies, O.
Hijuelos’ The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, C.
Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban, N.S. Momaday’s
House made of Dawn, L.M. Silko’s Ceremony, G.
Vizenor’s Bearheart: The heiship Chronicles, L.
Erdrich’s Love Medicine.
Philippine Literature
Philippine literature is the literature
associated with the Philippines and includes the
legends of prehistory, and the colonial legacy of the
Philippines. Most of the notable literature of the
Philippines was written during the Spanish period
and the first half of the 20th century in Spanish
language. Philippine literature is written in Spanish,
English, Tagalog, or other native Philippine
languages.
1. Early works
>Doctrina Christiana, Manila, 1593, is the
first book printed in the Philippines.
7
 >Tomas Pinpin wrote and printed in 1610
Librong Pagaaralan nang mga Tagalog nang
Uicang Castilla, 119 pages designed to help fellow
Filipinos to learn the Spanish language in a simple
way. He is also with the first news publication made
in the Philippines, "Successos Felices".
2. Classical literature in Spanish during the
19th Century On December 1, 1846, the first daily
newspaper, La Esperanza, was published in the
country. Other early newspapers were La Estrella
(1847), Diario de Manila(1848) and Boletin Oficial
de Filipinas (1852). The first provincial newspaper
was El Eco de Vigan (1884), which was issued in
Ilocos. In Cebu City "El Boletín de Cebú" (The
Bulletin of Cebu), was published in 1890.
On 1863, the Spanish government
introduced a system of free public education that
increased the population's ability to read Spanish
and thereby furthered the rise of an educated class
called the Ilustrado (meaning, well-informed).
Spanish became the social language of urban
places and the true lingua franca of the
archipelago. A good number of Spanish
newspapers were
published until the end of the 1940s, the most
influential of them being El Renacimiento, printed in
Manila by members of the Guerrero de Ermita
family.
Some members of the ilustrado group, while in
Spain, decided to start a Spanish publication with
the aim of promoting the autonomy and
independence projects. Members of this group
included Pedro Alejandro Paterno, who wrote the
novel Nínay (first novel written by a Filipino) ((cn))
and the Philippine national hero, José Rizal, who
wrote excellent poetry and two famous novels in
Spanish: Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), and El
Filibusterismo. Especially potent was La
Solidaridad, more fondly called La Sol by the
members of the propaganda movement, founded in
15 February 1885.[citation needed]
With the help of this paper, Filipino national
heroes like José Rizal, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and
Marcelo H. del Pilar were able to voice out their
sentiments.
3. Poetry and metrical romances
>Ladino Poems – Were natives of first
Tagalog versifiers who saw print: highly literate in
both Spanish and the vernacular.
>Corridos – Were widely read during the
Spanish period that filled the populace's need for
entertainment as well as edifying reading matter in
their leisure moments.
>Awit – like corridos, these were also widely
read during the Spanish period as entertaining,
edifying, reading manner in their leisure time. It is
also a fabrication of the writers imagination
although the characters and the setting may be
European. The structure is rendered dodecasyllabic
quatrains.
a. Prose
The prose works of the Spanish Period
consisted mostly of didactic pieces and translations
of religious writings in foreign
languages.
1. Religious drama
a. The Panunuluyan– Literally, seeking
entrance, the Tagalog version of the Mexican Las
Posadas. Held on the eve of Christmas, it
dramatizes Joseph's and Mary's search for
Bethlehem.
b. Cenaculo – Was the dramatization of the
passion and death of Jesus Christ.
c. Salubong – An Easter play that
dramatizes the meeting of the Risen Christ and His
Mother.
d. Moriones – Refers to the participants
dressed roman soldiers, their identities hidden
behind colorful, sometimes grotesque, wooden
masks.
e. The Santacruzan – Performed during the
month of May which have the devotion for the Holy
Cross. It depicts St. Elena's search for the cross on
which Christ died.
f. Pangangaluwa – An interesting socio-
religious practice on All Saint's Day which literally
means for The Soul.
2. Secular dramas
These were generally held during the nine
nights of vigil and prayers after someone's death,
on the first death anniversary when the family
members put away their mourning clothes.
a. The Karagatan – comes from the
legendary practice of testing the mettle of young
men vying for a maiden's hand. The maiden's ring
would be dropped into sea and whoever retrieves it
would have the girl's hand in marriage.
b. The Duplo – A forerunner of the
balagtasan. The performances consist of two
teams; One composed of young women called
Dupleras or Belyakas; and the other, of young men
called Dupleros or Belyakos.
c. The Comedia – It is about a courtly love
between, a prince and a princess of different
religions. It is about a Christian- Muslim relationship
4. Modern literature (20th and 21st century)
The greatest portion of Spanish literature
was written during the American period, most often
as an expression of pro- Hispanic nationalism, by
those who had been educated in Spanish or had
lived in the Spanish-speaking society of the big
cities,
and whose principles entered in conflict with the
American cultural trends. Such period of Spanish
literary production—i.e., between the independence
of Spain in 1898 and well ahead into the decade of
the 1940s—is known as Edad de Oro del
Castellano en Filipinas. Some prominent writers of
this era were Wenceslao Retana and Claro Mayo
Recto, both in drama and essay; Antonio M. Abad
and Guillermo Gomez Wyndham, in the narrative;
Fernando María Guerrero and Manuel Bernabé,
both in poetry. The predominant literary style was
the so-called "Modernismo", a mixture of elements
from the French Parnassien and Symboliste
schools, as promoted by some Latin American and
Peninsular Spanish writers (e.g. the Nicaraguan
Rubén Darío, the Mexican Amado Nervo, the
8
Spaniard Francisco Villaespesa, and the Peruvian
José Santos Chocano as major models).
5. Notable Philippine literary authors
Estrella Alfon, Francisco Arcellana, Carlos
Bulosan, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Linda Ty
Casper, Gilda Cordero- Fernando, N. V. M.
Gonzalez, Nick Joaquin, F. Sionil José, Ambeth R.
Ocampo, Alejandro R. Roces, Bienvenido Santos,
Edilberto K. Tiempo, Kerima Polotan Tuvera, José
Rizal, Francisco Balagtas, Zoilo Galang, Lualhati
Bautista, Genoveva Edroza- Matute, Nicanor
Abelardo, Kris Astudillo
AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
A. INDIA
1. Literary Periods. The Indus civilization flourished
in northern India between 2500 and 1500 B.C. Te
Aryans, a group of nomadic warriors and herders
were the earliest known migrants into India. They
brought with them a well- developed language and
literature and a set of religious beliefs.
a) Vedic Period (1500 B.C. -500 B.C.). This
period is named for the Vedas, a set of hymns that
formed the cornerstone of Aryan culture. Hindus
consider the Vedas, which were transmitted orally
by priests, to be the most sacred of all literature for
they
believe these to have been revealed to humans
directly by the gods.
b) Epic and Buddhist Age (500 B.C. –A.D.).
The period of composition two great epics,
Mahabharata and the Ramayana. This time was
also the growth of later Vedic literature, new
Sanskrit literature, and the Buddhist literature in
Pali.
c) Classical Period (A.D. -1000 A.D.). The
main literary language of northern India during this
period was Sanskrit, in contrast with the Dravidian
languages of southern India. Sanskrit, which means
„perfect speech‟, is considered a sacred language
spoken by the gods and goddesses.
d) Medieval and Modern Age (A.D. 1000 –
present). Persian influences on literature were
considerable this period. Persian was the court
language of the Moslem rulers. In the 18th century
India was directly under the British Crown and
remained so until its Independence in1947.
2. Religions. Indian creativity is evident in religion
as the country is the Birthplace of two important
faiths: Hinduism, the dominant religion, and
Buddhism, which ironically became extinct in India
but spread throughout Asia.
1. Hinduism, literally “the belief of the
people of India”, is the predominant faith of India
and of no other nation. The Hindus are deeply
absorbed with God and the creation of the
universe.
The Purusarthas are the three ends of man:
dharma – virtue. Duty, righteousness, moral law;
artha- wealth; and karma- love or pleasure. A fourth
end is moksha- the renunciation of duty, wealth and
love in order to seek spiritual perfection. It is
achieved after the release from samasara, the
cycle of births and deaths.
2. Buddhism originated in India in the 6th
century B.C. This religion is based on the teachings
of Siddharta Gautama called Buddha, or the
“Enlightened One‟. Much of Buddha‟s teaching is
focused on self-awareness and self-development in
order to attain nirvana or enlightenment.
The Buddhist scriptures uphold the Four
Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Four Noble Truths are: 1) life is
suffering; 2) the cause of suffering is desire; 3) the
removal of desire of suffering; and the Noble
Eightfold Paths leads to the end of suffering.
The Noble Eightfold Paths consist of: 1)
right understanding; 2) right thought; 3) right
speech; 4) right action; 5) right means of livelihood;
6) right effort; 7) right consideration; 8) right
meditation.
3. Religious and Philosophical Works.
The Vedas form a collection of sacred
among hymn or verse composed in archaic
Sanskrit the Indo-European speaking people who
entered India from the Iranian regions.
The Dhammapada (Way of Truth) is an
anthology of basic Buddhist teaching in a simple
aphoristic style. One of the best-known books of
the Pali Buddhist canon it contains 423 stanzas
arranged in 26 chapters.
The Upanishads form a highly sophisticated
commentary on the religious thought suggested by
the poetic hymns of the Rigveda. The name
implies, according to same traditions, „sitting at the
feet of the teacher.‟
4. Epics. The two major Indian epics, the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are the literary
embodiments of Hinduism.
The Mahabharata is longer and more
importan, but the Ramayana seems to be more
interesting for modern audience.
The Mahabharata consists of a mass of
legendary and didactic material that tells of the
struggle for supremacy between two groups of
cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The
traditional date for the war is 3102 B.C. The poem
is made up of the almost 100,000 couplets divided
into 18 parvans or sections. Authorship is
traditionally ascribed to the sage Vsaya, although it
is more likely that he compiled existing material.
The Bhagavad Gita (The blessed Lord‟s
Song) is one of the greatest and most beautiful of
the Hindu scriptures. It is regarded by the Hindus in
somewhat the same way as the Gospels are by
Christians.
The Ramayana was composed in Sanskrit,
probably not before 300 B.C., by the poet Valmiki,
and consists of some 24,000 couplets divided into
seven books. It reflects the Hindu values and forms
of social organization, the theory of karma, the
ideas of wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor
and promises.
5. Literary Selections.
The Panchatantra is a collection of Indian
beast fables originally written in Sanskrit. Sakuntala
is a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa. Love is the central
9
emotion that binds the characters Sakuntala and
king Dushyanta.
The little Clay Cart (Mrcchakatika) is
attributed to Shudraka, a king. The characters in
this play include a Brahman merchant who has lost
his money through liberality, a rich courtesan in
love with a poor young man, much description of
resplendent palaces, and both comic and tragic or
near-tragic emotional situations Gitanjali: by
Rabindranath Tagore.
The Taj Mahal a poem by Sahir Ludhianvi is
about the mausoleum in North India built by the
mogul emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz-i-
Mahal.
On learning to be an Indian an essay by
Santha Rama Rau illustrates the telling effects of
colonization on the lives of the people particularly
the younger generation.
6. Major Writers.
Kalidasa a Sanskrit poet and dramatist is
probably the greatest Indian writer of all time.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861- 1941) The son
of a Great Sage, Tagore is a Bengali poet and
mystic who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1913.
Kamala Markandaya (1924). Her works
concern the struggles of contemporary Indians with
conflicting Eastern and Western values. Nectar in a
Sieve. Her first novel and most popular work is
about an Indian peasant’s narrative of her difficult
life.
R.K. Narayan (1906). One of the finest
Indian authors of his generation writing in English.
Anita Desai (1937). An English-language
Indian novelist and author of children’s books, she
is considered India’s premier imagist writer. Clear
Light of Day is her landmark work.
B. Japanese Literature
Early works of Japanese literature were
heavily influenced by cultural contact with China
and Chinese literature, often written in Classical
Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence
through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan.
Eventually, Japanese literature developed into a
separate style in its own right as Japanese writers
began writing their own works about Japan,
although the influence of Chinese literature and
Classical Chinese remained until the end of the
Edo period. Since Japan reopened its ports to
Western trading and diplomacy in the 19th century,
Western and Eastern literature have strongly
affected each other and continue to do so.
1. Classical literature (794–1185)
Murasaki Shikibu’s Genji Monogatari is
considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian
fiction and an early example of a work of fiction in
the form of a novel. Kokin Wakashū (905) wrote, a
waka-poetry anthology, and Makura no Sōshi
(990s), the
latter written by Murasaki Shikibu’s contemporary
and rival, Sei Shōnagon, as an essay about the life,
loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor’s
court. The iroha poem was also developed during
the early part of this period.
Taketori Monogatari was an example of
proto-science fiction. The protagonist of the story,
Kaguya-hime, is a princess from the Moon who is
sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and
is found and raised by a bamboo cutter. She is later
taken back to her extraterrestrial family in an
illustrated depiction of a disc-shaped flying object
similar to a flying saucer.
Konjaku Monogatarishū was a collection of
over a thousand stories in 31 volumes. The
volumes cover various tales from India, China and
Japan.
2. Medieval literature (1185–1603)
The Tale of the Heike (1371) was an epic
account of the struggle between the Minamotoand
Taira clans for control of Japan. Other important
tales of the period include Kamo no Chōmei’s
Hōjōki (1212) and Yoshida Kenkō’s Tsurezuregusa
(1331).
Other notable genres in this period were renga, or
linked verse, and Noh 11avoure.
3. Early-modern literature (1603–1868)
The jōruri and kabuki dramatist Chikamatsu
Monzaemon is known as the Japan’s Shakespeare.
Matsuo Bashō wrote Oku no Hosomichi (1702), a
travel diary. Hokusai was the most famous
woodblock print artist, and illustrated his famous 36
Views of Mount Fuji. Jippensha Ikku is also known
as Japan’s Mark Twain.
Ihara Saikaku gave birth to the modern
consciousness of the novel and mixed vernacular
dialogue into his cautionary tales. Jippensha Ikku
wrote Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, which is a mix of
travelogue and comedy. Tsuga Teisho, Takebe
Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in
developing the yomihon, which were historical
romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by
Chinese vernacular novels such as Three
Kingdoms and Shui hu zhuan. Twoyomihon
masterpieces were written by Ueda
Akinari: Ugetsu Monogatari and Harusame
monogatari wrote the extremely popular
fantasy/historical romance Nansō Satomi
Hakkenden in addition to other yomihon.Santō
Kyōden wrote yomihon mostly set in the gay
quarters until the Kansei edicts banned such works,
and he turned to comedic kibyōshi.
4. Modern literature (1868–1945)
A new colloquial literature developed
centering on the “I novel”, with some unusual
protagonists such as the cat narrator of Natsume
Sōseki’s Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat),
Botchan and Kokoro (1914). Shiga Naoya, the so-
called “god of the novel”, and Mori Ōgai were
instrumental in adopting and adapting Western
literary conventions and techniques. Ryūnosuke
Akutagawa is known especially for his historical
short stories. Ozaki Kōyō, Kyōka Izumi, and Ichiyo
Higuchi represent a strain of writers whose style
hearkens back to early-Modern Japanese literature.
In the early Meiji period (1868–1880s),
Fukuzawa Yukichi authored Enlightenment
literature, while pre-modern popular books depicted
the quickly changing country. Then Realism was
10
brought in by Tsubouchi Shōyō and Futabatei
Shimei in the mid-
Meiji (late 1880s–early 1890s) while the Classicism
of Ozaki Kōyō, Yamada Bimyo and Kōda Rohan
gained popularity. Ichiyō
Higuchi wrote short stories on powerless
women of this age. Kyōka Izumi, a 11avoured
disciple of Ozaki, pursued a flowing and elegant
style and wrote early novels such as The Operating
Room (1895) in literary style and later ones
including The Holy Man of Mount Koya (1900) in
colloquial.
Romanticism was brought in by Mori Ōgai
with his anthology of translated poems (1889) and
carried to its height by Tōson Shimazaki etc. and
magazines Myōjōand Bungaku-kai in early 1900s.
Mori also wrote some modern novels including The
Dancing Girl (1890), Wild Geese (1911), then, later
wrote historical novels. Natsume Sōseki, who is
often compared with Mori Ōgai, wrote I Am a Cat
(1905) with humor and satire, then depicted fresh
and pure youth in Botchan (1906) and Sanshirô
(1908). He eventually pursued transcendence of
human emotions and egoism in his later works
including Kokoro (1914) his last and unfinished
novelLight and darkness (1916).
Shimazaki shifted from Romanticism to
Naturalism which was established with his The
Broken Commandment (1906) and Katai Tayama’s
Futon (1907). Naturalism hatched “I Novel”
(Watakushi-shôsetu) that describes about the
authors themselves and depicts their own mental
states. Neo-romanticism came out of anti-
naturalism and was led by Kafū Nagai, Jun’ichirō
Tanizaki, Kōtarō Takamura, Hakushū Kitahara and
so on in the early 1910s. Saneatsu Mushanokōji,
Naoya Shiga and others founded a magazine
Shirakaba in 1910. They shared a common
characteristic, Humanism. Shiga’s style was
autobiographical and depicted states of his mind
and sometimes classified as “I Novel” in this sense.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who was highly praised by
Soseki, wrote short stories including
Rashōmon(1915) with an intellectual and analytic
attitude, and represented Neo-realism in the mid-
1910s.
During the 1920s and early 1930s the
proletarian literary movement, comprising such
writers as Takiji Kobayashi, Denji Kuroshima,
Yuriko Miyamoto, and Ineko Sata produced a
politically radical literature.
Jun’ichirō Tanizaki was Japan’s first winner
of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasunari
Kawabata was considered a master of
psychological fiction. Ashihei Hino wrote lyrical
bestsellers glorifying the war, while Tatsuzō
Ishikawa attempted to publish a disturbingly
realistic account of the advance on Nanjing.
5. Post-war literature
Osamu Dazai’s novel The Setting Sun told
of a soldier returning from Manchukuo. Shōhei
Ōoka won the Yomiuri Prize for his novel Fires on
the Plain about a Japanese deserter going mad in
the Philippine jungle. Yukio Mishima, well known for
both his nihilistic writing and his controversial
suicide by seppuku, began writing in the post-war
period. Nobuo Kojima’s short story “The American
School” portrays a group of Japanese teachers of
English who, in the immediate aftermath of the war,
dealt with the American occupation in varying ways.
Kenzaburō Ōe wrote his best-known work,
A Personal Matter in 1964 and became Japan’s
second winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Kōbō Abe’s Woman in the Dunes (1960)
showed the Japanese experience in modern terms
without using either international styles or
traditional conventions. Shizuko Todo’s Ripening
Summer captured the complex psychology of
modern women. Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian
Wood (1987) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
(1994–1995) portrayed genre- defying, humorous
and surreal works. Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen
about love, friendship, and loss showed “manga-
esque” style of writing. Manga (comic books) have
penetrated almost every sector of the popular
market.
C. Chinese Literature
Chinese literature reflects the political and
social history of China and the impact of powerful
religions that came from within and outside the
country. Its tradition goes back thousands of years
and has often been inspired by philosophical
questions about the meaning of life, how to live
ethically in society, and how to live in spiritual
harmony with the natural order of the universe.
Shang Dynasty (1600 B.C.). People
practiced a religion based on the belief that nature
was inhabited by many powerful gods and spirits.
Among the significant advances of this period were
bronze working, decimal system, a twelve-month
calendarand a system of writing consisting 3,000
characters.
Chou Dynasty (1100 B.C. – 221 B.C.). The
longest of all dynasties and throughout most of this
period China suffered from severe political disunity
and upheaval. This era was also known as the
Hundred Schools period because of the many
competing philosophers and teachers. Among the
most influential include Lao Tzu, the proponent of
Taoism, and Confucius, the founder of
Confucianism.
Ch‟in Dynasty (221 B.C. – 207 B.C.). This is
where China saw unification and the strengthening
of central government.
Roads connecting all parts of the empire
were built and the existing walls on the northern
borders were connected to form the Great Wall of
China.
Han Dynasty (207 B.C. – A.D. 220) One of
the most glorious eras of Chinese history. This
period was marked by the introduction of Buddhism
from India.
T‟ang Dynasty (A.D. 618 – 960) The Golden
Age of Chinese civilization. Fine arts and literature
flourished in this period. Among the technological
advances of this time were the invention of gun
powder and the block printing.
Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960 – 1279). This
period was characterized by delicacy and
refinement although inferior in literary arts but great
in learning. The practice of Neo-Confucianism
proliferated.
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1. Philosophy and Religion
Chinese literature and all of Chinese culture
has been profoundly influenced by three great
schools of thought:
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Chinese religions are based on the perception of
life as a process of continual change in which
opposing forces, such as heaven and earth or light
and dark, balance one another. These opposites
are symbolized by the Yin and Yang. Yin, the
passive and feminine force, counterbalances Yang,
the active and masculine force, each contains a
„seed‟
of the other, as represented in the traditional yin-
yang symbol.
Confucianism provides the Chinese with
both a moral order and an order for the universe. It
is not a religion but it makes individuals aware of
their place in the world and the behaviour
appropriate to it. It also provides a political and
social philosophy.
Confucian ethics is humanist. The following are
Confucian tenets:
>jen or human heartedness are qualities or
forms of 12ehaviour that set men above the rest of
the lie on earth. Also known as ren, it is the
measure of individual character and such, is the
goal of self- cultivation.
>li refers to ritual, custom, propriety, and
manner. A person of li is a good person. Taoism
was illustrated by Lao Tzu during the Chou
Dynasty. Taoist beliefs and influences are an
important part of
classical Chinese culture. The “Tao” or “The Way”
means the natural course that the world follows. To
follow the “Tao” or to go with the flow is both
wisdom and happiness. For the Taoist,
unhappiness comes from parting from the “Tao” or
from trying to flout
it.
Buddhism was imported from India during
the Han dynasty. Buddhist thought stresses the
importance of ridding oneself of earthly desires and
of seeking ultimate peace and enlightenment
through detachment. With its stress on living
ethically and its emphasis on material concerns,
Buddhism appealed to both Confucians and
Taoists.
2. Philosophical Works
The Analects (Lun Yu) is one of the four
Confucian texts. The sayings range from brief
statements to more extended dialogues between
Confucius and his students. The Analects instructs
on moderation in all things through moral
education, the building of a harmonious family life
and the development of virtues such as loyalty,
obedience and a sense of justice.
The Tao-Te Ching (Classic of the Way of
Power) is believed to have been written between
the 8th and 3rd centuries B.C. It presents a way of
life intended to restore harmony and tranquility to a
kingdom racked by widespread disorders.
Chuang Tzu is the philosophical work of Lao
Tzu‟s most important disciple, Chuan Tzu. Written
in a witty, imaginative style, this book consists of
fables and anecdotes that teach the Taoist
philosophy and questioned the principles of
Confucianism.
3. Literary Selections
The Book of Songs (Shih Ching), compiled
around the 6th century B.C. is the oldest collection
of Chinese poetry. This collection consists of 305
poems, many of which were originally folk songs,
focusing on such themes as farming, love, and war.
The Book of Changes (I Ching) is one of the Five
Classics of Confucian philosophy and has been
primarily used for divination.
Record of a Journey to the West is the
foremost Chinese comic novel written about 1500-
82 by the long- anonymous Wu Chengen. The
novel is based on the actual 7thcentury pilgrimage
of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602-664) to India
in search of sacred texts.
Dream of the Red Chamber is a novel by
Cao Zhan thought to be semiautobiographical and
generally considered to be the greatest of all
Chinese novels.
The Injustice Done to Tou Ngo a play by
Guan Han-Cheng, a Yuan dramatist, tells the story
of the poisoning of Old
Chang by his own son but the conviction of
Tou Ngo
4. Major Writers
Taoist Writers:
Chuang Tzu (4th century B.C.) was the
most important early interpreter of the philosophy of
Taoism. In his stories, he appears as a quirky
character who careslittle for either public approval
or material possessions.
Lieh Tzu (4th century B.C.) was a Taoist
teacher who had many philosophical differences
with his forebears Lao-Tzu and Chuan Tzu. He
argued that the sequence of causes predetermines
everything that happens, including one‟s choice of
action.
Lui An (172 – 122 B.C.). Taoist scholar, the
grandson of the founder of the Han dynasty. His
royal title was the Prince of Haui-nan. Together with
philosophers and under his patronage, he produced
a collection of essays on metaphysics, cosmology,
politics, and conduct.
Ssu-ma Ch‟ien (145 – 122 B.C.) was the
greatest of China‟s grand historians who dedicated
himself to completing the first history of China the
Records of the Historian..
Po Chu-I (772 – 846). He wrote many
poems speaking bitterly against the social and
economic problems that were plaguing China.
Li Ch‟ing-chao (A.D. 1084 – 1151) is
regarded as China‟s greatest woman poet and was
also one of the most liberated women of her day.
Many of her poems composed in the tz‟u form
celebrate her happy marriage or express her
loneliness when her husband was away.
Chou-Shu-jen (1881 – 1936) has been
called the Father of the modern Chinese short story
because of his introduction of Western techniques.
He is also known as Lu Hsun whose stories deal
with themes of social concern, the problems of the
poor,
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women and intellectuals.
Mao Tun is the pen name of Shen Yen-ping
who is an exponent of revolutionary realism. He is
the author of a half-dozen
D. African literature
1. Oral literature
Oral literature (or orature) may be in prose
or verse. The prose is often mythological or
historical and can include tales of the trickster
character. Storytellers in Africa sometimes use call-
and-response techniques to tell their stories.
Poetry, often sung, includes: narrative epic,
occupational verse, ritual verse, praise poems to
rulers and other prominent people. Praise singers,
bards sometimes known as "griots", tell their stories
with music.
2. Pre-colonial literature
Examples of pre-colonial oral literature of
west Africa includes the "Epic of Sundiata"
composed in medieval Mali, and the older "Epic of
Dinga" from the old Ghana Empire. In Ethiopia,
there is a substantial literature written in Ge'ez
going back at least to the 4th century AD; the best-
known work in this tradition is the Kebra Negast, or
"Book of Kings." One popular form of traditional
African folktale is the "trickster" story, where a small
animal uses its wits to survive encounters with
larger creatures.
Examples of animal tricksters include
Anansi, a spider in the folklore of the Ashanti
people of Ghana; Ijàpá, a tortoisein Yoruba folklore
of Nigeria; and Sungura, a hare found in central
and East African folklore.[5] Other works in written
form are abundant, namely in north Africa, theSahel
regions of west Africa and on the Swahili coast.
From Timbuktu alone, there are an estimated
300,000 or more manuscripts tucked away in
various libraries and private collections,[6] mostly
written in Arabic but some in the native languages
(namely Fula and Songhai). Many were written at
the famous University of Timbuktu. Swahili
literature similarly, draws inspiration from Islamic
teachings but developed under indigenous
circumstances.
One of the most renowned and earliest
pieces of Swahili literature being Utendi wa
Tambuka or "The Story of Tambuka".
During this period, African plays began to
emerge. Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo of South
Africa published the first English-language African
play, The Girl Who Killed to Save: Nongqawuse the
Liberator in 1935. In 1962, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o of
Kenya wrote the first East African drama, The Black
Hermit, a cautionary tale about "tribalism" (racism
between African tribes).
African literature in the late colonial period
(between the end of World War I and
independence) increasingly showed themes of
liberation, independence, and (among Africans in
French-controlled territories) négritude. One of the
leaders of the négritude movement, the poet and
eventual President of Senegal, Léopold Sédar
Senghor, published in 1948 the first anthology of
French-language poetry written by Africans,
Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et
malgache de langue française (Anthology of the
New Black and Malagasy Poetry in the French
Language), featuring a preface by the French
existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre.
4. Colonial African literature
African writers in this period wrote both in
Western languages (notably English, French, and
Portuguese) and in traditional African languages
such as Hausa.
In 1986, Wole Soyinka became the first
post-independence African writer to win the Nobel
Prize in literature. Algerian- born Albert Camus had
been awarded the 1957 prize. During this period to
the moment African literature has become powerful
compared to pre- colonial Africa.
5. Colonial African literature
The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa,
begun in 1980, is presented for the outstanding
work of the year in African
literatures.

3. Colonial African literature

The African works best known in the West
from the period of colonization and the slave trade
are primarily slave narratives, such as Olaudah
Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano (1789).
In the colonial period, Africans exposed to
Western languages began to write in those
tongues. In 1911, Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford
(also known as Ekra-Agiman) of the Gold Coast
(now Ghana) published what is probably the first
African novel written in English, Ethiopia Unbound:
Studies in Race Emancipation. Although the work
moves between fiction and political advocacy, its
publication and positive reviews in the Western
press mark a watershed moment in African
literature.
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