GNED

15

THE MASTERPIECE OF
WORLD LITERATURE

JAPANESE-ENGLISH-GREEK
TURKISH-ARABIAN-AFRICAN-EGYPTIAN-ISRAEL-CHINESE

JAPANESE-ENGLISH-GREEK

8-2 CSB

TURKISH-ARABIAN-AFRICAN-EGYPTIAN-ISRAEL-CHINESE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: PAGE:
GREEK LITERATURE 1
INTRODUCTION 2
HISTORY 3
GREEK GODS AND GODESSES 4
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 10

CHAPTER 2: PAGE:
CHINESE LITERATURE 12
INTRODUCTION 13
HISTORY 13
EXAMPLARY POETS 14
WORKS 16
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 24

CHAPTER 3: PAGE:
ENGLISH LITERATURE 27
INTRODUCTION 28
HISTORY 28
PEOPLE/WORKS 30
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 44
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 4: PAGE:
ARABIAN LITERATURE 46
INTRODUCTION 47
HISTORY 47
CLASSIC POETS 49
MODERN POETS 51
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 52

CHAPTER 5: PAGE:
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE 54

INTRODUCTION 55
HISTORY 55
PROMINENT AUTHORS 57
PROMINENT LITERARY PIECES 58
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 59

CHAPTER 6: PAGE:
JAPANESE LITERATURE 61

INTRODUCTION 62
THE PERIODS OF JAPANESE 62
FAMOUS AUTHORS AND 65
LITERARY WORKS

SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 68
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 7: PAGE:
TURKISH LITERATURE 73
INTRODUCTION 74
HISTORY 75
FOLK LITERATURE 76
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION 82

CHAPTER 8: PAGE:
AFRICAN LITERATURE 85
INTRODUCTION 86
HISTORY 87
FOUNDERS OF AFRICAN LIT 89
EARLY AFRICAN LITERATURE 90
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
98

CHAPTER 9: PAGE:
ISRAEL LITERATURE 101
INTRODUCTION 102
ORIGINS OF MODERN ISRAEL LIT 102
HISTORY 105
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT 106
SUMMARY CONCLUSION
115
 1

GREEK
LITERATURE

1
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: considered to be exempt from
human passions, and we
In appearance, the gods frequently behold them
were supposed to resemble actuated by revenge, deceit,
mortals, whom, how- ever, and jealousy. They, however,
they far surpassed in beauty, always punish the evil-doer,
grandeur, and strength; they and visit with dire calamities
were also more commanding any impious mortal who dares
in stature, height being to neglect their worship or
considered by the Greeks an despise their rites. We often
attribute of beauty in man or hear of them visiting mankind
woman. They resembled and partaking of their
human beings in their feelings hospitality, and not
and habits, intermarrying and unfrequently both gods and
having children, and requiring goddesses become attached to
daily nourishment to recruit mortals, with whom they
their strength, and refreshing unite themselves, the
sleep to restore their energies. offspring of these unions
Their blood, a bright ethereal being called heroes or demi-
fluid called Ichor, never gods, who were usually
engendered disease, and, when renowned for their great
shed, had the power of strength and courage. But
producing new life. although there were so many
The Greeks believed that points of resemblance
the mental qualifications of between gods and men, there
their gods were of a much remained the one great
higher order than those of characteristic distinction, viz
men, but nevertheless, as we that the gods enjoyed
shall see, they were not immortality. Still, they wer.,

2
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
that gods enjoyed soaring on high, formed the
immortality. Still, they were sky or firmament, and
not invulnerable, and we constituted itself into a vast,
often hear of them being overarching vault, which
wounded, and suffering in protected the firm and solid
consequence such exquisite mass beneath.
torture that they have Around 700 BC, the poet
earnestly prayed to be Hesiod’s Theogony offered the
deprived of their privilege of first written cosmogony, or
immortality. origin story, of Greek
mythology. The Theogony tells
the story of the universe’s
HISTORY:
journey from nothingness
The ancient Greeks had (Chaos, a primeval void) to
several different theories being, and details an elaborate
with regard to the origin of family tree of elements, gods
the world, but the generally and goddesses who evolved
accepted notion was that from Chaos and descended
before this world came into from Gaia (Earth), Ouranos
existence, there was in its (Sky), Pontos (Sea) and
place a confused mass of Tartaros (the Underworld).
shapeless elements called Later Greek writers and
Chaos. These elements artists used and elaborated
becoming at length upon these sources in their
consolidated (by what means own work. For instance,
does not appear), resolved mythological figures and
themselves into two widely events appear in the 5th-
different substances, the century plays of Aeschylus,
lighter portion of which, Sophocles and Euripides and

3
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
the lyric poems of Pindar. Hades, Hestia, Demeter and
Writers such as the 2nd- Hera. But Rhea hid the
century BC Greek newborn in a cave on Mount
mythographer Apollodorus of Dicte in Crete. (To this day,
Athens and the 1st-century the guides at the “cave of
BC Roman historian Gaius Zeus” use their flashlights to
Julius Hyginus compiled the cast shadow puppets in the
ancient myths and legends cave, creating images of baby
for contemporary audiences. Zeus from the myth.)
When he had grown up, Zeus
GREEK GODS AND
caused Cronus to vomit up his
GODDESSES sisters and brothers, and
these gods joined him in
ZEUS
fighting to wrest control of
(Zoose or the universe from the Titans
Zyoose; Roman and Cronus, their king.
name Jupiter) Having vanquished his father
was the supreme and the other Titans, Zeus
god of the imprisoned most of them in
Olympians. He was the father the underworld of Tartarus.
of the heroes Perseus and Then he and his brothers
Heracles, the latter of whom Poseidon and Hades divided
once wrestled him to a draw. up creation. Poseidon received
Zeus was the youngest the sea as his domain, Hades
son of the Titans Cronus and got the Underworld and Zeus
Rhea. When he was born, his took the sky. Zeus also was
father Cronus intended to accorded supreme authority
swallow him as he had all of on earth and on Mount
Zeus’s siblings: Poseidon, Olympus.

4
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
revolt. Her part in the revolt
HERA
was to drug Zeus, and in this
Hera is she was successful. The gods
Zeus wife and then bound the sleeping Zeus
sister. She was to a couch taking care to tie
raised by the many knots. This done they
Titans Ocean and Tethys. She began to quarrel over the next
is the protector of marriage step. Briareus overheard the
and takes special care of arguments. Still full of
married women. gratitude to Zeus, Briareus
Hera’s marriage was slipped in and was able to
founded in strife with Zeus quickly untie the many knots.
and continued in strife. Zeus Zeus sprang from the couch
courted her unsuccessfully. and gripped up his
He then turned to trickery, thunderbolt. The gods fell to
changing himself into their knees begging and
disheveled cuckoo. Hera pleading for mercy. He seized
feeling sorry for the bird held Hera and hung her from the
it to her breast to warm it. sky with gold chains. She wept
Zues then resumed his in pain all night but, none of
normal form and taking the others dared to interfere.
advantage of the surprise he Her weeping kept Zeus up and
gained, raped her. She then the next morning he agreed to
married him to cover her release her if she would swear
shame. never to rebel again. She had
Once when Zeus was being little choice but, to agree.
particularly overbearing to While she never again
the other gods, Hera rebelled, she often intrigued
convinced them to join in a against Zeus’s plans and she

5
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
was often able to outwit him. allow any of his subjects
Most stories concerning leave.
Hera have to do with her He is also the god of
jealous revenge for Zeus’s wealth, due to the precious
infidelities. Her sacred metals mined from the earth.
animals are the cow and the He has a helmet that makes
peacock. Her favorite city is him invisible. He rarely leaves
Argos the underworld. He is
unpitying and terrible, but
HADES not capricious. His wife is
Hades is Persephone whom Hades
the brother of abducted. He is the King of
Zeus. After the the dead but, death itself is
overthrow of another god, Thanatos.
their Father
Cronus he drew lots with One of the most popular
Zeus and Poseidon, another stories
brother, for shares of the
world. He had the worst draw CUPID AND PSYCHE
and was made lord of the
underworld, ruling over the
dead. He is a greedy god who
is greatly concerned with
increasing his subjects. Those
whose calling increase the
number of dead are seen
favorably. The Erinnyes are
welcomed guests. He is
exceedingly disinclined to

6
 CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
Once upon a time there
was a king with
daughters. They were
beautiful, but by far the most
beautiful was the youngest,
Psyche. She was so beautiful
that people began to neglect
the worship of
(Aphrodite), the goddess of
love and beauty. Venus was
very jealous, and asked her
son Cupid to make Psyche fall
in love with a horrible
monster. When he saw how
beautiful she was,
dropped the arrow meant for
her and pricked himself, and
fell in love with her.
Despite her great beauty
no-one wanted to
Psyche. Her
consulted an oracle, and were
told that she was destined to
marry a monster, and they
were to take her to the top of
a mountain and leave her
there. The west wind took her
and wafted her away to a
palace, where she was waited
invisible servants. When night
three came her new husband visited
all her, and told her that he
would always visit her by
night and she must never try
to see him.
Although her invisible
Venus husband was kind and gentle
with her, and the invisible
servants attended to her every
desire, Psyche grew homesick.
She persuaded her husband to
allow her sisters to visit her.
When they saw how she lived
Cupid they became very jealous and
talked Psyche into peeking at
her husband, saying that he
was a monster who was
fattening her up to be eaten
marry and that her only chance of
parents safety was to kill him. Psyche
took a lamp and a knife, but
when she saw her beautiful
husband, Cupid, she was so
surprised she dripped some
hot wax onto his shoulder,
waking him. He took in the
situation at a glance and
immediately left Psyche and
7
 CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
immediately left Psyche warned Psyche not to tempt a
and the magnificent palace flood and beware of the rams
she had been living in that destroy mortals. Instead,
disappeared in a puff of he advised Psyche to cross at
smoke. midday, when the waters were
Psyche roamed about looking calm and the sheep took
for her husband, and shelter in the shade and pick
eventually in desperation the wool off of the bushes and
approached his mother, trees.
Venus. Still angry, the For the next task, Venus
goddess set various tasks for handed Psyche a box and
Psyche. The first was to take instructed her to travel to the
a pile of wheat, barley, millet, underworld and collect beauty
vetches, beans, and lentils from Proserpine. Psyche
and separate them by decided to throw herself off a
evening. In despair, Psyche tower and let fate dictate her
was unable to start dividing path through the underworld.
the grains. An ant took pity But as she stood on the
in her and called over its tower's top, a voice from the
fellow ants and separated the tower told her of a safer way
pile for Psyche and then to travel to Hadis’s realm. It
disappeared before Venus also warned her to not open
returned. the box after collecting the
The next morning, Venus beauty. After successfully
demanded that Psyche cross a navigating through the
river and collect the golden underworld and collecting the
wool of the sheep grazing beauty, Psyche's curiosity got
there. When she reached the the best of her. As she opened
riverside, the river god the box, she was overcome by

8
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
a deep sleep. of didactic poetry
At last Cupid found out (instructive and moralizing
what was going on, he flew to poetry), and his writings
where Psyche lay and serve as a major source on
gathered the sleep from her Greek mythology
body and put it back into the (“Theogony”), farming
box. He then persuaded techniques, archaic Greek
Jupiter to order Venus to stop astronomy and ancient time-
her persecution of Psyche. keeping (“Works and Days”).
Then they were married and
lived happily ever after - and
BIOGRAPHY
it really was ever after since
Psyche was made a goddess. As with Homer, legendary
In due time, Psyche gave traditions have accumulated
birth to a daughter, Pleasure. around Hesiod, although we
do have at least some
biographical details from
references in his own works.
His father came from Cyme in
Aeolis, (modern day western
Turkey), but crossed the sea
to settle in a small village in
Boeotia at the foot of Mount
HESIOD Hesiod is often Helicon in Greece.
paired with his near Hesiod’s dates
contemporary Homer as one are uncertain, but leading
of the earliest Greek poets scholars generally agree that
whose work has survived. He he lived in the latter half of
is considered the creator the 8th Century BCE, probably

9
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE
ashortly after Homer. His
major works are thought to
have been written around 700
BCE. Different traditions
regarding Hesiod’s death have
him dying either in the
temple of Nemean Zeus at
Locris, murdered by the sons
of his host in Oeneon, or at
Orchomenus in Boeotia.

SUMMARY/
CONCLUSION:

The concepts of good

versus evil, anxiety, vanity,
greed, love and fear were all
as prominent then as they are
now. These myths carry great
lessons on how to look at life
because they are based on
things that most of us can
relate to in everyday lif

10
CHAPTER 1
GREEK LITERATURE

ACTIVITY:

11
 2

CHINESE
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: writers and their illustrious
followers throughout history,
Chinese literature is one with the Confucian Classics
of the world's oldest and early philosophers
civilizations, with a serving as ideal models.
continuous history spanning Individual writers'
more than 3,000 years, approaches may differ, but
beginning in the 14th century the language is always a long
BCE. Fiction, philosophical way from their native
and religious works, poetry, tongues. However, the Chinese
and scientific literature are literature become complex
among the Chinese literary due to the long span of time
works. It is also said that and the big number of writers
Chinese literature is among who lived in different eras
the most imaginative and and locations.
interesting in the world.
HISTORY:
The Chinese prose China and its long
literature has been divided history goes hand in hand
into two streams for at least with its rich literary tradition.
the last 1,000 years, The Zhou dynasty (1030-221
separated by a gap much BC) saw some of the earliest
bigger than that which exists forms of literature, and it was
between folk melodies and during this time that the
so-called literary poems. writings of Confucius and Lao
Classical or literary writing Tzu were penned, from which
(guwen, or wenyan) aspires the philosophies of
to the norms and styles Confucianism and Taoism
established by ancient arose. Prose poetry flourished

13
 CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
under the Han dynasty (202 were contemporaries and who
BC-AD 220), and the Tang both traveled widely in China
dynasty of the seventh- often come up on top. Both of
through tenth-centuries them lived in Chang An that
marked the golden age of was the capital of the Tang
Chinese literature. The novel Dynasty. Both of them also
arose during the Song experienced the An Lu Shan
dynasty (960-1279), and the Rebellion that started in 755.
following centuries saw the Tang Dynasty poets are
publication of the “four great usually considered the best.
classical novels.” The Tang Dynasty poetry was
twentieth century brought simpler and about common
about the rapid things like love, romance and
modernization of China and nature that people appreciate.
its literature, though Along with Du Fu and Li Bai,
censorship during the another famous ancient poet
Cultural Revolution and is Su Shi of the Song Dynasty.
under communist rule has
DU FU
threatened to halt this (712-770)
transformation.
Du Fu
EXEMPLARY POETS: liked to write
in a structured
It is thought that the form of poetry
greatest ancient poets lived that was called Lu Shi 律詩 or
in the Tang, Song, and Han regulated poetry. When he
eras. If the greatest Chinese was a kid, he loved to read. "I
poets are named, Dufu and Li read ten thousand volumes
Bai of the Tang Dynasty who until they were worn out,"

14
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
he said. Perhaps one of the Behind redden doors stink
reasons people like his poems wine and meat;
is because he wrote about the But upon the road die frozen
people and places he visited. men.
After the An Lu Shan
Rebellion, he is thought to LI BAI
have lived in a thatched (701-762)
cottage near Chengdu in
Sichuan. Li Bai liked to
He is thought of as one write in a free
of the greatest realist poets of form poetry
China. His poems reflect the like that of more ancient
hard realities of war, people times. This kind of poetry was
dying next to rich rulers, and called Gu Shi ( 古詩 ). Like Du
primitive rural life. He was Fu, he traveled widely and
an official in the Tang capital lived in both Chang An far to
of Chang An, and he was the north and Sichuan in the
captured when the capital southwest. He also wrote
was attacked. It is thought about places he visited and
that he lived in a simple hut things he saw. He is described
near the end of his life where as a romantic poet.
he wrote many of his best
realist poems. Perhaps more SU TUNGPO
(1037-1101)
than 1,400 of his poems
survive, and his poetry is still Su Tungpo is also
read and appreciated by called Su Shi. He is
modern Chinese people. regarded as a great
poet of the Northern Song era
Here is a famous couplet: (960-1127). More than 2,000

15
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
of his poems survive. He was
an official in the Song court,
and he passed the
bureaucratic qualifying exam
with high honors. Because of
political problems, he was
banished and lived on a farm.
It is thought that many of his
best poems were written
when he was banished. Here
is a stanza he wrote:
The moon rounds the red
mansion
Stoops to silk-pad doors
Shines upon the sleepless
Bearing no grudge
Why does the moon tend to
be full when people are apart?
WORKS:
THE FOUR CLASSIC
NOVELS OF CHINESE
LITERATURE
The greatest prose master
of the Tang was Han Yu (l.
768-824 CE), considered 'the
Shakespeare of China', whose
style influenced every writer
who came after him. Han Yu is
known as an essayist who
advocated Confucian values
and so is also regarded highly
as a philosophical writer.
Shen Kuo (l. 1031-1095 CE)
was a polymath of the Sung
Dynasty (960-1234 CE), whose
writings on scientific subjects
were extremely influential.
Between the 14th-18th
centuries CE literary fiction
reached its heights through
the Four Great Classic Novels
of China: Romance of the
Three Kingdoms by Luo
Guanzhong (l. 1280-1360 CE),
Water Margin by Shi Nai'an
16
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
(l. 1296-1372 CE), Journey to Tale of the Marshes, All Men
the West by Wu Cheng'en (l. Are Brothers, Men of the
1500-1582 CE), and Dream of Marshes, or The Marshes of
Red Mansions by Cao Xueqin Mount Liang, and whilst
(1715-1764 CE). Of these four, doubts persist over the
Dream of Red Mansions identity of the author, most
isconsidered the greatest attribute it to Shi Nai’an, a
literary masterpiece in writer from Suzhou. The novel
Chinese writing because of its is set in the Song dynasty and
style, theme, and scope. It depicts a group of outlaws
was published in 1791 CE and who eventually go on to serve
has remained a best-seller in the Emperor in battling
China ever since. foreign invaders. It was based
on the real life story of the
WATER MARGIN outlaw Song Jiang, who was
defeated by the Emperor in
the 12th century, and whose
gang of 36 outlaws came to
populate folk tales throughout
China.
These folk tales generated
a mythology around Song
Published in the 14th Jiang which led to various
century, Water Margin was dramatic adaptations and
the first of the four classical printed retellings. These
novels to be released, and precursors would all go on to
introduced the vernacular inform Water Margin, which
form and style which the condensed and synthesized
others would adhere to. The the various tales which had

17
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
the Song Jiang story. Some Perhaps the most
have attributed Water influential of the four classic
Margin’s success to its ironic novels of Chinese literature,
representation of common and certainly the most widely
grievances against the ruling known beyond China’s
classes. Its depiction of borders, Journey to the West
outlaw’s rebellion tapped was written in the 16th
into resentments held by century by Wu Cheng’en. It
many during the Ming depicts the pilgrimage of the
dynasty, and the novel was Buddhist monk Xuanzang to
indeed banned for a period India, and his resultant
for its potential for travels through the Western
promoting sedition. The provinces of China,
novel has gone on to be the accompanied by his three
subject of numerous modern disciples. Whilst the
adaptations, and has framework of the story is
continued contemporary based on Buddhism, the novel
relevance in its prototypical draws on a host of Chinese
tale of rebellion, repression folk tales and mythology, as
and subservience. well as pantheism and Taoism
to create its fantastical cast of
J O U R N E Y T O T H E W E S T characters and creatures.
These creatures include
various demons who
Xuanzang encounters along
his travels, and a variety of
animal-spirits who assume
human form. This latter
category includes the three

18
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
disciples, who are reflection of its paradigmatic
characterized as a monkey, a qualities, as with the Greek
pig and a river ogre, and who myths of Homer, it set down
are bound to Xuanzang as the ancient myths of Chinese
they attempt to atone for culture for the first time, and
their past sins. An early and remains a repository for those
partial English translation of myths even today.
Journey to the West by
Arthur Waley was entitled ROMANCE OF THE
THREE KINGDOMS
Monkey and focused on the
exploits of this character,
which has also been the case
with many subsequent
adaptations. Journey to the
West was an early example of
the Shenmo genre, which
incorporated a range of
fantastical fiction focusing on A historical novel which
the exploits of gods or recounts the political intrigue
demons, and was very and deceit within the Three
prominent in the rise of Kingdoms period of Chinese
vernacular Chinese literature history, Romance of the Three
during the Ming dynasty, as Kingdoms combined history,
the centuries old folk tales legend and mythology to tell
were written and the tumultuous story of this
disseminated for the first era. This epic tale was written
time. Journey to the West was by Luo Guanzhong and
the most famous example of incorporates hundreds of
the Shenmo, and remains is a characters, weaving a

19
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
multitude of complicated density, can make reading
plotlines in its portrayal of Romance of the Three
the disintegration of a Kingdoms a challenge.
unified China into three However it remains a
warring kingdoms, the three uniquely potent work, which
states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, informs Chinese political
and Eastern Wu, and their consciousness event today in a
eventual reconciliation and way that rivals Shakespeare’s
unification. Romance of the place in English self-identity.
Three Kingdoms remains
hugely popular in China, and DREAM OF THE RED
has had a profound influence CHAMBER
on national identity, since it
dramatizes one of the
foundational myths of the
nation; that of its
disintegration and
unification.
The belief in the cyclical
nature of history is expressed Written in the mid-18th
succinctly in the opening line century during the Qing
of the novel: ‘It is a general dynasty, Dream of the Red
truism of this world that Chamber was the last of the
anything long divided will four great novels of Chinese
surely unite, and anything literature to gain prominence.
long united will surely It is a semi-autobiographical
divide’. The complexity of the work which focuses on the
political world it depicts, as financial and moral decay of
well as its epic length author Cao Xueqin’s family
and
20
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
and by extension the Qing in China.
dynasty. Recognized for its
formal beauty and
LITERATURE
innovation, Dream of the Red
Chamber has spawned a AFTER 1976:
scholarly field of its own,
With the death of Mao
‘Redology’, which is still a
Zedong in 1976 came the
thriving academic subject in
official end of the Cultural
China. The novel is markedly
Revolution period, and with it
more nuanced and precise
increased freedom for writers.
than its fellow classics, and it
During the subsequent
offers an incredibly detailed
decade, Chinese fiction tended
rendering of the life of 18th
to fall into the following five
century Chinese aristocracy,
(necessarily overlapping)
paying particular attention to
categories
the complexities of social
conventions in this esoteric
1. LITERATURE OF THE
world. The novel is thus a
WOUNDED
repository for those
interested in Chinese culture, The
granting readers an insight initial
into the religious, social and impulse
political world of upper class of
China. It also offers insight writers
into a wide variety of aspects was to begin, tentatively at
of Chinese culture, from first, to express the profound
medicine to mythology and suffering of the previous
art, all of which continue to decades. Chen Roxi's stories in
inform contemporary culture The Execution of Mayor Yin

21
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
Other Stories offer an reconciliation with her
example of very well-crafted mother, whom she had been
fiction which reveals the forced to denounce during the
physical, psychological and Cultural Revolution. An open-
spiritual pain the Chinese minded class advisor
people endured under Mao. recognizes that there is still
But finally, Chen Roxi must hope for the generation of
be considered a foreigner, youth who suffered at the
though she is Chinese and she hands of the Gang of Four. For
lived in China during the several years, story after story
Cultural Revolution era. poured out the guilt, regret,
Within China, the and pain over lost lives and
"literature of the wounded" ruined careers, betrayal of
movement began in the friends and family members,
summer of 1977 when Lu and the need to seek
Xinhua, a 23-year-old student restitution. Within the
at Fudan University, "wounded" tradition, though
presented a story entitled not literature per se, a
"The Wounded" as a big- number of Chinese have
character poster on the walls written accounts of this tragic
of the campus. The story was period for Western audiences.
soon published, and it
inspired hundreds of others.
2. HUMANISTIC
Another one which became L I T E R A T U R E
equally famous was Liu
Xinwu's "Class Counselor," A related literary trend which
published in November 1977. began in the late 970s and
In Liu's story, the young girl early 1980s was fiction which
fails to achieve a treated the problems of

22
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
problems of recreating the darker side of Chinese society,
whole person after the many writers composed works
constricting movements of which addressed post-Cultural
the Cultural Revolution. A Revolution social problems:
large number of women alienated youth, the
writers predominate in this loneliness of the elderly and
category. the divorced, the housing
Since personal feelings shortage, government
were supposed to be corruption, dissatisfaction
subordinate to political with the system of job
action during the Cultural assignments, etc. In a bold
Revolution, writers who social indictment, Bai Hua in
reacted in the opposite his screenplay, "Unrequited
direction after the death of Love," has the protagonist's
Mao used the rally cry, "Love daughter ask the fundamental
Must Not Be Forgotten" — question: "Dad, you love our
the title of one of Zhang Jie's country. Through bitter
short stories advocating frustration you go on loving
marriage based only on love her . . . But, Dad, does this
and private desire. country love you?" This script
first appeared in 1979, and by
1980 it was banned.
3. SOCIAL CRITICISM

Finally 4. SEEKING ROOTS

allowed
once again Some writers,
to treat in especially those
fiction who live outside
the the main cities,

23
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
have turned to local themes is Liu Binyan, whose "People
and subject matter in their or Monsters?" was acclaimed
recent fiction. For example, for its unflinching honesty in
Lu Wenfu describes the confronting deeply rooted
customs of the Suzhou region government corruption.
and Gao Xiaosheng depicts In a different tone,
agricultural life in his native Chinese Profiles, compiled by
Hunan province. These Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye,
people are seeking a meaning presents interviews with 100
in life separate from political Chinese citizens who tell
movements and urban about their lives in a way
upward mobility. similar to people interviewed
by Studs Terkel. Their stories
are poignant and surprising as
5. REPORTAGE
individual accounts. They
Some writers feel that illuminate the rich social
the most fabric of China and indirectly
important point out major social and
contribution political issues implicit in the
they can make individual accounts.
is to record
the facts of SUMMARY/
Chinese life in a way that CONCLUSION:
illuminates both the
problems and strengths of As time goes by, Chinese
the Chinese people. The most Literature is still being
famous journalist who recognize around the world.
exposes corruption in his People appreciate its literature
sophisticated reporting style due to the moral lesson that

24
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
they wrote on their time. We
learned that each literature is
important for its culture.
They become the symbol of
what are people before and
how they applied it into now.
Like what said by Confucius,
"Never do to others what you
would not like them to do to
you." This quote or motto is
still being recognized today
as I reminder that people
should not for something that
they do not want to
experience by themselves. It
is a lesson the we, my group
would not forget as we grow
old. That shows the impact of
the Chinese Literature made
to us.

25
CHAPTER 2
CHINESE LITERATURE
WORD SEARCH GAME

DIRECTION: Find the words that are

connected to Chinese Literature. Goodluck!

26
 3

ENGLISH
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: HISTORY:

English literature is the OLD ENGLISH

literature in the English (ANGLO-SAXON)
language, including literature
PERIOD (450-1066)
composed in English by
writers no necessarily from The Old English language
England; Joseph Conrad was or Anglo-Saxon is the earliest
born in Poland, Robert Burns form of English. The period is
was Scottish, James Joyce was a long one and it is generally
Irish, Dylan Thomas was considered that Old English
Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was was spoken from about A.D.
American, V.S. Naipaul was 600 to about 1100. Many of the
born in Trinidad, Vladimir poems of the period are
Nabokov was Russian. In pagan, in particular Widsith
other words, English is as and Beowulf.
diverse as the varieties and
BEOWULF
dialects of English spoken
around the world. In The
academia, the term often greatest English
labels departments and poem, Beowulf
programs practicing English is the first
studies in secondary and English epic.
tertiary educational systems. The author of Beowulf is
Despite the variety of anonymous. It is a story of a
authors, the works of William brave young man Beowulf in
Shakespeare remain 3182 lines. In this epic poem,
paramount throughout the Beowulf sails to Denmark
English-speaking world. with a band of warriors to

28
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
save the King of Denmark,
Hrothgar. Beowulf saves WIDSITH
Danish King Hrothgar from a
terrible monster called The Old
Grendel. The mother of English
Grendel who sought language or
vengeance for the death of Anglo-Saxon
her son was also killed by is the earliest form of English.
Beowulf. Beowulf was The period is a long one and it
rewarded and became King. is generally considered that
After a prosperous reign of Old English was spoken from
some forty years, Beowulf about A.D. 600 to about 1100.
slays a dragon but in the Many of the poems of the
fight he himself receives a period are pagan, in
mortal wound and dies. The particular Widsith and
poem concludes with the Beowulf.
funeral ceremonies in honour
of the dead hero. Though the MIDDLE ENGLISH
poem Beowulf is little PERIOD (1066-1500)
interesting to contemporary
In the 12th century, a
readers, it is a very important
new form of English now
poem in the Old English
known as Middle English
period because it gives an
evolved. This is the earliest
interesting picture of the life
form of English literature
and practices of old days.
which is comprehensible to
modern readers and listeners,
albeit not easily. Middle
English lasts up until the

29
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
1470s, when the Chancery English Literature:
Standard, a form of London- Religious,Courtly love, and
based English, became Arthurian. William Langland's
widespread and the printing Piers Plowman is considered
press regularized the by many critics to be one of
language. Middle English the early great works of
Bible translations, notably English literature along with
Wyclif's Bible, helped to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
establish English as a literary and Sir Gawain and the Green
language. Knight (most likely by the
There are three main Pearl Poet) during the Middle
categories of Middle English Ages. It is also the first
Literature: Religious, Courtly allusion to a literary tradition
love, and Arthurian. William of the legendary English
Langland's Piers Plowman is archer, swordsman, and
considered by many critics to outlaw Robin Hood.
be one of the early great
works of English literature GEOFFREY
along with Chaucer's CHAUCER
Canterbury Tales and Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight The most
(most likely by the Pearl significant
Poet) during the Middle Ages. Middle
It is also the first allusion to English author was Geoffrey
a literary tradition of the Chaucer who was active in the
legendary English archer, late 14th century. Often
swordsman, and outlaw regarded as the father of
Robin Hood.There are three English literature, Chaucer is
main categories of Middle widely credited as the first

30
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
author to demonstrate
thartistic legitimacy of the
vernacular English language,
rather than French or Latin.
The Canterbury Tales was
Chaucer's magnum opus, and
a towering achievement of
Western culture. The first
recorded association
Valentine's Day
romantic love is in Chaucer's
Parlement of Foules 1382.
Poet Geoffrey Chaucer
was born circa 1340
London, England. In 1357 he
became a public servant to
Countess Elizabeth of Ulster
and continued in
capacity with the British
court throughout his lifetime.
The Canterbury Tales became
his best known and most
acclaimed work. He died in
1400 and was the first to be
buried in Westminster
Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.
Chaucer’s first major
work was ‘The Book of the
Duchess’, an elegy for the
first wife of his patron John of
Gaunt. Other works include
‘Parlement of Foules’, ‘The
Legend of Good Women’ and
‘Troilus and Criseyde’. In 1387,
he began his most famous
work, ‘The Canterbury Tales’,
in which a diverse group of
of people recount stories to pass
with the time on a pilgrimage to
Canterbury.
CHAUCER’S LITERARY
in WORK
THE
LEGEND
OF GOOD
that WOMEN
The Legend of Good
Women is a poem in the form
of a dream vision by Geoffrey
Chaucer during the fourteenth
century.
The poem is the third
longest of Chaucer's works,
after The Canterbury Tales
and Troilus and Criseyde, and
31
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
is possibly the first PERIODS IN THE
significant work in English to DEVELOPMENT OF THE
use the iambic pentameter or DRAMA:
decasyllabic couplets which
he later used throughout The A. MIRACLE PLAYS
Canterbury Tales. This form
of the heroic couplet would The drama
become a significant part of was the
English literature possibly most popular
inspired by Chaucer. literary form
of the
Some lines of the poem renaissance. It expressed the
“TheLegend of Good manifold life of the
Women” Elizabethan stage. Its chief
glory is Shakespeare. The
The double sorwe of Troilus religious drama in England in
to tellen, England did not reach its
That was the king Priamus height till the fourteenth
sone of Troye, century. At the festival of
In lovinge, how his aventures Corpus Christi, in early
fellen summer, miracle plays were
Fro wo to wele, and after out represented in all large towns.
of Ioye, Arranged to exhibit the whole
My purpos is, er that I parte history of the fall of man and
fro ye. his redemption, these Corpus
Thesiphone, thou help me for Christi plays, or ‘collective
tendyte mysteries’ were apportioned
Thise woful vers, that wepen among the Trading Guilds of
as I wryte the different towns.

32
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
B. MORALITY PLAYS RENAISSANCE
AND INTERLUDES PERIOD
Miracle Plays dealt with
(1500-1660)
the teachings of Church,
theological or devotional. To The English Renaissance
complete this teaching there was a cultural and artistic
was needed some exposition movement in England dating
of the ethical side of from the early 16th century to
religion. It deals with the early 17th century. It is
matters of conduct. By associated with the pan-
means of personifications European Renaissance that
the morality plays attempted many cultural historians
to represent the conflict believe originated in northern
between sin and Italy in the fourteenth
righteousness. One of the century. This era in English
most impressive morality cultural history is sometimes
play is Everyman. The referred to as "the age of
interlude is a new form of Shakespeare" or "the
drama of the 16th century. Elizabethan era."
John Heywood was the most
popular author in this genre. EARLY MODERN PERIOD
His Four P’s is one of the
ELIZABETHAN ERA
best example.

C. COMEDY AND
TRAGEDY
Nicholas Udall’s Ralph
Roister Doister is the
first

33
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
This era was the period Later, they gave a different
of new ideas and new style to the sonnets. It was
thinking. Various other being changed by
works like fine arts endured Shakespeare. He divided the
support and assistance from Sonnet into 3 quatrains
the Queen. Due to the summed by a couplet.
Queen’s support and patron, Shakespeare, in his career,
the works of that time came wrote 154 sonnets. He
to be known as ‘Elizabethan’. dedicated 126 of them to a
This period is generally young man and the others to a
regarded as the greatest in woman.
the history of English Even though this age produced
literature. The age saw a a lot of prose works,
great flourishment in essentially it was an age of
literature. The poetries and poetry. Moreover, the theatre
dramas were prospered became central to the
more, in particular. Three Elizabethan era. During that
most important and era, drama shifted from
remarkable writers of that religious to secular.
period are William The first English comedy was
Shakespeare, Christopher ‘Gammer Gurton’s Needle’ and
Marlowe, and Ben Jonson. the first tragedy was
There were three types ‘Gorboduc’. They came in this
of Sonnet – Shakespearean period. One of the biggest
Sonnet, Petrarchan Sonnet, comedy plays written at that
and Spenserian Sonnet. Sir time was ‘Every Man in his
Wyatt brought Sonnet from Humour’.
Italy which was later
popularized in England.

34
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
JACOBIAN LITERATURE Secondly, there was the
(1603-1625) wide popularity of
metaphysical poetry. The term
‘metaphysical poetry’ was
coined by Samuel Johnson.
This type of poetry is witty
and ingenious. They are also
highly philosophical. Some of
the topics on which
Jacobian Era comes just metaphysical poems are
after the Elizabethan era. The written are love, existence, life
two primary contribution of etc. Simile, metaphors,
this age in English literature imagery and other literary
is the Revenge play and elements are used in writing
Metaphysical poetry. Revenge these poems.
play signifies the plays where One of the greatest
the victim is retaliated or lyricists of that era was John
avenged. These type of plays Donne. He was famous for his
often results in the death of unconventional and
both the murderer and the metaphysical style of poetry.
avenger. These types of plays He wrote short sonnets and
were extremely popular love poems. Two of his most
during the Elizabethan and popular poems are – The Sun
the Jacobean era. Some of the Rising and The Canonization.
best writers of plays of this
kind are Thomas Kyd,
Shakespeare etc.

35
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
CAROLINE AND forgotten. The period also saw
CROMWELLIAN a flourishing of news books,
LITERATURE (1625- the precursors to the British
1649) newspaper, with journalists
The turbulent years of such as Henry Muddiman,
the mid-17th century, during Marchamont Needham, and
the reign of Charles I and the John Birkenhead representing
subsequent Commonwealth the views and activities of the
and Protectorate, saw a contending parties. The
flourishing of political frequent arrests of authors
literature in English. and the suppression of their
Pamphlets written by works, with the consequence
sympathizers of every faction of foreign or underground
in the English civil war ran printing, led to the proposal of
from vicious personal attacks a licensing system. The
and polemics, through many Areopagitica, a political
forms of propaganda, to high- pamphlet by John Milton, was
minded schemes to reform written in opposition to
the nation. Of the latter type, licensing and is regarded as
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes one of the most eloquent
would prove to be one of the defenses of press freedom ever
most important works of written.
British political philosophy.
Hobbes's writings are some of NEO-CLASSICAL
the few political works from PERIOD (1660-1789)
the era which are still
regularly published while Neo-classical words came
John Bramhall, who was from two words Neo and
Hobbes's chief critic, is Classical. Neo implies “new”
largely
36
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
and classical implies “Roman in rules that often resulted in
and Greek Classicals”. This era immoral and indecent plays.
is also known as the era of
enlightenment. People in
JOHN DRYDEN
England would meet at the
(1631-1700)
coffee house and talk about
productive things. It started Dryden is the
the British tradition of greatest literary
‘afternoon tea’. Popular types figure of the Restoration. In
of literature include parody, his works, we have an
letters, essays, and satire. excellent reflection of both the
good and the bad tendencies
This age is divided into of the age in which he lived.
three parts: Before the Restoration,
1. Restoration Period Dryden supported Oliver
2. Augustan Literature Cromwell. At the Restoration,
3. Age of Sensibility Dryden changed his views and
became loyal to Charles II. His
poem Astrea Redux (1660)
1. RESTORATION
celebrated Charles II’s return.
PERIOD (1660-1700)

The Restoration of Charles

2. AUGUSTAN
II (1660) brought about a
LITERATURE
revolution in English
literature. With the collapse of The Augustan age was a
the Puritan Government there Roman Empire age. King
sprang up activities that had Augustus was the emperor of
been so long suppressed. The that time. Some of the most
Restoration encouraged levity famous Augustan writers are

37
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
Virgil, Horace etc. Major poets Alexander Pope was the
of that age are Pope and biggest name of this period.
Dryden. And on the other He basically wrote on
hand, Jonathan Swift was harmony. The heroic couplet
famous for his prose works. is famous in his poems. One of
This age is also known as his famous work is The
classical age. The first half of Canterbury Tales.
the 18th century was marked
by the preparation of
ALEXANDR
Industrial revolution. The
POPE
main social classes were
merchants, landowners, and Alexander
manufacturers. The condition Pope was the
of women was not undisputed
satisfactory. Sexual master of both prose and
harassment, abduction of verse. Pope wrote many poems
women, forced marriage took and mock-epics attacking his
place in the period. The rival poets and social
politicians were corrupt too. condition of England. His
This is the age of material Dunciad is an attack on
greed. dullness. He wrote An Essay
John Dryden lived between on Criticism (1711) in heroic
the Restoration and Augustan couplets. In 1712, Pope
age. He wrote various published The Rape of the
comedies. But the attribute for Lock, one of the most brilliant
which he was highly admired poems in English language. It
was his verse satires. His is a mock-heroic poem dealing
followers and other small with the fight of two noble
poets valued this writing style. families.

38
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
An Essay on Man, Of the NEOCLASSIC
Characters of Women, and the NOTED AUTHORS:
translation of Illiad and
Odyssey are his other major 1. JOHN MILTON
works. (PARADISE LOST)

3. AGE OF
SENSIBILITY (1750
-1798)
During the Age of
Sensibility, literature reflected
the worldview of the Age of
Enlightenment (or Age of
Reason) – a rational and Milton's speaker begins
scientific approach to Paradise Lost by stating that
religious, social, political, and his subject will be Adam and
economic issues that Eve's disobedience and fall
promoted a secular view of the from grace. He invokes a
world and a general sense of heavenly muse and asks for
progress and perfectibility. help in relating his ambitious
Led by the philosophers who story and God's plan for
were inspired by the humankind.
discoveries of the previous
century (Newton) and the
writings of Descartes, Locke
and Bacon.

39
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
2. ALEXANDER POPE 19TH CENTURY
(EASY ON MAN)
LITERATURE
(1799-1900)
The 19th-century literature is
merged with three ages. They
are:
1. ·Romanticism (1798-1837)
2. ·Victorian Age (1837-1901)
3. ·Edwardian Age (1901-1910)
An Essay on Man,
philosophical essay written 1. ROMANTICISM
in heroic couplets of iambic (1798-1837)
pentameter by Alexander The main stream of
Pope, published in 1733–34. It poetry in the eighteenth
was conceived as part of a century had been orderly and
larger work that Pope never polished, without much
completed. feeling for nature. The
An Essay on Man describes publication of the first edition
the order of the universe in of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798
terms of a hierarchy, or came as a shock. The
chain, of being. By virtue of publication of Lyrical Ballads
their ability to reason, by William Wordsworth and
humans are placed above Samuel Taylor Coleridge was
animals and plants in this the beginning of the romantic
hierarchy. age. They together with
Southey are known as the
Lake Poets, because they liked
the Lake district in England

40
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
and lived in it. Samuel Tylor Coleridge
(1772-1814) wrote four poems
WILLIAM
for The Lyrical Ballads. The
WORDSWORTH
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
is the most noteworthy. Kubla
Khan, Christabel, Dejection an
Ode, Frost at Midnight etc. are
other important poems.
Biographia Literaria is his
William Wordsworth most valuable prose work.
((1770-1850) was the poet of Coleridge’s lectures on
nature. In the preface to the Shakespeare are equally
second edition of the Lyrical important.
Ballads, Wordsworth set out
his theory of poetry. He 2. VICTORIAN AGE
defined poetry as “the (1837-1901)
spontaneous overflow of It was in the Victorian
powerful feelings and era (1837–1901) that the novel
emotions”. His views on became the leading form of
poetical style are the most literature in English. Most
revolutionary. writers were now more
concerned to meet the tastes

SAMUEL of a large middle class reading

TYLOR COLERIDGE public than to please
aristocratic patrons. The best
known works of the era
include the emotionally
powerful works of the Brontë
sisters; the satire Vanity Fair

41
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
by William Makepeace CHARLES DICKENS
Thackeray; the realist novels
of George Eliot; and Anthony
Trollope's insightful
portrayals of the lives of the
landowning and professional
classes.It was in the
Victorian era (1837–1901)
that the novel became the Charles Dickens (1812-
leading form of literature in 1870) is considered as one of
English. Most writers were the greatest English novelists.
now more concerned to meet Dickens has contributed some
the tastes of a large middle evergreen characters to
class reading public than to English literature. He was a
please aristocratic patrons. busy successful novelist
The best known works of the during his lifetime. The
era include the emotionally Pickwick Papers and Sketches
powerful works of the Brontë by Boz are two early novels.
sisters; the satire Vanity Fair Oliver Twist, Nicholas
by William Makepeace Nickleby , David Copperfield,
Thackeray; the realist novels Hard Times, A Tale of Two
of George Eliot; and Anthony Cities and Great Expectations
Trollope's insightful are some of the most famous
portrayals of the lives of the novels of Charles Dickens. No
landowning and professional English novelists excel
classes. Dickens in the multiplicity of
his characters and situations.
He creates a whole world
people for the readers. He

42
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
3. EDWARDIAN AGE truth. The movement was

The Edwardian era or greatly influenced by the ideas

Edwardian period of British of Romanticism, Karl Marx's
history spanned the reign of political writings, and the
King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910, psychoanalytic theories of
and is sometimes expanded to subconscious - Sigmund

the start of the First World Freud. The continental art

War. The death ofQueen movements of Impressionism,

Victoria in January 1901 and later Cubism, were also

marked the end of the important inspirations for

Victorian era. modernist writers.

ENGLISH 2. POST-MODERN
LITERATURE SINCE LITERATURE

1901 The term Postmodern

literature is used to describe
This literature is composed of
certain tendencies in post-
two parts:
World War II literature. It is
Modernism
both a continuation of the
Post-modernism
experimentation championed
by writers of the modernist
1. MODERNISM period (relying heavily, for
The movement known as example, on fragmentation,
English literary modernism paradox, questionable
grew out of a general sense of narrators, etc.) and a reaction
disillusionment with Victorian against Enlightenment ideas
era attitudes of certainty, implicit in Modernist
conservatism, and objective literature. Postmodern

43
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
3. EDWARDIAN AGE creativity. Prose fiction,
literature, like post- short stories, theater, novels,
modernism, is difficult to and poetry are examples of
define and there is little English literature.
agreement on the exact
characteristics, scope, and
importance of postmodern
literature. Henry Miller,
William S. Burroughs, Joseph
Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter
S. Thompson, Truman Capote,
Thomas Pynchon.

SUMMARY/
CONCLUSION:

This history of English

literature discusses the
origins of works and literary
styles across time. The history
of English literature begins
with the Anglo-Saxon settlers'
Germanic tradition. English
literature has been around for
a hundred years and is the
most popular among the
literatures around the world.
English literature offers a
world of inspiration and

44
CHAPTER 3
ENGLISH LITERATURE
ACTIVITY:

FIND THE FOLLOWING WORDS:

45
 4

ARABIAN
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: and the compiling of stories
about Mohammed and his
Arabian Literature is companions
rich and varied, mostly made The Prophet Muhammad
of Poems, anecdotes, tales or disseminated the Koran in a
romances, historical accounts piece meal and gradual
and philosophies. Arabs manner from AD. 610 to 632,
possessed a highly develop the year in which he passed
poetry transmitted orally away.
from generation to Qurʾān, (Arabic:
generation. “Recitation”) also spelled
A major poetic form of Quran and Koran, the sacred
this time is Qasidahs or scripture of Islam. According
elaborated odes. It reflects to conventional Islamic belief,
and praise the customs and the Qurʾān was revealed by
values of the desert the angel Gabriel to the
environment which they Prophet Muhammad in the
arose. West Arabian towns Mecca
and Medina beginning in 610
THE THREE PERIODS
and ending with Muhammad’s
OF WRITTEN ARABIC death in 632 CE.
LITERATURE: The evidence indicates
that he recited the text and
UMAYYAD PERIOD (A.D. scribes wrote down what they
661 -750) heard. Some of the Prophet's
Arabic prose was associates set out to collect
limited primarily to into single volumes all the
grammatical treatises, "suras" (chapters) that had
commentaries on the Koran been disseminated in this

47
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
fashion. This endeavor of many languages of the
yielded a number of versions Indian subcontinent and
of the scripture belonging to Turkey.
different "Companions" of the
ABBASID PERIOD (A.D. 750
Prophet, versions which
-1258)
today we call "Companion
codices". Shortly after the Regarded as the “Greatest
Prophet's death, different Period of Development and
Companion codices became Achievement
popular in different parts of Arabian Nights or The
the Muslim lands. Thousand and One Nights,
contains inventive type of folk
GHAZALS literature, which based on the
recitation of rawis.
Or love lyric, wine songs A Thousand and One
and hunting poems rose Nights: Arabian Story-telling
during this period. These in World Literature. An
describes the conditions and unparalleled monument to the
manners found in places ageless art of story-telling, the
conquered by Islam. tales of the One Thousand and
Ø The ghazal form is ancient, One Nights have, for many
tracing its origins to 7th- centuries, titillated the
century Arabic poetry. The imaginations of generations
ghazal spread into South Asia the world over. Perhaps one of
in the 12th century due to the the greatest Arabic, Middle
influence of Sufi mystics and Eastern, and Islamic
the courts of the new Islamic contributions to world
Sultanate, and is now most literature, the many stories of
prominently a form of poetry the Arabian Nights, (or Alf

48
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
Laylah wa-Laylah as it c1st century, the Arab reative
isyielded a number of writer operated at a local level
versions of the scripture within a social environment
belonging to different that, more often than not,
"Companions" of the Prophet, constrained freedom of
versions which today we call expression and indeed
"Companion codices". Shortly subjected literature to strict
after the Prophet's death, forms of censorship. Many
different Companion codices prominent Arab authors spent
became popular in different large segments of their life in
parts of the Muslim lands. exile from their homelands
for political reasons.
MODERN PERIOD 19TH
(CENTURY -PRESENT) CLASSIC POETS:
Arabic Literature Imru’ al-Qais bin Hujr
declined during the Ottoman al-Kindi, al-Muhalhil Adi ibn
Turkish domination, however Rabia’, Tarafah ibn al-ʿAbd
the Renaissance Period took and Ka'b ibn Zuhayr,
place, so then Arabs revived oftentimes considered the
their classical genres and father of Arabic poetry. They
they came into contact to are the notable pioneers of
Western Literature and the first classical phase.
Civilization.
Century witnessed
the real birth of modern IMRU'
Arabic Literature. Short story AL-QAIS
and Novel came to being in (501-565)
this period. At the turn of the

49
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
His masterpiece is the verses are full of fine
Mu'allaqa, an ode so revered metaphors about loss, life,
that it is written in gold on love and departure
sheets of paper which are
then hung on the walls of the ABU
Kaabah in Mecca, Islam’s NUWAS
most revered shrine (its (756-814)
name translates as "hung
ode").
The reputation of Abu
Nuwas in the Arab world is

AL- built on his adoration of wine

KHANSA and as the poet of gay love.
(575-645)

Tamadir bint Amr, AL-

better known as al-Khansa, is MUTANABBI
one of the Arab world's (915-965)
famous female poets,
converting to Islam during The life of Al-
the lifetime of the Prophet Mutanabbi is perhaps best
Mohammed. described as an epic journey
Her masterpiece is her to glory, money and power.
eulogies to her brother Sakhr, ·Many of his verses are used
a tribal chief who was today as proverbs to reflect
severely wounded and later on life experiences of
died after a raid against the friendship, love, departure,
riva l Bani Assad tribe. Her war and death.

50
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
His masterpiece is the Oriinally from Sudan, Abdel
Mu'allaqa, an ode so revered Bari grew up in Saudi Arabia
that it is written in gold on and is onsidered one of the
sheets of paper which are most influential voices in
then hung on the walls of the contemporary classical Arabic
Kaabah in Mecca, Islam’s poetry.
most revered shrine (its ·His work brews with Sufism
name translates as "hung and Arabic myths as well as
ode"). Quranic stories and Islamic
philosophy.
·He has published three poetry
MODERN POETS: collections and won several
international honors,
including the Arab African
MAHMOUD Youth award in 2016, although
DARWISH his work has yet to be
translated into English.
One of his famous poems
is Write Down! I Am An Arab,
was written after he was MARAM AL-
released from an Israeli MASRI
prison in the 1960s. (1962 –
PRESENT)

The prose poems of the

MOHAMMED
Syrian poet Maram al-Marsi
ABDEL BARI
(1985 - reflect on love, exile,
PRESENT) nostalgia for her homeland
and the war in Syria.

51
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
SUMMARY/
CONCLUSION:
Arabic literature gives
enormous outputs in the first
three centuries of Islam, and
how very little has come
down to us. Of many authors
we possess only small
fragments, and the great
majority would otherwise
have been completely
unknown to us even by name.
But the most essential point
about Arabic literature is
that it stems directly from
the Holy Qur’an. They used
Adab which is an arabic word
for their literatures and the
word Adab implies politeness,
culture and enrichment. Just
like all the other literatures,
Arabian literatures shows
how they treat the life of the
tribe and themes of love,
fighting, courage, and the
chase.

52
CHAPTER 4
ARABIAN LITERATURE
ACTIVITY 1:
DIRECTION: Rearrange the letters in the
correct order to make a word.

1. BAANIRA TUERARITLE ___________________

2. ORPTHEP MADMAHUM ___________________
3. HANDOUTS DAN NEO SIGHNT ___________________
4. BUA SAWUN ___________________
5. HAMMODU DISWHAR ___________________

ACTIVITY 2:
DIRECTION: Choose the correct translation

1. HOLY BOOK 4. ELABORATED ODES

a) KURUAN a) QASIDOHS
b) KORAN b) QASIDAHS
c) QUR’UAN c) QUASIDAHS

2. CHAPTERS 5. ARABIAN NIGHTS

a) SORAN a) Alf Loylah wa-Loylah
b) SAROS b) Alf Laylah wa-Laylah
c) SURAS c) Alf Luylah wu-Laylah

3. LOVE LYRIC
a) GHAZAL
b) GHOZAL
c) GAZHAL

53
 5

EGYPTIAN
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 5
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: These texts were
written in hieroglyphics
Ancient Egyptian ("sacred carvings") a writing
literature comprises a wide system combining
array of narrative and poetic phonograms (symbols which
forms including inscriptions represent sound), logograms
on tombs, stele, obelisks, and (symbols representing words),
temples; myths, stories, and and ideograms (symbols
legends; religious writings; which represent meaning or
philosophical works; sense).
autobiographies; biographies;
histories; poetry; hymns;
HISTORY:
personal essays; letters and
court records. Although many Egyptian civilization
of these forms are not usually started around 3150 B.C A
defined as "literature" they unified kingdom was formed
are given that designation in in 3150 BC by King Menes,
Egyptian studies because so leading to a series of dynasties
many of them, especially that ruled Egypt for the next
from the Middle Kingdom three millennia. Along with
(2040-1782 BCE), are of such their existence they left many
high literary merit. writings in the form
hieroglyphs later understood
by scholars that gave us many
insights on the culture of such
a long lived civilization.
The three millenia
existence of the egyptian have
Hieroglyphs

55
CHAPTER 5
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
The three millenia MIDDLE KINGDOM
existence of the egyptian
have been divided by three The early Middle
kingdoms by scholars: the Kingdom (21st century BC to
Old Kingdom, Middle 17th century BC) that a
Kingdom and the New narrative Egyptian literature
Kingdom. was created. This was a
Both hieroglyphic and "media revolution" which,
hieratic—first appeared in according to Richard B.
the late 4th millennium BC Parkinson, was the result of
during the late phase of the rise of an intellectual class
predynastic Egypt. of scribes, new cultural
sensibilities about
OLD KINGDOM individuality, unprecedented
levels of literacy, and
mainstream access to written
By the Old Kingdom
material. The creation of
(26th century BC to 22nd
literature was thus an elite
century BC), literary works
exercise, monopolized by a
included funerary texts,
scribal class attached to
epistles and letters, hymns
government offices and the
and poems, and
royal court of the ruling
commemorative
pharaoh.
autobiographical texts
recounting the careers of NEW KINGDOM
prominent administrative
officials.
By the New Kingdom period,
the writing of

56
CHAPTER 5
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
commemorative graffiti on last crack the code of
sacred temple and tomb walls hieroglyphics, the ancient
flourished as a unique genre Egyptian writing system.
of literature, yet it employed French army engineers who
formulaic phrases similar to were part of Napoleon
other genres. The Bonaparte’s Egypt campaign
acknowledgment of rightful discovered the stone slab in
authorship remained 1799 while making repairs to a
important only in a few fort near the town of Rashid
genres, while texts of the (Rosetta).
"teaching" genre were
pseudonymous and falsely
attributed to prominent
historical figures.

Ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone

literature has been preserved
on a wide variety of media.
This includes papyrus scrolls PROMINENT
and packets, limestone or AUTHORS:
ceramic ostraca, wooden
writing boards, monumental
stone edifices and coffins.
NONNUS
Most writings are OF
hieroglyphs and not until the PANOPOLIS
19th century, the Rosetta
Stone helped scholars at long Was a Greek epic poet

57
CHAPTER 5
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
of Hellenized Egypt in the Argonauts and their quest for
Imperial Roman era. He waa the Golden Fleece. The poem
native of Panopolis is one of the few extant
(Akhmim) in the Egyptian examples of the epic genre
Thebaid and probably lived and it was both innovative
in the 5th century AD. He is and influential.
known as the composer of the
Dionysiaca, an epic tale of the
PROMINENT
god Dionysus, and of the
Metabole, a paraphrase of the L I T E R A R Y P I E C E S :
Gospel of John. The epic
Dionysiaca describes the life THE BOOK OF THE
of Dionysus, his expedition to DEAD
India, and his triumphant
Is an
return to the west, it was
ancient
written in Homeric dialect
Egyptian
and in dactylic hexameter,
funerary text
and it consists of 48 books at
generally
20,426 lines.
written on
papyrus and used from the
APOLLONIUS beginning of the New
OF RHODES Kingdom (around 1550 BCE)
to around 50 BCE. is the
closest term to describe the
Was an ancient Greek loose collection of text
author, best known for the consisting of a number of
Argonautica, an epic poem magic spells intended to assist
about Jason and the a dead person's

58
CHAPTER 5
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
THE EBERS PAPYRUS magicians. In the papyrus
Also text, each of these tales are
known as told at the royal court of king
Papyrus Ebers, Khufu
is an Egyptian
medical SUMMARY/
papyrus of CONCLUSION:
herbal knowledge dating to
circa 1550 BC. Among the The Egyptians were
oldest and most important fortunate enough to have very
medical papyri of ancient intellectual people on the
Egypt, it was purchased at span of its existence thus
Luxor in the winter of 1873–74 making it one of the most long
by Georg Ebers. It is currently lived civilizations in our
kept at the library of the history. The development of a
University of Leipzig, in language and writting systems
Germany that is so very unique it took
decades of studying until it
THE WESTCAR was cracked by scholars, from
PAPYRUS the field of mythology, stories,
(inventory- medicine, court hearings and
designation: many more intellectual pieces
P. Berlin 3033) the egyptian literature never
is an ancient lacks, a true testament on how
Egyptian text talented and smart those
containing Egyptians on their time.
five stories about miracles
performed by priests and

59
CHAPTER 5
EGYPTIAN LITERATURE

ENCRIPTION

Instructions: Using the table below decrypt the encoded

words related to the Egyptian literature and experience
the challenge faced by scholars in decoding this ancient
language. GOODLUCK!

60
 6

JAPANESE
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: THE PERIODS OF
JAPANESE
Japanese literature
LITERATURE:
reveals a lot of influence by
the Chinese literature from
the ancient period all the way ANCIENT LITERATURE
to the Edo period (1603-1868) (UNTIL 794)
which corresponds to the
early modern Japanese
literature. Japanese literary
works also reveal elements of
Indian and later of Western
elements but above all, they
reveal a distinct style which
has also greatly influenced Before the introduction
both Eastern and Western of kanji from China, there was
literatures. no Japanese writing system.
Japanese Literature At first, Chinese characters
can be divided into four main were used in Japanese
periods: ancient, classical, syntactical formats and the
medieval and modern (Pre result was sentences that look
and Post World War). like Chinese but are
phonetically read as Japanese.
Chinese characters were
further adapted, creating
what is known as man’yōgana,
the earliest form of kana or
syllabic writing. The earliest

62
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
works were created in the the Heian period, referred to
Nara period. These include as the golden era of art and
Kojiki (712), a work recording literature. Genji Monogatari
Japanese mythology and (early eleventh century) by a
legendary history; Nihon woman named Murasaki
Shoki (720), a chronicle with Shikibu is considered the pre-
a slightly more solid eminent masterpiece of Heian
foundation in historical fiction and an early example
records than Kojiki; and of a work of fiction in the
Man’yōshū (759), a poetry form of a novel. Other
anthology. One of the stories important writings of this
they describe is the tale of period include the Kokin
Urashima Tarō, which has Wakashū (905), a waka-
been identified as the earliest poetry anthology, and
example of a story involving Makura no Sōshi (990s), the
time travel. latter written by Murasaki
Shikibu’s contemporary and
CLASSICAL rival, Sei Shōnagon, as an
LITERATURE (794– essay about the life, loves,
1185) and pastimes of nobles in the
Emperor’s court. The iroha
poem, now one of two
standard orderings for the
Japanese syllabary, was also
developed during the early
part of this period.
Classical Japanese
literature generally refers to
literature produced during

63
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
MEDIEVAL LITERATURE Yoshida Kenkō’s
(1185–1603) Tsurezuregusa (1331).

EARLY-MODERN
LITERATURE (1603–
1868)

During this period,

Japan experienced many civil
wars which led to the
development of a warrior
class, and subsequent war
tales, histories and related Literature during this
stories. Work from this period time was written during the
is notable for its insights into largely peaceful Tokugawa
life and death, simple Period (commonly referred to
lifestyles, and redemption as the Edo Period). Due in
through killing. A large part to the rise of the
representative work is The working and middle classes
Tale of the Heike (1371), an in the new capital of Edo
epic account of the struggle (modern Tokyo), forms of
between the Minamoto and popular drama developed
Taira clans for control of which would later evolve into
Japan at the end of the twelfth kabuki. The jōruri and
century. Other important tales kabuki dramatist Chikamatsu
of the period include Kamo no Monzaemon became popular
Chōmei’s Hōjōki (1212) and at the end of the 17th

64
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
century. Matsuo Bashō wrote Fires on the Plain about a
Oku no Hosomichi (1702), a Japanese deserter going mad
travel diary. Hokusai, perhaps in the Philippine jungle.
Japan’s most famous Yukio Mishima, well known
woodblock print artist, also for both his nihilistic writing
illustrated fiction as well as and his controversial suicide
his famous 36 Views of Mount by seppuku, began writing in
Fuji. the post-war period. Nobuo
Kojima’s short story “The
POST-WAR
LITERATURE American School” portrays a
group of Japanese teachers of
English who, in the
immediate aftermath of the
war, deal with the American
occupation in varying ways.

FAMOUS AUTHORS
World War II and AND LITERARY
Japan’s defeat, deeply WORKS:
influenced Japanese
literature. Many authors
MURASAKI SHIKIBU
wrote stories of disaffection,
loss of purpose and the coping
with defeat. Osamu Dazai’s
novel The Setting Sun tells of
a soldier returning from
Manchukuo. Shōhei Ōoka won
he Yomiuri Prize for his novel

65
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
The work's author is The 'Tale of the Genji'
considered to be a lady of the or Genji Monogatari, written
imperial court by the name of in the 11th century CE by
Murasaki Shikibu who wrote Murasaki Shikibu, a court
it over several years and lady, is Japan's oldest novel
completed it around 1020 CE and possibly the first novel in
during the Heian period (794- world literature. The classic
1185 CE). Murasaki is also of Japanese literature, the
known as To no Shikibu. work describes the life and
Murasaki was a nickname and loves of Prince Genji and is
shikibu means 'secretariat,' noted for its rich
which was the role of her characterization and vivid
father as in ancient Japan it descriptions of life in the
was common to call a Japanese imperial court. The
daughter by her father's work famously reproduces
position. She was a member of the line 'the sadness of
the Fujiwara clan. Her birth is things' over 1,000 times and
accepted as around 973 CE and has been tremendously
her death after 1013 CE, the influential on Japanese
date of the last mention of her literature and thinking ever
in court documents. since it was written. The
'Tale of Genji' continues to be
EXAMPLE OF WORKS: retranslated into modern
Japanese on a regular basis so
that its grip on the nation's
“THE TALE imagination shows no sign of
OF GENJI” loosening.

66
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
RYUNOSUKE Set in pre-modern
AKUTAGAWA Japan, Ryūnosuke
Akutagawa's short story "In a
Grove" is a collection of
testimonies and confessions
that concern the death of a
twenty-six-year-old samurai
named Kanazawa no
Takehiro.
The first section of the story
He was proved to be comprises four testimonies
one of Japan's most given to a magistrate, a Kyoto
important intellectuals over city official who is
his short career during the investigating the mysterious
Taishō period (1912–1926). death. The woodcutter who
Akutagawa is regarded as the found the body that morning
"father of the Japanese short speaks first, confirming the
story" and the Akutagawa location of the deserted
Prize—Japan's premier bamboo grove where he
literary award—is named found the corpse and
after him. At thirty-five, he describing the dry chest
committed suicide through wound in detail. Next,
an overdose of barbital. atraveling Buddhist priest
says he saw a man, a woman,
EXAMPLE OF WORKS:
and a horse the day before
just after noon. Next, a
policeman testifies that he
“IN A has caught a bandit named
GROVE” Tajōmaru, who is infamous

67
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
s for raping women around historical event assists Soseki
Kyoto. The policeman in creating a contrast
suggests Tajōmaru is between tradition and
responsible and that the modernity. The narrator for
magistrate should question most of the novel is a young
him. The fourth testimony is student living in Tokyo who
delivered by the young starts a relationship with a
woman's mother, who man he saw on the beach,
confirms that her daughter Sensei. As the novel
Masago and Masago's progresses, the reader finds
husband Takehiro—the dead that there are three main
samurai—would have been characters that help to
traveling in the hills the day illustrate the Meiji era and
before. She breaks down its place in history as a
crying, worried for her transitional period between
missing daughter's safety. pre-modern and modern
Japan. This paper will
analyze the symbolism of its
EXAMPLE OF WORKS:
characters and aim to prove
that the novel attempts to
depict generations affected
“KOKORO” by Japan’s modernization
during the death of the Meiji
era.

Natsume Soseki’s Kokoro is a SUMMARY/

fiction novel written in 1914,
CONCLUSION:
two years after the end of the
Meiji era and the death of Japanese Literature
Emperor Meiji. This mostly covers the reality of

68
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
life. Authors focus their of effort to refine each
works in nurturing their syllable of their writings,
literature through poetry, increasing the meaning of it
novel and drama which by suggestion and reference,
portrays every histories in and emphasizing tone and
Japan. They also applied diction over originality or
different genres like diaries, boldness of speech. Although
biography, travelling the works of authors in
accounts and random Japanese literature comprises
thoughts which is different some of the world's greatest
from what other country books and plays, its brilliance
offers during ancient times is most evident in the shorter
Diaries of court lady during works, such as tanka, haiku,
the ancient history in Noh dramas (also known as
Japanese Literature is filled No, or n), and poetic diaries
with honesty and sincerity In addition, Japanese
which gives way for detailed Literature does not just show
history especially for the literary works of authors
modern-day readers. Instead but also it reflects the culture
of being unsatisfied with the they have in this particular
limits imposed by their country. Japanese Literature
language, most Japanese taught us to be more strict
writers believed that virtuoso and professional in terms of
phrasing and keen writing literary works, it may
sentiment refinement were come from different aspects
more important to poetry and techniques but still, the
than the communication of idea of being firm and
intellectually pleasing intelligent will always be
concepts. vividly shown in every piece
Japanese poets put a lot of their works.
. 69
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
ACTIVITY 1:

C'MON FIND ME!

Direction: Encircle the words that corresponds to the literary

works and the authors of Japanese Literature.

70
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
ACTIVITY 2:

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

DIRECTION: Fill in the crossword puzzle with the words

missing from the sentence below. Match the number of the
sentence to the boxes placed across or down the grid. If filled
out correctly, the words fit neatly into the puzzle.

Across

1. Literature during this time was written during the largely

peaceful Tokugawa Period (commonly referred to as the Edo
Period).
3. It's reveals a lot of influence by the Chinese literature from
the ancient period all the way to the Edo period (1603-1868)

71
CHAPTER 6
JAPANESE LITERATURE
8. Murasaki was a nickname and shikibu means _____________

Down

2. Refers to literature produced during the Heian period,

referred to as the olden era of art and literature.
4. Work from this period is notable for its insights into life
and death, simple lifestyles, and redemption through
killing.
5. He was proved to be one of Japan's most important
intellectuals over his short career during the Taishō period
(1912–1926).
6. The 'Tale of the Genji' or Genji Monogatari, written in the
11th century CE by ______________
7. Contemporary Japanese literature arguably began with
____________, who was writing around the turn of the 20th
century.
9. Japanese Literature can be divided into four main periods:
ancient, classical, medieval and _______________
10. Fiction novel written in 1914, two years after the end of the
Meiji era and the death of Emperor Meiji.

72
 7

TURKISH
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 7
TURKISH LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: Among the numerous
The Orhon inscriptions Turkic dynasties of Central
represent some of the Asia, South Asia, the Middle
earliest extant writing in East, and the Caucasus, only
Turkish. These inscriptions the post-Mongol Anatolian
appear on two monuments states and then the Ottoman
built in the early 8th century Empire maintained Turkish
CE in northern Mongolia. as a literary language. From
Other early Turkish writing the 14th through the early
includes poetry in an 11th- 20th century, writing in
century Turkish-Arabic Turkish flourished in the
dictionary by Mahmud Ottoman Empire, and it
Kashgari and Kutudgu bilig subsequently continued in
(“Knowledge Which Leads to the Turkish republic. Despite
Happiness”) by Yusuf Khass changes in language and
Hajib, which uses poetic culture from the Mongol and
forms from the Arabic and Ottoman periods to the
Persian literary traditions. emergence of modern-day
During the later 13th Turkey, Turkish literature
century, what came to be has remained an important
known as Turkish literature means of expression for the
was produced primarily in Turkish-speaking peoples of
Mongol-controlled Anatolia. Anatolia and the adjacent
Among the numerous Turkic areas of the Balkans. Much of
dynasties of Central Asia, this region’s literary activity
South Asia, the Middle East, has centred on Istanbul, its
and the Caucasus, only the central urban metropolis
post-Mongol Anatolian since the mid-15th century.

74
CHAPTER 7
TURKISH LITERATURE
HISTORY:
Turkic literature spans between
approximately 1,300 years. the 9th and
The earliest known writings 11t
in a Turkic language (see the centuries.
introduction on Turkish Location of Orhon The most
Valley. by
linguistic roots) are the DragonTiger23, CC0, popular
from Wikimedia
Orhan (Orkhon) Inscriptions, Commons
genre at
discovered in the valley of that time
the Orhan River in Northern was the epic, suchas the
Mongolia in 1889. The two Book of the Dede Korkut
large monuments date to 735 of the Oghuz Turks (details,
CE and 732 CE. They were below), one of the cultural
made to honor Turkish Kül and linguistic ancestors of
‘Tigin’ (prince) and Bilge modern Turks.Only after the
‘Khagan’ (emperor), two Seljuk victory in the Battle of
brothers. The advanced style Manzikert in 1071 CE, when
of writing suggests that there they began to settle in
were earlier developments of Anatolia, did
the written language. written literature become
prominent. Written literature
Oral was largely influenced by
tradition Arabic and Persian literature
was the until the Republican era,
prominent when Atatürk expunged the
early form Bilge Tonyukuk Orhon Turkish language of most
Inscriptions. by Vezirtonyukuk
of Turkish CC 4.0, from Wikimedia Persian and Arabic
Commons
literature influences. Until the fall of

75
CHAPTER 7
TURKISH LITERATURE
the Ottoman Empire, written Oghuz Turkish.
and oral literature were two
separate entities. This epic was primarily
performed by Âşiks, Oghuz
F O L K L I T E R A T U R E : Turkish poet-musicians. They
were performers who sang
Folk literature was epics along with other poems
rooted in the nomadic and lyrical songs. The Book of
lifestyle, primarily composed Dede Korkut has survived
of oral tradition, and was through two 16th century
typically intended to be sung. manuscripts. It was circulated
Sometimes performers would centuries prior to these
be accompanied by an manuscripts, but the exact
instrument such as a saz date of its origin is unknown.
(lute). Much of the oral
tradition and folklore were A very
centered on storytelling. important
Some of the primary genres character in
that grew out of folk Turkish
literature were epics, folk literature
legends, folktales, fables, is Nasreddin
proverbs, anecdotes, and Hoca Nasreddin Hoca. by
minstrel music. (pronounced Dennis Jarvis,
CC 2.0, via Flickr
The most prominent epic “Hoja”), a
to have come out of Anatolia folk philosopher, comedian,
was The Book of Dede and trickster. He represents
Korkut, (Dede means the “indomitable spirit of the
randfather), written in common people” (“Turkish

76
CHAPTER 7
TURKISH LITERATURE
Language & Literature”). drew from Persiancourt
Little is known about his life. culture as reflected in the
However, he probably lived vocabulary of Ottoman
in the 13th century. Turkish. Ottoman Turkish is
He served as a religious quite distinct from modern
teacher, preacher, and Turkish because it
judge. For centuries, he has incorporated many more
remained a Persian and Arabic
prominent character in both vocabularies. The Persian
Muslim and non-Islamic words tended to relate to
communities in the Middle court life, poetry, and fine
East. His wit transcended arts.
national and cultural Folk literature remained
borders, as his stories have primarily separate from
been translated into many Ottoman literature, as an oral
languages, attesting to his tradition. Ottoman literature,
universal appeal. in contrast to Folk literature
was also a written form
FOLK LITERATURE VS. throughout almost the entire
OTTOMAN LITERATURE duration of the Ottoman
Empire. This was in part an
The literature created for expression of its formality. It
the consumption of the was written in the Arabic
Ottoman Sultan and nobility, script, a mode which Mustafa
or Ottoman literature forms Kemal Atatürk did away with
the basis of formal Turkish under his modernizing
literary aesthetics. lso called reforms. Another difference
“Court literature,” this form between the two is that folk

77
CHAPTER 7
TURKISH LITERATURE
iterature was primarily SUFI POETRY
structurally comprised of
quatrains (lines of four
verses), while Ottoman
literature was composed of
couplets (lines of two verses).
This systematic difference
Âşik. by Ecomecom, CC 2.5, via at
in writing and delivery Turkish
method between folk and
Sufi poetry is another
Ottoman literature in effect
major cultural influence on
separated people within the
Turkish literature, dating
Empire into literate and non-
back to the 11th and 12th
literate, upper and lower,
centuries. It became a major
classes. The one thing that
branch of Turkish literature
these two forms of literature
in the 13th century. Sufi
had in common, however,
mystics expressed their love
was musical performance,
and devotion to God through
which eventually brought the
their poetry. Âşık Paşa and
two genres together just
Yunus Emre were the most
before the fall of the Ottoman
prominent Sufi poets of the
Empire. During the 17th
13th and 14th centuries. Âşık
century, traveling minstrel
Paşa wrote Garībnāmeh
music, or the music of the
(“The Book of the
âşik, became a bridge between
Stranger”), which comprises
the court and the people.
11,000 couplets and is
known as one of the finest
mesnevîs (rhyming couplets
that usually have

78
CHAPTER 7
TURKISH LITERATURE
and lived the majority of supplications.” (p. 12)
meaning related to Sufism). His writings today
Yunus Emre, born in remain central to the dhikr,
Eskisehir, is one of the most or chanting, practiced by
influential sufi poets in tarikas, or Sunni
Turkish literature. He wrote brotherhoods, and to the
the prominent, Risâletʿün ayîn-i cem ritual of the Alevî
nushiyye, “Treatise of Bektashi, an order of tribal
Counsel”. His poetry often Shīʿite Sufis. brotherhoods,
took the form of love poetry and to the ayîn-i cem ritual of
but with a twist, the the Alevî Bektashi, an order
“Beloved” he mentioned was a of tribal Shīʿite Sufis.
reference to God. The
following sample (Smith,
1993) demonstrates this way
of writing about love: “O man
of love, open your eyes; look at
the face of the earth. See how
these lovely flowers,
bedecking themselves came
and the passed on These, Rumi’s Shrine. Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi
Türbesi ve
bedecking themselves in this Dergahi. by Michael Greenhalgh. Entrance to
shrine (Tilavet Chamber); detail of
way, stretching out toward inscriptions after restoration
the Beloved – ask them,
Brother, where are they "Rumi is another
going. Every flower, with a very prominent Sufi scholar
thousand coquettish airs, and poet, who is now
praises God with world-renowned. He was

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born in Balkh (in modern- biographical dictionaries
day Afghanistan), and lived (tezkires), urban song (şarkı),
the majority of his life in and tâze-gûʾî (“fresh speech”).
Konya, Turkey, where his is Qasida ( or Kaside) are
buried. A prominent work of praises, either of God or a
his is The Mathnawī and leader (like the Prophet
Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-I. Mohammad, the Sultan, or a
military leader). These were
long and comprised of various
DIVAN POETRY AND
sections. Gazel poetry was
CLASSIC TURKISH
often sung and accompanied
LITERATURE
by instruments. The poetry
As mentioned, Ottoman was composed of couplets and
literature was primarily the theme was usually love.
produced in the written form Ottoman poetry of the
with a great deal of influence 15th and 16th centuries
from both Arabic and represent a fusion of the three
Persian. Divan poetry is a major Islamic languages—
significant example of this Turkish, Persian, and Arabic.
form of Ottoman literature In the 17th century, Mesnevis
(Mesnevi and Qasida) was were on the decline. Some
the most prominent form of prominent names from
Ottoman literature. Mesnevi Ottoman literature include (in
and Qasidas were most addition to the Sufi poets
prominent in early Ottoman mentioned) Hayali Bey,
history, but in later Ottoman Mahmud Abdülbâkî (also
literature new genres came known as Bâkî), Cevri and
to the forefront such as Neşatî (the leaders in the form

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of “fresh speech”), Nâbî play, his stage comedy
(whose most prominent Marriage of a Poet, or Şâir
work is the mesnevi), Evlenmesi (Turkey Music Lit,
Hayrîyye, Âşik Ömer (a n.d.). By 1860 the literary
prominent âşik of the later format of the novel “first
17th century), and Şeyh Galib appeared in Ottoman cities”
(1782; mesnevî Hüsn ü aşk (Göknar, 2008, p. 472). These
translates to “Beauty and Western forms took on a
Love”, was one of the most unique Turkish form,
prominent works of late however, as they integrated
Ottoman Literature). Beauty the three aforementioned folk,
and love were prominent Sufi, and Ottoman forms of
themes. literature and oral tradition
(Göknar, 2008).
THE 19TH CENTURY AND Major changes
WESTERN INFLUENCE associated with movements
toward a Turkish national
In the 18th century, identity shaped Turkish
there were many great literature of the early 20th
changes in style and with the century, and continued
genesis of Western influence. evolving as a result of the
The Tanzimat Period (1839 – “linguistic engineering”
1876 CE), brought many (Göknar, 2008, p. 474) which
reforms in Ottoman occurred during that time. The
society, culture, and alphabet was changed as part
government, which affected of this in 1929 from Arabic to
the literature. By 1859, the Roman alphabet. These
İbrahim Şinasi completed reforms represented a break
the first theater

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TURKISH LITERATURE
rom the Ottoman past as part but were continuously
of a turn to the West and thwarted by the powerful
national commitment to Janissary corps. As a result,
modernization. Yet, the only after Sultan Mahmud II
definition of modernization had abolished the Janissary
wasn’t to be determined by corps in 1826 was the way
simple East/West, paved for truly effective
traditional/modern binaries. reforms.
Novels, short stories, and These reforms finally
other modern formats, came to the empire during
published throughout the the Tanzimat period of 1839–
rest of the 20th century until 1876, when much of the
today reflected and Ottoman system was
contributed to a modern reorganized along largely
Turkish identity shaped by French lines. The Tanzimat
multiple, uniquely Turkish, reforms "were designed both
internal discourses (Göknar, to modernize the empire and
2008). to forestall foreign
intervention"
SUMMARY/ Due to historically close ties
CONCLUSION: with France—strengthened
during the Crimean War of
By the early 19th century, the 1854–1856—it was French
Ottoman Empire had become literature that came to
moribund. Attempts to right constitute the major Western
this situation had begun influence on Turkish
during the reign of Sultan literature throughout the
Selim III, from 1789 to 1807, latter ha lf of the 19th

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TURKISH LITERATURE
century. As a result, many of
the same movements
prevalent in France during
this period also had their
equivalents in the Ottoman
Empire: in the developing
Ottoman prose tradition, for
instance, the influence of
Romanticism can be seen
during the Tanzimat period,
and that of the Realist and
Naturalist movements in
subsequent periods; in the
poetic tradition, on the other
hand, it was the influence of
the Symbolist and Parnassian
movements that became
paramount.

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WORD HUNT

DIRECTION: Encircle the words related to the topic

discussed. There are total of six (6) items in this word
puzzle. GOODLUCK!

84
 8

AFRICAN
LITERATURE
CHAPTER 8
AFRICAN LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION: body of traditional oral and
written literatures in Afro-
There are 54 nations which Asiatic and African
make up Africa. Each of these languages together with
separate countries have their works written by Africans in
own history, culture, tribes, European languages.
and traditions. That being Traditional written
said, there are some literature, which is limited
commonalities shared by to a smaller geographic area
literature which comes from than is oral literature, is
the continent as a whole. most characteristic of those
Defining African literature sub-Saharan cultures that
can be complicated. There are have participated in the
some authors who believe cultures of the
African literature can only be Mediterranean. In
composed in African particular, there are written
languages. Others believe literatures in both Hausa
African literature can be and Arabic, created by the
composed in any language so scholars of what is now
long as it is composed by northern Nigeria, and the
authors from Africa. Somali people have
produced a traditional
In this lesson, we'll written literature. There are
narrow our focus to the also works written in Geʿez
broader history and (Ethiopic) and Amharic, two
characteristics of African of the languages of Ethiopia,
literature in general. which is the one part of
Africa where Christianity
African literature, the has been practiced long

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enough to be considered truths and information to
traditional. Works written in society. An object is
European languages date considered beautiful because
primarily from the 20th of the truths it reveals and
century onward. The the communities it helps to
literature of South Africa in build.
English and Afrikaans is also The relationship
covered in a separate article, between oral and written
South African literature. traditions and in particular
As George Joseph notes in between oral and modern
his chapter on African written literatures is one of
Literature in "Understanding great complexity and not a
Contemporary Africa", matter of simple evolution.
whereas European views of Modern African literatures
literature often stressed a were born in the educational
separation of art and systems imposed by
content, African awareness colonialism, with models
is inclusive and "literature" drawn from Europe rather
can also simply mean an than existing African
artistic use of words for the traditions. But the African
sake of art alone. oral traditions exerted their
Traditionally, Africans do own influence on these
not radically separate art literatures
from teaching. Rather than
write or sing for beauty in HISTORY:
itself, African writers, taking
their cue from oral African literature has
literature, use beauty to help origins dating back thousands of
communicate important years to Ancient Egypt and

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AFRICAN LITERATURE
hieroglyphs, or writing which inhabited land.
uses pictures to represent Colonization
words. These Ancient led to
Egyptian beginnings led to slavery.
Arabic poetry, which spread Millions
during the Arab conquest of of African people were
Egypt in the seventh century enslaved and brought to
C.E. and through Western Western countries around the
Africa in the ninth century world from the sixteenth to
C.E. These African and Arabic nineteenth centuries. This
cultures continued to blend spreading of African people,
with the European culture and largely against their will, is
literature to form a unique called the African Diaspora.
literary form. Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa experienced developed a written literature
several hardships in its long during the nineteenth and
history which left an impact early twentieth centuries. This
on the themes of its literature. development came as a result
One hardship which led to of missionaries coming to the
many others is that of area. The missionaries came to
colonization. Colonization is Africa to build churches and
when people leave their language schools in order to
country and settle in another translate religious texts. This
land, often one which is led to Africans writing in both
already inhabited. The European and indigenous
problem with colonization is languages.
when the incoming people Though African
exploit the indigenous people literature's history is as long
and the resources of the as it is rich, most of the

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AFRICAN LITERATURE
popular works have come out post-independence writers,
since 1950, especially the while also providing the texts
noteworthy Things Fall Apart needed by African
by Chinua Achebe. Looking universities to help redress
beyond the most recent works the colonial bias that had
is necessary to understand the been prevalent in the
complete development of this teaching of literature. To
collection of literature. many, it was their only
window into African
publishing.
FOUNDERS OF AFRICAN
As described by Philip
LITERATURE:
Gourevitch in The New
When Chinua Achebe Yorker, “the fact that
died in March, he was [Achebe] must be
mourned around the world, remembered as not only the
proclaimed as the “Father of father but the godfather of
African Literature,” as the modern African literature
author of contemporary owed at least as much to the
classics such as Things Fall decades he spent as the editor
Apart and No Longer at Ease, of Heinemann’s African
and as a perennial Nobel Prize Writers Series. In that
candidate. But he was far capacity, Achebe served as the
more than that. discoverer, mentor, patron,
For many years, Achebe and presenter-to-the-world of
served as advisory editor toH so many of the now-classic
einemann’s African Writer African authors of the latter
Series, which served as a half of the twentieth century.
forum for a generation of The series’ orange-spined,

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generously inexpensive them. Before the twentieth
paperbacks carried a stamp century, Africanswrote not
of excellence that drew just in Europe, but alsoon the
readers everywhere to African continent; they wrote
essential works by writers as not just in European
varied as Kenneth Kaunda, languages, but in African
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Dennis languages; they wrote not just
Brutus, Tayeb Salih, Leopold for European consumption,
Sedar Senghor, Ousmane but for their own
Sembene, Wole Soyinka, and consumption; they wrote not
Nadine Gordimer, to name just in northern Africa, but in
but a few: it is an sub-Saharan Africa; they
extraordinary legacy.” wrote not just orally, but
textually; they wrote not just
EARLY AFRICAN historical or religious texts,
LITERATURE: AN but poetry and epic and

ANTHOLOGY OF autobiography; and they

wrote not just in the
WRITTEN TEXTS FROM
nineteenth century, but in the
3000 BCE TO 1900 CE
eighteenth century and long,
Contrary to the general long before.
perception, the African Yet, the general public
literatures written before and even scholars of African
the twentieth century are literature are often unaware
substantial. Whatever limits of these early literatures,
can be imagined—in terms mistakenly believing that
of geography, genre, African literature starts in
language, audience, era— the late 1950s as the result of
these literatures exceed colonization, instead of many

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centuries before it. In this century African continental
view, Africa is a savage literatures has yet to be
Caliban who is introduced to written about in any depth
writing by a European by Euro-American literary
Prospero and Things Fall critics. Certainly, no book
Apart is his first articulation. addresses their work at
Westerns assume that length and almost no literary
whatever writing happened to essays published outside of
be done on the continent was Africa address the
not done by Africans or in continental works.
African languages and scripts African literature written
until very recently. This lack over the last millennia
of awareness of three remains largely invisible for
thousand years of African several significant reasons.
writing is particularly One, many of the texts
surprising given the legions of written more than two
pre-twentieth-century African hundred years ago have not
texts that historians have survived, particularly in sub-
uncovered and studied in the Saharan Africa. Scholars
past fifty years. While know they existed because
historians labor to overturn travelers reported on them
long-held misconceptions and extant texts make
about Africa as a place reference to now lost texts.
without history, literary Two, many were never
critics have done little to published as print books and
overturn misconceptions of of those few manuscripts
Africa as a place without that were, most were
literature. The extraordinarily published in obscure places.
rich trove of pre-twentieth Three, very few of the texts

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written in an African to the most diverse peoples
language have been translated of any. A continent, one of
into any European language. its great strengths. That
For instance, the hundreds of some of these Africans are
Ethiopian indigenous texts lighter-skinned than others
remain obscure because only are an irrelevancy. All those
a handful have been born on the African
translated into English. continent, and whose
Indeed, in the dramatic cases forbearers were born on the
of texts written in Meroitic or continent, are Africans and
Libyco-Berber, the texts have contributed to its
cannot be translated as the vibrancy.
language and script is no
longer understood. One of the EXAMPLE OF WORKS:
great challenges of the
twenty-first century will be SHONA
archiving and translating the Feso
vast libraries of East and West (1956), a
Africa. Fourth, many continue historical
to see sub-Saharan Africa and novel, was the
North Africa as geographic first literary
and literary domains work to be published in
separated by a gulf, rather Shona. An account of the
than, as historians and invasion of the Rozwi
archeologists continue to kingdom and an expression
prove, having deep links to of longing for the traditional
each other. past, it was written by
As the origin of the Solomon M. Mutswairo.
human species, Africa is home A nother early novel,

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AFRICAN LITERATURE
Nzvengamutsvairo (1957; Back”), which describes the
“Dodge the Broom”), by effects of Western-style
Bernard T.G. Chidzero, has to education and the
do with themes that consequent alienation from
dominate prose writing in traditional society: Saraoga,
Shona: the attempt to remain a boy, is attracted to the city,
true to Shona tradition, the becomes corrupted, changes
breaking down of Shona his name, and is arrested and
culture, the ugly aspects of jailed. “I Loved Her unto
Western ideas, and the Death”), with its emphasis
Christian who attempts to on love and a desire to
blend past and present. In cultivate Christian ideals of
1959 Mutswairo’s novel love: Rujeko and Taremba
Murambiwa Goredema embody Christian love, but
(“Murambiwa, the Son of evil in the form of the jealous
Goredema”; Eng. trans Shingirai assaults that
Murambiwa Goredema) was relationship.
published; it depicts the The major Shona writer
conflict between the African of novels during the 20th
past and the urbanized, century was Patrick
Westernized, and Chakaipa. His Karikoga
Christianized contemporary gumiremiseve (1958;
world, with an emphasis on “Karikoga and His Ten
the need to establish roots Arrows”) is a blend of
within the reality of the fantasy (it is based on a tale
world as it is. Also, in 1959 from the Shona oral
John Marangwanda tradition) and history, a love
published a novel, story focusing on conflicts
Kumazivandadzoka. (“Who between Shona and Ndebele
Goes There Never Comes peoples. Pfumo reropa (1961;
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AFRICAN LITERATURE
“The Spear of Blood”) depicts Zimbabwean author, who
the dangers of the misuse of was the earliest Zezuru-
power in traditional times: a language novelist and the
chief, Ndyire, manipulates the most important Zezuru poet.
traditional system to his own Mutswairo grew up in
selfish advantage. Zambia and was educated at
The first published the University College of
poetry in Shona was Soko Fort Hare, S.Af. After
risina musoro (1958; “The Tale teaching at Goromonzi
Without a Head”; Eng. trans. Government Secondary
Soko risina musoro), by School, he became a
Herbert W. Chitepo, a headmaster in 1955 at
somewhat allegorical poem Sanyati Baptist Mission
about a wandering African School. He organized
who must make a decision branches of the African
whether to preserve custom or Teachers’ Association and
to move in new directions. started the African
Wilson Chivaura wrote poetry Language Development
as well, some of which was Association, later the
published in Madetembedzo Rhodesian Government
(1969). Shona poetry also Publication Bureau.
appeared in such journals as Arriving in the United
Poet, Two Tone, and Chirimo. States on a Fulbright
scholarship in 1960
Mutswairo took several
SOLOMON master’s degrees and, in
M. 1979, a doctorate at Howard
MUTSWAIRO University in Washington ,
D.C. In July 1981 he returned
to Zimbabwe.
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AFRICAN LITERATURE
Mutswairo’s first novel, century by Ntsikana. The
Feso (1956), was later Bible was tanslated
banned by Rhodesian between the 1820s and 1859.
censors, but it quickly Lovedale Press was
became required reading in established in the 19th
nationalist circles because century by the London
the plot seemed to be an Missionary Society. In 1837
allegory of the British- the Wesleyans published a
settler–Zimbabwean journal, Umshumayeli
conflict. Mutswairo Indaba (“The Preacher’s
published his English News”), which ran to 1841.
version of the novel in 1974. Lovedale, the Scots mission,
Mapondera: Soldier of was the centre of early
Zimbabwe (1978), written in Xhosa writing. Ikhwezi was
English, celebrates produced during the years
Mapondera’s great efforts 1844 and 1845. The
against both Cecil Rhodes Wesleyan missionaries
and the Portuguese coming started a magazine in 1850,
into Zimbabwe from the Isitunywa Senyanga (“The
south and the east, Monthly Messenger”); its
respectively. publication was interrupted
by one of the frontier wars.
XHOSA
African protest, which was
The first not allowed in works
piece of published y the mission
Xhosa presses, was heard in the
writing was journals. In fact, Imvo
a hymn Zabantsundu was
written in the early 19th suppressed by military

95