REPRESENTATIVE

TEXTS AND
AUTHORS FROM
ASIA, AFRICA,
AND LATIN
AMERICA
 Representative
Texts and Authors
from Asia
 ASIAN LITERATURE
➢ refers to the body of literature produced in the countries in Asia.
➢ Asian literature mirrors not only the customs and traditions of
Asian countries but also their philosophy of life which overall is
deeply and predominantly contemplative. It reflects the storm
and stress in and of developing nations seeking a place under the
sun which everyone must understand so that one can know how
this literature affects the history and culture of a nation.

3
EAST ASIA
 CHINESE
LITERATURE

5
 CHINESE LITERATURE
➢ more than 50,000 published works in a wide range of topics
➢ started its unbroken literary tradition in the 14th century BCE
➢ retained its reputation by keeping the fundamentals of its identity intact
➢ Poets like Du Fu, Li Po, and Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty (618-907),
the finest era of Chinese literature, has produced world-renowned
literary works

6
 DU FU (712-770)
➢ considered by many literary critics as China’s greatest poet.
➢ He was known for his works of lüshi. A lüshi has eight lines, each of
which has five or seven syllables following a strict tonal pattern. It
became widely popular during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), the
golden age of art and literature in Chinese history.
➢ He also wrote the poem “The Ballad of the Army Cats” which is about
conscription—and with hidden satire that speaks of the noticeable
luxury of the court.

7
 LI BAI (701-762)
➢ Also called Li Po, rivaled Du Fu for the title of China’s greatest
poet.
➢ Romantic in his personal life and his poetry; known for its
conversational tone and vivid imagery
➢ He wrote the poem “Alone and Drinking under the Moon” that deals
with the ancient social custom of drinking. A famous drinker, he
frequently celebrated drinking in his poetry.

8
 QU YUAN (339-278 BC)
➢ a statesman and poet during the Warring States period
➢ He has been attributed to the first seven poems of the Chu ci (Songs of Chu)
➢ He served under King Huai but was banished after composing the poem “Li
Sao” (Encountering Sorrow), which attacked the court for failing to listen to
his advice. He committed suicide by throwing himself in a river.

9
➢
WANG WEI (701-761)
a painter, musician, poet, devout Buddhist and statesman during the Tang
dynasty (the golden ages of the Chinese cultural history)
➢ He composed “landscape poems” while roaming the lands near the Wang
River, exchanging verses with his friend Pei Di.
➢ A Zen Master taught him the doctrine of dunwu (instantaneous
enlightenment), and Wei’s later poetry reflects his devotion. He was referred
to as Shi fo, or the Buddha of Poetry. The poet Su Shi said of his works:
“There is painting in his poetry, and poetry in his painting.”

10
 MO YAN
➢ was a fictionist who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature.
➢ His first novel was “Red Sorghum”, and still his best-known work.
It tells the story of the Chinese battling Japanese intruders as well as
each other during the 1930s. It relates the story of a family in a rural
area in Shandong Province during this turbulent time

11
 LUO GUANZHONG (1330-1400)
 was a prolific writer who has had many anonymous works attributed to him
over the years.
 Historians agree that the second of the “four great classical novels,” Sanguo
yani (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), was written by Luo.
 The novel told the story of three kingdoms over the course of a century. It
was based on a historical account and contained historical figures, but also
incorporated folk stories and plots from popular dramas of the time.

12
 YU HUA
 world-acclaimed short story writer and considered as a champion for
Chinese meta-fictional or postmodernist writing.
 His widely acclaimed novel “To Live” describes the struggles endured by
the son of a wealthy land-owner while historical events caused and extended
by the Chinese Revolution are fundamentally altering the nature of Chinese
society

13
 Most Essential Texts for Reading:
Thunderstorms (drama) Cao Yu
Family (novel) Pa Jin
Please Don't Call Me Human Wang Shou
(novel)
Strange Tales from a Chinese Pu Songling
Studio (short story)
On a Gate Tower at Yuzhou Zhang Chenzhi
(poetry)
Battle (poem) Chu’u Yuan

14
 KOREAN
LITERATURE

15
 KOREAN LITERATURE
 greatly influenced by China’s cultural dominance
 wrote literary pieces in Classical Chinese poetry then transformations
happened at the 7th century
 Hangul, Korean’s distinct writing system and national alphabet, is
developed in the 15th century that gave new beginnings of Korean
literature
 Korean War has made a significant mark on Korean literature
 In 1950, the themes present in the literary works are about alienation,
conscience, disintegration, and self- identity.

16
 Ch’oe Nam-Seon
 considered a prominent historian, pioneering poet, and publisher in the
Korean literature
 leading member of the modern literary movement and became notable
in pioneering modern Korean poetry
 One of his works, the poem "The Ocean to the Youth” made him a
widely acclaimed poet. The poem aimed to produce cultural reform.
He sought to bring modern knowledge about the world to the youth of
Korea.

17
 Yi Kwang-su
 also the one who launched the modern literary movement together with
Ch’oe Nam-Seon
 He was a novelist and wrote the first Korean novel “The Heartless”
and became well-known because of it. It was a description of the
crossroads at which Korea found itself, stranded between tradition and
modernity, and undergoing conflict between social realities and
traditional ideals.

18
 Kim Ok
 a Korean poet and included in the early modernism
movement of Korean poetry
 He wrote the first Korean collection of translation
from Western poetry “The Dance of Agony”.

19
 Yun Hunggil
 was a South Korean novelist who won the 1977 Korean
Literature Writers Award
 He wrote the classic novel “Changma” (The Rainy Spell) that
on a post-war family with two grandmothers and their shared
grandson.

20
 Pak Kyongni
 a South Korean poet and novelist
 She wrote the Korean’s masterpiece and
internationally acclaimed 21-volume epic novel
T’oji (“The Land”), wherein she chronicled the
violent Korean history from 1897 to 1945.

21
 JAPAN
LITERATURE

22
 JAPAN LITERATURE
 influenced by the Chinese language and Chinese literature
 has a world-renowned poetic genre called haiku ( a short descriptive poem with
17 syllables) and the diverse forms of theatre Noh (traditional Japanese
theatrical form and one of the oldest extant theatrical forms in the world) and
Kabuki (traditional Japanese popular drama with singing and dancing performed
in a highly stylized manner
 reflects simple yet complex, imperfect yet abounding with beauty – the
traditional Japanese cultural identity

23
 Abe Kobo
 Japanese novelist and playwright and also known by the pseudonym of
Abe Kimifusa
 wrote the best-known play "Tomodachi" (Friends) which is a story, with
dark humor, reveals the relationship with the other, and exposes the
peculiarity of human relations in the present age."
 won the 1967 Akutagawa Award. He also won the 1951 Akutagawa
Award for his short novel Kabe (“The Wall”).

24
 Kimitake Hiraoka
 “Mishima Yukio”, the most important Japanese novelist of the 20th
century
 He wrote the novel “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion”, translated into
the English language by Ivan Morris, based on the burning of the
Reliquary (or Golden Pavilion) of Kinkaku-Ji in Kyoto by a young
Buddhist acolyte in 1950.

25
 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
 Father of the Japanese short story
 wrote the short story “Rashomon” that recounts the encounter between a servant
and an old woman in the dilapidated Rashōmon, the southern gate of the then-
ruined city of Kyoto, where unclaimed corpses were sometimes dumped. The
Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s premier literary award was named after him to honor
his memory after he died by committing suicide.

26
 Haruki Murakami
 was a Japanese novelist who won the international award Jerusalem
Prize
 “Hear The Wind Sing” featured episodes in the life of an unnamed
protagonist and his friend, the Rat, who hang out at a bar. The unnamed
protagonist reminisces and muses about life and intimacy. Murakami’s
work has been translated into more than fifty languages.

27
MIDDLE
EAST
MIDDLE EAST
LITERATURE

29
 MIDDLE EAST LITERATURE
 Islam is the foundation of culture in this region
 Its literary tradition has grown and influenced others like Persian,
Byzantine, and Andalusian traditions
 influenced others like Persian, Byzantine, and Andalusian traditions
 issue of freedom of expression and the tension between religious and
secular movements

30
 Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad
 Egyptian poet, journalist, and literary critic, an innovator of the 20th-
century Arabic poetry and criticism
 became famous for his Abqariyat series, a seven-book compilation that
covers the life of seven of the most important Sahabah (the disciples and
followers of Muhammad).

31
 Taha Hussein
 Egyptian novelist, essayist, critic, and an outstanding figure in Egyptian
literature
 “The Dean of Arabic Literature”
 The Days”, one of the most popular works of modern Arabic literature
that deals with his childhood in a small village, then his studies in Egypt
and France.

32
 Ali Ahmad Said Esber
 “Adonis” as his pseudonym
 award-winning Syrian-born Lebanese poet, literary critic, and is a leader
of the modernist movement in contemporary Arabic poetry
 Example: “First Poems” and “Leaves in the Wind”.

33
 Ali Ahmad Said Esber
 “Adonis” as his pseudonym
 award-winning Syrian-born Lebanese poet, literary critic, and is a leader
of the modernist movement in contemporary Arabic poetry
 Example: “First Poems” and “Leaves in the Wind”.

34
 Etgar Keret
 Israeli writer known for his short stories, graphic novels,
and scriptwriting for film and television
 Example: 2019 Fly Already (“Glitch at the Edge of the
Galaxy”)

35
 Most Essential Texts for Reading:
Last Simile (poem) Abid B Al-Abras
Lāmiyyāt ‘al-Arab (poem) Al-Shanfarā
That Smell and Notes from Prison (novel) Sonallah Ibrahim
Cities of Salt (novel) Abdul Rahman Munif
The People of the Cave (novel) Tawfiq al-Hakim
A Love Poem (poem) Umm Khalid
Annumairiyya
Bin Barka Ally (novel) I Am The One Who Mahmoud Saeed
Saw (Saddam City)(novel)
A Thousand Splendid Sun (novel) Khaled Hosseini

36
 SOUTH/
SOUTHEAST
ASIA
 INDIAN LITERATURE
 cultural giant over South Asia
 Veda, the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads are the roots of Indian literature
 Kalidasa is a notable and famous Indian writer considered to be the Hindu
Shakespeare
 possess the influences of Buddhist, Thai, and English cultures, especially in
Burma literature
 presents themes on colonial and postcolonial experiences in Burmese literature
and western literature influences in Thailand literature.

38
 BHASA
 one of the earliest and most celebrated Indian playwrights in Sanskrit,
predating Kalidasa
 Bhāsa had previously only been known from mentions in other works,
like the Kavyamimamsa on poetics from 880–920 AD. In the
Kavyamimamsa, Rajashekhara attributes the play Swapnavasavadattam
 to Bhāsa

39
 CHANAKYA
 ancient Indian teacher, philosopher, economist, jurist and royal advisor
 traditionally identified as Kauṭilya or Vishnugupta who authored the ancient
Indian political treatise, the Arthashastra
 pioneer of the field of political science and economics in India, and his work is
thought of as an important precursor to classical economics
 Two books are attributed to Chanakya: Arthashastra,[44] and Chanakya Niti, also
known as Chanakya Neeti-shastra.

40
 VISHNU SHARMA
 Indian scholar and author who is believed to have written the 
Panchatantra, a collection of fablesIndian scholar and author who is
believed to have written the Panchatantra, a collection of fables

41
 VALMIKI
 harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature
 The epic Ramayana, dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first
century BCE is attributed to him
 revered as Ādi Kavi, the first poet, author of Ramayana, the first epic
poem.

42
 KRISHNA DVAIPAYANA
 known as Vyasa or Veda Vyasa
 legendary sage portrayed in the Hindu epic Mahabharata
 also regarded by tradition as the arranger of the mantras of the Vedas, as well as
the author of the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma Sutras.

43
 RABINDRANATH TAGORE
 Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and
painter
 “The Bard of Bengal”
 towering figure of world literature and the most famous modern Indian poet
 Examples: English Gitanjali or Song Offerings - a volume of poetry which is a
collection of devotional songs to the supreme.

44
 RAJA RAO
 Indian writer of novels and short stories in the English language
 “The Serpent and the Rope”, a semi-autobiographical account of the
narrator, a young intellectual Brahman, and his wife seeking spiritual
truth in India, France, and England, recognized him as one of the fines
Indian prose Stylists.

45
 RASIPURAM KRISHNASWAMI
NARAYAN (R. K. NARAYAN)
 One of the finest Indian authors in the English language
 wrote the Sahitya Award-winning novel “The Guide” which was adapted for
film and for Broadway
 It was based on the fictional town in South India and describes the
transformation of the protagonist from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and one
of the greatest holy men of India.

46
 CHART KORBJITTI
 most successful Thai writer
 recognized by his publication of his novel Khamphiphaksa (The
Judgment)
 National Artist in Literature (2004)

47
 NGUYEN DU
 best-loved poet and the father of Vietnamese literature
 known for his epic poem “The Tale of Kieu” that recounts the life, trials, and
tribulations of Thuy Kieu, a beautiful and talented young woman, who has to
sacrifice herself to save her family. She sells herself into marriage with a
middleaged man, not knowing that he is a pimp, and is forced into prostitution.

48
 TENGKU AMIR HAMZAH
 Indonesian poet and National Hero of Indonesia
 Nyangi Sunyi” is considered the most developed and shows the theme
of God and His relationship to humanity, fate, dissatisfaction, and
escape
 only Indonesian poet recognized internationally.

49
MOST ESSENTIAL TEXTS FOR READING:
In Custody (novel) Anita Desai
The Gods of Small Things (novel) Arundhati Roy
The Folded Earth (novel) Anuradha Roy
The Feather of the Dawn (poety) Sarojini Naidu Subrahmanyam
(The Nightingale of India)
The Caged Ones (novel) Ludu U Hla
A Crazy Man's Shoulder Bag (anecdote) Hmawbi Saya Thein
Working Elephants (Essay) Kyi Aye
The General Retires and Other Stories Nguyen Huy Thiep
(short story)

50
CENTRAL
ASIA
 CENTRAL ASIA LITERATURE
 has different literary characteristics and political in culture.
 Russian influence continues to be present in Central Asia
literature

52
 ABDULLAH QODIRIY
“Julqunboy” pseudonym
 one of the most influential Uzbek writers of the 20th century and Soviet
playwright, poet, writer, and literary translator
 His most famous work is the historical novel O’tgan kunlar (Days Gone
By), the first Uzbek full-length novel.

53
 MUKHTAR AUEZ-ULI
 early Soviet Kazakh writer
 won recognition for the long novel “Abay” which is based
on the life and poetry of Kunanbay-uli.

54
 CHINGIZ AYTMATOV
 a Soviet and Kyrgyz author and the best-known figure in Kyrgyz and Russian
literature
 “Jamila”, his first major novel was told from the viewpoint of a fictional
character that tells the story by looking back on his childhood
 The story recounts the love between his new sister-in-law Jamilya and a local
crippled young man, Daniyar, while Jamilya's husband, Sadyk, is "away at the
front" (as a Soviet soldier during World War II).

55
AFRICA
 AFRICAN LITERATURE
 “Cradle of the humankind” has a literature that is filled with the human spirit,
desiring for freedom and contentment
 consists of oral tradition and written literature ranging from local languages
brought by the colonizers (English, Portuguese, and French)
 myths, stories, riddles, proverbs, and dramas document the exploits of the heroes
of the communities, remind the people about their culture and traditions,
entertain and educate the youth

57
 CHINUA ACHEBE
 Nigerian novelist, poet, critic, and professor
 His first novel and masterpiece, “Things Fall Apart”, is the most widely
read book in modern African literature. It concerns the traditional Igbo
life at the time of the advent of missionaries and the colonial
government in his homeland.

58
 WOLE SOYINKA
 first black African to be awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature
 “A Dance of the Forests” first important play which was written for the
Nigerian independence celebrations.
 It parodies the emerging nation by stripping it of romantic legend and
by showing that the present is no more a golden age than it was before.

59
 KOFI AWOONOR
Ghanian novelist and poet who wrote “This
Earth, My Brother”, a cross between a novel
and a poem

60
 NGUNGI WA THIONG’O
 East Africa’s leading novelist
 a Kenyan writer who wrote the famous novel “Weep Not,
Child”, the first major novel in English by an East African

61
 OKOT P’ BITEK
 Ugandan poet, novelist, and social anthropologist who
wrote the three verse collections – Song of Lawino
(1066), Song of Ocol (1970), and Two Song (1971)

62
 NADINE GORDIMER
 South African writer and the recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in
Literature
 Wrote the novel “The Conservationist”, a character study of a successful
South African industrial executive and, by extension, a critique of South
Africa.

63
 JACQUES RABEMANANJARA
 Malagasy playwright and poet and one of Madagascar’s most prominent writers
 wrote and published his play “Les dieux malgaches”, the first modern Malagasy
play in French. This play dealt with the pre-colonial past and with the coup that
unseated King Radama II in 1863.

64
 ES’KIA MPHAHLELE
 wrote the South African classic autobiography “Down Second Avenue”
about the story of a young man’s growth into adulthood with penetrating
social criticism of the conditions forced upon black South Africans by a
system of institutionalized racial segregation.

65
 THOMAS MOFOLO
 greatest writer from the Sotho people in Africa
 created the first Western-style novels in the Basotho language
 . His novel “Chaka” became a classic, a historical novel about the story
of the rise and fall of the Zulu king Shaka. Dennis P. Kunene translated
the novel from Sotho to English.

66
 Most Essential Texts for Reading:
The Invention of Africa : Gnosis, Philosophy and the Valentin-Yves Mudimbe
Order of Knowledge (essay)
The Cardinals (novel) Bessie Head
Striving for the Wind (novel) Meja Mwangi
The Famished Road (novel) Ben Okri
Season of Migration to the North (novel) Tayeb Salih
To Every Birth its Blood (novel) Mongane Serote
The Palm-Wide Drinkard (novel) Amos Tutuola
Nervous Conditions (novel) Tsitsi Dangarembga
Mission to Kala (novel) Mango Beti
Up in Arms (poetry) Chenjerai Hove
Tales of Amadou Koumba (fiction tales) Birago Diop
Muriel at Metropolitan (novel) Miriam Tlali

67
 LATIN
AMERICAN
LITERATURE
68
 LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE
 It refers to all works of literature in Latin American countries like Chile,
Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Colombia, and Peru.
 Latin American authors usually write in Spanish, Portuguese, English, or a
language native to their specific country. Latin American writers working
in the United States can be classified as writing Latin American literature
too.
 The Latin American wars of Independence that occurred in the early
nineteenth century in Latin America led to literary themes of identity,
resistance, and human rights.

69
 Surrealism
 an art form that combines
unrelated images or events in a
very strange and dreamlike way.
 It became a major influence in
Latin American Literature
throughout the 20th century.

70
 Pablo Neruda
 was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
 He wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist
poems, historical epics, overtly political
manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate
love poems such as the ones in his collection
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
(1924). He wrote Residence on Earth (1933), a
collection of poetry inspired by surrealism.

71
 Octavio Paz
 a Mexican poet, wrote
poems with surrealist
imagery. His major works
were published in
Freedom Under Parole
(1960).

72
 Jorge Luis Borges
 an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and
translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language
and international literature.
 His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El
Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are
compilations of short stories interconnected by
common themes, including dreams, labyrinths,
philosophers, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers,
and mythology.

73
 Alejo Carpentier
 a Cuban writer, wrote The
Kingdom of This World (1949), a
novel of the magic realism genre, in
which elements of fantasy or myth
are included matter-of-factly in
seemingly realistic fiction.

74
 Miguel Angel Asturias
 was a Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan poet-
diplomat, novelist, playwright and journalist.
 Asturias helped establish Latin American
literature's contribution to mainstream Western
culture, and at the same time drew attention to
the importance of indigenous cultures,
especially those of his native Guatemala. He
wrote the novel The President (1946).

75
 Most Essential Texts for Reading:
Twenty love poems and a desperate song Pablo Neruda
(poem collection)
One hundred years of Solitude (novel) Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The kingdom of this world (novel) Alejo Carpienter
Hopscotch (novel) Julio Coltazar
The House of Spirits (novel) Isabel Allende
The goat party (nove;) Mario Vargas Llosa

76