Comprehensive Study Guide to World Literature

African Literature

• Oral Traditions and Riddles:

  • African oral tradition includes riddles that are intended to display the questioner's imagination rather than to test the cleverness of the audience.

• Written Traditions:

  • African languages were originally only spoken, owing their written traditions to the influence of Muslim Arabs in East Africa.
  • East Africans first wrote using the Arabic script and later adopted the Roman alphabet.

• Swahili Literature:

  • Short poems in Swahili literature are not composed with lines, but are constructed out of continuing poetry containing one or two up-and-down rhythms.
  • Uhuru wa Jina (Freedom for the Slaves), published in 1934 by James Mbotela, was the first Swahili novel.

• Hausa Literature:

  • Islamic scholars living among local populations in North Africa were the first to compose Hausa poems using Arabic alphabets, referring to these works as religious poems.
  • Themes in Hausa poetry from this region generally revolve around the tension between Islamic ways and European culture and beliefs.

• Yoruba Literature:

  • Olodumare (The Forest of the Lord, 1947) by Chief D.O. Fagunawa represents work from one of Nigeria's most popular writers.
  • Yoruba literature also produced social novels written by Hubert Ogunde, as well as dramatic tragedies authored by Duro Lapido.

• Christian Influences and Other Language Literatures:

  • Christian texts became foundational models for most African languages that lacked an earlier written tradition.
  • Key translated spiritual works included the Bible, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and traditional Christian hymns.
  • Native populations were taught the English language by converted Africans.
  • In 1906, Thomas Mofolo of Lesotho published the first Christian-inspired novel, titled Moeletsi oa Bochabela (Traveler of the East).
  • Thomas Mofolo's third novel, Chaka, written in 1925 in the Sesotho language, was originally produced in a missionary press. It had to be rewritten and edited by missionaries to make it acceptable, after which it was strongly disapproved by the publishers. From that point on, African writers had to adjust their writings to suit not only their local readers but also religious influences.

• French-Language Literature and Negritude:

  • French colonizers imposed their culture on native populations and brought African scholars to study at universities in France.
  • Scholars realized that no foreign culture could replace their own, leading them to compose poems expressing longings for Africa and anger regarding the loss of their national identity.
  • This movement gained recognition in the 1930s as "negritude," defined as a celebration of blackness and African traditions.
  • In 1960, a poet who became the first president of Senegal utilized black as a symbol of natural life rather than death.

• Portuguese-Language Literature:

  • Portuguese-language literature during this period was written by the Portuguese due to prevailing racial discrimination and the harsh conditions faced by black laborers.

• English-Language Literature:

  • Around the 18th century, freed slaves who had settled in England and America wrote poetry about their race and country while expressing love for European and Christian values.
  • In 1911, Ethiopia Unbound by Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford of Ghana was published in English, marking the first African novel written in English.
  • Popular short stories established a standard West African niche market.
  • Amos Tutuola was the first Nigerian writer to achieve international recognition by rewriting Yoruban folklore in the English language. Lacking formal education, he relied directly on Yoruba oral tradition rather than standard English structures.
  • Chinua Achebe is recognized as the most widely read African novelist, making vast contributions toward global understanding of African literature. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, is described as Africa's literary giant, uncovering the story of Okonkwo from the Igbo tribe, who struggled against his own folks and European missionaries.

European Literature

• Overview:

  • European literature, also known as Western Literature, represents the largest body of literature in the world.
  • It encompasses works written in Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Greek, Romance languages, and Russian.

• Latin Literature:

  • Marcus Tullius Cicero ($106\text{ BCE} - 43\text{ BCE}$): The greatest Roman orator. He used Latin as a literary medium to clearly express abstract and complicated concepts in his speeches, one of his most well-known being Pro Cluentio.
  • Virgil ($70\text{ BCE} - 19\text{ BCE}$): The greatest Roman poet, best known for his epic poem Aeneid. In this epic, the protagonist embarks on a journey in search of the land he is destined to build, which will become the Roman Empire.

• Greek Literature:

  • Homer: Renowned for the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, which chronicle the heroic achievements of Achilles and Odysseus, respectively.
  • Sophocles ($496\text{ BCE} - 406\text{ BCE}$): Tragic playwright known for Oedipus, the King, a work that marks the highest level of achievement in Greek drama.

• Italian Literature:

  • Francesco Petrarch ($1304 - 1374$): Perfected the Italian sonnet, which served as a major influence on European poetry. His vernacular sonnets were published in Canzoniere.
  • Giovanni Boccaccio ($1313 - 1375$): Authored Decameron, a classic Italian masterpiece written in the vernacular.

• Spanish Literature:

  • Key Spanish literary figures include Miguel de Cervantes ($1500 - 1681$) and Lope de Vega.
  • Miguel de Cervantes wrote the novel Don Quixote, which is among the most widely read works in Western literature. The titular character's name serves as the origin for the word "quixotic," meaning hopeful or romantic in an impractical manner.

• French Literature:

  • Gustave Flaubert: Novelist who exerted a major influence on the realist school. His masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), marked the beginning of a new age of realism.
  • Guy de Maupassant: Considered the greatest French short story writer. As a naturalist, he wrote objective stories that represented a "slice of life," famously exemplified by his short story "The Necklace."

• Russian Literature:

  • Leo Tolstoy: A master of realistic fiction considered one of the world's greatest novelists. Famous for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, as well as his short story God Sees the Truth but Waits.
  • Anton Chekhov: A master of the modern short story and a Russian playwright. His works, including The Bet and The Misfortune, display his clinical approach to society.

• English Literature:

  • Refers to the full body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles and Ireland from the 7th century to the present day.
  • Beowulf: An epic poem recounting the story of the hero Beowulf, who saves the Danes from a monster and its mother. He later succeeds the king, rules the kingdom, and dies protecting his people from a fire-breathing dragon.
  • The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer: A novel compiling stories told by pilgrims from all walks of life, including a miller, prioress, monk, merchant, man of law, scholar, doctor, franklin, parson, reeve, pardoner, wife of Bath, and others. The narrative depicts a complete picture of the medieval era, when pilgrimages were undertaken for religious purposes.
  • William Shakespeare (referred to as the "Bard of Avon"): Considered the English national poet and the greatest dramatist of all time. He penned at least 154 sonnets (14-line poems with formal rhyme schemes). Works featuring ten syllables per line include On His Mistress, Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello, while his comedies include Julius Caesar, Cymbeline, The Tempest, and The Taming of the Shrew.
  • "How Do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: One of the most frequently quoted love poems, typically interpreted as a dedication to her husband, Robert Browning.

Latin American Literature

• Overview:

  • Latin American literature encompasses all literary works produced within Latin American culture across regions such as Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, and Guatemala.

• The Vanguardia:

  • The Vanguardia (avant-garde) movement occurred in Latin America between approximately 1916 and 1930, uniting several distinct literary movements:
  • Modernismo: Introduced by the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro.
  • Ultraismo: Founded by the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges.
  • Creacionismo: Founded in Mexico City by the Mexican writer Manuel Maples Arce.
  • Surrealism: Initiated in Argentina when the Argentinean poet Aldo Pellegrini launched the first Surrealist magazine.

• Surrealism and Magic Realism:

  • Surrealism is an art form that combines unrelated events or objects in a dreamlike and strange manner; it served as a major influence on 20th-century Latin American literature.
  • Pablo Neruda: Chilean poet who won acclaim for Residence on Earth, a poetry collection deeply inspired by surrealism.
  • Octavio Paz: Mexican poet who composed poems featuring surrealist imagery, publishing his major work in Piedra de Sol.
  • Jorge Luis Borges: Celebrated for his fantastic stories, which were later published together in a collection titled Ficciones.
  • Alejo Carpentier: Cuban writer who wrote The Kingdom of This World, a novel belonging to the magic realism genre, wherein mythic or fantastical elements are incorporated matter-of-factly into realistic fiction.
  • Miguel Angel Asturias: Guatemalan author of the novel The President. This novel, alongside Carpentier's work, introduced magic realism to the literary landscape.

• Boom Novels:

  • Modernist novels that emerged during the second half of the 20th century, displaying traits distinct from earlier regionalist writers.
  • Regionalist writers utilized "local color," which refers to detailed, interesting information about a specific place or culture.
  • Representative Boom works include:
  • The Death of Artemio Cruz by the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes.
  • Hopscotch by the Argentinean fictionist Julio Cortázar.
  • The Time of the Hero by the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa.
  • One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez.

• Post-Boom Literature:

  • Post-Boom literature prominently featured female authors who published major works during the final twenty years of the 20th century:
  • Isabel Allende (Chilean writer): Authored House of Spirits.
  • Diamela Eltit (Chilean writer): Authored E. Luminata.
  • Luisa Valenzuela (Argentinean writer): Authored Black Novel with Argentines.