Literature

LITERATURE A WORLD HISTORY

An exploration of the history of the world’s literatures and the many varieties of literary expression

Literature: A World Historyencompasses all the world’s major literary traditions, emphasizing the interrelationship of local and national cultures over time. Spanning global literature from the beginnings of recorded history to the present day, this expansive four-volume set examines the many varieties of the world’s literatures in their social and intellectual contexts. Its four volumes are devoted to literature before 200 CE, from 200 to 1500, from 1500 to 1800, and from 1800 to 2000, with four dozen contributors providing new insights into the art of literature, and addressing the situation of literature in the world today.

Organized throughout in six broad regions—Africa, the Americas, East Asia, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, and West and Central Asia—Literature: A World History offers readers a clear and consistent treatment of diverse forms of literary expression across time and place. Throughout the text, particular emphasis is placed on literary institutions within different regional and linguistic cultures and on the relations between literature and a spectrum of social, political, and religious contexts.

• Features work by an international panel of leading scholars from around the globe, in Africa, the Middle East, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and the United States
• Provides a balanced overview of national and global literature from all major regions of the world from antiquity to the present
• Highlights the specificity of regional and local cultures throughout much of literary history, together with cross-cutting essays on topics such as different writing systems, court cultures, and utopias

Literature: A World History is an invaluable reference work for undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars looking for a wide-ranging overview of global literary history.

Eine umfassende Darstellung der Geschichte der Weltliteratur und der vielfältigen literarischen Ausdrucksformen

In Literature: A World History werden alle wesentlichen literarischen Traditionen der Welt behandelt, wobei insbesondere auf die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen lokalen und nationalen Kulturen im Zeitverlauf eingegangen wird. Das umfangreiche vierbändige Werk betrachtet die Weltliteratur vom Beginn der geschichtlichen Aufzeichnung bis heute mit den zahlreichen Eigenheiten der Literaturen in ihrem jeweiligen gesellschaftlichen und geistesgeschichtlichen Kontext. Die vier Bände befassen sich mit der Literatur vor dem Jahr 200 n. Chr., von 200 bis 1500 n. Chr., von 1500 bis 1800 n. Chr. und von 1800 n. Chr. bis zum Jahr 2000. Dabei geben rund vierzig Autorinnen und Autoren neue Einblicke in die Kunst der Literatur und erörtern die Lage der Literatur in der heutigen Welt.

In Literature: A World History wird die Welt in sechs Regionen ? Afrika, Nord- und Südamerika, Ostasien, Europa, Süd- und Südostasien mit Ozeanien sowie West- und Zentralasien ? unterteilt, um den Leserinnen und Lesern die verschiedenen literarischen Ausdrucksweisen abhängig von Zeit und Ort übersichtlich und in einheitlicher Form nahezubringen. Dabei wird durchgängig besonders auf literarische Institutionen in den verschiedenen regionalen und sprachlichen Kulturen sowie auf die Beziehungen zwischen Literatur und einem Spektrum gesellschaftlicher, politischer und religiöser Hintergründe eingegangen.
* Mit Beiträgen einer internationalen Gruppe führender Wissenschaftler aus aller Welt, die in Afrika, dem Nahen Osten, Süd- und Ostasien, Australien und Neuseeland, Europa und den USA tätig sind
* Ein ausgewogener Überblick über die nationale und globale Literatur aus allen wichtigen Regionen der Welt von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart
* Hervorhebung der Besonderheiten regionaler und lokaler Kulturen in weiten Teilen der Literaturgeschichte sowie übergreifende Essays zu Themen wie unterschiedlichen Schriftsystemen, Hofkultur und Utopien

Literature: A World History ist ein äußerst wertvolles Referenzwerk für Studierende und Doktoranden sowie für Forschende, die sich einen umfassenden Überblick über die globale Literaturgeschichte verschaffen möchten.

Contents

Full Table of Contents vii

Timeline xi

Contributors to Volume 1 lix

General Introduction: Literature, History, World lxiii

Anders Pettersson and David Damrosch, with the collective of editors

Reflections on the Idea of Literaturelxiii

About Literature: A World Historylxxviii

Introduction to Volume 1: The World before 200 ce 1

Anders Pettersson

1 East Asia7

Zhang Longxi, Bruce Fulton, and Gunilla Lindberg-Wada

Introduction: East Asia as a Region7

Chinese Literature9

Poetry in Pre-Qin China9

Prose Works in Pre-Qin China17

The Literature of the Han Dynasty20

The Literature of the Jian-an Period (196–220)27

2 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania30

Harish Trivedi, Harry Aveling, Teri Yamada, and Susan Najita

Introduction30

South Asia31

The Vedas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads 31

The Great Epics44

Collections of Tales48

Early Tamil Literature54

Southeast Asia57

Oceania58

3 Worlds Apart: Comparing Literary Traditions before the Global Age62

Wiebke Denecke

4 West and Central Asia 79

As ad E. Khairallah, David Damrosch, and Bo Utas

Introduction79

The Ancient Near East82

The Invention of Writing82

What Was Literature?87

The First Patron of Literature95

The Bible as Literature? 98

Iran101

5 Africa107

Karin Barber, Biodun Jeyifo, Eileen Julien, and Steve Vinson

Introduction107

Ancient Egypt 108

Language, Script, and “Literature”108

Ancient Egyptian Genres110

Orality 123

6 Writing Systems and Cultural Memory128

David Damrosch

7 Europe141

Anders Pettersson

Introduction141

Ancient Greece146

Greek Epic and Lyric Poetry146

Classical Greek Drama 157

Classical Greek Prose167

Literature in Greek, 300 bce–200 ce 174

Ancient Rome180

Latin Literature before 100 bce 180

First-century bce Latin Poetry and Prose184

Latin Literature during the First Two Centuries ce 201

Writing, Reading, and Literary Thought in Greco-Roman Culture206

Concluding Remarks: Greco-Roman Literary Culture in a Wider Perspective209

8 The Americas214

Djelal Kadir, Quentin Youngberg, Albert Braz, and Donatella Izzo

9 Literatures before 200 ce: Concluding Remarks222

Anders Pettersson

Full Table of Contents

Volume 1: Before 200 ce

Timeline xi

Contributors to Volume 1 lix

General Introduction: Literature, History, World lxiii

Introduction to Volume 1: The World before 200 ce 1

1 East Asia 7

2 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania30

3 Worlds Apart: Comparing Literary Traditions before the Global Age62

4 West and Central Asia 79

5 Africa 107

6 Writing Systems and Cultural Memory 128

7 Europe 141

8 The Americas 214

9 Literatures before 200 ce: Concluding Remarks222

VOLUME 2: 200–1500

Contributors to Volume 2 ix

Introduction to Volume 2: Peoples, Languages, and Literatures between 200 and 1500 ce 229

1 East Asia 235

2 Court Literature in East Asia and Europe 345

3 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania 355

4 Animal Stories in South Asia and Europe 426

5 West and Central Asia 433

6 Alexander the Great in Medieval Literature 527

7 Africa 542

8 The Circum-Mediterranean Scene in the First Centuries of the Second Millennium – Mirrored in the Works of Ramon Llull 589

9 Europe 596

10 Christian and Islamic Mysticism 670

11 The Americas 683

VOLUME 3: 1500–1800

Contributors to Volume 3 ix

Introduction to Volume 3: Literature of the World between 1500 and 1800 697

1 East Asia 705

2 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania 754

3 West and Central Asia 813

4 Africa 862

5 Europe 892

6 The Americas 977

7 Utopia and Anti-Utopia in the Literary World 1016

VOLUME 4: 1800–2000

Contributors to Volume 4 ix

Introduction to Volume 4: Literature of the World between 1800 and 2000 1029

1 East Asia 1034

2 South and Southeast Asia 1091

3 Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand 1179

4 West and Central Asia 1221

5 Africa 1322

6 Europe 1413

7 The Americas 1517

Index 1547

General Editor

David Damrosch, Harvard University
Gunilla Lindberg-Wada, Stockholm University

Volume Editor
Anders Pettersson, Umeå University

Regional Editors

Africa: Eileen Julien, Indiana University Bloomington
The Americas: Djelal Kadir, Pennsylvania State University
East Asia: Zhang Longxi, City University of Hong Kong
Europe: Anders Pettersson, Umeå University
South and Southeast Asia and Oceania: Harish Trivedi, University of Delhi
West and Central Asia: As²ad E. Khairallah, The American University of Beirut

An exploration of the history of the world’s literatures and the many varieties of literary expression

Literature: A World History encompasses all the world’s major literary traditions, emphasizing the interrelationship of local and national cultures over time. Spanning global literature from the beginnings of recorded history to the present day, this expansive four-volume set examines the many varieties of the world’s literatures in their social and intellectual contexts. Its four volumes are devoted to literature before 200 CE, from 200 to 1500, from 1500 to 1800, and from 1800 to 2000, with four dozen contributors providing new insights into the art of literature, and addressing the situation of literature in the world today.

Organized throughout in six broad regions—Africa, the Americas, East Asia, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, and West and Central Asia—Literature: A World History offers readers a clear and consistent treatment of diverse forms of literary expression across time and place. Throughout the text, particular emphasis is placed on literary institutions within different regional and linguistic cultures and on the relations between literature and a spectrum of social, political, and religious contexts.

• Features work by an international panel of leading scholars from around the globe, in Africa, the Middle East, South and East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and the United States
• Provides a balanced overview of national and global literature from all major regions of the world from antiquity to the present
• Highlights the specificity of regional and local cultures throughout much of literary history, together with cross-cutting essays on topics such as different writing systems, court cultures, and utopias

Literature: A World History is an invaluable reference work for undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars looking for a wide-ranging overview of global literary history.