Chinese Literature

I. INTRODUCTION

Two distinct traditions exist in Chinese literature: the literary and the vernacular,

or colloquial. The latter can be traced back more than a thousand years before the

Christian era and has existed almost continuously until modern times. Consisting

originally of poetry and later of drama and fiction, it grew to include histories and

popular stories and tales, as well. Folk, or vernacular, literature was long considered

beneath the notice of members of the scholar-official class, who were the arbiters of

literary taste. Their own polished and highly stylized writings set the standards for the

orthodox literary tradition that began about 2000 years ago. Not until the 20th century did

colloquial literature gain the support and esteem of the intellectual class.

Chinese literature may be divided into three major historical periods that roughly

correspond to those of Western literary history: the classical period, from the 6th century

BC through the 2nd century AD; the medieval period, from the 3rd century to the late

12th century; and the modern period, from the 13th century to the present.

II. CLASSICAL PERIOD

The oldest examples of Chinese writing are inscriptions on bones and tortoise-

shells, dating probably from the 14th century BC. The inscriptions represent divinations

performed for the kings of the Shang dynasty (1766?-1027? BC), the earliest confirmed

dynasty. Although not literature in the strictest sense, they represent the earliest

specimens of Chinese script, which became the vehicle for all subsequent Chinese

literature.

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The classical period in Chinese literature corresponds to the same period in Greek

and Roman literature. The formative stages took place during the 6th to the 4th century

BC, at the time of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (1027?-256 BC). This period encompassed

the work of Confucius (Kongfuzi, or K'ung Fu-tzu), Mencius (Mengzi, or Meng-tzu),

Laozi (Lao-tzu), Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu ), and many other great Chinese philosophers. It

culminated in the compilation of the Five Classics, or Confucian Classics, and other

philosophical treatises. In the following centuries of the classical period, the Confucian

canon was fixed, and Confucianism became the orthodox teaching, establishing a

classical tradition that was to last until the present century.

A. Poetry

The most important poetic work produced during the classical period was the Shi

Jing (Shih Ching, Book of Poetry), an anthology of ancient poems written in four-word

verses and composed mostly between the 10th and the 7th centuries BC. The Shi Jing is

classified as the third of the Five Classics; legend has it that Confucius himself selected

and edited the 305 poems that constitute the work. Instead of glorifying gods and heroes,

as was the custom of other cultures, many of these poems sing of the daily life of the

peasants, their sorrows and joys, their occupations and festivities. These poems mark the

beginning of the vernacular tradition in Chinese poetry and are characterized by

simplicity of language and emotion. They make up about one-half of the book. The other

half of the Shi Jing is made up of dynastic songs and court poems. These songs and

poems give a colorful picture of the life and manners of the Chinese feudal nobility, just

as the folk poems depict the simple and yet bountiful life of the peasantry. The court

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poems were originally sung to music and accompanied by dance; Chinese poetry and

music were closely linked from earliest times.

The aristocratic, or court, style finds its best expression, however, in a group of

poems known as the elegies of Chu (Ch'u). A feudal state in south-central China, Chu

was the home of Qu Yuan (Ch' Yan), the first great Chinese poet. A noble by birth, Qu

Yuan wrote Li Sao (On Encountering Sorrow), a long, autobiographical poem full of

historical allusions, allegories, and similes, lyrically expressed and concerned with the

intimate revelation of a poetic soul tormented because it has failed in its search for a

beautiful ideal. Other poems by Qu Yuan are equally rich in images and sentiment, and

they form a body of romantic poetry entirely different from the simple, realistic poetry of

the Shi Jing.

During the 400 years of the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220) the romantic and

realistic modes developed into schools of poetry with many followers. The verses of Qu,

which were irregular in form, initiated a new literary genre, the fu, or prose poem.

Chinese poetry was further enriched by the folk songs collected by the Music Bureau

(Yuefu, or Yeh-fu), an institution founded about the 2nd century BC.

B. Prose

The seminal works of Chinese prose are those that, with the Shi Jing, constitute

the Five Classics. These are the Yi Jing (I Ching, Book of Changes), a divination text; the

Shu Jing (Shu Ching, Book of History), a collection of ancient state documents; the Li Ji

(Li Chi, Book of Rites), a collection of ritual and governmental codes; and the Chunqiu

(Spring and Autumn Annals), a history of the state of Lu from 722 to 481BC. From the

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6th to the 3rd century BC, the first great works of Chinese philosophy appeared.

Foremost are the Analects of Confucius, aphoristic sayings compiled by his disciples; the

eloquent disputations of Mencius, a Confucian scholar; the Daode Jing (Tao-te Ching,

Classic of the Way and Its Virtue), attributed to Laozi, the founder of Daoism; and the

high-spirited essays of Zhuangzi, the other great Daoist philosopher. Also important, for

their prose style as well as their philosophic import, are the essays of Mozi (Mo-tzu),

Xunzi (Hsn-tzu) and Han Fei (Han Fei-tzu). The Shi Ji (Shih Chi, Records of the

Historian) of Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch'ien), a monumental work dealing with all Chinese

history up to the Han dynasty, provided the pattern for a long series of dynastic histories

compiled over a period of about 2000 years. In political and moral philosophy, the

Confucian scholars also set the precedent for the literary tradition in Chinese prose, and a

standard literary language was adopted, which gradually became divorced from the

spoken language. In this period of the Han rulers, the scholars were incorporated into the

state bureaucracy. Appointments to all important official positions were based on mastery

of the Confucian Classics. This practice continued with few interruptions until the 20th

century AD and hardened the literary tradition into a national cult.

III. MEDIEVAL PERIOD

From the beginning of the medieval period in the 3rd century AD until the 7th

century, China was not only divided into warring states but suffered invasions by Tatar

tribes as well. Nevertheless, these centuries in China were by no means as barren of

literary production as was the corresponding period in the history of western Europe

known as the Dark Ages. The spread of Buddhism from India, the invention of printing,

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and the flowering of poetry and prose illuminated the entire period and made it one of the

most brilliant in Chinese literary history.

A. Poetry

During periods of social and political upheaval, from the 3rd to the 7th century,

poets found refuge and consolation in nature. Some were hermits who created a so-called

field-and-garden school of poetry; others produced some of the best Chinese folk lyrics,

such as the love poems attributed to Ziye (Tzu-yeh), a woman poet who wrote the Ballad

of Mulan, celebrating the adventures of a woman soldier disguised as a man; and The

Peacock Flew to the Southeast, a long narrative of tragic family love, written in plain but

vivid language. The greatest poet of these troubled centuries was Tao Qian (T'ao Ch'ien,

also known as Tao Yuanming, or T'ao Yan-ming), who excelled in writing of the joys of

nature and the solitary life. His Peach Blossom Fountain became the classic expression of

the poet's search for a utopia.

The greatest Chinese poetry was created during the Tang (Tang) dynasty (618-

907), a period of general peace and prosperity ending in a decline. Despite the passage of

more than ten centuries, as many as 49,000 Tang poems by 2200 poets have survived.

The three most famous poets were Wang Wei, Li Bo (Li Po), and Du Fu (Tu Fu). They

started their lives in the early splendor of the Tang era but lived through the subsequent

troubled years of war and rebellion. Wang Wei, a meditative philosopher and painter with

Buddhist inclinations, depicted the serenity of nature's beauty; it has been said that poetry

is in his pictures and pictures are in his poems. Li Bo, a leader of the romantic school,

rebelled against poetic conventions, as he did against society in general. Passionate and

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unruly, he embraced the realm of the immortals, whence, he claimed, he had been exiled

to this world. Li Bo was at his best when he sang of love and friendship; of the delights of

wine; and of the strange, majestic, and awe-inspiring aspects of nature. His friend and

rival Du Fu, on the other hand, was conscientious and painstaking in his efforts to

achieve startling realism. A humanitarian and historian, Du Fu recorded faithfully and

intimately his worldly attachments, his family affections, and an infinite love for

humanity, as well as the injustices of the age. The realism of Du Fu's work influenced

another Tang poet, Bo Juyi (Po Ch-i), who viewed poetry as a vehicle for criticism and

satire. This moralistic tendency, developed in succeeding centuries by other poets, was

broadened to include didactic and philosophical disquisitions. In general, however,

Chinese poetry was essentially lyrical.

Rhyme had always been an essential part of Chinese poetry, but verse forms did

not become well established until the Tang poets. The typical poem of the Tang period

was in the so-called shi form, characterized by the five-word or seven-word line, with the

rhyme usually falling on the even lines. The shi verse form evolved from the four-word

verse of the Shi Jing.

The Tang period also produced a new poetic form called the ci (tz'u). Although

each ci may have lines of varying length, the number of lines, as well as their length, is

fixed according to a definite rhyming and tonal pattern. The writing of ci, which is

somewhat analogous to putting new words to popular melodies, requires a great deal of

skill. The melodies employed were usually of foreign origin.

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During the Song (Sung) dynasty (960-1279) the ci reached its greatest popularity.

Initially the trend was toward longer ci, written to be sung to popular tunes and

commonly dealing with themes of love, courtesans, or music. Su Dongpo (Su Tung-po,),

the best-known ci poet of China, liberated the ci from the rigid forms that music had

imposed on it and introduced more virile subjects. In the 11th century more and more

nonmusical ci were written, that is, ci written with no intention that they would be sung.

In the late 11th to the 13th century, however, the tradition of writing musical ci was

revived. The great Chinese poet Li Qingzhao (Li Ch'ing-chao) is renowned for ci

concerning her widowhood.

B. Prose

Chinese prose also prospered in the Tang dynasty. Chief among the Tang prose

masters was Han Yu, who advocated a return to simple and straightforward writing in the

classical style, as a reaction to the artificial prose of his time. As a result of Han Yu's

efforts, political and philosophical treatises, informal essays, and tales of the marvelous

were all written in the neoclassical style. The latter represent some of the early specimens

of Chinese literary fiction.

The first group of tales written in the vernacular tradition appeared in the Tang

period. In an attempt to spread their religion, Buddhist preachers wrote stories for the

common people in colloquial language and evolved a form of narrative known as

bianwen, sometimes translated as "popularization," which marked the beginning of

popular fiction in China.

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In the 11th century, although few examples of the ancient tradition of storytelling

had been preserved, a revival of interest in the art took place, and it was practiced with

much skill during the Song dynasty (960-1279), a period of spectacular literary

achievement. During this medieval period, storytelling became a popular form of

entertainment. The stories told by the professional entertainers, each of whom specialized

in a certain type, not only were written down but also were printed in storybooks, called

huaben, which later inspired the longer novels of China.

In the literary tradition, the revival of the terse classical style initiated by Han Yu

was carried on during the Song dynasty by Ouyang Xiu (Ou-yang Hsiu) and Su Xun (Su

Hsn), among others. The former is distinguished for his essays on Confucian philosophy,

politics, and history, but he is better known for his breathtaking descriptions of the

landscapes of China. Su Xun's witty essays were generally regarded as the ultimate in

classical stylistic accomplishment.

Miming, singing, and dancing had existed from ancient times, but the drama

proper did not develop until the later Middle Ages. As early as the Tang period, however,

actors had been prominent among the popular entertainers and were organized into

professional companies that performed in theaters built to accommodate as many as

several thousand people.

IV. MODERN PERIOD

The modern period began in the 13th century and continues in the present.

Initially, it was characterized by a vigorous vernacular literature that preceded by several

centuries the appearance of modern colloquial literatures in the West. The growth of

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Chinese fiction and drama during the Yuan (Yan or Mongol) dynasty (1279-1368) may

have been the result of the refusal of many scholars to serve the Mongol regime; instead

they turned their talents to new fields, such as fiction and drama. Vernacular literature

continued to develop through the modern period, until it finally coalesced with a new and

more inclusive literary movement in the early years of the 20th century.

Since the 13th century Chinese drama has followed a pattern of local

development, with the most popular of local dramas acquiring national importance. The

Yuan drama, a creation of northern China, relies on northern dialect in dialogue and song.

The lute is the chief instrument used, and the songs, which constitute the poetic portion of

the play and are generally considered more important than the dialogues, are written in

the qu (ch'), a new poetic form more flexible and expressive than the previously

mentioned shi of the Han period and the ci of the Tang period. A Yuan play has four

parts, corresponding to the four acts of a Western play; often an additional short act that

serves as a prelude and sometimes as an interlude is added.

In the 14th century the art of vernacular fiction reached a new height in China.

Two of the earliest Chinese novels of this period, Sanguozhi Yanyi (San-Kuo-Chih Yen-i,

Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a historical novel of wars and warriors, and Shuihu

Zhuan (Shui-hu Chuan, Water Margin, known to the West as All Men Are Brothers), a

novel of the adventures of bandit-heroes, may be called the prose epics of the Chinese

people. As composite works of folk art created from oral tradition and bearing the stamp

of genius of a number of writers, they differ from the works of individual novelists.

Generally, Chinese novels of both types are immensely long, vast in scope, and vivid in

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characterization and description. All these characteristics are found also in Hongloumeng

(Hung-lou Meng, Dream of the Red Chamber), a realistic novel by Cao Xueqin (Ts'ao

Hseh-ch'in), which vividly details the prosperity, decline, and redemption of a rich

official family.

Many important collections of short stories appeared in the 17th century,

consisting of compilations handed down from an earlier period or of works by

contemporary writers. Like the novels, the stories are colloquial in style and realistic in

presentation, giving an intimate picture of Chinese society. The most popular anthology

is Jingu Qiguan (Chin-ku Ch'i-kuan, Marvelous Tales of the Past and Present), which

consists of 40 stories.

As the modern age progressed, the vernacular tradition became ever larger and

richer. Conventional literature, on the other hand, was less fruitful, although it continued

to be cultivated by members of the scholarly gentry, some of whom were fine writers.

Literary orthodoxy was, however, no longer capable of producing more than stereotypes.

This decline in the literary tradition continued until the beginning of the 20th century,

when it became obvious to Chinese writers that they had to seek new inspiration.

Stimulated by the literature of the West, Chinese writers, led by Hu Shi, started a literary

revolution known as the Chinese Renaissance in an attempt to urge the written use of

colloquial language and to heighten its status as a means of scholarly expression.

After 50 years of experiment in this direction, contemporary Chinese literature

has come of age and shown considerable creative vitality. During the first half of the 20th

century Chinese writers used literature as a mirror to reflect the seamy side of life, as a

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weapon to combat the evils of society, and as a form of propaganda to spread the

message of class struggle. By using trenchant essays and stories to attack traditional

society, writers such as Lu Xun, whose real name was Zhou Shuren, helped advance the

socialist revolution. Although the spirit of Chinese literature changed, the background,

characters, and events depicted remained typically Chinese.

During the years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), writers and artists were

expected to serve the needs of the people, and bourgeois Western influence was zealously

attacked. Since then, despite setbacks in 1981 and 1983 (the year of the campaign against

so-called spiritual pollution), more freedom of expression has been allowed and a new

interest in Western forms and ideas tolerated.

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Japanese Literature

Japanese Literature, literature written by Japanese in both the Japanese and

Chinese language. The present article is mainly concerned with works in the Japanese

language.

Japanese literature developed primarily in the forms of fiction, poetry, the essay,

and the drama. This development is usually divided into the Yamato, Heian, Kamakura-

Muromachi, Edo, and modern periods; the first four are each named after the site of the

main administrative center of Japan at the time.

Yamato Period

(archaic times to late 8th century AD). Although no written literature existed

before the 8th century, a large number of ballads, ritual prayers, myths, and legends were

composed in the previous centuries. These compositions subsequently were recorded and

are included in the Koji-ki (Records of Ancient Matters, 712), written largely in Japanese

with Chinese characters, and the Nihon shoki (History Book of Ancient Japan, 720),

written almost exclusively in Chinese. The earliest extant histories of Japan, these works

explain the origin of the Japanese people, the formation of the Japanese state, and the

essence of the national polity. Although both works contain much the same mythical and

historical material, the Koji-ki is clearly intended for exclusive use by the Japanese,

whereas the Nihon shoki, showing the influence of Chinese thought, is broader in scope.

A lyric poetry developed from the early ballads included in these works that was

collected in the first great Japanese anthology, the Manyo-shu (Anthology of a Myriad

Leaves), compiled by the poet Otomo no Yakamochi after 759. In this anthology a

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primitive syllabary is used, known as manyo-gana, in which Chinese characters serve as

phonetic symbols of syllables rather than of words. The two most important poetic forms

in the anthology are the choka (long poem), consisting of alternate lines of five and seven

syllables, followed by a final line of seven syllables to which is appended one or more

hanka (envoys); and the tanka (short poem), consisting of 31 syllables, written in five

lines according to a pattern of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. The tanka

became the preeminent Japanese verse form, maintaining its vitality until the modern

period, whereas the choka soon waned in popularity. The foremost poet of the Manyo-

shu is Kakinomoto Hitomaro (flourished about 680-710), who handled freely all forms of

verse. The prevailing mood of the anthology is makoto (truth or sincerity), the full

involvement of the person.

Heian Period

(late 8th-late 12th cent.). In the late 8th century the seat of government was

shifted to Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto), and a new type of literature emerged among

the aristocratic court society. The creation of the Japanese syllabaries in this century

aided the development of prose fiction as well as of poetry. The Kokin-shu (Anthology of

Ancient and Modern Poems, 905) clearly reflects the change in mood from that of

personal sincerity, which characterized the previous period, to one of mono no aware, or

empathy with the essence of things, a bond linking nature and human beings. The chief

compiler, Ki Tsurayuki (died about 945), who provided the basis for Japanese poetics in

his preface, was himself a poet of note, and his poems are included in the anthology.

Most of the poems, however, are taken from earlier periods. Tsurayuki is noted also as

the author of the Tosa-Diary (935; trans. 1912), the first example of an important

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Japanese genre, the literary diary. The work recounts his journey home to Kyoto from

Tosa Province and includes moving references to his daughter's death there.

The literature of the early 10th century was either in the form of fairy tales such as

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (trans. 1956), or of poem-tales such as the Ise monogatari

(The Tales of Ise, c. 980). The greatest works of Heian literature appeared in the late 10th

and early 11th centuries, notably Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, c. 1010) by

Murasaki Shikibu and Makura-no-soshi (The Pillow-Book) by Sei Shonagon, another

woman of the court. The Tale of Genji, a detailed panoramic picture of Heian court life,

may be considered the first important novel in world literature. It also includes many

tanka written by the characters in various situations. The novel traces in 54 long chapters

the life and loves of Prince Genji and Kaoru, his presumed son. It becomes increasingly

profound toward the end, probably an indication that the author had perfected her mastery

of the craft of fiction. The work of Murasaki Shikibu has frequently been translated into

English; a translation by the American scholar Edward Seidensticker appeared in 1976.

The Pillow-Book, the earlier of the two classic works, is a witty, often brilliant, collection

of sketches revealing the more wordly aspect of the same court society. It was first

translated by the English scholar Arthur Waley in 1928.

Kamakura-Muromachi Period

(late 12th-16th cent.). The collapse of the manorial system in Japan culminated in

the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan, who established the government in

Kamakura in 1192. From the end of the 12th until the early 17th century Japan was in an

almost constant state of warfare and turmoil. The dominant figures in Japanese society

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were the samurai, or warrior, who engaged in a life of action, and the Buddhist priest,

who devoted his life primarily to contemplation. The finest of several imperial

anthologies of poetry, the Shin kokin-shu (New Collection of Ancient and Modern

Poems, 1205?), commissioned by former emperor Go-Toba and compiled by a committee

that included Fujiwara Teika, reflects the change in national and literary mood to one of

gloom and solitude. Japanese scholars use the term yugen (mystery and depth), which has

definite religious overtones, to characterize the entire literature of this period. One of the

major poets of this anthology is, significantly, a religious figure, the priest Saigyo. The

defeat of the Taira by the Minamoto clan became the subject of the most famous prose

piece of the period, the Heike monogatari (The Tales of the Taira Clan, c. 1220), by an

anonymous author. The Ten Foot Square Hut (1212; trans. 1928) by another priest, Kamo

Chomei, contrasts the vanity of the world with the virtues of Buddhist contemplation.

Diary of the Waning Moon (1277; trans. 1951) is a literary diary compiled by a nun,

Abutsu, consisting of prose and poetry, the latter sections being of greater importance.

Essays in Idleness (1340; trans. 1967) by Kenko Yoshida is reminiscent of The Pillow-

Book but more melancholy in mood, undoubtedly reflecting regret at the disturbances of

the times. The major type of fiction of this era was the otogizoshi, collections of popular

short stories by unknown authors.

The foremost poetic development in the period after the early 14th century was

the creation of the renga, or linked verse, a form circumscribed by many regulations.

Three or more poets would cooperate in composing one long poem, consisting of

alternate verses, one containing lines of seven, five, and seven syllables and the other two

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lines of seven syllables each. The greatest masters of this form, Sogi, Shohaku, and

Socho, together composed the famous Minase sangin (Three Poets at Minase) in 1488.

Edo Period

(1603-1867). With the establishment of peace in 1603 under the Tokugawa clan,

which had its seat of government in Edo (present-day Tokyo), commerce flourished and

towns developed, producing a merchant class that soon created its own literature, a

bawdy, worldly fiction radically different in character from the literature of the preceding

period. The most important figure of the period was Ihara Saikaku, whose Life of an

Amorous Man (1682; trans. 1964) is a brilliant work of fiction full of humor and wit,

presenting a panoramic view of the sensual life of mercantile society. Many writers

imitated Saikaku in the 18th century, but none equaled his achievements. The 19th

century brought into prominence an important, if somewhat limited, writer of fiction,

Jippensha Ikku (circa 1765-1831). He is the author of Hizakurige (1802-22; trans. 1929),

which is a delightful picaresque work that relates the misadventures of two scamps.

The haiku, a poem in 17 syllables, was perfected in this period. Possibly the

greatest Japanese aesthetic achievement in literature, it can be described as the distilled

essence of poetry and it reflects the influence of Zen, a form of Buddhism that prevailed

in Japan at this time. Three poets are preeminent for their haiku. The first is the Zen

Buddhist lay-priest Basho, who took excursions to remote regions, composing as the

mood struck him, so that his poetry is set within travel accounts, the prose sections of

which are also significant. He is revered as the greatest of Japanese poets for his

sensitivity and profundity and is particularly noted for his Narrow Road Through the

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Deep North (1964; trans. 1966). The second is Yosa Buson, whose haiku express his

experience as a painter. The third is Kobayashi Issa, a poet of humble origin, who drew

his material from village life. Comic poetry, in a variety of forms, also flourished during

the Edo period.

Modern Period

(1867 to the present). Throughout the modern period Japanese writers were

influenced by other literatures, primarily those of the West, and they refashioned many

foreign literary concepts and techniques in fiction and poetry.

19th Century

The humorist Kanagaki Robunis a transitional figure who attempted vainly to

adapt himself to the new age but basically adhered to the comic style of the Edo period.

Translations from Western literature, at first primarily from works of British authors,

gave impetus to the political novel, an interesting if not highly literary genre that

prevailed throughout the 1880s. Kajin no kigu (Chance Meeting with Two Beauties), by

Tokai Sanshi, is an extravagant and unintentionally humorous work tracing the travels

and fortunes of a young Japanese politician. The critical work Shosetsu shinzui (The

Essence of the Novel, 1885), by the writer Tsubouchi Shoyo, argues for a prose art

grounded in realism, on the Western model. The next step forward in modernization was

The Drifting Cloud (1887; trans. 1967) by Futabatei Shimei, the first serious novel in the

colloquial language.

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The Kenyusha (The Society of the Friends of the Inkstone), a student literary

society founded by the novelist and poet Ozaki Koyo, became important in Japanese

literary life after 1890. The society influenced the creation of a new literature that

maintained traditional aesthetic values while incorporating Western techniques. A young

writer so influenced, Higuchi Ichiyo, deftly traces the psychology of children and young

lovers in a number of short stories. Her Growing Up (1896; trans. 1956) is generally

considered her masterpiece.

20th Century

French naturalistic fiction attracted young Japanese authors, who soon developed

a naturalism of their own with less social content and far greater subjectivity. The leading

figure in this naturalistic style is Shimazaki Toson, whose Hakai (The Breaking of the

Commandment, 1906), describing the confession of an outcast youth, firmly established

the movement. Two exceedingly important figures, Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki,

stood aloof from this dominating French tradition. Ogai drew his inspiration primarily

from German literature. He was active in writing poetry, drama, novels, and historical

biography. Perhaps his best work of fiction is The Wild Geese (1911-13; trans. 1959),

which examines with remarkable acuity the feelings of a girl who is forced to be the

mistress of a usurer. Soseki was a scholar of English literature before he turned to

imaginative writing. His monumental achievement in the psychological novel makes him

unquestionably one of the greatest writers Japan has produced in modern times. In his

works written between 1905 and his death in 1916 he created a fictional world that

constitutes a ruthless indictment of modern egoism. His incomplete last work, Meian

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(Light and Darkness), is perhaps the only modern Japanese novel that in scope and depth

resembles the achievement of the Russian masters.

In the period from 1910 to 1930 Akutagawa Ryunosuke, a disciple of Soseki,

created a highly structured, polished short-story form that, in English translation, has

found admirers throughout the world. "Rashomon" (1915), which was made into a

motion picture, is one of his tales that was translated in Rashomon and Other Stories

(1952).

The militarist domination of Japanese life in the 1930s largely stifled literature,

although a few writers retreated into an uncontroversial aestheticism. Kawabata Yasunari,

the recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize for literature, and Tanizaki Junichiro are foremost

among the authors who emerged from World War II to continue perfecting their craft.

Their work is known to readers of English through the excellent translations by Edward

Seidensticker of Kawabata's Snow Country (1935-47; trans. 1956) and Tanizaki's Some

Prefer Nettles (1929; trans. 1955). Another of Japan's most highly regarded postwar

writers, Mishima Yukio, wrote a number of novels, plays, and short stories concerning

his despair over the Westernization of his country and his desire for a return to the nobler

Japan of earlier times. Among his haunting works are his first novel, the partly

autobiographical Confessions of a Mask (1949; trans. 1958), and his tetralogy, The Sea of

Fertility (1970; trans. 1972-75), an epic story of modern Japan. The death-obsessed

Mishima died by committing ritual hara-kiri.

Although poetry has been less important than fiction throughout the modern

period, Masaoka Shiki deserves mention as the creator of modern forms of the tanka and

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haiku. Since the end of the 19th century a vigorous movement for the writing of poetry in

the Western style has arisen, and several prominent poets have emerged in this genre.

In the period after World War II Japanese literature received a careful and

sympathetic appraisal by several American scholars, foremost among them Donald

Keene. Through their work of criticism and translation, Japanese literature has become

recognized as a vital part of world literature.

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Indian Literature

The Indian literary tradition is primarily one of verse and is also essentially oral.

The earliest works were composed to be sung or recited and were so transmitted for many

generations before being written down. As a result, the earliest records of a text may be

later by several centuries than the conjectured date of its composition. Furthermore,

perhaps because so much Indian literature is either religious or a reworking of familiar

stories from the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the

mythological writings known as Puranas, the authors often remain anonymous.

Biographical details of the lives of most of the earlier Indian writers exist only in much

later stories and legends.

Other Themes

In medieval Indian literature the earliest works in many of the languages were

sectarian, designed to advance or to celebrate some unorthodox regional belief. Examples

are the Caryapadas in Bengali, Tantric verses of the 12th century, and the Lilacaritra

(circa 1280), in Marathi. In Kannada (Kanarese) from the 10th century, and later in

Gujarati from the 13th century, the first truly indigenous works are Jain romances;

ostensibly the lives of Jain saints, these are actually popular tales based on Sanskrit and

Pali themes. Other example was in Rajasthani of the bardic tales of chivalry and heroic

resistance to the first Muslim invasions - such as the 12th-century epic poem Prithiraja-

raso by Chand Bardai of Lahore.

Most important of all for later Indian literature were the first traces in the

vernacular languages of the northern Indian cults of Krishna and of Rama. Included are

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the 12th-century poems by Jaydev, called the Gitagovinda (The Cowherd's Song); and

about 1400, a group of religious love poems written in Maithili (eastern Hindi of Bihar)

by the poet Vidyapati were a seminal influence on the cult of Radha-Krishna in Bengal.

The Bhakti Tradition

The full flowering of the Radha-Krishna cult, under the Hindu mystics Chaitanya

in Bengal and Vallabhacharya at Mathura, involved bhakti (a personal devotion to a god).

Although earlier traces of this attitude are found in the work of the Tamil Alvars (mystics

who wrote ecstatic hymns to Vishnu between the 7th and 10th centuries), a later surge of

bhakti flooded every channel of Indian intellectual and religious life beginning in the late

15th century. Bhakti was also addressed to Rama (an avatar of Vishnu), most notably in

the Avadhi (eastern Hindi) works of Tulsi Das; his Ramcharitmanas (Lake of the Acts of

Rama, 1574-77; trans. 1952) has become the authoritative. The early gurus or founders of

the Sikh religion, especially Nanak and Arjun, composed bhakti hymns to their concepts

of deity. These are the first written documents in Punjabi (Panjabi) and form part of the

Adi Granth (First, or Original, Book), the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, which was first

compiled by Arjun in 1604.

In the 16th century, the Rajaasthani princess and poet Mira Bai addressed her

bhakti lyric verse to Krishna, as did the Gujarati poet Narsimh Mehta.

Traditional Material

In the 16th century, Jagannath Das wrote an Oriya version of the Bhagavata and

Tuncattu Eruttacchan, the so-called father of Malayalam literature, wrote recensions of

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traditional literature. Added, in the 18th century, was a deliberate imitation of Sanskritic

forms and vocabulary by pandits. In 18th-century evolved Assamese and Marathi prose

chronicles, ballads, and folk drama involving much dance and song.

The Tamil Tradition

The only Indian writings that incontestably predate the influence of classical

Sanskrit are those in the Tamil language. Anthologies of secular lyrics on the themes of

love and war, together with the grammatical-stylistic work Tolkappiyam (Old

Composition), are thought to be very ancient. Later, between the 6th and 9th centuries,

Tamil sectarian devotional poems were composed, often claimed as the first examples of

the Indian bhakti tradition. At some indeterminate date between the 2nd and 5th

centuries, two long Tamil verse romances (sometimes called epics) were written:

Cilappatikaram (The Jeweled Anklet) by Ilanko Atikal, which has been translated into

English (1939 and 1965); and its sequel Manimekalai (The Girdle of Gems), a Buddhist

work by Cattanar.

Linguistic and Cultural Influences

Much traditional Indian literature is derived in theme and form not only from

Sanskrit literature but from the Buddhist and Jain texts written in the Pali language and

the other Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit). This applies to literature in the

Dravidian languages of the south as well as to literature in the Indo-Iranian languages of

the north. Invasions of Persians and Turks, beginning in the 14th century, resulted in the

influence of Persian and Islamic culture in Urdu, although important Islamic strands can

23

be found in other literatures as well, especially those written in Bengali, Gujarati, and

Kashmiri. After 1817, entirely new literary values were established that remain dominant

today.

The Urdu poets almost always wrote in Persian forms, using the ghazal for love

poetry in addition to an Islamic form of bhakti, the masnavi for narrative verse, and the

marsiya for elegies. Urdu then gained use as a literary language in Delhi and Lucknow.

The ghazals of Mir and Ghalib mark the highest achievement of Urdu lyric verse. The

Urdu poets were mostly sophisticated, urban artists, but some adopted the idiom of folk

poetry, as is typical of the verses in Punjabi, Pushtu, Sindhi or other regional languages.

Regional Liiterature

Literary activities burst forth with the playwright Bharata’s (200 BC) Natya

Shastra, the Bible of dramatic criticism. The earliest plays were soon overshadowed by

Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, a heroic play, a model for ages. While Shudraka’s

Mrichchhakatika, was a play of the social class. Bhavabhuti (circa 700AD) was another

well-known figure, his best being Malatimadhava and Uttaramacharita (based on

Ramayana).

The great Sanskrit poems are five – Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa and

Kumarasambhava, Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi (550AD), Sishupalavadha of Magha (7th

century AD) and Naishadhiyacharita of Sriharsha (12th century AD). All of them draw

from the Mahabharata. Shorter poems of great depth were composed on a single theme

like love, morality, detachment and sometimes of grave matters. The earliest and best

collections of such verses called Muktakas are those of Bhartrihari and Amaruka.

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Much of the early prose work in Sanskrit has not survived. Of the remaining,

some of the best are Vasavadatta of Subandhu, Kadambari and Harshacharita of Bana

(7th century AD) and Dasakumaracharita of Dandin (7th century AD). The Panchatantra

and Hitopadesha are collections of wit and wisdom in the Indian style, teaching polity

and proper conduct through animal fables and aphorisms.

With a glorious life of over 3000 years, Sanskrit continues to be a living language

even today, bobbing up during Hindu ceremonies when mantras (ritual verses) are

chanted. And though restricted, it’s still a medium of literary expression, but ‘great

works’ have long stopped being written.

The Modern Period

Poets such as Ghalib, lived and worked during the British era, when a literary

revolution occurred in all the Indian languages as a result of contact with Western

thought, when the printing press was introduced (by Christian missionaries), and when

the influence of Western educational institutions was strong. During the mid-19th century

in the great ports of Mumbai, Calcutta, and Chennai, a prose literary tradition arose—

encompassing the novel, short story, essay, and literary drama (this last incorporating

both classical Sanskrit and Western models)—that gradually engulfed the customary

Indian verse genres. Urdu poets remained faithful to the old forms while Bengalis were

imitating such English poets as Percy Bysshe Shelley or T.S. Eliot.

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Ram Mohan Roy's (1774-1833) campaign for introduction of scientific education

in India and Swami Vivekananda's work are considered to be great examples of the

English literature in India.

During the last 150 years many writers have contributed to the development of

modern Indian literature, writing in any of the 18 major languages (as well as in English).

Bengali has led the way and today has one of the most extensive literatures of any Indian

language. One of its greatest representatives is Sir Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian

to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1913). Much of his prose and verse is available in

his own English translations.

Work by two other great 20th-century Indian leaders and writers is also widely

known: the verse of the Islamic leader and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal, originally

written in Urdu and Persian; and the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, My

Experiments with Truth, originally written in Gujarati between 1927 and 1929, is now

considered a classic.

Several other writers are relatively well known to the West. They include

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) for his Glimpses of World History, Discovery of India and

An Autobiography (1936); Mulk Raj Anand, among whose many works the early

affectionate Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936) are novels of social protest; and R. K.

Narayan, writer of novels and tales of village life in southern India. The first of Narayan's

many works, Swami and Friends, appeared in 1935; among his more recent titles are The

English Teacher (1980), The Vendor of Sweets (1983), and Under the Banyan Tree

(1985). Among the younger authors writing of modern India with nostalgia for the past is

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Anita Desai—as in Clear Light of Day (1980). Her In Custody (1984) is the story of a

teacher's fatal enchantment with poetry. Ved Mehta, although long resident in the U.S.,

recalls his Indian roots in a series of memoirs of his family and of his education at

schools for the blind in India and America; among these works are Vedi (1982) and

Sound Shadows of the New World (1986).

The other well-known novelist/ writers are Dom Moraes (A Beginning), Nlissim

E Zekiel (The Unfurnished Man), P Lal, A.K.Ramanujan (whose translations of Tamil

classics are internationally known), Kamala Das, Arun Kolatkar and R. Parthasarathy;

Toru Dutt; Sarojini Naidu; Aurobindo; Raja Rao, GV Desani, M Ananthanarayanan,

Bhadani Bhattacharya, Monohar Malgonkar, Arun Joshi, Kamala Markandaya, ,

Khushwant Singh, Nayantara Sahgal, O.V. Vijayan; Salman Rushdie; K.R. Sreenivasa

Iyengar, C.D. Narasimhaiah and M.K. Naik.

Among the latest are Vikram Seth (A Suitable Boy), Allan Sealy (The Trotter-

Nama), Sashi Tharoor (Show Business, The Great Indian Novel, Amitav Ghosh (Circle

of Reason, Shadow Lines), Upamanyu Chatterjee (English August) and Vikram Chandra

(Red Earth and Pouring Rain).

 

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Philippine Literature

        The diversity and richness of Philippine literature evolved side by side with the

country's history. This can best be appreciated in the context of the country's pre-colonial

cultural traditions and the socio-political histories of its colonial and contemporary

traditions.         

        The average Filipino's unfamiliarity with his indigenous literature was largely due

to what has been impressed upon him: that his country was "discovered" and, hence,

Philippine "history" started only in 1521.

        So successful were the efforts of colonialists to blot out the memory of the

country's largely oral past that present-day Filipino writers, artists and journalists are

trying to correct this inequity by recognizing the country's wealth of ethnic traditions and

disseminating them in schools and in the mass media.

        The rousings of nationalistic pride in the 1960s and 1970s also helped bring about

this change of attitude among a new breed of Filipinos concerned about the "Filipino

identity."

 Pre-Colonial Times

        Owing to the works of our own archaeologists, ethnologists and anthropologists,

we are able to know more and better judge information about our pre-colonial times set

against a bulk of material about early Filipinos as recorded by Spanish, Chinese, Arabic

and other chroniclers of the past.

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        Pre-colonial inhabitants of our islands showcase a rich past through their folk

speeches, folk songs, folk narratives and indigenous rituals and mimetic dances that

affirm our ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors.

        The most seminal of these folk speeches is the riddle which is tigmo in Cebuano,

bugtong in Tagalog, paktakon in Ilongo and patototdon in Bicol. Central to the riddle is

the talinghaga or metaphor because it "reveals subtle resemblances between two unlike

objects" and one's power of observation and wit are put to the test. While some riddles

are ingenious, others verge on the obscene or are sex-related:

Gaddang:

        Gongonan nu usin y amam If you pull your daddy's penis

        Maggirawa pay sila y inam. Your mommy's vagina, too,

(Campana) screams. (Bell)

        The proverbs or aphorisms express norms or codes of behavior, community beliefs

or they instill values by offering nuggets of wisdom in short, rhyming verse.

        The extended form, tanaga, a mono-riming heptasyllabic quatrain expressing

insights and lessons on life is "more emotionally charged than the terse proverb and thus

has affinities with the folk lyric." Some examples are the basahanon or extended didactic

sayings from Bukidnon and the daraida and daragilon from Panay.

        The folk song, a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes and aspirations, the

people's lifestyles as well as their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous, didactic

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and naive as in the children's songs or Ida-ida (Maguindanao), tulang pambata (Tagalog)

or cansiones para abbing (Ibanag).

        A few examples are the lullabyes or Ili-ili (Ilongo); love songs like the panawagon

and balitao (Ilongo); harana or serenade (Cebuano); the bayok (Maranao); the seven-

syllable per line poem, ambahan of the Mangyans that are about human relationships,

social entertainment and also serve as a tool for teaching the young; work songs that

depict the livelihood of the people often sung to go with the movement of workers such

as the kalusan (Ivatan), soliranin (Tagalog rowing song) or the mambayu, a Kalinga rice-

pounding song; the verbal jousts/games like the duplo popular during wakes.

        Other folk songs are the drinking songs sung during carousals like the tagay

(Cebuano and Waray); dirges and lamentations extolling the deeds of the dead like the

kanogon (Cebuano) or the Annako (Bontoc).

        A type of narrative song or kissa among the Tausug of Mindanao, the parang

sabil, uses for its subject matter the exploits of historical and legendary heroes. It tells of

a Muslim hero who seeks death at the hands of non-Muslims.

        The folk narratives, i.e. epics and folk tales are varied, exotic and magical. They

explain how the world was created, how certain animals possess certain characteristics,

why some places have waterfalls, volcanoes, mountains, flora or fauna and, in the case of

legends, an explanation of the origins of things. Fables are about animals and these teach

moral lessons.

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        Our country's epics are considered ethno-epics because unlike, say, Germany's

Niebelunginlied, our epics are not national for they are "histories" of varied groups that

consider themselves "nations."

        The epics come in various names: Guman (Subanon); Darangen (Maranao);

Hudhud (Ifugao); and Ulahingan (Manobo). These epics revolve around supernatural

events or heroic deeds and they embody or validate the beliefs and customs and ideals of

a community. These are sung or chanted to the accompaniment of indigenous musical

instruments and dancing performed during harvests, weddings or funerals by chanters.

The chanters who were taught by their ancestors are considered "treasures" and/or

repositories of wisdom in their communities.

        Examples of these epics are the Lam-ang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudaman

(Palawan); Darangen (Maranao); Ulahingan (Livunganen-Arumanen Manobo);

Mangovayt Buhong na Langit (The Maiden of the Buhong Sky from Tuwaang--Manobo);

Ag Tobig neg Keboklagan (Subanon); and Tudbulol (T'boli).

 The Spanish Colonial Tradition

        While it is true that Spain subjugated the Philippines for more mundane reasons,

this former European power contributed much in the shaping and recording of our

literature.   Religion and institutions that represented European civilization enriched the

languages in the lowlands, introduced theater which we would come to know as

komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the playlets and the drama. Spain also brought to the

country, though at a much later time, liberal  ideas and an internationalism that influenced

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our own Filipino intellectuals and writers for them to understand the meanings of "liberty

and freedom."

        Literature in this period may be classified as religious prose and poetry and secular

prose and poetry.

        Religious lyrics written by ladino poets or those versed in both Spanish and

Tagalog were included in early catechism and were used to teach Filipinos the Spanish

language. Fernando Bagonbanta's "Salamat nang walang hanga/gracias de sin

sempiternas" (Unending thanks) is a fine example that is found in the Memorial de la

vida cristiana en lengua tagala (Guidelines for the Christian life in the Tagalog

language) published in 1605.

        Another form of religious lyrics are the meditative verses like the dalit appended

to novenas and catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor rime scheme although a number are

written in octosyllabic quatrains and have a solemn tone and spiritual subject matter.

       But among the religious poetry of the day, it is the pasyon in octosyllabic quintillas

that became entrenched in the Filipino's commemoration of Christ's agony and

resurrection at Calvary. Gaspar Aquino de Belen's "Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu

Christong Panginoon natin na tola" (Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse) put

out in 1704 is the country's earliest known pasyon.

        Other known pasyons chanted during the Lenten season are in Ilocano, Pangasinan,

Ibanag, Cebuano, Bicol, Ilongo and Waray.

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        Aside from religious poetry, there were various kinds of prose narratives written to

prescribe proper decorum. Like the pasyon, these prose narratives were also used for

proselitization. Some forms are: dialogo (dialogue), Manual de Urbanidad (conduct

book); ejemplo (exemplum) and tratado (tratado). The most well-known are Modesto de

Castro's "Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at si Feliza"

(Correspondence between the Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza) in 1864 and Joaquin

Tuason's "Ang Bagong Robinson" (The New Robinson) in 1879, an adaptation of Daniel

Defoe's novel.

        Secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes, the emergence

of an opulent class and the middle class who could avail of a European education. This

Filipino elite could now read printed works that used to be the exclusive domain of the

missionaries.

        The most notable of the secular lyrics followed the conventions of a romantic

tradition: the languishing but loyal lover, the elusive, often heartless beloved, the rival.

The leading poets were Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw) and Francisco Balagtas.

Some secular poets who wrote in this same tradition were Leona Florentino, Jacinto

Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco.

        Another popular secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in

Tagalog. The awit is set in dodecasyllabic quatrains while the korido is in octosyllabic

quatrains. These are colorful tales of chivalry from European sources made for singing

and chanting such as Gonzalo de Cordoba (Gonzalo of Cordoba) and Ibong Adarna

(Adarna Bird). There are numerous metrical romances in Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo,

33

Pampango, Ilocano and in Pangasinan. The awit as a popular poetic genre reached new

heights in Balagtas' "Florante at Laura" (ca. 1838-1861), the most famous of the country's

metrical romances.

        Again, the winds of change began to blow in 19th century Philippines. Filipino

intellectuals educated in Europe called ilustrados began to write about the downside of

colonization. This, coupled with the simmering calls for reforms by the masses gathered a

formidable force of writers like Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Emilio

Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio.

        This led to the formation of the Propaganda Movement where prose works such

as the political essays and Rizal's two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El

filibusterismo helped usher in the Philippine revolution resulting in the downfall of the

Spanish regime, and, at the same time planted the seeds of a national consciousness

among Filipinos.

        But if Rizal's novels are political, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is

largely cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel. Although Paterno's Ninay gave

impetus to other novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio M. Abad to continue writing in

Spanish, this did not flourish.

        Other Filipino writers published the essay and short fiction in Spanish in La

Vanguardia, El Debate, Renacimiento Filipino, and Nueva Era. The more notable

essayists and fictionists were Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epifanio de los Reyes,

34

Vicente Sotto, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas or

Masks, 1925) and Balmori who mastered the prosa romantica or romantic prose.

        But the introduction of English as medium of instruction in the Philippines

hastened the demise of Spanish so that by the 1930s, English writing had overtaken

Spanish writing. During the language's death throes, however, writing in the romantic

tradition, from the awit and korido, would continue in the novels of Magdalena Jalandoni.

But patriotic writing continued under the new colonialists. These appeared in the

vernacular poems and modern adaptations of works during the Spanish period and which

further maintained the Spanish tradition.

 The American Colonial Period

        A new set of colonizers brought about new changes in Philippine literature. New

literary forms such as free verse [in poetry], the modern short story and the critical essay

were introduced. American influence was deeply entrenched with the firm establishment

of English as the medium of instruction in all schools and with literary modernism that

highlighted the writer's individuality and cultivated consciousness of craft, sometimes at

the expense of social consciousness.

        The poet, and later, National Artist for Literature, Jose Garcia Villa used free

verse and espoused the dictum, "Art for art's sake" to the chagrin of other writers more

concerned with the utilitarian aspect of literature. Another maverick in poetry who used

free verse and talked about illicit love in her poetry was Angela Manalang Gloria, a

woman poet described as ahead of her time. Despite the threat of censorship by the new

35

dispensation, more writers turned up "seditious works" and popular writing in the native

languages bloomed through the weekly outlets like Liwayway and Bisaya.

        The Balagtas tradition persisted until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla advocated

modernism in poetry. Abadilla later influenced young poets who wrote modern verses in

the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio.

        While the early Filipino poets grappled with the verities of the new language,

Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as published in the

Philippines Free Press, the College Folio and Philippines Herald. Paz Marquez Benitez's

"Dead Stars" published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English written by a

Filipino. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed exceptional skills

with the short story.

        Alongside this development, writers in the vernaculars continued to write in the

provinces. Others like Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Peña and Patricio Mariano

were writing minimal narratives similar to the early Tagalog short fiction called dali or

pasingaw (sketch).

        The romantic tradition was fused with American pop culture or European

influences in the adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who

also penned Ang Palad ni Pepe after Charles Dicken's David Copperfield even as the

realist tradition was kept alive in the novels by Lope K. Santos and Faustino Aguilar,

among others.

36

        It should be noted that if there was a dearth of the Filipino novel in English, the

novel in the vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines like

Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon and Bannawag.

        The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920's to the present.

Some leading essayists were journalists like Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Pura

Santillan Castrence, etc. who wrote formal to humorous to informal essays for the

delectation by Filipinos.

        Among those who wrote criticism developed during the American period were

Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But it was Salvador P. Lopez's

criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literay Award for the

essay in 1940 with his "Literature and Society." This essay posited that art must have

substance and that Villa's adherence to "Art for Art's Sake" is decadent.

        The last throes of American colonialism saw the flourishing of Philippine literature

in English at the same time, with the introduction of the New Critical aesthetics, made

writers pay close attention to craft and "indirectly engendered a disparaging attitude"

towards vernacular writings -- a tension that would recur in the contemporary period.

The Contemporary Period

        The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially

with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence

of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.

37

        Filipino writers continue to write poetry, short stories, novellas, novels and essays

whether these are socially committed, gender/ethnic related or are personal in intention or

not.

        Of course the Filipino writer has become more conscious of his art with the

proliferation of writers workshops here and abroad and the bulk of literature available to

him via the mass media including the internet. The various literary awards such as the

Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippines Free Press,

Philippine Graphic, Home Life and Panorama literary awards encourage him to compete

with his peers and hope that his creative efforts will be rewarded in the long run.

        With the new requirement by the Commission on Higher Education of teaching

of Philippine Literature in all tertiary schools in the country emphasizing the teaching of

the vernacular literature or literatures of the regions, the audience for Filipino writers is

virtually assured. And, perhaps, a national literature finding its niche among the

literatures of the world will not be far behind.

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The Literature of Island Southeast Asia

Island Southeast Asia is the archipelago group that lies south of the Philippines. It

is composed of Indonesia (the largest archipelago in the world), Sabah, Borneo, and

Malaysia. As Filipinos, we are very much interested in these countries for several

reasons. Geographically, we are very close to Indonesia. It takes a Sulu native only two

hours to reach Sabah, and thence, Indonesia, whereas it takes longer for an inhabitant of

Luzon to reach some islands in the Visayan group. Out forefathers came from Indonesia,

and it is not strange that there is a striking similarity between our language and the

language of Indonesia. It was only by accident of history that culturally we differ from

Indonesia and other countries near it.

The early literature of Indonesia had a clearly religious function. Songs or

exorcisms were used during periods in life; birth, death, sickness, pregnancy, rice

planting and harvesting, war, head hunting, and drought. In forms the songs are

reminiscent of the biblical psalms. They do not follow strict formal pattern, but they often

strike even the Western reader as being evocative and possessing a supernatural religious

power.

Naturally many of the songs were improvised, for the priest-singer had much

freedom with his religious songs. There is thus reason to assume that, for all its

“primitive” character, this orally transmitted poetry in the form in which it is known

today is not very old.

Orally transmitted prose forms are varied and include myths, animal stories and

“beast fables,” fairy tales, legends, puzzles, and riddles, anecdotes, and adventure stories.

Strong mutual influences and written traditions, including those foreign origin, have

39

influenced the folk stories. For example, animal stories throughout the Malay archipelago

reveal the influence of the five Indian fables known collectively as the Panchatantra.

One of the earliest references to Indonesia is found in the Ramayana, the great

Indian epic of the first century A.D. which mentions Javadvipa and Savaranadvipa, thus:

“And all your efforts reach Javadvipa, adorned with seven kingdoms, the island of gold

and silver, rich with mines of gold.”

To this day the art, literature, and political and social institutions of Java bear an

unmistakable impress of Indian ideas. The spirit of Javanese poetry, drama, music, and

dance is close to that of the Indian. The Ramayana and Mahabharata have virtually

influenced the development of these fine arts, furnishing subject matter for them. The

Mahabharata stories, particularly the legends about the god Krishna, appear in sculptured

figures, puppets, and Javanese shadow-plays.

Malay literature in Indonesia consisted chiefly of novels and poetry of a

traditional form, the former being mostly stories with moral intent. The best known of the

ancient poems were in form of the pantum, composed of four lines written in a romantic

vein, the first rhyming with the third and the second with the fourth. They were learned

by heart.

Only in the twentieth century, as a corollary to the nationalist movements that led

to Indonesian independence after World War II, did the modern literature arise, closely

linked with the new ideal of a national language, Bahasa Indonesia.

Modern literature is still in its infancy, Malay and Bahasa Indonesian poets

Muhammad Yamin, Rustan Effendi, and Sanusi Pani, still strongly traditional in style and

choice of forms, were influenced by the West, in particular by the Dutch.

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The Literature of Mainland Southeast Asia

A. THAI LITERATURE

Thai Traditional Literature is essentially religious. Most of the literature in the old

days consisted of works on Buddhism and Hinduism directly or indirectly. Whatever

culture the Thai people brought with them from their homeland in Southern China where

they had been in contact with Chinese culture for centuries was adapted to its later

conception of Buddhism, their adopted religion. Traces of their original culture may be

found here and there in a disguised and weak form embedded in their literature. Most of

the works of emotive literature were written in verse in various patterns. Five prominent

examples of such works may be cited briefly.

1. The Romance of Khun Chang Khun Phaen, an indigenous story of love and pathos,

at time humorous, of a triangular love plot of one heroine with two lovers. The story,

apart from its beautiful expressions, contains a mine of information on old beliefs and

social customs of the Thai before the impact of Western culture. The story as is known

has been translated into English and French.

2. Ramakian (or Ramakirti in transliteration) is the story based on the famous Indian

epic, Ramayana. It is unique, containing many episodes and details which are not to be

found in the original epic, but showing traces of contact with certain versions of the

Ramayana in India, Malaysia, Java and Cambodia. There is an English translation.

3. The Romance of Inao. This is a translation from the well-known story of adventures

of the national Javanese hero prince. It is written in a refined and perfect style of the Thai

Language and meant for dramatic performance.

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4. Sam Kok. This is a translation from San Kuo Chi, a Chinese historical romance of the

Three Kingdoms. Unlike the three preceding ones, it is written in prose with perfect

expressions of style of the language.

5. Phra Aphaimani. This is a romantic tale written in verse by one of the most famous

and popular poets of Thailand. It is an imaginary tale of love, intrigue and adventure, and

reflects some ideas of the people towards the Europeans of the last century. There is an

English translation in concise form by one Prem Chaya.

The employment of prose in Thai emotive literature along the lines of the Western

style is of recent date due obviously to the influence of Western literature.

B. BURMA (MYANMAR) FOLK LITERATURE

  Myanmar has a long folk literature tradition; it is an oral literature handed

down from generation to generation for a thousand years and more. The myths, legends

and folktales of the early inhabitants and setters of Myanmar, the Pyu, the Mon and later

the Bama, Shan and other ethnic races, together with proverbs, riddles and folk songs

have come down to us in several forms. From oral literature some of the myths and

legends have been incorporated into the main Myanmar chronicles like U Kala’s Maha

Yazawindaw Gyi (AD 1730) and the Hman-nan Yazawin (AD 1829) the famous Glass

Palace Chronicle of the kings of Myanmar first compiled by a Royal Historical

Commission of learned monks, ministers, brathmans and high officials. In these

Chronicles we can read about the exploits of Pyu-Saw-Hti, of the young, brave and

romantic Kyanzittha and many other legendary heroes. The oral folk literature was

collected and written down both in Myanmar and English from the last decade of the 19th

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to the latter part of the 20th centuries. An early collection was made by H. Calthrop and

published in Calcutta under the title Burmese Tales and Sketches in 1895. Harold

Fielding Hall, who was in Mandalay soon after the British Annexation of January 1886,

also collected and wrote down the tales he heard from former Maids-of - Honour and

other Myanmar Courtiers from the Mandalay Palace of King Mindon and Thibaw. He

first published these tales in the Rangoon Gazette and later in book form as Palace Tales,

first published in London and New York. There is a recent reprint published in Bangkok

in 1997. These were some of the earliest Myanmar tales made known to wider world

readers. The tales from the Mandalay Palace were not real folk-tales, but tales of love and

intrigue and the notion of humanity being the same all the world over is the predominant

theme.

       Another collection of tales was written down by Donald A.Mackenzie and

published with the title Burmese Wonder Tales in 1929. These tales are a mixture of

Myanmar tales and also Buddhist Jataka tales told in Myanmar since early times. Before

the Second World War there was a book called Tales and Legends of Ancient Burma,

written for schools by S.W.Cocks of the Indian Educational Service. It was a collection

of (21) tales, some from the Jatakas, some myths and legends and a few folk-tales. It was

only in the years 1933 to 1937 that a young academic Maung Htin Aung started to collect

systematically folk-tales of the Myanmar people. In post-Second World War years this

learned Myanmar academic became the well-known Rector of the Yangon University.

Soon after Myanmar regained Independence Dr. Htin Aung published this book Burmese

Folk-tales in 1948; this is a collection of (10)folk-tales. Later he collected and wrote

down in English Thirty Burmese Tales (1952), Burmese Law Tales(1962) and

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Burmese Monk’s Tales(1966). In the year of Independence(1948) about the same time

as the publication of Dr.Htin Aung’s Burmese Folk-tales another prominent Myanmar

who wrote mainly in English, U Maung Maung Pye, also published a collection of (19)

Legends entitled Tales of Burma; but some like the “Romance of Prince E-Naung” were

not of Myanmar origin. All the same this useful and interesting collection supplemented

Dr. Htin Aung’s work. The writer who did most in collecting Myanmar folk-tales,

especially from among the ethnic groups of Myanmar was Ludu U Hla (1910-1982). He

went all over Myanmar in the 1960s and 1970s recording the oral tradition of story telling

and writing down the Myanmar folk-tales, publishing (47) books. His collections of folk-

tales include Bama and those of the (7) main ethnic groups like Mon, Shan and others as

well from smaller ethnic minorities such as Lisu, Lushai, Palaung, Pa-O and others. Some

of these folk-tales have been translated into English and published in four volumes. The

translators include well-known Myanmar writers like U Khin Zaw (using the pen-name

“K”), Dr Than Tun (History) and by Daw Khin Thant Han and Kathleen Forbes former

lecturers in English of Mandalay University. Writing in English Daw Khin Myo Chit

(1910-1999) brought out a beautifully illustrated book of Myanmar legends with

paintings by Paw 0o Thet (1936-1993), first published in Bangkok under the title A

Wonderland of Burmese Legends (1984) and later reprinted in Yangon as A

Wonderland of Pagoda Legends(1996). For the scholar there is a recent, rather

expensive, collection called The Folk-tales of Burma, an Introduction, compiled with

an erudite introduction by Gerry Abbott and Khin Thant Han, published by Brill of

Leiden in 2000. This book includes new translations into English made by Khin Thant

Han mainly from U Hla’s books. The compilers classified Myanmar folk-tales into (9)

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categories: namely (1) Human Origin Tales;(2) Phenomena Tales; (3) Wonder Tales;

(4)Trickster/Simpleton Tales; (5) Guidance Tales (Lay);(6) Guidance Tales (clerical); (7)

Monk’s Tales; (8) Jataka Tales; and (9) Compound Tales. This book also has an

excellent bibliography including a list of U Hla’s compilation, first listed by a library

studies diploma student.

There are other classifications for Myanmar folk-tales. For example Dr. Htin

Aung classified them into (1) Animal Tales; (2) Romantic Tales;(3) Wonder Tales; and

(4) Humorous tales; there are (4) Appendices giving four myths and legends popular in

Myanmar.

       There are also many Myanmar folk tales in English which are still scattered in

journals and magazines like the Journal of the Burma Research Society, The

Guardian and Forward magazine and during the last years or so in the pages of our

Myanmar Perspectives magazine, both the monthly Internet version and the printed

version. Why are folk-tales so popular among the Myanmar people and people from all

over the world?. First they promote family values, the love of a daughter for her mother

and vice-versa as in the story of little Mai Htwe (Mistress Youngest) and the Big

Tortoise; secondly they foster national unity among various ethnic groups; a good

example is the tale “The Chin and Bama are brothers”. Thirdly they celebrate heroes of

the past and remind the youth of today to emulate them as in the legend of Pyu-Saw-hti

and Kyanzittha. Last but not least, the folk-tales are authentic records of a particular

culture, “ expressing sentiments that are most basic and closest to the hearts of the

people. Folk literature is thus the earliest literature of a people and a foundation on which

its written literature rests. Therefore a knowledge of folk literature is of prime importance

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for a fuller understanding of human behavior and culture. (Damiana L.Eugenion

in“General Introduction” to ASEAN folk Literature, an Anthology (1995) )

  Myanmar is at present taking an active part in the ASEAN Committee on Culture

and Information (COCI) Project to collect representative folk literature of all ten

Southeast Asian countries and to present them in a five volume set to be published

towards the end of this year (2003). Myanmar folktales, legends, myths, proven riddles

and folk songs will all be presented as part of this project.

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Israeli (Jewish) Literature

The greatest literature the Israelites produced is embodied in the Bible, which is

composed of two books, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The whole Bible is a

compilation of many literary forms extending over many centuries but unified by the

truth of their divine inspiration.

Love of God is an outstanding quality of the literature of Israel. It differs from the

literature of other ancient nations in that it believes in one God. Other ancient races

believed in many gods which they worshipped. The Jews, however, believed in a God

whom man could never learn to know, who remained forever a mystery. They never tried

to draw a picture or erect a statue of this God. They only knew that they believed in him;

they loved him with all their heart and soul. What he looked like, they never tried to

learn. In their earliest poetry, they poured out their adoration in hymns of praise and

thanksgiving for his paternal love and his wisdom. They sang that his seat is in heavens;

the earth is his footstool; the angels are his servants; the sea is his slave; his hands made

the dry land.

Their literature is generally emotional, often passionate. It describes the character

of the people, their daily lives, and the beautiful scenery of their land. Yet what they say

of themselves is true of all people – their anxieties, their hopes, their joys as well as their

sorrows. They painted with truth and love the condition of the human race.

Their literature also shows great love of country. Of their two great poets, one

their greatest ruler, King David, and the other was their greatest legislator, Moses.

The Israelites developed all literary types: the lyric, the narrative, and the drama.

Their Psalms, even after three thousand years, are the most moving and most sublime

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collection of religious poems the world has ever seen. They remain unequaled in their

powerful imagery, their lofty ideas, their majesty, and their sweetness.

The poetry of the Israelites differs in form from the poetry of other races. The

poetry of most nations has rhyme and rhythm; the ancient poetry of Israel has no rhyme

and no regularity of rhythm. Its beauty lies in the balanced symmetry of clauses to which

the term parallelism has been applied.

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Arabic Literature

PRE-ISLAMIC LITERATURE THE STRUCTURE of the Arabic language is well-suited to harmonious

word-patterns, with elaborate rhymes and rhythms. The earliest known literature emerged

in northern Arabia around 500 AD and took the form of poetry which was recited aloud,

memorised and handed down from one generation to another. It began to be written down

towards the end of the seventh century. The most celebrated poems of the pre-Islamic

period were known as the mu'allaqat ("the suspended"), reputedly because they were

considered sufficiently outstanding to be hung on the walls of the ka'ba in Makkah.

The typical poem of this period is the qasidah (ode), which normally consists of

70-80 pairs of half-lines. Traditionally, they describe the nomadic life, opening with a

lament at an abandoned camp for a lost love. The second part praises the poet's horse or

camel and describes a journey, with the hardships it entails. The third section contains the

main theme of the poem, often extolling the poet's tribe and vilifying its enemies.

DEVELOPMENT OF ARABIC PROSE THE BIRTH of Arabic prose as a literary form is attributed to the Persian

secretarial class who served under the Abbasid caliphs (750-1256) in Baghdad. Ibn al-

Muqaffa' (died 757) was a convert to Islam who translated classical Persian works into

Arabic. He became famous as the author of Kalila and Dimna, a series of didactic fables

in which two jackals offer moral and practical advice.

al-JAHIZ (776-869) developed Arabic prose into a literary vehicle of precision

and elegance. Born in Basrah, he was noted for his wit and became one of Baghdad's

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leading intellectuals during the early Abbasid period. The most famous of his 200 works

were:

Kitab al-Hayawan ("The Book of Animals"), an anthology of animal anecdotes.

Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin ("The Book of Elucidation and Exposition"),

ostensibly about rhetoric but also covering history and science.

Kitab al-Bukhala’ ("The Book of Misers"), amusing but perceptive observations

on psychology.

ABU AL-FARAJ al-Isfahani (c 897-967), from Aleppo, wrote Kitab al-Aghani

("The Book of Songs"), in 24 volumes. A model of simplicity and clarity in its writing,

the book gives a comprehensive picture of Arab culture and society, including songs and

poems which were popular in Baghdad under the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. A vizir

(government minister) of the time is said to have taken 30 camel-loads of books

whenever he travelled - until he received a copy of the Book of Songs. He then felt able

to dispense with all the other books.

al-HAMADHANI (died 1008) is credited with inventing the genre known as

maqamat ("assemblies") - dramatic anecdotes narrated by a witty but unscrupulous rogue

which poke fun at all levels of society. Elaborately written in rhyming prose, they exploit

the unique capabilities of the Arabic language to the full. Out of 400 original maqamat,

52 survive.

The trend towards linguistic virtuosity led, ultimately, to a triumph of form over

content. al-HARIRI (c 1054-1122) took the maqamah to new heights (or extremes) in

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order to demonstrate his prowess with word-play and his seemingly inexhaustible

vocabulary. In one work, he used only those letters of the alphabet which have no dots or

do not join to the following letter in a word. Even so, for more than seven centuries, al-

Hariri's maqamat were regarded as the greatest literary treasure of Arabic, after the

Qur'an. According to some readers, wholesome moral values and subtle criticisms of the

existing social order underlie al-Hariri's decorative language.

FOLK LITERATURE

CLASSICAL written Arabic was inaccessible to the illiterate masses and

largely incomprehensible - even if read aloud - to those who knew only local dialects.

This led to the development of oral folk literature in which professional storytellers

recounted popular tales - often adding new anecdotes and individual touches in the hope

of collecting more money from their audience.

Even today, storytellers can be found in some parts of the Arab world - the Jama'

al-Fna in Marrakesh is perhaps the best-known example.

Typically, these stories recount the adventures of tribal or national heroes. A

recurrent theme is the struggle of a underdog against adversity and his eventual triumph.

One genre is known as the sirah ("life" or "biography") and is often based on historical

characters.

Sirat Baybars is the story of Baybars I, who ruled Egypt and Syria in the 13th

century - though with many embellishments. It portrays him as a champion of the

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people against officialdom and oppression.

Sirat 'Antar is based on the pre-Islamic hero/poet 'Antarah, a black man who

overcame his low status to become a leader.

Sirat Bani Hilal, on the other hand, concerns a fictitious tribal prince, Abu Zayd

(also a black man), who is exiled but eventually leads his people and lives for

hundreds of years.

The collection of folk tales which is best-known in the West, however, is the

Thousand and One Nights.

Modern African Literature

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A. GEOGRAPHICAL

1) East and Central African Literature (ECAL): ECAL embraces, among others, such

countries/regions as Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Central

African Republic, Malawi, and Republic of the Congo. Some of the most important and

influential writers coming from this part of the African continent include Ngugi wa

Thiong'o (1938--, Kenya, novelist-short story writer-prose writer, principal works: Weep

Not, Child, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, The River Between, Devil on the Cross),

Nuruddin Farah (1945--, Somalia, novelist-short story writer, principal works: From a

Crooked Rib, A Naked Needle, Sweet and Sour Milk, Sardines), Okot p’Bitek (1931--

1982, Uganda, poet, principal works: Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, The Horn of My

Love), Shaaban Robert (1909--1962, Tanzania, prose-/story-writer & poet, principal

works: Maisha Yanga/"Autobiography," Kufikirika/"The Conceivable World," Insha na

Mashairi/ "Compositions and Poems"), David Rubadiri (1930--, Malawi, novelist-poet,

principal works: No Bride Price, Selected Poems), Tchicaya U Tam'si (1931--1988,

Congo, poet-playwright-novelist, principal works: Epitomé, Le Ventré, Les Cancrelats).

2) South African Literature (SAL): SAL embraces, among others, the Union of South

Africa including Basutoland, South-west Africa, Rhodesia (southern and northern). Some

of the most important and influential South African writers include Thomas Mofolo

(1873--1948, Basutoland, novelist-prose writer, principal works: Moeti oa Bochabela/

"The Pilgrim of the East," Chaka the Zulu), Solomon T Plaatze (born in Bechuanaland

towards the turn of this century and died in 1950, translator-novelist, principal works:

Mhudi, a novel, and Native Life in South Africa, a famous political work), Peter

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Abrahams (1919--, novelist, principal works: Song of a City, Mine Boy, The Path of

Thunder, Wild Conquest, A Wreath for Udomo), Ezekiel Mphahlele (creative writer-

Africanist-critic, principal works: Down Second Avenue, a novel, and The African Image,

a book of criticism).

Other more contemporary South African writers include A. C. Jordan (novelist),

H. I. E. Dhlomo (novelist), B. W. Vilakazi (poet), Alex la Guma (novelist), Bloke

Modisane (short story writer), Alfred Hutchinson (novelist), Lewis Nkosi (playwright),

Noni Jabavu (one of the few woman-writers writing among the Xhosa people of the East

Cape Province of South Africa; she is famous for her two novels called Drawn in Color

and The Ochre People), Dennis Brutus (poet), and Nadine Gordimer (the Nobel-prize-

winning novelist and short story writer).

3) West African Literature (WAL): Anne Tibble in African-English Literature rightly

observes: "Thinking briefly, of West Africa as a self-contained literary unit--which of

course it is not, though cross-currents with East and South Africa are not strong--we may

say that this section of the continent began its production of a written literature latest of

the three....When as late as the 1940s, West Africa did awake, the number of its writers

quickly grew. Especially so was the case in Nigeria, in spite of the hundred or more

indigenous languages there. The total of poets, novelists, and dramatists in West Africa as

a whole quickly exceeded those in the South or East."

Some of the West African countries producing powerful writings include Nigeria,

Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Sénégal. And some of the most

outstanding writers come from Nigeria alone--Amos Tutola (1920--, novelist-short story

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writer, principal works: The Palm Wine Drinkard, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Simbi

and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle, The Brave African Huntress), Gabriel Okara (1921,

poet-novelist, principal works--poetry: Were I to Choose and Other Poems; novel: The

Voice), Chinua Achebe (1930--, novelist and prose writer, principal works: Things Fall

Apart, No Longer at Ease, A Man of the People, Arrow of God, Anthills of Savannah),

Cyprian Ekwensi (novelist-short story writer, principal works: People of the City, Jagua

Nana, Burning Grass, Beautiful Feathers), Flora Nwapa (1931-1993, novelist-short

story writer, principal works: Efuru, Idu, Never Again, One is Enough, This is Lagos and

Other Stories, Wives at War and Other Stories, Women are Different), Wole Soyinka

(1934--, Nobel-prize-winning novelist-playwright-poet, principal works--plays: The

Swamp Dwellers, Brother Jero, The Strong Breed, The Lion and the Jewel, A Dance of

the Forest; novels: The Interpreters, Season of Anomy; memoir: Aké: The Years of

Childhood; poetry: Idanre, Mandela's Earth and Other Poems), Elechi Amadi (1934--,

novelist, principal works: The Concubine, The Great Ponds, The Slave, Sunset in Biafra),

Buchi Emecheta (1944--, novelist, principal works: In the Ditch, Second Class Citizen,

The Bride Price, The Slave Girl, The Joys of Motherhood, Destination Biafra, The Rape

of Shavi), Ben Okri (1959--, novelist-short story writer, principal works--novels:

Flowers and Shadows, The Landscapes Within, The Famished Road; short stories:

Incidents at the Shrine, Stars of the New). Some of the more contemporary Nigerian poets

of repute include Christopher Okigbo, Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, John Ekwere, Mabel

Sagun, and Michael Echeruo.

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Poets in West Africa other than Nigeria include Lenrie Peters of Gambia, and the

Ghanaians, George Awoonor-Williams, Efua Theodora Sutherland, Kwesi Brew, and

Ellis Ayitey Komey.

Some of the important West African writers other than those in Nigeria are

Abioseh Nicol (poet), William Conton (novelist), and Syl Cheney-Coker (poet) of

Sierra Leone; Francis Bebey (short story writer-novelist-poet), Mongo Beti (novelist-

essayist), Werewere Liking (playwright-novelist) of Cameroon; Ama Ata Aidoo

(playwright-novelist-short story writer), Efua Sutherland (playwright), Kofi Anyidoho

(poet) of Ghana; Mariama Ba (novelist), Nafissatou Niang Diallo (novelist), Ousmane

Sembène (novelist-short story writer), Cheik Aliou Ndao (novelist-playwright) of

Senegal.

B. LINGUISTIC/THEMATIC

According to Martin Tucker, "African writers can probably best be characterized

by four broad divisions:

1. The Westerner or other non-African writer who utilizes the subject matter of Africa in

a language not native to the African continent.

2. The African writer, black or white, who utilizes the subject matter of Africa in a

language native to the African continent.

3. The African writer who utilizes subject matter other than Africa, but who writes in a

language native to the African continent.

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4. The African writer who utilizes the subject matter of Africa, but who writes in a

Western language that has, by custom, become part of the African means of

communication."

Tucker further observes, "using this convenient outline it may be said that African

literature exists in several languages: in English (Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Wole

Soyinka, to name a few); in French (Bernard Dadié, Birago Diop, André Gide, Joseph

Kessel, Jean Lartéguy, Jean Malonga, Ferdinand Oyono, Jean-Joseph Rabéarivelo); in

German (Kurt Heuser, Janheinz Jahn); in Danish (Johannes Buchholtz); in native African

languages (Thomas Mofolo, Thiong'o); in the English of South Africans ( Nadine

Gordimer, Sarah Gertrude Millin, Alan Paton); and in Afrikaans (Nuthall Fula, Ernst van

Heerden)."

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