21 Century

ST

Literature From The

Philippines and The
World
Prepared by:
Ms. Jecelyn Real
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS
AND AUTHORS FROM
ASIA AND AFRICA
MODULE 1.1
ASIA
The largest continent in the world.
Has a vast literary tradition in
terms of scope and length of
existence.
Literature in the Eastern
hemisphere prospered and mirrored
the developments in religion, war,
and politics.
 A. EAST ASIA

China
Korea
Japan
 CHINA
One of the world’s cradles of civilization, has
started its unbroken literary tradition in the
14th century BCE.
The preservation of the Chinese language
(both spoken and written) has made the
immeasurable prolonged existence of their
literary traditions possible.
Poets like Du Fu, Li Po, and Wang Wei of the
Tang Dynasty (618-907), the finest era of
Chinese literature, has produced world-
1. Du Fu
He was known as Tu Fu.
He was the greatest Chinese poet of all
time (according to many literary critics)
Poem: The Ballad of the Army Cats –
about conscription and with hidden satire
that speaks of the noticeable luxury of
the court.
2. Li Po
He was known as Li Bai.
A Chinese poet who is a competitor of
Du Fu as China’s greatest poet.
His works are known for its
conversational tone and vivid imagery.
 Poem: Alone and Drinking under the
Moon – deals with the ancient social
custom of drinking.
3. Wang Wei
He was a poet, painter, musician, and
statesman during the Tang dynasty (the
golden ages of the Chinese cultural
history).
He was the established founder of the
respected Southern school of painter-
poets.
Many of his best poems were inspired by
the local landscape.
4. Mo Yan
He was a fictionist who won the 2012
Nobel Prize for literature.
His first novel was “Red Sorghum”, and
still his best-known work.
Red Sorghum – tells the story of the
Chinese battling Japanese intruders as
well as each other during the 1930s. It
relates the story of a family in a rural
area in Shandong Province during this
5. Yu Hua
He was a world-acclaimed short story
writer and considered as a champion for
Chinese meta-fictional or postmodernist
writing.
To Live – his novel describes the
struggles endured by the son of a
wealthy land-owner while historical
events caused and extended by the
Chinese Revolution are fundamentally
altering the nature of Chinese society.
 KOREA
The literary tradition is greatly influenced by
China’s cultural dominance.
 Hangul, Korean’s distinct writing system and
national alphabet, is developed in the 15th
century that gave new beginnings of Korean
literature.
In 1950, the themes present in the literary
works are about alienation, conscience,
disintegration, and self-identity.
1. Ch’oe Nam-Seon
He was considered a prominent
historian, pioneering poet, and publisher
in the Korean literature.
Became notable in pioneering modern
Korean poetry.
Poem: The Ocean to the Youth – made
him a widely acclaimed poet. This poem
aimed to produce cultural reform.
He sought to bring modern knowledge
about the world to the youth of Korea.
2. Yi Kwang-su
He was also the one who launched the
modern literary movement together with
Ch’oe Nam-Seon.
He was a novelist and wrote the first
Korean novel “The Heartless” which
made him well-known.
His novel was a description of the
crossroads at which Korea found itself,
stranded between tradition and
modernity, and undergoing conflict
3. Kim Ok
He was a Korean poet and included in
the early modernism movement of
Korean poetry.
He wrote the first Korean collection of
translation from Western poetry “The
Dance of Agony”.
4. Yun Hunggil

He was a South Korean novelist who

won the 1977 Korean Literature Writers
Award.

He wrote the classic novel “Changma”

(The Rainy Spell) that on a post-war
family with two grandmothers and their
shared grandson.
4. Pak Kyongni

She was a South Korean poet and

novelist.

She wrote the Korean’s masterpiece and

intentionally acclaimed 21-volume epic
novel “T’oji” (The Land), wherein she
chronicled the violent Korean history from
1897 to 1945.
 JAPAN
Has a rich and unique literary history even
though it has been influenced by the Chinese
language and Chinese literature.
It has a world-renowned poetic genre called
“haiku” (a short descriptive poem with 17
syllables).
Diverse forms of theatre “Noh” (traditional
Japanese theatrical form and one of the oldest
extant theatrical forms in the world.
 JAPAN

Kabuki - traditional Japanese popular drama

with singing and dancing performed in a highly
stylized manner.
Playwrights like Abe Kobo and Mishima Yukio
are Japan’s notable literalists.
 1. Abe Kobo
A Japanese novelist and playwright and also
known by the pseudonym of Abe Kimifusa.
He wrote the best-known play “Tomodachi”
(Friends) which is a story, with dark humor,
reveals the relationship with the other, and
exposes the peculiarity of human relations in
the present age.
He won the 1967 Akutagawa Award and
1951 Akutagawa Award for his novel Kabe
2. Kimitake Hiraoka
Known by the pen name Mishima Yukio,
the most important Japanese novelist of
the 20th century.
He wrote the novel “The Temple of the
Golden Pavilion” and won Yomiuri Prize from
Yomiuri Newspaper Cooperation for the best
novel.
3. Ryunosuke Akutagawa
A Japanese writer and regarded as the Father
of the Japanese Short Story.
He wrote the short story “Rashomon” that
recounts the encounter between a servant and
an old woman in the dilapidated Rashomon,
the southern gate of the then-ruined city of
Kyoto (where corpses were sometimes
dumped).
The Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s premier literary award
was named after him to honor his memory after he died
 4. Haruki Murakami
A Japanese novelist who won the international
award Jerusalem Prize.
He also won the Gunzou Literature Prize for
his novel Hear the Wind Sing – featured
episodes in the life of an unnamed protagonist
and his friend, the Rat, who hang out at a bar.
Murakami’s work has been translated into more than 50
languages.
 B. MIDDLE EAST
Arabic literary tradition has been flourishing
in the Middle East.
Islam is the foundation of culture in this
region – an essential component.
In contemporary times, Arabic writers
experience difficulties in producing their
literary texts due to the issue of freedom of
expression and the tension between religious
and secular movements.
1. Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad

An Egyptian poet, journalist, and literary

critique, an innovator of the 2oth-century
Arabic poetry and criticism.
He became famous for his Abqariyat series,
a seven-book compilation that covers the life
of seven of the most important Sahabah (the
disciples and followers of Muhammad).
2. Taha Hussein
An Egyptian novelist, essayist, critic, and an
outstanding figure in Egyptian literature.
His nickname was “The Dean of Arabic
Literature”.
He wrote the novelized autobiography “The
Days”, one of the most popular works of
modern Arabic literature that deals with his
childhood in a small village, then his studies
in Egypt and France.
3. Ali Ahmad Said Esber
He is known also as Adonis as his
pseudonym.
He is an award-winning Syrian-born
Lebanese poet, literary critic, and as a leader
of the modernist movement in contemporary
Arabic poetry.
He was the recipient of numerous honors,
including the 2011 Goethe Prize and the 2017
PEN/Nabokow Award for Achievement in
4. Etgar Keret
He is an Israeli writer known for his short
stories, graphic novels, and scriptwriting for
film and television.
His 2019 Fly Already (Glitch at the Edge of
the Galaxy) published in English won Israel’s
prestigious Sapir Prize in Literature.
 C. SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST
ASIA
India is the cultural giant over South Asia.
Hallmark writings such as Veda, the
Brahmanas, and the Upanishads are the roots
of Indian literature.
As early as 1500 BCE, the Veda written in the
Sanskrit language introduced the birth of
Indian literary works.
Highly accomplished and internationally
known: Rabindranath Tagore, Prem Chand,
 1. Rabindranath Tagore
He was a Bengali poet, short-story writer,
song composer, playwright, essayist, and
painter.
He was referred to as The Bard of Bengal.
He is a towering figure of world literature
and the most famous modern Indian poet.
He won the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature
award for his book The English Gitanjali or
Song Offerings – a collection of devotional
 2. Dhanpat Rai Srivastava
Also known by his pseudonym Prem Chand,
a famous Indian author of novels and short
stories of his modern Hisdustani literature.
He wrote the most popular Hindi novel
“Godaan” (Cow Donation) – the theme was
around the socio-economic deprivation as
well as the exploitation of the village poor.
 3. Raja Rao
He is an Indian writer of the novels and short
stories in the English language.
Famous novel: The Serpent and the Rope – a
semi-autobiographical account of the
narrator, a young intellectual Brahman, and
his wife seeking spiritual truth in India,
France, and England.
With his novel, he won the Sahitya Akademi
Award.
He also rewarded the Neustadt International
4. Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan
(R.K. Narayan)
One of the finest Indian authors in the
English language.
He wrote the Sahitya Award-winning novel
“The Guide”- adapted for film and for
Broadway.
The novel was based on the fictional town in
South India and describes the transformation
of the protagonist from a tour guide to
spiritual guide and one of the greatest holy
5. Chart Korbjitti
He is the most successful Thai writer.
Was recognized by his publication of his
novel Khamphiphaksa (The Judgement) –
named as Book of the Year by Thailand’s
Literature Council and won him the S.E.A
Write Award.
He was also awarded the National Artist in
Literature (2004).
6. Nguyen Du
The best-loved poet and the father of
Vietnamese literature.
Was most known for his epic poem “The Tale
of Kieu” that recounts the life, trials, and
tribulations of Thuy Kieu – a beautiful and
talented young woman, who has to sacrifice
herself to save her family. She sells herself
into marriage with a middle-aged man, not
knowing that he is a pimp, and is forced into
7. Tengku Amir Hamzah
He was an Indonesian poet and National
Her0 of Indonesia.
Poem collection: Nyangi Sunyi – considered
the most developed and shows the theme of
God and His relationship to humanity, fate,
dissatisfaction, and escape.
He was the only Indonesian poet recognized
internationally.
 D. CENTRAL ASIA

Central Asian literature has different literary

characteristics and political in culture.
In contemporary times, Russian influence
continues to be present in Central Asia
literature.
Some of the Central Asian writers and their
literary works pave their way to be known
worldwide.
1. Abdullah Qodiriy
He was known by the pseudonym
Julqunboy.
He was one of the most influential Uzbek
writers of the 20th century
He was a Soviet playwright, poet, writer, and
literary translator.
O’tgan kunlar (Days Gone By) – a historical
novel and the first Uzbek full-length novel.
2. Mukhtar Auez-uli
He was an early Soviet Kazakh writer.
He won recognition for the long novel “Abay”
– based on the life and poetry of Kunanbay-
uli.
3. Chingiz Aytmatov
He was a Soviet and Kyrgyz author and the
best-known figure in Kyrgyz and Russian
literature.
Jamila – his first major novel was told from
the viewpoint of a fictional character that tells
the story by looking back on his childhood.
The story recounts the love between his new
sister-in-law Jamilya and a local crippled
 Representative Texts
and Authors from Africa
AFRICA
The “Cradle of the humankind” according to
scientists, has a literature that is filled with the
human spirit, desiring for freedom and
contentment.
In the contemporary times, African writers
experience new challenges with their new and
sovereign government with a constant theme of
corruption.
1. Chinua Achebe
He was a Nigerian novelist, poet, critic, and
professor.
was honored as Grand Prix de la Memoir of
the 2019 edition of the Grand Prix of Literary
Associations.
Novel: Things Fall Apart – the most widely
read book in modern African literature,
concerns the traditional Igbo life at the time
of the advent of missionaries and the colonial
2. Wole Soyinka
He was the first black African to be awarded
the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Play: A Dance of the Forests – was written for
the Nigerian independence celebrations. It
parodies the emerging nation by showing that
the present is no more a golden age than it
was before.
3. Kofi Awooner
He was a Ghanian novelist and poet.
He wrote “This Earth, My Brother”, a cross
between a novel and a poem.
4. Ngungi wa Thiong’o
East Africa’s leading novelist, a Kenyan
writer who wrote the famous novel “Weep
Not, Child” – the first major novel in English
by an East African.
His famous novel deals with the Mau-Mau
Uprising, a war in the British Kenya Colony
(1920-1963) between the Kenya Land and
Freedom Army.
 5. Okot p’ Bitek
He was a Uganda poet, novelist, and social
anthropologist who wrote the three (3) verses
collections: Song of Lawino (1066), Song of
Ocol (1970) and Two Songs (1971).
He achieved international recognition for
Song of Lawino – a long poem dealing with
the tribulations of a rural African wife whose
husband has taken up urban life and wishes
everything to be westernized.
 6. Nadine Gordimer
A South African writer and the recipient of
the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.
She wrote the joint winner of the Booker –
McConnell Prize novel “The Conservationist”.
 7. Jacques Rabemananjara
He was a Malagasy playwright and poet and
one of Madagascar’s most prominent writers.
 he wrote and published “Les dieux
malgaches” – the first modern Malagasy play
in French.
 8. Es’kia Mphahlele
He wrote the South African classic
autobiography “Down Second Avenue” –
about the story of a young man’s growth into
adulthood with penetrating social criticism of
the conditions forced upon black South
Africans by a system of institutionalized racial
segregation.
 9. Thomas Mofolo
He was the greatest writer from Sotho
people in Africa.
He created the first Western-style novels in
the Basotho language.
Novel: Chaka – a historical novel about the
story of the rise and fall of the Zulu king
Shaka.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS
AND AUTHORS FROM
NORTH AND LATIN
AMERICA
MODULE 1.2
 NORTH AMERICA
A mainland or continent totally inside the
Northern Hemisphere and practically all inside
the western Hemisphere.
The third-biggest landmass by region,
following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by
populace after Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Various writers from this continent are
prominent for their works and contribution to
the body of literature.
1. David L. Weatherford
A child psychologist with published poems in
“Chicken Soup for the Soul”.
He was born on July 20, 1952 in Mount
Vernon, Jefferson County, Illinois, USA.
He died on January 7, 2010 at age 57.
One of his poems: Slow Dance
 2. Alfred Edward Housman
(A.E. Housman)

Was an English traditional researcher and

writer.
Most popular to the overall population for his
pattern of sonnets “A Shropshire Lad”
One of the premier classicists of his age and
has been positioned as probably the best
researcher who ever lived.
One of his poems: When I Was One-and-
Twenty
3. Kate Chopin
Was an American creator of short stories and
books situated in Louisiana.
She is currently considered by some scholars
to have been a harbinger of American
twentieth century women’s activist writers of
Southern or Catholic foundation.
Short story : The Story of An Hour
4. James Grover Thurber
Was an American sketch artist, creator,
comedian, writer, dramatist, and commended
mind.
He was most popular for his kid’s shows and
short stories, distributed primarily in The New
Yorker and gathered in his various books.
Story : The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
5. Robert Charles Benchley
Was an American comedian most popular for
his work as a paper editorialist and film
entertainer.
 Benchley is the best associated with his
commitments to The New Yorker, where his
expositions, regardless of whether effective
or absurdist, impacted numerous advanced
comedians.
Essay: My Face
 LATIN AMERICA
The area of the Americas where Romance
dialects especially Spanish and Portuguese,
just as French –are principally spoken.
It incorporates 20 countries including Mexico
in North America, Guatemala, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile,
Paraguay and Brazil.
 1. Tess Almendarez-Lojacono

An essayist, entrepreneur, and instructor.

She graduated from Carnegie Mellon
University.
Worldwide Family Magazine is as of now
distributing stories from her assortment
called Milagros in their Latin Families section.
Literary text: Just One Thing