World Literature: Definition and Examples

• Literary works need close analysis, critical interpretation and adaptation
• Comparing and contrasting 21st-century literary genres, elements, structures, and traditions from across the globe is required

What is world literature?

• World Literature has two possible meanings:
  • It is the vast literary production across the world
  • It contains what is deemed "the best" of what the world's literature can offer
• The phrase "world literature" originates from the German scholar and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's phrase Weltliteratur
• Goethe stated in 1827 that national literature is no longer important and "It is time for world literature."

Examples of canonical world literature include:

• Iliad
• Chanson de Roland/The Song of Roland
• Aladdin from One Thousand and One Nights
• Odyssey
• Noah's Ark from The Bible
• The Holy Quran
• The Canterbury Tales

The Holy Quran (Koran):

• The Muslim’s highest and most sacred religious scripture originated from Arabia
• It was entrusted to the last and most loved prophet, Muhammad
• The Islamic sacred book is believed to be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel
• The Holy Quran was written down in Arabic

The Christian Sacred Writings (The Bible):

• The word "Bible" coined from Greek word "biblia" or "the books"
• It provides the basis of Christianity in Palestine and Greece
• The collection of sacred texts/scriptures of various forms that are all linked that they collectively contain the word of God

The Iliad and The Odyssey:

• Both have been the source of myths and legends of Greece and have inspired many famous works in literature, music, art, and film
• The poems are called Homeric epics and were written by Homer

The Mahabharata:

• It is known to be the longest epic poem and has been described as "the longest poem every written"
• It has over 200,000 individual verse lines, with 100,000 sloka and each sloka as couplet
• The Mahabharata contains the philosophical beliefs of India
• It discusses the 4 goals of human life (4 Parusarthas)
  • Dharma which is righteousness, moral values
  • Artha which is prosperity, economic values
  • Kama which is pleasure, love, psychological values
  • Moksha which is liberation and spiritual values

The Canterbury Tales:

• Written by Geoffrey Chaucer as a collection of 24 stories
• Runs to over 17,000 lines, written mostly in verse though some are in prose
• The stories are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of ST. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral
• The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at London on their return
• The Canterbury Tales contributed the popularization of the English vernacular in mainstream literature

Uncle Tom's Cabin

• Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe of the USA
• It is an anti-slavery novel that profoundly affected attitudes towards African Americans and slavery in the USA
• This is said to have started the American civil war

The Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia):

• Written by Dante Alighieri of Italy
• It is divided into 3 sections, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso
• The narrative traces the journey of Dante from darkness and error to the revelation of divine light
• It culminates in the Beatific Vision of God

El Cantar de Mio Cid

• An epic of Spain's national hero named Rodrigo Diaz De Vivar
• Recounts the heroic deeds of the Cid
• He was an exiled member of the lower nobility who wins back his king's favor by battling the Islamic inhabitants of Spain
• Based on the exploits of the historical personage, Rodrigo (Ruy) Diaz de Vivar, who lived from 1040-1099,
• This epic offers an important example of the interaction of history and literature in the Middle Ages

La Chanson De Roland:

• An old French epic considers one of the earliest
• It tells the Golden Age of Christianity in France.
• Charlemagne, having conquered all of Spain except Saragossa, receives overtures from the Saracen king and sends the knight Ganelon, Roland's stepfather, to negotiate peace terms
• Ganelon plots to achieve his stepson's destruction because Roland proposed him for a dangerous task
• Ganelon ensures that Roland commands the rear guard of the army when it withdraws from Spain
• As the army crosses the Pyrenees, the rear guard is surrounded at the pass of Roncesvalles by an overwhelming Saracen force
• The headstrong hero Roland is the paragon of the unyielding warrior victorious in defeat.

The Book of the Dead:

• An ancient Egyptian collection of mortuary texts, that consists of spells or magic formulas
• Placed in tombs and believed to protect and aid the deceased in the hereafter
• The collection of spells enables the soul of the deceased to navigate the afterlife
• Each spell is never codified and no two copies of the work are exactly the same
• The spells were created specifically for each individual who could afford them

The Book of Days:

• Served as the basis of Christianity in China
• It is also called The Analects of Confucius
• An anthology of brief passages that present the words of Confucius and his disciples
• Describes Confucius as a man and recounts some of the events of his life

One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights):

• A collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian folk tales that were originally published together during the Islamic Golden Age.

Literary Theories:

• Chekhov's Gun
• Expressive Theory
• Mimetic Theory
• Didactic Theory
• Formalist Theory
• Feminist Theory
• Marxist Theory

Chekhov's Gun:

• According to the playwright Anton Chekhov, "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don't put it there" (Simon 2010)
• It means that if an important object or detail is mentioned in the text, this should play a central role in the plot

Expressive Theory:

• Treats a literary work primarily in relation to the author
• Defines poetry as an expression, or overflow, or utterance of feeling
• Defines poetry as the products of the poet's feelings
• Tends to judge the work by its sincerity to the poets' vision or the state of mind

Mimetic Theory:

• The word "mimetic" comes from the Greek word "mimesis," the act of imitation
• Places primary importance on how well a literary work imitates life
• Is focused on how literary works depict the real world

Didactic Theory:

• Didacticism consists of teaching and educating
• Describes literature serving as a means to teach the reader something, whether morals or how to make stew
• Uses imperative sentences and the second-person point-of-view

Formalist Theory:

• Concerned with the aesthetic structure or form of literary works according to their elements and genres
• Reduces the importance of the text's historical, cultural, and biographical context

Feminist Theory:

• Focuses on the relationships between men and women and their relative roles in society
• Reminds us that the relationship between men and women in society is often unequal
• Reflects a particular patriarchal ideology
• Unequal relationships may appear in a variety of ways in the production of literature and within literary texts.

Marxist Theory:

• Emphasizes class, socioeconomic status, power relations among various segments of society, and the representation of those segments
• Enables readers to see the role that class plays in the plot of the text

Suggested Activity Questions:

• Why does it seem acceptable in society for husbands to have affairs with other women?
• Is having extramarital affairs acceptable for women?
• What gender inequalities are predominant in society?
• Research adultery and concubinage within Philippine Law:
  • What do they have in common?
  • What are their differences?
• How do you feel about double standards in the law?
• Read "Preludes" by Daryll Delgado

Potential Discussion Questions for "Preludes":

• What is a prelude?
• Why is that the title of the story?
• What does Nenita feel for her husband?
• Why do you think she feels that way?
• What does the herbalista friend feel about Nenita's husband?
• Who was the man that died in the first paragraph?
• What was the reason for his death?
• What are the meanings of heat in the story?
• Why is it ironic that the widow was married to a judge?
• Do you think justice was served?