21st

• Asian Literature


  • East Asian Literature: Chinese, Japanese and Korean
  • Central Asian Literature: Bengali, Indian, Pakistani and Tamil
  • West Asian Literature: Arabic, Persian and Turkish
  • Southeast Asian Literature: Philippine
• Representative Texts and Authors from Asia

  • Miguel Syjuco (Philippines)
  • Bi FeiYu (China)
  • Shin Kyung Sook (South Korea)
  • Govind Vinayak Karandikar (India)
  • Yosuke Tanaka (Japan)
  • Haruki Murakami (Japan)
• Miguel Syjuco


  Filipino writer from Manila, Grand prize winner of 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his novel Ilustrado
• Ilustrado


  With light shading of New York noir and American thriller; tells the story of a young writer's apprentice tasked with the self-appointed mission of writing an account of his deceased master's life
• Bi FeiYu


  Chinese writer known for complex portrayal of the "female psyche", has won some of the highest literary awards in China, also wrote the screenplay for Zhang Yimou's 1996 film Shanghai Triad
• Three Sisters


  An intense and invigorating examination of personality and rampant individualism that's set in the context of high-Communist China in the years of the Cultural Revolution, focuses on female characters and their interactions with male patriarchs
• Shin Kyung Sook


  First Korean writer to win the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 for her novel Please Look After Mother, highly regarded contemporary writer who has won major literary prizes
• Please Look After Mother


  Driven by the guilt of those closest to 'Mother', the saintly, sacrificial old woman who has gone missing in the center of Seoul. Alternating in perspective, from first to second to third person, the novel veers from near accusatory to reflective and explores themes of family in the midst of South Korea's rapid urbanization and modernization
• Govind Vinayak Karandikar


  Indian poet, writer, literary critic and translator of Marathi language, writer of The Wheel
• Yosuke Tanaka


  Japanese poet born in Tokyo in 1969, debuted in Eureka at the age of 19, has written poems with stylistic diversity and unique sense of humor, wrote A Day When the Mountains are Visible and Sweet Ultramarine Dreams
• Haruki Murakami


  Famous Japanese author whose works have been translated into several languages, arguably the most experimental Japanese novelist to have been translated into English, and the most popular, with sales in the millions worldwide
• Literary Genres


  • Haiku
  • Science Fiction
  • Folklore
• Haiku


  Unrhymed poetic form consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively, first emerged in Japanese literature during the 17th century, a nature poem which revolves around seasons and nature
• Science Fiction


  A genre of speculative fiction that contains imagined elements that don't exist in the real world, spans a wide range of themes that often explore time travel, space travel, are set in the future, and deal with the consequences of technological and scientific advances
• Science Fiction in Ancient Indian Literature

  • Ramayana (5th to 4th century BC) - includes Vimana flying machines able to travel into space or under water, and destroy entire cities using advanced weapons
  • Rigveda collection of Sanskrit hymns (1700–1100 BC) - "mechanical birds" that are seen "jumping into space speedily with a craft using fire and water
• Folklore


  Expressive body of culture shared by a particular group of people, encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group, includes oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes
• Folklore Genres


  • Folk Songs: epics (Shishi), and narrative poems (Xushishi)
  • Wedding songs (kujiage), drinking songs (jiuge), love songs (quingge), and work songs (laodongge)
  • Spoken narratives such as folktales (minjiangushi), myths (shenhua), legends (chuanshuo), animal tales (dongwugushi)
• North American Literature


  • James Brendan Patterson (New York)
  • Nicholas Sparks (North Carolina)
  • John Green (Indianapolis, Indiana)
  • Suzanne Collins (Hartford, Connecticut)
  • Billy Collins (New York)
• James Brendan Patterson


  American author born in Newburgh, New York, has written 147 novels since 1976, had 114 New York Times bestselling novels, and holds The New York Times record for most #1 New York Times bestsellers by a single author, a total of 67, which is also a Guinness World Record
• Nicholas Sparks


  American novelist, screenwriter, and philanthropist, has published twenty-one novels and two non-fiction books, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 115 million copies sold worldwide in more than 50 languages, eleven of his novels have been adapted to film
• John Green


  American author and YouTube content creator, won the 2006 Printz Award for his debut novel, Looking for Alaska, and his fourth solo novel, The Fault in Our Stars, debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list in 2012
• Suzanne Collins


  American author, The Hunger Games was the first book of a trilogy, partly inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, was on The New York Times Best Seller list for more than 60 weeks in a row, the film adaptation was produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force production company
• Billy Collins


  American poet, was Poet Laureate of the United States between 2001 and 2003, his work reflects modern American life and connects with the masses by using everyday situations that most Americans deal with
• Literary Genres in North American Literature


  • Speculative Fiction
  • Graphic Novel
  • Young Adult Fiction
  • Chick Lit
  • Fan Fiction
  • Wattpad
• Speculative Fiction


  Author speculates or assumes upon the results of changing what's real or possible, not how a character would react to a certain event, first observed and coined by American fictionist Robert Heinlein
• Speculative Fiction


  • The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canadian)
  • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (American)
• Graphic Novel


  A novel in comic strip format, a book format in which a narrative is conveyed with sequential art and a book written and illustrated in the style of a comic book, was formally introduced by American Cartoonist, in 1964
• Graphic Novels


  • Watchmen by Allan Moore (English)
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker (Irish)
• Young Adult Fiction


  Also known as Young-Adult literature, written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age, expansive and include most of those found in adult fiction, common themes include friendship, first love, relationships and identity
• Young Adult Fiction


  • The Fault In Our Stars by John Green (American)
  • To all the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han (American)
• Chick Lit


  Concentrating on young women and their emotional lives, American original fiction genre that tackles the issue of modern literary genres
• Chick Lit


  • The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (American)
  • Spellbound by Jane Green (English)
• Fan Fiction


  Fiction about characters or settings from an original work of fiction, created by fans of that work rather than by its creator, fans may maintain the creator's characters and settings or add their own
• Fan Fiction


  • Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (American)
• Wattpad


  An Internet community for readers and writers to publish new user-generated stories in different genres, including classics, general fiction, historical fiction, non-fiction, poetry, fanfiction, spiritual, humor and teen fiction, aims to create social communities around stories from both amateur and established writers
• European Literature


  • Modern Writers: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Czech, and Russian, Scandinavians and Irish
  • Classical Works: Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Norse, Medieval French and the Italian Tuscan dialect of the renaissance
• Western Literature


  Synonym for European Literature, a literature written in the context of Western culture in the language of Europe
• Western Canon


  • Homer in Iliad and Odyssey
  • Virgil in Aeneid
  • Dante in Divine Comedy
  • Chaucer in Canterbury Tales
• Representative Texts and Authors of European Literature

  • Joanne Rowling / JK Rowling
  • Stephen Edwin King (Richard Bachman)
• Joanne Rowling / JK Rowling


  British writer and philanthropist, author of the Harry Potter film series and the Cormoran Strike crime fiction series, named as the world's first billionaire author according to Forbes and has lived as a "rags to riches" life, was also named a runner-up by Time Magazine in its 2007 Person of the Year, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour at the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to Literature and philanthropy