European Literature

• In the early time of the European literature, traditional Latin was the language manifested in literary works in most of their states especially in Germany.
• As the prestige of the Papacy began to decline, national consciousness began to increase in different states. This nationalism was manifested in literature written in National Languages or Vernacular instead of traditional Latin.
• The vernacular opened up such that cultural peculiarities could be more naturally expressed. This allowed literature to feel more realistic and human to the readers.
• Their literature involved the Nobility: Kings, Queens, Knights etc... such as:

  Beowulf from United Kingdom

  Les Chansons de Roland from France
• In the late 1600s and early 1700s, when the Enlightenment was well under the way in Britain and France, Germany was highly fragmented both politically and culturally.
• German culture and literature were likewise disjoined with different regions drawing on different influences and no distinct literary style yet to place.
• While France and other European countries used vernacular languages for literature, the literary language in Germany was still predominantly Latin. As a result, Enlightenment ideas from England and France took a long time to spread to Germany.
• Famous Writers

  Homer

  Sophocles

  Giovanni Boccaccio

  Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra

  William Shakespeare

  Voltaire

  Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

  Victor Hugo

  Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  Leo Tolstoy
• Homer was a legendary early Greek poet and rhapsode traditionally credited with authorship of the major Greek epics.

  • Iliad and Odyssey

  • Phocais

  • Capture of Oechalia
• Sophocles was an ancient Greek playwright, dramatist, priest and politician in Athens. He is known as the second, chronologically, of the three great Greek tragedians.

  • Oedipus the King

  • Ajax

  • Antigone
• Giovanni Boccaccio - was an Italian author and poet, the greatest of Petrarch's disciples, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right.

  • Decameron

  • On Famous Women
• Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra - his influence on the Spanish language has been so great that Spanish is often called "la lengua de Cervantes."

  • Don Quixote

  • La Galatea
• William Shakespeare - his ability to capture and convey the most profound aspects of human nature is regarded by many as unequalled.

  • Hamlet

  • Macbeth

  • Romeo and Juliet
• Voltaire - is remembered and honored in France as a courageous polemicist, who indefatigably fought for civil rights.

  • Candide

  • The Maid of Orleans

  • Henriade
• Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm - well known for publishing collections of German fairy tales.

  • The Brothers Grimm's Hansel and Gretel
• Victor Hugo as a French author, the most important of the Romantic authors in the French language.

  • Les Miserables

  • Les Contemplations

  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Russian writer, one of the major figures in Russian literature. He is sometimes said to be a founder of existentialism.

  • Crime and Punishment

  • The Brothers Karamazov
• Leo Tolstoy notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance and his contributions to Russian literature and politics.

  • War and Peace

  • Anna Karenina