LITERATURE DISCUSSION

• Stories

  • binds us together and makes us makes sense of our experience
• Catharsis

  • the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.​
• World Literature

  • the totality of all nation literature
  • emerged only in the 19th century when the literary connections of different countries had spread and strengthened
• Wolfgang von Goethe

  • studied the characteristic features and interrelationship of different national literatures, the tendencies of their development and their achievements
  • claimed that literature shouldn’t be restrained by national boundaries ​
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

  • Used the term World Literature in 1984  in Communist Manifesto​
  • Cosmopolitan Appeal (universal appeal)
• The History of World Literature

  • 1894
  • first compilation of the world literature
• Classification of World Literature

  • The Bronze Age of Literature (2600 BC)
  • Classical Literature (1200 BCE - 455 BCE)
  • Medieval Literature (476 - 1500 CE)
  • Modern Literature (late 19th - early 20th)
  • Contemporary Literature (after WW2 or 1940s)
  • 21st Century Literature (2001 - present)
• The Bronze Age

  • 2600 BC
  • Sumerians = cuneiform
  • Egyptians = hieroglyphs
  • the first of ancient civilization who develop the early system of writing
• Classical Literature

  • 1200 BCE - 455 BCE
  • Greek and Roman masterpieces
• Medieval Literature​

  • 476 - 1500 CE
  • refers broadly to any work written in Latin or the vernacular (philosophy, religious treatises, legal text, as well as works of the imagination)
• Modern Literature​

  • late 19th and early 20th century
  • Europe and North America
  • characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing​
  • stream of consciousness
• Contemporary Literature ​

  • after World War II or during 1940s
  • reality-based stories with strong characters and a believable story emerged on this period, but it was also during this period that gave birth to the genre of magical realism which was a breakthrough at the time​
• Magic Realism

  • paints the realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements, often dealing with the blurring of the lines between fantasy and reality
  • the supernatural realm blends with the natural, familiar world​
  • uses a substantial amount of realistic detail and employs magical elements to make a point about reality, while stories are often separated from reality​
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• 21st Century Literature​

  • 2001 - present
  • characterized by the steep increase in the acceptability of literature of all types, inspired by the coming of age of millions of people who enjoyed the work of writes of Speculative fiction​
• Speculative Fiction

  • a broad category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, nature or the present universe
  • covers various themes in the context of supernatural, futuristic and other imaginative realm
  • genres under this umbrella category include, but are not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero fiction, alternate history, utopian and dystopian fiction and supernatural fiction
• Stream of Consciousness

  • technique in writing that attempts “to depict the infinite thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind” of a narrator
  • is like the prose fiction version of Soliloquy or monologue
• Dystopian Fiction

  • a kind of fiction denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering and injustice
  • the opposite of Utopian Fiction
• Weltliteratur

  • the term was introduced by Wolfgang von Goethe in 1827