William Faulkner -was a prolific writer who became very famous during his lifetime, but who shied

away from the spotlight as much as possible. He is remembered as both a gentlemanly Southern eccentric
and an arrogant, snobbish alcoholic. But perhaps the best way to describe Faulkner is to describe his
heritage, for, like so many of his literary characters.
William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, and began to write poetry as a teenager. He was an
indifferent student, and dropped out of high school when he was fifteen.
In 1950, Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

=Works by William Faulkner=

 Absalom, Absalom! -was published in 1936, after Faulkner's three seminal novels The Sound
and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930) and A Light in August (1932
 As I Lay Dying -was published in 1930, immediately following the work that many consider to be
Faulkner's masterpiece
The structure of As I Lay Dying is powerful and innovative. Fifteen narrators alternate, delivering
interior monologues with varying degrees of coherence and emotional intensity. The language is
intense and highly subjective, with a recognizable change in language depending on the
narrator. Each section falls somewhere in the range from confessional to stream-of-
consciousness. The novel is a series of interior monologues, and through these fragmented
passages we piece together the story of Addie Bundren's death and the transport of her body to
Jefferson.
 Published in 1942, Go Down Moses evolved from connecting a series of previous published
short stories by William Faulkner.
Go down moses takes the stories told in the novella "The Fire and the Hearth" and the short
stories the "Was," "Pantaloons’ in Black," "The Old People," "The Bear," "Delta Autumn" and
"Go Down, Moses" and uses them as the source material ripe for reshaping through revision of
what was already in place as well as the addition of new material.
 Light In August was the first book Faulkner published after gaining some public success with
Sanctuary, the book he wrote for commercial gain only.
Light In August tells the interweaving stories of a cast of very different characters all trying to
make their way in the South. These characters inhabit Jefferson, Mississippi, the central town in
Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the setting of many of his novels (and most of his
greatest works)
 The Reivers is a novel written by William Faulkner and published in 1962. Faulkner is one of the
most famous writers in American history, having won more than one Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
The Reivers won one of these prizes, in 1963.
In terms of composition, The Reivers is more straightforward than several of Faulkner’s other
novels, and it has much less complicated literary techniques. This work is a picaresque novel,
which is more light-hearted than the rest of Faulkner’s works and also uncharacteristic
especially for the subject matter. A picaresque novel follows a hero, who is well loved but also
rough and somewhat uncivilized, and in this novel, his name is Lucius Priest
 Barn Burning" was originally published in the June, 1939 issue of Harper’s Magazine. It is a
prequel to the "Snopes" trilogy, made up of the novels The Hamlet (1940), The Town (1957), and
The Mansion (1959).
  The Selected Short Stories of William Faulkner was published in 1993 and features stories
composed by the Nobel laureate during what is generally considered the most fruitful period of
his literary career: roughly from 1929, when he published The Sound and the Fury, all the way
through to the middle of the 1950s. Among the short stories selected for this collection are the
most widely anthologized and studies stories Faulkner ever wrote, including such English 101
curriculum staples as “Barn Burning” and “A Rose for Emily.”
 The Sound and the Fury was published in 1929, although it was one of the first novels Faulkner
wrote. Many critics and even Faulkner himself think that it is the best novel that he wrote. Its
subject is the downfall of the Compson family, the offspring of the pioneer Jason Lycurgus
Compson
 In 1938, Faulkner released a fiction book entitled The Unvanquished, which tells the story of the
Sartoris family during the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The Sartoris kin holds
steadfast to Southern values, but as the Union nears victory in the so-designated War Between
the States, they prepare to cope with their impending loss. This novel details the Civil War from
an unusual perspective and sheds light on families of the Confederacy.
(https://www.gradesaver.com/author/william-faulkner)

Gabriel José García Márquez-was born on March 6, 1927, to Luisa Santiaga Marquez Iguaran
and Gabriel Eligio Garcia in Aracataca, Colombia. The prized author and journalist is known to many as
simply Gabo. With lyricism and marked wisdom, Marquez has been recognized as one of the most
remarkable storytellers of the 20th century.
Marquez's first novel, Leaf Storm, was published by a small Bogota press in 1955. That year he also
began attending meetings of the Colombian Communist Party and traveling to Europe as a foreign
correspondent. He also wrote his second novel, In Evil Hour, and began work on a collection of short
stories called No One Writes to the Colonel. In 1956, Marquez was in Paris as a correspondent for El
Espectador when he learned that the dictator Rojas Pinalla had closed the newspaper. Stuck in France,
Marquez cashed in his return plane ticket, went hunting for journalism work, and collected bottles to
help pay the cost of his rent. The next year he managed to travel to Eastern Europe and secure an editor
position at a newspaper in Caracas. In 1958 he returned to Barranquilla to marry Mercedes Barcha, his
childhood sweetheart. (He claimed that she was 13 when he first proposed.) They lived together in
Caracas from 1957 to 1959, while Marquez continued to work as a journalist and wrote fiction.
=Works by Gabriel Garcia=
 Chronicle of a Death Foretold, is a hybrid of literary genres, at once a journalistic account of a
historical murder that took place in Sucre, Columbia, a psychological detective story, and a work
of allegorical fiction. On January 22, 1951, two brothers in the Chica family murdered Cayetano
Gentile Chimento, because he has sex with their sister, Margarita Chica Salas, before her
marriage to Miguel Reyes Palencia.

 The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World was published in 1968 and became a perfect
example of magic realism. In spite of the fact that this story is extremely short, it leaves a long-
lasting impression.
 The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother.
The story was published in 1972, but Erendira and her grandmother made their first appearance in
Marquez’s highly esteemed 1967 novel 100 Years of Solitude.
 Love in the Time of Cholera- published in 1985, was Gabriel Garcia Marquez's first book after
winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.
 One Hundred Years of Solitude-Like everything Marquez writes, there is some truth and much
fiction in this tale. The truth in the tale is that One Hundred Years of Solitude is a very personal
book for the author. The book was an immediate commerical and critical success when it
appeared in 1967, and has since been translated into 26 languages and sold millions of copies
worldwide
 Strange Pilgrims is a novel published in 1992 and written by Gabriel García Márquez in the
1970s.Strange Pilgrims is actually composed of 12 separate but somewhat related short stories.
Through all of these stories, García Márquez deftly draws together tenacity, sorrow, grief, and
hope and also illustrates the themes of alienation and appearance versus reality.
 A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" -in 1955, and gave it the subtitle of A Tale For
Children. "Very Old Man" is perhaps the clearest and most famous example of a genre that
Garcia Marquez helped to create: magical realism. This style, simply put, combines elements of
ordinary life with elements of fantasy and magic. One might say that a work of magical realism
treats the magical as ordinary - and thus invites us to consider the ordinary as magical. Very Old
Man" can be read on many levels. The story calls into question the manner in which humans
make sense of their world - through stories, tales, interpretations, conversations, conventions, etc.
(https://www.gradesaver.com/author/william-faulkner)

Pablo Neruda “The United Fruit Company”

Pablo Neruda was a poet, diplomat, and politician. He was born in Chile and is often
considered the country’s national poet. He wrote works that fall into many different
genres: love poems, political manifestos, surrealist experiments, historical epics, prose
articles, autobiography, and odes to ordinary objects. Neruda won the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1971.
Pablo Neruda is known for writing in eclectic styles like political manifestos and prose
autobiography. One of his most celebrated works is Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
(1924). These poems set the stage for his later achievements, and his international reputation: in
1971, we won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Neruda is also known for writing in green ink, which to him symbolizes desire and hope. He was
often considered the greatest modern poet to have penned down his emotions in Spanish.
However, what is intriguing about his works is the ambivalence that it comes with even for those
who appreciate its techniques. Readers often find it hard to truly enjoy his poetry due to his
communistic stances

=WOKS BY PABLO NERUDA=

 The Book of Questions III” is one of seventy-four poems contained in Pablo Neruda’s
“The Book of Questions" (“El libro de las preguntas”).

 Neruda wrote “Ode to My Socks” (“Oda a los calcetines”) as part of a larger project to
praise ordinary objects such as salt, an onion, a lemon, wine, clothes, and a watch.

 Neruda wrote “Ode to My Suit” (“Oda al Traje”) as part of a larger project to praise
ordinary objects such as salt, an onion, a lemon, wine, socks, and a watch
 “United Fruit Company”

This poem by Neruda describes the neo-imperialist intervention of the United States, specifically noting
the dictators it has supported and the destructive behaviour of the Boston-based ‘United Fruit Company’
from which the poem derives its name. The poem uses mock-biblical language to describe a series of
tragic events, and the continued exploitation of Central America by the region’s richer neighbour(s) to the
North.

“When the trumpet sounded,

it was all prepared on the earth,
the Jehovah parcelled out the earth
to Coca Cola, Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other entities:
The Fruit Company, Inc.
reserved for itself the most succulent,
the central coast of my own land,
the delicate waist of America.
It rechristened its territories
as the ’Banana Republics’and over the sleeping dead,
over the restless heroes who brought about the greatness,
the liberty and the flags, it established the comic opera:
abolished the independencies,
presented crowns of Caesar,unsheathed envy,
attracted the dictatorship of the flies,
Trujillo flies, Tacho flies,
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, damp flies of
modest blood and marmalade, drunken flies
who zoom over the ordinary graves, circus flies,
wise flies well trained in tyranny.”
(https://genius.com/Pablo-neruda-the-united-fruit-company-annotated)
(https://www.gradesaver.com/author/william-faulkner)

Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, essayist, poet, and novelist, known for making work
about Africa from a distinctly African perspective. His work often includes a critique of
European colonialism, and he seamlessly blends African creative traditions, mythology, and
symbolism with more Western theatrical tropes in his work. Born in 1934 in Nigeria.
In 1986, Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. He has had a tempestuous
relationship with Nigeria, having been exiled and let back into the country several times
throughout his life. His plays include Death and the King's Horseman, Dance of the Forests, and
The Swamp Dwellers, among others.
Works by Wole Soyinka

 A Dance of the Forests is one of Wole Soyinka's best-known plays and was
commissioned as part of a larger celebration of Nigerian independence. It was a
polarizing play that made many Nigerians angry at the time of its production, specifically
because of its indictment of political corruption in the country. When Soyinka won the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, A Dance of the Forests was named as one of his
crowning achievements, and he was named "one of the finest poetical playwrights that
have written in English.”
 Death and the King's Horseman is perhaps the Nobel-Prize-winning playwright's
greatest and most enduring work. Published in 1975, the work is often studied and
performed in colleges and universities, as well as staged worldwide. Soyinka began
writing the play when he was a fellow at Cambridge in the early 1970s. He based it off
real events in Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946. It is five acts, and is to be
performed without an intermission
 The Lion and the Jewel is one of Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka’s most famous
works. While it is a light and amusing comedy, it is also renowned for its complex
themes and allegorical structure; it is also notable for its insights into Yoruba culture and
traditions. Soyinka wrote the play while living in London. It was first performed in Africa
at the Ibadan Arts Theatre in 1959 and garnered positive reviews. The Times Literary
Supplement stated, “In this richly ribald comedy, The Lion and the Jewel, poetry and
prose are also blended, but with a marvellous lightness in the treatment of both.
 The Swamp Dwellers is a play that was written by Wole Soyinka and was published in
1958. Wole Soyinka is a writer from Nigeria, and he was the first African to be honoured
with a Nobel Prize, winning the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature. Soyinka was politically
active during Nigeria’s struggle for independence, even getting arrested later during the
Nigerian Civil War. In this play, The Swamp Dwellers, the main conflict is between the
old and the new way of life in the Nigerian society, and Africa in general
 The Trials of Brother Jero was first published in 1964. Its original performance was
organized by Farris-Belgrave Productions and held at the Greenwich Mews Theatre in
New York City in 1967. Today it is known as one of Soyinka’s most popular plays. The
play mocks the effects of the quick spread of Christianity across Africa. In 1966 Soyinka
published another play featuring Brother Jero, called Jero's Metamorphosis.
(https://www.gradesaver.com/author/william-faulkner)

Pramoedya Ananta Toer - Pramoedya Ananta Toer is widely regarded as one of

Indonesia 's best writers. At a young age, he joined the anti-colonial struggle against
Japan during World War II and later enlisted in an army to fight Dutch colonialists.
Pramoedya was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature several times and was
bestowed with the PEN Freedom to Write Award in 1988. At age 74, Pramoedya
received the Fukuoka Prize for outstanding contributions by Asians in 2000.
 = Major Works =
 Kranji-Bekasi Jatuh ("The Fall of Kranji-Bekasi") (1947)
 Perburuan (The Fugitive (novel)) (1950)
 Keluarga Gerilya ("Guerilla Family") (1950)
 Bukan Pasar Malam (It's Not an All Night Fair) (1951)
 Cerita dari Blora (Story from Blora) (1952)
 Gulat di Jakarta ("Wrestling in Jakarta") (1953)
 Korupsi (Corruption) (1954)
 Midah - Si Manis Bergigi Emas ("Midah - The Beauty with Golden Teeth") (1954)
 Cerita Calon Arang (The King, the Witch, and the Priest) (1957)
 Hoakiau di Indonesia (Chinese of Indonesia) (1960)
 Panggil Aku Kartini Saja I & II ("Just Call Me Kartini I & II") (1962)
 Gadis Pantai (Girl from the Coast) (1962)
 The Buru Quartet
o Bumi Manusia (This Earth of Mankind) (1980)
o Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All Nations) (1980)
o Jejak Langkah (Footsteps) (1985)
o Rumah Kaca (House of Glass) (1988)
 Nyanyi Sunyi Seorang Bisu (A Mute's Soliloquy) (1995)
 Arus Balik (1995)
 Arok Dedes (1999)
 Mangir (1999)
 Larasati (2000)
 Perawan Remaja dalam Cengkeraman Militer: Catatan Pulau Buru (2001)
 All That Is Gone (2004)
 Narration for the Dutch film Jalan Raya Pos Great Post Road (film) about the Great Post Ro

‘Each injustice has to be fought against,even if it's only in one's heart - and I did fight.’
=Pramoedya Ananta Toer=

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pramoedya_Ananta_Toer)
(https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/02/pramoedya-ananta-toer)

Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer,
memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays,
several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows
spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. [3]
Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and
early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up
to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. She became a poet and
writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub
dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of
Africa. She was an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television
programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake
Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
=Works by Maya Angelou=
Poems
'Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie' (1971)
Angelou published several collections of poetry, but her most famous was 1971’s collection Just Give Me
a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Other famous collections of Angelou’s poetry include:

 Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), which includes Angelou’s poem “Alone”
 And Still I Rise (1978), which features the beloved poem “Phenomenal Woman”
 Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? (1983)
 I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), featuring the poem “Human Family”; Apple famously used a video
of Angelou reading this poem in an advertisement at the 2016 Olympics
 Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997)

'On the Pulse of Morning' (1993)

One of her most famous works, Angelou wrote this poem especially for and recited at President Bill
Clinton's inaugural ceremony in January 1993. The occasion marked the first inaugural recitation
since 1961, when Robert Frost delivered his poem "The Gift Outright" at John F. Kennedy's
inauguration. Angelou went on to win a Grammy Award (best spoken word album) for the audio
version of the poem.
Other well-known poems by Angelou include:

 “His Day Is Done” (1962), a tribute poem Angelou wrote for Nelson Mandela as he made his
secret journey from Africa to London
 “Amazing Peace” (2005), written by Angelou for the White House tree-lighting ceremony

Books
 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' (1969)
 Gather Together in My Name’ (1974)
 Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976)
 ‘The Heart of a Woman’ (1981)
 All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes' (1986)
 Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now' (1994)
 A Song Flung Up to Heaven' (2002)
 Letter to My Daughter' (2008)
 Mom & Me & Mom (2013)
 Cookbooks

(https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Maya_Angelou)

(https://www.biography.com/writer/maya-angelou)
 THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD (1946-PRESENT)

Contemporary literature is fiction and poetry written after 1946. It is the more modernized
literature that you read today. It is literature with its setting generally after World War II.
The term contemporary literature refers to a vast group of written works produced from a
specific time in history through the current age. This literary era defines a time period, but it also
describes a particular style and quality of writing. Some see this period as an extension of
postmodern literature, but most refer to it as a literary era of its own.
Most agree that the era of contemporary literature began in the 1960s. A few scholars claim this
period started at the end of World War II, and this is where the pairing with postmodern
literature comes in. The postmodern era began after WWII, in the 1940s, and lasted through the
1960s. The contemporary literature period extends to the current day.
Contemporary Works
 The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell (Poem)
 A Noiseless Flash from Hiroshima written by John Hersey (Novel)
 Speaking of Courage by Tim O'Brien (Novel)
 The Amazing Adventures of K aval i er y and C l a y by Mi cha el C habon
(Novel )
 The Angel with Broken Wing by Dan a Gi oi a (P oem )
 The Apple Orchard by D ana Gi oi a (P oem )
 The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet by D ana Gi oi a (P oem )
 Majority by D ana G i oi a (P oem )
 Pity the Beautiful by Dana Gi oi a (P o em )
 The Gard en Tr an sl at i on b y C ol i n R orri son (P oem )
R oom m at es by Li nda Heuri n g (S h ort S t or y)
 Mone y b y Dana Gi oi a (P oem )
 The Nex t P oem by D ana Gi oi a (P oem )
 The Lot t er y b y S hi rl e y J ackson (S hor t S t or y)
 A Good Man i s Hard t o Fi nd b y Fl a nner y O 'C onnor (S h ort S t or y)
 Goi ng t o Me et t he Man b y J am es Bal dwi n (S hort S t or y)
Famous Authors
 S am Ham od
 In es Abassi
 Mahnaz Badi hi an
 Im en B ennani
 Beau Boud reaux
 Marc C arv er
 Anna L. C at es
 Brandon C esm at
 Don Mee C hoi