LECTURE ONE

IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING EUROPEAN LITERATURE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

This is the first lecture in the course Modern European Literature. This is an
introductory lecture, in which I will try and answer some of the questions you may have
concerning the relevance, for African students of literature in the twenty-first century, of
studying modern European literature.

African scholars have done such a marvellous job of making a case for the study of African
literature that many modern students think African literature should be studied to the
exclusion of everything else.

1.2 LECTURE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:

 Explain the relevance of modern European literature for African students of literature.
 Begin to understand the connection and the similarities between certain realities in
Africa today and earlier trends in Europe.

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1.3 HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Human beings are social animals. They love ceremony. Literature develops from rituals
and ceremonies: rituals and ceremonies are raw material for literary productions, oral and
written.

The art of writing has helped human beings to preserve their history and culture for millennia.
Art has helped human beings to transmit history and culture from generation to generation.
Artistic expression is also a form of communication. Drawings made by stone-age humans long
before the art of writing have been of great use to later generations. In the 21 st century, a
treasure of codexes dating back to the first century (AD), have been located in the Holy land.

The earliest known form of writing is the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which date back to the period of
the old kingdom, more than six thousand years ago. Indeed, there was a time when world
scholars converged on the Bibliotheca Alexandrina because it was the custodian of intellectual
property. Much of that was lost to fire, including the skill to draw the hieroglyphs. Thankfully,
we still have samples in the tombs of the pharaohs of the modern kingdom, which had been of
such high quality that they have survived the vagaries of nature and wilful human destruction
for centuries, and have finally been restored and preserved for mass consumption.

Greek, Chinese and other ancient civilisations owe much to the Egyptian civilisation. In the
same way and for similar reasons, popular culture in the twenty-first century owes much to the
Greeks, the Roman Empire, and to modern Europe. All major modern literary movements
originated in Europe. Indeed, when we study European literature, we are effectively looking at
the foundations of written African literature. To put it differently, a knowledge of European
literature helps in the understanding of modern African literature.

1.4 RELEVANCE FOR AFRICAN STUDENTS

In the twenty-first century, many African students of literature wonder if European

literature is of any relevance to them. These are students born in the 1980s and 1990s, several
decades after “Uhuru.” They had no personal experience with “colonisation.” In some cases,
even their parents are “post-independence.” What these students know of colonisation is
second hand and third rate, handed down to them through the oral tradition, or gleaned from
history books and fictional works.

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But much as we love to hate the coloniser, the most compelling reason for Africans to study
European literature is precisely because of colonisation. Modern African literature is a direct
result of formal (colonial) education in many ways:

 The pioneer African writers learnt how to read and write in the mission schools set up
during the colonial period;
 What they read as they learnt how to read and write had an impact on their world view,
and greatly influenced what and how they eventually wrote;
 The earliest African fictional works were a response to what “others” had written about
Africa and Africans;

Naturally, both Africans and Europeans have continued to produce creative works after the
incidence of colonisation. The respective perspectives may differ, but there has been a point of
convergence. If literature is the geography of the mind, then the differences in perspective are
themselves a telling comment on the way different people perceive and react to situations. An
engagement with modern European literature is one way of expanding our horizons. It provides
an insight into what the average citizen in a European country might have been thinking, feeling
and going through even as the Africans battled the colonial administration.

Many Europeans were also disillusioned by imperialism, and in fighting against it they
accelerated independence for African states. Furthermore, by the end of the Second World War
(WW II), much of Europe had been reduced to rubble. The knowledge that Europe was brought
to its knees by a selfish, oppressive elite, and fought to rise from the ashes is confirmation for
Africans that concerted effort does bear fruit. The enemy of development in African countries
today is not the “coloniser” but the selfish, oppressive ruling elite. A concerted effort, and a
willingness on the part of Africans to pay the price, will eventually bring to Africa, as it did to
Europe:

 Freedom of expression
 Equitable distribution of resources
 Equal access to opportunities for all

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1.4.1 IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING...

It may be worthwhile for me to repeat here the relationship between history and
literature.

In the first instance, we read creative works of art for the pleasure of reading, entering
into a new world and having our imagination quickened. In the process, however, we gain
a better understanding of the fears and desires of human beings and the elemental
1.3 SUBTOPIC 2
passions that make them do the things they do.

Whereas history tells of the deeds, and is a record of the outward acts and a description
of the doers of deeds, it is in literature that the dreams which make the deeds possible
are recorded. Every great act (historical event) springs from an ideal. The ideals recorded
in literature include:

 How people think and feel;

 How they look on life and death;
 What they love;
 What they fear;
 What they revere in God and man.

1.5 SUMMARY

We have now come to the end of the first lecture. I hope that I have answered
any questions you had as to the relevance, for African students of literature in the
twenty-first century, of studying modern European literature. To start you off on your
study of modern European literature are two texts given below (see “activity” and
“further reading”). Both of these texts are set in European countries that did not
participate in the colonisation of Africa. And yet both stories represent a situation that is
so close to the current one in many African countries today that they could easily fall into
the category “third world literature.”

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1.6 ACTIVITY

Read Leo Tolstoy’s short story ‘How much land does a man need?’

This story is set in Russia and was written in 1886. Note any similarities between the
character of Pahóm and that of an average Kenyan citizen in the 1980s.

1.7 FURTHER READING

Ibsen, Henrik. An Enemy of the People. 1898.

1.8 TEST QUESTIONS

1. List some themes prevalent in contemporary African literature which were

common in European literature towards the end of the nineteenth century.
2. Name at least five European countries that did not participate in the partition
and colonisation of the African continent.

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 LECTURE TWO
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In the previous lecture, I talked about some of the reasons why it is important for
African students of literature in the twenty-first century to engage with European literature,
particularly modern European literature. In this lecture, we shall refresh our memories about
the countries that make up the continent of Europe and the relationships between them. I will
also talk about the languages spoken in these countries. Towards the end, I will give you a
listing of some of Europe’s key literary figures and some of their fictional titles published in the
twentieth century.

2.2 LECTURE OBJECTIVES

 Know the names of the countries that make up the continent of Europe.
 Know which of those countries are members of the European Union and which
ones are associate members.
 Know the main languages in which literature is produced in Europe.
 Know the literary history of each of the languages in which most European
literature is produced.

2.3 THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE

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 Europe, like Africa, is a continent of contrasts. There are many countries and many
languages. By 1999, the European Union had fifteen member states, and six associate
members. As a continent, however, Europe has more than thirty countries:

Although many of these countries have a lot in common, each has followed a unique historical
path into the twenty-first century. The details of the unique paths can be gleaned from the
literature of a given country. All the works studied for this course are studied in English
translation. As the table below will illustrate, English is not the language in which all of them are
produced.

Country Capital City Language EU members

1. Albania Tiranë Russian --
2. Austria Vienna German EU
3. Belarus Minsk Russian --
4. Belgium Brussels French EU
5. Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo Russian --
6. Bulgaria Sofia Russian associate
7. Croatia Zagreb Russian --
8. The Czech Republic Prague Czech associate
9. Denmark Copenhagen Danish EU
10. Estonia Tallinn Russian --
11. Finland Helsinki Finnish EU
12. France Paris French EU
13. Germany Berlin German EU
14. Greece Athens Greek EU
15. Hungary Budapest Hungarian associate
16. Ireland Dublin English EU
17. Italy Rome Italian EU
18. Latvia Riga Russian --
19. Lithuania Vilnius Russian --
20. Luxembourg Luxembourg French EU
21. Moldova Kishinev Russian --
22. The Netherlands Amsterdam Dutch EU
23. Norway Oslo Norwegian --
24. Poland Warsaw Polish associate
25. Portugal Lisbon Portuguese EU
26. Romania Bucharest Russian associate
27. Russia Moscow Russian --
28. Slovakia Bratislava Russian associate
29. Slovenia Ljubljana Russian --
30. Spain Madrid Spanish EU

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31. Sweden Stockholm Swedish EU
32. Switzerland Bern German/French --
33. Ukraine Kiev Russian --
34. The United Kingdom London English EU
35. Yugoslavia Belgrade Russian --

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2.4 THE LANGUAGES OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE

Of all the languages used in the production of literary texts on the continent of
Europe through the centuries, five are the most widely used: English, French, German,
Russian and Spanish, in that order.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LITERATURE

In a manner of speaking, English-language literature is produced all over the world and
English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world.
For this course, however, we shall use the term to refer to Literature produced by people who
are British (Citizens of England, Scotland and Ireland). For example, Robert Burns was Scottish,
James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, both George Orwell and Rudyard Kipling were
born in India.

William Langland's Piers Plowman is considered by many critics to be one of the early great
works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Often regarded as the father
of English literature, Chaucer is widely credited as the first author to demonstrate the artistic
legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin. Following the
introduction of a printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476, vernacular literature
flourished. And so through the Renaissance, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Restoration, Augustan, 18th
century, romanticism, on to Victorian times (see periodisation below).

It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading form of literature in
English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the tastes of a large middle class
reading public than to please aristocratic patrons. The best known works of the era include the
emotionally powerful works of the Brontё sisters; the satire Vanity Fair by William Makepeace
Thackeray; the realist novels of George Eliot; and Anthony Trollope’s insightful portrayals of the
lives of the landowning and professional classes. Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene
in the 1830s.

At the turn of the century, the apparently solid foundations which had sustained the Victorian
Age began to crumble. In literature and other arts, a new group of authors and artists set out to

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demonstrate that “all art is useless” in the sense of being free from allegiance to ideas of
morality and standards of conduct. The modernist movement was born (see lecture 5).

Some famous names in English literature are

Name of writer Dates Famous work

Geoffrey Chaucer 1343-1400 The Canterbury Tales

William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Romeo and Juliet
John Milton 1608-1676 Paradise Lost
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834 Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Charles Dickens 1812-1870 Great Expectations
Thomas Hardy 1840-1928 The Return of the Native
D. H. Lawrence 1885-1930 Sons and Lovers
Enid Blyton (Mary Pollock) 1897-1968 The Famous Five Series

FRENCH-LANGUAGE LITERATURE

French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language,
particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in
France who speak the traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in
the French language by citizens of other nations such as Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Senegal,
Algeria, Morocco etc is referred to as francophone literature.

The French language is a romance dialect derived from vulgar latin and heavily influenced by
Celtic and Frankish. Beginning in the eleventh century, literature written in medieval French
was one of the oldest vernacular (non-Latin) literatures and it became a key source of literary
themes in the middle ages across the continent. In the sixteenth century literature in France
underwent a major creative evolution and through the political and artistic programmes of the
Ancien Régime French literature came to dominate European letters in the seventeenth
century.

In the eighteenth century the French language became the lingua franca and diplomatic
language of western Europe and to a certain extent America. French letters have had a
profound impact on all European and American literary traditions while at the same time being
heavily influenced by those other national traditions (Eg: British and German Romanticism in
the nineteenth century). French literary developments of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries have had a particularly strong effect on modern world literature. The main ones

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include symbolism (a favourite with African students), naturalism, surrealism, existentialism
and the theatre of the absurd.

Some famous names in French Literature are:

Name of writer Dates Famous work (in English translation)

Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) 1622-1673 Don Juan

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) 1694-1778 Candide
Honoré de Balzac 1799-1850 Old Goriot
Gustave Flaubert 1821-1880 Madame Bovary
André Gide 1869-1951 The Immoralist
Jean Paul Sartre 1905-1980 Dirty Hands
Albert Camus 1913-1960 The Outsider
J. M. G. Le Clézio 1940- Onitsha

GERMAN-LANGUAGE LITERATURE

German-language literature includes literature written in Germany as well as German-

language Swiss and Austrian literature. An early flowering of German-language literature is the
Middle High German period (see table below). Modern literature in German begins with the
authors of the Enlightenment such as Johann Gottfried Herder and reaches its classical form at
the turn of the eighteenth century with Weimar classicism (Goethe and Schiller). The sketch of
literary periods below is true of European literature in general, but certain trends happened
only in Germany (shown in lower case).

Some famous names in German-language Literature are:

Name of writer Dates Famous work (English translation)

Martin Luther 1483-1546 95 Theses
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804 Critique of Pure Reason
Georg Hegel 1770-1831 History of Philosophy
Johann von Goethe 1749-1832 Dr. Faustus
Franz Kafka 1883-1924 The Judgement
Thomas Mann 1875-1955 Tristan
Heinrich Böll 1917-1985 The Train was on Time

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 PERIODISATION OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE
MIDDLE AGES
Old High German
Middle High German
EARLY MODERN PERIOD
RENAISSANCE 15th century
BAROQUE 17th century

MODERN PERIOD
18th & 19th centuries ENLIGHTENMENT 18th century
Empfindsamkeit/Sensibility
Sturm und drang/Storm and stress
Weimar Classicism
ROMANTICISM 19th century
Biedermeir und Vormärz
REALISM
NATURALISM
20th century MODERNISM
SYMBOLISM
EXISTENTIALISM
Holocaust
POST WAR

Note: movements and variations

In small letters are peculiar to Germany only

RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE LITERATURE

Russian-language literature includes the literature of Russia, or literature produced in

exile by Russian émigrés. It also refers to Russian-language literature of several independent
nations which were once a part of the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).

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Prior to the nineteenth century, the seeds of the Russian literary tradition were sown by writers
such as Gavrila Derzhavin, Denis Fonvizin, Alexander Sumarokov, Vasily Trediakovsky, Nikolay
Karamzin and Ivan Krylov. From around the 1830s Russian literature underwent an astounding
golden age, beginning with the poet and novelist Alexander Pushkin and culminating in two of
the greatest novelists in world literature, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and the short
story writer and playwright Anton Chekov.

In the twentieth century leading figures of Russian literature included internationally

recognised poets such as Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin, Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladimir
Mayakovsky and prose writers Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Nabokov, Mikhail Sholokhov, Mikhail
Bulgakov and Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn.

Some famous names in Russian Literature are:

Name of writer Dates Famous work (in English translation)

Nikolai Gogol 1809-1852 The Government Inspector

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 1821-1881 Crime and Punishment
Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910 War and Peace
Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn 1918-2008 Prisoners

SPANISH-LANGUAGE LITERATURE

Together with Italian, French and Portuguese, Spanish is one of the earliest languages
to be spoken widely in Europe and used for literary work. Originally, the word romance was
used to refer to a composition in the vernacular as opposed to works in Latin. The group of
four, also known as the “romance” languages, are very similar to the Latin from which they
evolved. To this day, many of their words and syntactical structures remain similar.

Due to historical, geographic and generational diversity, literature in the Spanish language has
known a great number of influences and it is very diverse. Indeed, there is a whole branch
which is Spanish American literature. On the European continent, Spanish-language literature is
the literature of Spain.

As is true of the literature of other European countries, early anonymous pieces of creative
writing exist in Spain. However, the Castilian narrative poetry known as Mester de clerecía only
became popular in the thirteenth century. It is the verse form of the learned poets, usually
clerics. Spanish prose gained popularity in the mid-thirteenth century when King Alfonso X el
Sobio of Castile gave support and recognition to the writing form.

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European writers of Spanish expression include Miguel de Cervantes (pronounced MI-HEL-DE-
THA-BA-NTES). Indeed, his Don Quixote is considered the first modern novel. It is the most
emblematic work in the canon of Spanish literature and a founding classic of western literature.
The influence of Miguel de Cervantes on the Spanish language has been so great that Spanish is
often referred to as la lengua de Cervantes (the language of Cervantes) and he has been
dubbed El Príncipe de los Ingenios (The Prince of Wits).

LITERARY TRIVIA
Cervantes died in Madrid on 23rd April 1616. In honour of the date on which both
Cervantes and William Shakespeare (of England) died, UNESCO established 23
April as the International Day of the Book.

NB: Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the same date, but not on the same day.
In 1616 Spain had started using the new Gregorian calendar which is ten days
ahead of the Julian calendar that was still in use in England.

By and large, Spanish literature follows the general outline of European literature, which is
outlined elsewhere.

Some famous writers of Spanish expression:

Name of writer Dates Famous work (English Translation)

Miguel de Cervantes 1547-1616 Don Quixote

Miguel de Unamuno 1864-1936 Rhymes From Within
Federico Gárcia Lorca 1898-1936 Blood Wedding
Ramón Pérez de Ayala 1880-1962 Honeymoon, bittermoon
Emilio Prados 1899-1962 Romances
Pedro Salinas 1891-1951 The Soul You Had
Vicente Aleixandre 1898-1984 History of the Heart

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2.5 SUMMARY

We have now come to the end of our second lecture. In this lecture, I have
talked briefly about the countries that make up the continent of Europe. We have also
looked briefly at the five main languages of literary production on the European
continent.

2.6 ACTIVITY

I would like to ask you to carry out the following activities in preparation for future
lectures (you might save yourself some possible future embarrassment in the
process):

1. Write down all the titles given against the names of famous writers for each of the five
main languages of European literature.
2. For each of the English titles mentioned (see above), find out what the original non-
Enlish title was. It is very important to know not just how to spell the names and titles in
the original language, but how to pronounce them as well.

2.7 FURTHER READING

The table below contains information about key European literary figures of
the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Read at least two works which are
not on the primary reading list written by writers whose names appear on this list.

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 EUROPEAN WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

Year Name of writer Country of citizenship Language b. d.

2010 Mario Vargas Llosa Peru Spanish 1936 --
2009 Herta Müller Romania German 1953 --
2008 Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio France/Mauritius French 1940 --
2007 Doris Lessing British/Iran/Zimbabwe England 1919 --
2005 Harold Pinter England English 1920 2008
2004 Elfriede Jelinek Austria German 1946 --
2002 Imre Kertész Hungary Hungarian 1929 --
2001 Sir Vidiadhar S. Naipaul Britain/Trinidad English 1932 --
2000 Gao Xingjian France Chinese 1940 --
1999 Günter Grass Poland German 1927 --
1998 José de Souza Saramago Portugal Portuguese 1922 2010
1997 Dario Fo Italy Italian 1926 --
1996 Wislawa Szymborska Poland Polish 1923 --
1995 Seamus Heaney Ireland English 1939 --
1989 Camilo José Cela Spain Spanish 1916 2002
1987 Joseph Brodsky U.S.S.R. Russian/English 1940 1996
1985 Claude Simon France/Madagascar French 1913 2005
1984 Jaroslav Seifert The Czech Republic Czech 1901 1986
1983 William Golding England English 1911 1993
1981 Elias Canetti Bulgaria German 1905 1994
1979 Odysseus Elytis Greece Greek 1911 1996
1977 Vicente Aleixandre Spain Spanish 1898 1984
1975 Eugenio Montale Italy Italian 1896 1981
1974 Eyvind Johnson Sweden Swedish 1900 1976
tied Harry Martinson Sweden Swedish 1904 1978
1972 Heinrich Böll Germany German 1917 1985
1970 Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn U.S.S.R. Russian 1918 2008
1969 Samuel Beckett Irish French, English 1906 1989
1967 Miguel Angel Asturias Guatemala Spanish 1899 1974
1966 Shmuel Yosef Agnon Ukraine Hebrew 1888 1970
tied Nelly Sachs Germany German 1891 1970
1965 Mikhail A. Sholokhov U.S.S.R. Russian 1905 1984
1964 Jean-Paul Sartre (declined) France French 1905 1980
1963 Giorgos Seferis Greece Greek 1900 1971
1961 Ivo Andric Yugoslavia Yugoslav 1892 1975
1960 Saint-John Perse France French 1887 1975
1959 Salvatore Quasimodo Italy Italian 1901 1968
1958 Boris Leonidovich Pasternak Russia Russian 1890 1980
1957 Albert Camus France French 1913 1960
1956 Juan Ramón Jiménez Spain Spanish 1881 1958
1953 Sir Winston L. S. Churchill England English 1874 1965

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 EUROPEAN WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

Year Name of writer Country of citizenship Language b. d.

1952 François Mauriac France French 1885 1970
1951 Pär Fabian Lagerkvist Sweden Swedish 1891 1974
1950 Earl Bertrand A. William Russell Britain/Wales English 1872 1970
1948 Thomas Stearns Eliot British/ U.S.A. English 1888 1965
1947 André Paul Guillaume Gide France French 1869 1951
1946 Hermann Hesse Germany German 1877 1962
1944 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen Denmark Danish 1873 1950
1939 Frans Eemil Sillanpää Finland Finnish 1888 1964
1937 Roger Martin du Gard France French 1881 1958
1934 Luigi Pirandello Italy Italian 1867 1936
1933 Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin Russia Russian 1870 1953
1932 John Galsworthy England English 1867 1933
1931 Erik Axel Karlfeldt Sweden Swedish 1864 1931
1929 Thomas Mann Germany German 1875 1955
1928 Sigrid Undset Norway Norwegian 1882 1949
1927 Henri Bergson France French 1859 1941
1926 Grazia Deledda Italy Italian 1871 1936
1925 George Bernard Shaw Ireland English 1856 1950
1924 Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont Poland Polish 1867 1925
1923 William Butler Yeats Irish English 1865 1939
1922 Jacinto Benavente Spain Spanish 1866 1954
1921 Anatole France France French 1844 1954
1920 Knut Pedersen Hamsun Norway Norwegian 1859 1952
1919 Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler Switzerland German 1845 1924
1917 Karl Adolph Gjellerup Denmark Danish 1857 1919
tied Henrik Pontoppidan Denmark Danish 1857 1943
1916 C. G. Verner von Heidenstam Sweden Swedish 1859 1940
1915 Romain Rolland France French 1866 1940
1912 Gerhart J. Robert Hauptmann Germany German 1862 1946
1911 Count M. P. M. B. Maeterlinck Belgium French 1862 1949
1910 Paul Johann Ludwig Heyse Germany German 1830 1914
1909 Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf Sweden Swedish 1858 1940
1908 Rudolf Christoph Eucken Germany German 1846 1926
1907 Rudyard Kipling Britain English 1865 1936
1906 Giosuè Carducci Italy Italian 1835 1907
1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz Poland Polish 1846 1916
1904 Frédéric Mistral France Occitan 1830 1914
tied José Echegaray y Eizaguirre Spain Spanish 1832 1916
1903 Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson Norway Norwegian 1832 1910
1902 C. Matthias Theodor Mommsen Germany German 1817 1903
1901 Sully Prudhomme France French 1839 1907

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2.8 SELF-TEST QUESTIONS

1. Which countries are members of the European Union?

2. Name a European Country where at least four languages are widely spoken and
name the languages.
3. Name at least three literary movements/trends that are peculiar to Germany
only.
4. How did the French language develop and what is its place in European
literature?
5. Name six European winners of the Nobel Prize for literature whose language of
expression is not one of the main five.

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