Asian

The Art of Storytelling compares the ways in which artists over the last five hundred years have
retold and reinterpreted five epic works of Asian literature: the Mahabharata and Ramayana
from India, Shahnameh from Iran, Journey to the West from China, and Tale of Genji from
Japan.

Anglo-Saxon

The Anglo-Saxon period in Britain spans approximately the six centuries from 410-1066AD. The
period used to be known as the Dark Ages, mainly because written sources for the early years
of Saxon invasion are scarce. However, most historians now prefer the terms 'early middle ages'
or 'early medieval period'.

Europe

Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically ,
Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north
by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
to the southeast by the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea and the waterways connecting
the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. To the east, Europe is generally divided from Asia by the
water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, and by the Caspian Sea. See map above for
more details
European literature refers to the literature of Europe. European literature includes literature in
many languages; among the most important of the modern written works are those in English,
Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Czech and Russian and works
by the Scandinavians and Irish. Important classical and medieval traditions are those in Ancient
Greek, Latin, Old Norse , Medieval French and the Italian Tuscan dialect of the renaissance

Latin-american

Latin American literature, the national literatures of the Spanish-speaking countries of the
Western Hemisphere. Historically, it also includes the literary expression of the highly developed
American Indian civilizations conquered by the Spaniards. Over the years, Latin American
literature has developed a rich and complex diversity of themes, forms, creative idioms, and
styles. A concise survey of its development is provided here. For a history of literature written in
Portuguese in Brazil, see Brazilian literature.
The colonial period
When the sails of Christopher Columbus’s ships rose above the horizon on October 12, 1492,
the peoples of what the Europeans would call the New World possessed their own forms of
artistic verbal expression: from prayers, hymns, and myths to theatre of various kinds. But even
the most advanced pre-Columbian civilizations lacked alphabetic writing, so their “literature” was
exclusively oral (if one includes various mnemonic ideographs and pictographs), kept by the
memory of individuals entrusted with that task and by the collectivity. A substantial number of
these oral narratives were preserved, thanks to the efforts of friars, priests, and chroniclers as
well as native historians who learned to read and write, and the narratives’ themes, characters,
topics, and even metaphors have been periodically adopted by Latin American literature. In the
latter half of the 20th century, much work was done to recover and study pre-Columbian
literature, including that part of it created in the aftermath of the European invasion.

African

A common theme during the colonial period is the slave narrative, often written in English or
French for western audiences. Among the first pieces of African literature to receive significant
worldwide critical acclaim was Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe, published in 1958. African
literature in the late colonial period increasingly feature themes of liberation and independence.

Post-colonial literature has become increasingly diverse, with some writers returning to their
native languages. Common themes include the clash between past and present, tradition and
modernity, self and community, as well as politics and development. On the whole, female
writers are today far better represented in African literature than they were prior to
independence. The internet has also changed the landscape of African literature, leading to the
rise of digital reading and publishing platforms such as OkadaBooks.