Module 8 THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN PROSE

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Recognize the literature of the Philippines, China, India and Japan.
2. Differentiate literature in the Philippines, China, India and Japan.
3. Recite the writers in Philippines, China, India and Japan.
4. Explain the similarities and differences of the Southeast Asian literature.

Literature of the Philippines

Philippine literature is literature associated with the Philippines from prehistory, through
its colonial legacies, and on to the present.
Pre-Hispanic Philippine literature was actually epics passed on from generation to
generation, originally through an oral tradition. However, wealthy families, especially in
Mindanao, were able to keep transcribed copies of these epics as family heirloom. One
such was the Darangen, an epic of the Maranaos.
There are various Filipino writers and interpreters who define literature in their views as
citizens of the Philippines. These included Jose Arrogante, Zeus Salazar, and
Patrocinio V. Villafuerte, among others.
In 1983, for Arrogante, literature is a book of life in which a person reveals things
related to his inexplicable color of life and life in his world. It makes a person through
creative methods.
In 1995, Salazar described literature as a force that motivated society. He added that it
was a powerful tool that could free one of the rushing ideas to escape. For him, it is
also a unique human experience unique to mankind.
Moreover, literature caresses the senses of man: the viewer, the hearing, the
sensation, the taste, and the senses. In 2000, Villafuerte attributed this to a life but a
simple word flowing into the human body. The literature has its own existence because
it has its own throbbing and hot blood flowing into the arteries and nena of every
creature and a whole society. In this case, the Filipinos and their society. When
literature is read, it is a source of emotion to a person or group of people, because they
are written by fellow humans.
Currently, the method of spreading and distributing literature in the Philippines is easy
and easy. This is because of modern technological developments. Besides the written
word in books, radio, and television, also spread the literature furnished by electronics,
such Grabador of voices and sounds (tape recorder), disc kompakto (compact disk),
plaque, the tape of VHS, and computers. Due to the internet, getting literary information
was easy and convenient. This is an instrument for Filipino readers with an
appreciation and pride in their origin, history, culture and culture.
Literacy is for all Filipinos. It is a kind of valuable remedy that helps people plan their
own lives, to meet their problems, and to understand the spirit of human nature. A
person’s riches may be lost or depleted, and even his patriotism, but not literature. One
example is the advancement of other Filipinos. Although they left their homeland,
literature was their bridge to their left country. In the social, national, and global
affiliation, literature is one of the basics of gaining the success and failure of a nation
and the relations of nations.
Studying and having a curriculum on Philippine literature is a big and important part of
Philippine education. As a school, expert, or university course, the use of Philippine
Literature studies a historical perspective. It covers the history of Philippine Literature in
the various periods of the Philippines. It also covers the types and forms of Philippine
Literature, its development, writers, heroes, and the goals of the countryside.

Notable Filipino Writers

1. Jose Rizal. From an early age, José showed a precocious intellect. He
learned the alphabet from his mother at 3, and could read and write at age 5.[14]
Upon enrolling at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, he dropped the last three
names that made up his full name, on the advice of his brother, Pacianoand the
Mercado family, thus rendering his name as “José Protasio Rizal”. Of this, he
later wrote: “My family never paid much attention [to our second surname Rizal],
but now I had to use it, thus giving me the appearance of an illegitimate
child!”[17] This was to enable him to travel freely and disassociate him from his
brother, who had gained notoriety with his earlier links to Filipino priests Mariano
Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora (popularly known as Gomburza) who
had been accused and executed for treason.

Most Remarkable Pieces Rizal:

• El Filibusterismo
• Noli Me Tangere

2. Bob Ong, is the pseudonym of an anonymous Filipino contemporary

author known for using conversational Filipino to create humorous and reflective
depictions of life as a Filipino. A Filipino Literary critic once commented,
“Filipinos really patronize Bob Ong’s works because, while most of his books
may have an element of comedy in them, this is presented in a manner that
replicates Filipino culture and traditions. This is likely the reason why his first
book – and those that followed it, can be considered true Pinoy classics.”
The six books he has published thus far have surpassed a quarter of a million copies.
His words of wisdom were applied by some of the Filipinos to their daily lives.

Most Remarkable Piece:

• Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas
• Alamat ng Gubat

3. Francisco Balagtas learned to write poetry from José de la Cruz

(Huseng Sisiw), one of the most famous poets of Tondo, in return of chicks. It
was De la Cruz himself who personally challenged Balagtas to improve his
writing. Balagtas swore he would overcome Huseng Sisiw as he would not ask
anything in return as a poet.

Upon his deathbed, he asked a favor that none of his children become poets like him,
who had suffered under his gift as well as under others. He even went as far as to tell
them it would be better to cut their hands off than let them be writers.

Most Remarkable Piece:

 Florante at Laura

4. F. Sionil Jose. José attended the University of Santo Tomas after World
War II, but dropped out and plunged into writing and journalism in Manila. In
subsequent years, he edited various literary and journalistic publications, started
a publishing house, and founded the Philippine branch of PEN, an international
organization for writers.[1][2] José received numerous awards for his work. The
Pretenders is his most popular novel, which is the story of one man’s alienation
from his poor background and the decadence of his wife’s wealthy family.

José Rizal‘s life and writings profoundly influenced José’s work. The five volume
Rosales Saga, in particular, employs and interrogates themes and characters from
Rizal’s work.[7] Throughout his career, José’s writings espouse social justice and
change to better the lives of average Filipino families. He is one of the most critically
acclaimed Filipino authors internationally, although much underrated in his own country
because of his authentic Filipino English and his anti-elite views.

Most Remarkable Pieces:

• Po-on (Source) (1984)
• The Pretenders (1962)
• My Brother, My Executioner (1973)
• Mass (December 31, 1974)
• Tree (1978)
 5. Lualhati Bautista. Bautista was born in Tondo, Manila, Philippines on
December
2, 1945 to Esteban Bautista and Gloria Torres. She
graduated from Emilio Jacinto Elementary School in 1958, and from Torres
High School in 1962 being a lowest in her class. She was a journalism student at the
Lyceum of the Philippines, but dropped out for the reason of failed grades. She started
her writing career in the Liwayway magazine.

Despite a lack of formal training, Bautista as the writer became known for her honest
realism, courageous exploration of Philippine women’s issues, and her compelling
female protagonists, who confront difficult situations at home and in the workplace with
uncommon grit and strength.

Most Remarkable Pieces:

• Bulaklak sa City Jail
• Dekada ’70
• Bata, Bata… Pa’no Ka Ginawa?
• ‘GAPÔ
• Sixty in the City
• In Sisterhood

6. Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín was a Filipino writer, historian and

journalist, best known for his short stories and novels in the English language.
He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaquín was conferred
the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature.

He is considered one of the most important Filipino writers in English, and the third
most important overall, after José Rizal and Claro M. Recto.

Most Remarkable Pieces:

• May Day Eve (1947)
• Prose and Poems (1952)
• The Woman Who had Two Navels (1961)
• La Naval de Manila and Other Essays (1964)
• A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1966)

7. Gilda Olvidado, from Cebu City, Cebu, is a Filipino movie and television
writer, and melodrama novelist. Her novels have been turned into live-action
movies by VIVA Films, and also been remade for television through Sine
Novela.

Olvidado had contributed greatly in Entertainment Industry through her novelturned

movies. She had kept us well-entertained by making absolute pieces.
Most Remarkable Pieces:
• Huwag Mo Kaming Isumpa (1981, novel)
• Sinasamba Kita (1982, novel)
• Kung Mahawi Man Ang Ulap (1984, novel)
8. Dr. Louie Mar Gangcuangco is an HIV researcher, best-selling novelist,
and one of the youngest licensed physicians from the Philippines. He is the
author of the multi-awarded Filipino novel Orosa-Nakpil, Malate and is currently
working as a clinical research associate for the Hawaii Center for AIDS.

He made a novel mainly about erotica, but gave lessons and reflected on what’s
happening in our generation.

Most Remarkable Piece:

 Orosa-Nakpil, Malate

9. Mars Ravelo was a Filipino graphic novelist who created the characters
Darna,
Dyesebel, Captain Barbell, Lastikman, Bondying, Varga, Wanted: Perfect Mother,
Hiwaga, Maruja, Mariposa, Roberta Rita, Buhay Pilipino, Jack and Jill, Flash Bomba,
Tiny Tony, and Dragonna among others.

Mars Ravelo had greatly contributed countless literary pieces mainly in entertainment
industry. He helped mold our imagination and even told the Filipino youth, “Be what you
want to be. Make your imagination as the source of your
success.”

Most Remarkable Pieces:

• Darna
• Dyesebel
• Lastikman

10.Magno “Carlo” Jose Caparas, widely known as Carlo J. Caparas, is a Filipino

comic strip creator/writer-turned director and producer, who is best known for creating
such Filipino superheroes and comic book characters as Panday, Bakekang, Totoy
Bato, Joaquin Bordado, Magaong, Elias Paniki, Tasya Fantasya, Gagambino, Pieta
and Ang Babaeing Hinugot Sa Aking Tadyang, among others. He is also known as a
director of numerous massacres movies such as Kuratong Baleleng, The Cory Quirino
Kidnap: NBI Files

Caparas was awarded the 2008 Sagisag Balagtas Award.

His contribution to Philippine History and Entertainment Industry are beyond compare.
He has contributed numerous literary works that bought smiles and brough about
lessons that we can use and apply in real-life situations. He took a large step in
moulding Philippine History that will ever remain in every Filipino’s Heart.

A few examples of his works that mainly contributed to Entertainment Industry;

• Panday
• Kamandag
• Bakekang, and such

Literature in China
Chinese literature, the body of works written in Chinese, including lyric poetry,
historical and didactic writing, drama, and various forms of fiction.
Chinese literature is one of the major literary heritages of the world, with an
uninterrupted history of more than 3,000 years, dating back at least to the 14th century
BCE. Its medium, the Chinese language, has retained its unmistakable identity in both
its spoken and written aspects in spite of generally gradual changes in pronunciation,
the existence of regional and local dialects, and several stages in the structural
representation of the written graphs, or “characters.” Even the partial or total conquests
of China for considerable periods by non-Han Chinese ethnic groups from outside the
Great Wall failed to disrupt this continuity, for the conquerors were forced to adopt the
written Chinese language as their official medium of communication because they had
none of their own. Since the Chinese graphs were inherently nonphonetic, they were at
best unsatisfactory tools for the transcription of a non-Chinese language, and attempts
at creating a new alphabetic-phonetic written language for empire building proved
unsuccessful on three separate occasions. The result was that after a period of alien
domination, the conquerors were culturally assimilated (except the Mongols, who
retreated en masse to their original homeland after the collapse of the Yuan [or Mongol]
dynasty in 1368). Thus, there was no disruption in China’s literary development.
Through cultural contacts, Chinese literature has profoundly influenced the literary
traditions of other Asian countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Not only
was the Chinese script adopted for the written language in these countries, but some
writers adopted the Chinese language as their chief literary medium, at least before the
20th century.
The graphic nature of the written aspect of the Chinese language has produced a
number of noteworthy effects upon Chinese literature and its diffusion: (1) Chinese
literature, especially poetry, is recorded in handwriting or in print and purports to make
an aesthetic appeal to the reader that is visual as well as aural. (2) This visual appeal
of the graphs has in fact given rise to the elevated status of calligraphy in China, where
it has been regarded for at least the last 16 centuries as a fine art comparable to
painting. Scrolls of calligraphic renderings of poems and prose selections have
continued to be hung alongside paintings in the homes of the common people as well
as the elite, converting these literary gems into something to be enjoyed in everyday
living. (3) On the negative side, such a writing system has been an impediment to
education and the spread of literacy, thus reducing the number of readers of literature,
for even a rudimentary level of reading and writing requires knowledge of more than
1,000 graphs, together with their pronunciation. (4) On the other hand, the Chinese
written language, even with its obvious disadvantages, has been a potent factor in
perpetuating the cultural unity of the growing millions of the Chinese people, including
assimilated groups in far-flung peripheral areas. Different in function from recording
words in an alphabetic–phonetic language, the graphs are not primarily indicators of
sounds and can therefore be pronounced in variant ways to accommodate
geographical diversities in speech and historical phonological changes without damage
to the meaning of the written page. As a result, the major dialects in China never
developed into separate written languages as did the Romance languages, and,
although the reader of a Confucian Classic in southern China might not understand the
everyday speech of someone from the far north, Chinese literature has continued to be
the common asset of the whole Han Chinese people. By the same token, the graphs of
China could be utilized by speakers of other languages as their literary mediums.
The pronunciation of the Chinese graphs has also influenced the development of
Chinese literature. The fact that each graph had a monophonic pronunciation in a given
context created a large number of homonyms, which led to misunderstanding and
confusion when spoken or read aloud without the aid of the graphs. One corrective was
the introduction of tones or pitches in pronunciation. As a result, metre in Chinese
prosody is not concerned with the combination of syllabic stresses, as in English, but
with those of syllabic tones, which produce a different but equally pleasing cadence.
This tonal feature of the Chinese language has brought about an intimate relationship
between poetry and music in China. All major types of Chinese poetry were originally
sung to the accompaniment of music. Even after the musical scores were lost, the
poems were, as they still are, more often chanted—in order to approximate singing—
than merely read.
Chinese poetry, besides depending on end rhyme and tonal metre for its cadence, is
characterized by its compactness and brevity. There are no epics of either folk or
literary variety and hardly any narrative or descriptive poems that are long by the
standards of world literature. Stressing the lyrical, as has often been pointed out, the
Chinese poet refrains from being exhaustive, marking instead the heights of his
ecstasies and inspiration or the depths of sorrow and sympathy. Generally, pronouns
and conjunctions are omitted, and one or two words often allude to highly complex
thoughts or situations. This explains why many poems have been differently interpreted
by learned commentators and competent translators.
The line of demarcation between prose and poetry is much less distinctly drawn in
Chinese literature than in other national literatures. This is clearly reflected in three
genres. The fu, for example, is on the borderline between poetry and prose, containing
elements of both. It uses rhyme and metre and not infrequently also antithetic structure,
but, despite occasional flights into the realm of the poetic, it retains the features of
prose without being necessarily prosaic. This accounts for the variety of labels given to
the fu in English by writers on Chinese literature—poetic prose, rhyme prose, prose
poem, rhapsody, and prose poetry.
Another genre belonging to this category is pianwen (“parallel prose”), characterized by
antithetic construction and balanced tonal patterns without the use of rhyme; the term is
suggestive of “a team of paired horses,” as is implied in the Chinese word pian. Despite
the polyphonic effect thus produced, which approximates that of poetry, it has often
been made the vehicle of proselike exposition and argumentation. Another genre, a
peculiar mutation in this borderland, is the baguwen (“eight-legged essay”). Now
generally regarded as unworthy of classification as literature, for centuries (from 1487
to 1901) it dominated the field of Chinese writing as the principal yardstick in grading
candidates in the official civil-service examinations. It exploited antithetical construction
and contrasting tonal patterns to the limit by requiring pairs of columns consisting of
long paragraphs, one responding to the other, word for word, phrase for phrase,
sentence for sentence.

Chinese prose writing has been diverted into two streams, separated at least for the
last 1,000 years by a gap much wider than the one between folk songs and socalled
literary poems. Classical, or literary, prose (guwen, or wenyan) aims at the standards
and styles set by ancient writers and their distinguished followers of subsequent ages,
with the Confucian Classics and the early philosophers as supreme models. While the
styles may vary with individual writers, the language is always far removed from their
spoken tongues. Sanctioned by official requirement for the competitive examinations
and dignified by traditional respect for the cultural accomplishments of past ages, this
medium became the linguistic tool of practically all Chinese prose writers. Vernacular
prose (baihua), in contrast, consists of writings in the living tongue, the everyday
language of the authors. Traditionally considered inferior, the medium was piously
avoided for creative writing until it was adopted by novelists and playwrights from the
13th century on.

Chinese Writers

1. Qu Yuan (339-278 BC) was a statesman and poet during the Warring
States period. He has been attributed to the first seven poems of the Chu ci
(Songs of Chu). He served under King Huai but was banished after
 composing the poem “Li Sao” (Encountering Sorrow), which attacked the
court for failing to listen to his advice. He committed suicide by throwing
himself in a river.

2. Wang Wei (701-761) was a painter, musician, poet, and devout Buddhist.
He composed “landscape poems” while roaming the lands near the Wang
River, exchanging verses with his friend Pei Di. A Zen Master taught him the
doctrine of dunwu (instantaneous enlightenment), and Wei’s later poetry
reflects his devotion. He was referred to as Shi fo, or the Buddha of Poetry.
The poet Su
Shi said of his works: “There is painting in his poetry, and poetry in his painting.”
3. Shi Nai’en (1296-1372) was the author of the first of the “four great
classical novels,” though some historians believe his mentor Luo Guanzhong
played a role its writing. Not much is known about Shi, but the work attributed
to him, Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin), about a rebellious leader of outlaws,
has been equally banned and celebrated over hundreds of years. Water
Margin was written in popular vernacular and expanded on its characters in
contrast to the historical writings of the time, advancing the art of the novel.

4. Luo Guanzhong (1330-1400) was a prolific writer who has had many
anonymous works attributed to him over the years. Historians agree that the
second of the “four great classical novels,” Sanguo yani (Romance of the
Three Kingdoms), was written by Luo. Over 750,000 Chinese characters long,
the novel told the story of three kingdoms over the course of a century. It was
based on a historical account and contained historical figures, but also
incorporated folk stories and plots from popular dramas of the time.

5. Not much is known about Wu Cheng’en (c. 1500-1582), the author to

whom the third of the “four great classical novels,” Xi you ji (Journey to the
West), is attributed. Loosely based on the historical account of the Buddhist
monk, Xuanzang, the novel humorously followed a group of pilgrims on a
journey to India and back. The novel contained religious themes, witty
dialogue, and elegant poems, as well as critical commentary on contemporary
Ming-era China.

6. The Laughing Scholar of Lanling was the pseudonym of the unknown

author of the controversial novel Jin Ping Mei (The Plum in the Golden Vase).
It has been frequently banned for its pornographic nature since its publication
around 1610. American translator David Todd Roy suspected poet Xu Wei
(1521-1593) to be its author. Wei was famous for his painting and calligraphy,
 and he was an early proponent of women’s rights, writing a popular play on
the legend of Mulan; however, he was also imprisoned for the murder of his
second wife.

7. Cao Xueqin (1715-1763/64) was the author of the fourth of the “four
great classical novels,” Honglou meng (Dream of the Red Chamber), which
told the story of an aristocratic family and its downfall. The novel was written
in vernacular and published in two editions: the 80-chapter version reportedly
based on Cao’s life, and the 120-chapter “Cheng edition,” published
posthumously in 1791 and believed to have been enhanced by the scholar
Gao E. Cao’s novel is so important to Chinese literature that an entire field of
study called hongxue (redology) arose in the 1920s.
8. Lu Xun (1881-1936) studied medicine in Japan as a young man but
ultimately concluded that he was better served as a writer. In 1918, he
published his first short story, A Madman’s Diary, the first colloquial story in
modern Chinese literature. His writings comprised many genres, from fiction
to zawen (satire) to a historical account of Chinese fiction. Mao Zedong called
Lu “the standardbearer” of the new Chinese culture that arose after the May
Fourth Movement.

9. Ba Jin (1904-2005), born Li Yaotang, began his career as a poet but

achieved fame as a novelist. His most famous novel was Jia (The Family); in
addition to these novels, he also translated Russian, British, German, and
Italian works. Ba Jin’s most famous later work was Suixiang lu (Random
Thoughts), a painful reflection on the Cultural Revolution in which he was
persecuted as a “counterrevolutionary.”

10. Zhang Ailing (or Eileen Chang) (1920-1995) was a student during the
Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. She returned to her
home in Shanghai and supported herself by publishing short stories and
novels about the plight of women in difficult romantic relationships. She wrote
the anti-communist novel Rice Sprout Song in 1952 and moved to the United
States three years later, where she wrote novels and screenplays. In 2007,
Ang Lee directed a movie adaptation of her novel Lust, Caution.

Literature in India
Indian literature, writings of the Indian subcontinent, produced there in a variety of
vernacular languages,including Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Bengali, Bihari, Gujarati, Hindi
Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Lahnd
a, Siraiki, and Sindhi, among others, as well as in English. The term Indian literature is
used here to refer to literature produced across the Indian subcontinent prior to the
creation of the Republic of India in 1947 and within the Republic of India after 1947.
The earliest Indian literature took the form of the canonical Hindu sacred writings,
known as the Veda, which were written in Sanskrit. To the Veda were added prose
commentaries such as the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. The production of Sanskrit
literature extended from about 1500 BCE to about 1000 CE and reached its height of
development in the 1st to 7th centuries CE. In addition to sacred and philosophical
writings, such genres as erotic and devotional lyrics, court poetry, plays, and narrative
folktales emerged.
Because Sanskrit was identified with the Brahminical religion of the Vedas, Buddhism
and Jainism adopted other literary languages (Pali and Ardhamagadhi, respectively).
From these and other related languages emerged the modern languages of northern
India. The literature of those languages depended largely on the ancient
Indian background, which includes two Sanskrit epic poems, the Mahabharata and
Ramayana, as well as the Bhagavata-purana and the other Puranas. In addition, the
Sanskrit philosophies were the source of philosophical writing in the later literatures,
and the Sanskrit schools of rhetoric were of great importance for the development of
court poetry in many of the modern literatures. The South Indian language of Tamil is
an exception to this pattern of Sanskrit influence because it had a classical tradition of
its own. Urdu and Sindhi are other exceptions.
Beginning in the 19th century, particularly during the height of British control over the
subcontinent, Western literary models had an impact on Indian literature, the most
striking result being the introduction of the use of vernacular prose on a major scale.
Such forms as the novel and short story began to be adopted by Indian writers, as did
realism and an interest in social questions and psychological description. A tradition of
literature in English was also established in the subcontinent.

Indian Writers
1. Chetan Bhagat. Cited by The New York Times in 2008 as the biggest
selling English language novelist in India’s history, Chetan Bhagat is author,
screenwriter, columnist and TV personality. He is known for Comedy-drama
novels about young urban middle-class Indians. Some of his famous work
includes Five Point Someone, 2 States, Half Girlfriend and One Indian Girl.

2. Amrita Pritam. Pritam indulged in poetry and literature at a very young

age which influenced her to become a poet and novelist later in her life. She was
a courageous woman who did not fear writing controversial texts during the
prepartition era. She suffered through tough times during the partition of India
which influenced her to write the Punjabi novel ‘Pinjar’ (skeleton) which
describes the helplessness of the women during that era and the discrimination
they had to go through. The novel later was made into a Bollywood movie which
was a hit throughout the nation.

3. Khushwant Singh. He was a journalist, editor and novelist born in Hadli

during the time of British India. He received his degree at St. Stephen’s College
in New Delhi and King’s College in London. He initially started his career as a
lawyer after which he got the opportunity to become the editor of important
journals and magazines. As an author he wrote some outstanding novels like
Train to Pakistan (1956), Delhi: A Novel (1990), The Company of Women
(1999), Truth, Love and a Little Malice (2002), The Good, the Bad and the
Ridiculous (2013).
4. Jhumpa Lahiri. Laihiri is well known for her novels, essays and short
stories. She was born in London but relocated to the United States to get her
education from the Barnard College. She went ahead for her masters and
attained her degree from the Boston University. She was a struggling writer and
her work was initially rejected by the publishers until her biggest success, ‘The
interpreter of Maladies’. This was a compilation of all her short stories about the
life of immigrants in post-partition India. After the runaway success she wrote
many other novels which are famous throughout the Indian continent and the
world. Some of the most famous ones being; The namesake, Unaccustomed
Earth and The lowland.

5. R. K. Narayan. He was born in Chennai and due to his father’s transfers

had to move around therefore changed many schools. His interest in reading
was evident since a very young age and his hobby soon became a habit. He
later graduated and decided to become a stay at home writer. His initial books
were not that popular until his third novel, ‘The dark room’. Narayan wrote many
novels after this which were published and soon became a well renowned author
during his time in India.

6. Rabindranath Tagore. Even though Tagore received his education in

law he took great interest in Shakespeare and his literature. Therefore following
his works he became a poet and author. His first poem ‘Mansai’ was published
in 1890 after which he gained immense popularity amongst Bengali readers. His
most significant works include ‘Gitanjali’ which was a collection of poems and
‘Galpaguchchha’ which are eighty short stories.
 7. Ruskin Bond. Bond was born in Punjab, British Indian and attained his
education in Shimla and after completion of high school he moved to the U.K to
enhance his writing career. He started his career as a freelance writer and
eventually got jobs as editor in various magazines. It wasn’t until 1980 his novel
was published which became widely admired amongst readers. His best known
work is ‘The blue umbrella’, a heartwarming story read worldwide.
8. Vikram Seth. Seth born in Calcutta, graduated from high school, and
studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford
and graduated with a B. A. Degree in 1975. From 1975 to 1986, he pursued his
Ph.D. at Stanford University, California, U.S.A. He is best known for his epic
novel ‘The Suitable boy’.
9. Arundhati Roy. Writer, essayist and political activist, Arundhati Roy, is
best known for her novel The God of Small Things which won her the Man
Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997. Some of her other works include, The Algebra
of Infinite Justice, Kashmir: The Case for Freedom and Capitalism: A Ghost
Story.

10.Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. He belonged to a poverty-stricken family as his

father had irregular jobs. However his father was a dreamer and a writer and it was his
exuberance that inspired Sarat to become a novelist himself. He wrote his first famous
essays only when he was in his teens. Later, he made contributions to magazines from
time to time. Since he was a feminist Chattopadhyay seemed it was urgent to write
about the bigotry and patriarchal society. His most popular works are; ‘Devdas’ (1901,
published 1917), ‘Parineeta’ (1914), Biraj Bau (1914), and Palli Samaj (1916).

Literature in Japan
Japanese literature, the body of written works produced by Japanese authors in
Japanese or, in its earliest beginnings, at a time when Japan had no written language,
in the Chinese classical language.
Both in quantity and quality, Japanese literature ranks as one of the major literatures of
the world, comparable in age, richness, and volume to English literature, though its
course of development has been quite dissimilar. The surviving works comprise a
literary tradition extending from the 7th century CE to the present; during all this time
there was never a “dark age” devoid of literary production. Not only do poetry, the
novel, and the drama have long histories in Japan, but some literary genres not so
highly esteemed in other countries—including diaries, travel accounts, and books of
random thoughts—are also prominent. A considerable body of writing by Japanese in
the Chinese classical language, of much greater bulk and importance than comparable
Latin writings by Englishmen, testifies to the Japanese literary indebtedness to China.
Even the writings entirely in Japanese present an extraordinary variety of styles, which
cannot be explained merely in terms of the natural evolution of the language. Some
styles were patently influenced by the importance of Chinese vocabulary and syntax,
but others developed in response to the internal requirements of the various genres,
whether the terseness of haiku (a poem in 17 syllables) or the bombast of the dramatic
recitation.
The first writing of literature in Japanese was occasioned by influence from China. The
Japanese were still comparatively primitive and without writing when, in the first four
centuries CE, knowledge of Chinese civilization gradually reached them. They rapidly
assimilated much of this civilization, and the Japanese scribes adopted Chinese
characters as a system of writing, although an alphabet (if one had been available to
them) would have been infinitely better suited to the Japanese language. The
characters, first devised to represent Chinese monosyllables, could be used only with
great ingenuity to represent the agglutinative forms of the Japanese language. The
ultimate results were chaotic, giving rise to one of the most complicated systems of
writing ever invented. The use of Chinese characters enormously influenced modes of
expression and led to an association between literary composition and calligraphy
lasting many centuries.
The difficulties of reading Japanese literature can hardly be exaggerated; even a
specialist in one period is likely to have trouble deciphering a work from another period
or genre. Japanese style has always favored ambiguity, and the particles of speech
necessary for easy comprehension of a statement are often omitted as unnecessary or
as fussily precise. Sometimes the only clue to the subject or object of a sentence is the
level of politeness in which the words are couched; for example, the verb mesu
(meaning “to eat,” “to wear,” “to ride in a carriage,” etc.) designates merely an action
performed by a person of quality. In many cases, ready comprehension of a simple
sentence depends on a familiarity with the background of a particular period of history.
The verb miru, “to see,” had overtones of “to have an affair with” or even “to marry”
during the Heian period in the 10th and 11th centuries, when men were generally able
to see women only after they had become intimate. The long period of Japanese
isolation in the 17th and 18th centuries also tended to make the literature provincial, or
intelligible only to persons sharing a common background; the phrase “some smoke
rose noisily” (kemuri tachisawagite), for example, was all readers of the late 17th
century needed to realize that an author was referring to the Great Fire of 1682 that
ravaged the shogunal capital of Edo (the modern city of Tokyo).

Despite the great difficulties arising from such idiosyncrasies of style, Japanese
literature of all periods is exceptionally appealing to modern readers, whether read in
the original or in translation. Because it is prevailingly subjective and coloured by an
emotional rather than intellectual or moralistic tone, its themes have a universal quality
almost unaffected by time. To read a diary by a court lady of the 10th century is still a
moving experience, because she described with such honesty and intensity her
deepest feelings that the modern-day reader forgets the chasm of history and changed
social customs separating her world from today’s.

Japanese Writers
1. Yoko Ogawa. Ogawa is not only one of the most influential and famous
Japanese authors writing today; she’s also one of the most diverse. Each of her
books can be comfortably slotted into a different genre – from dystopian to family
drama to creeping gothic horror. And in each case, she confidently asserts
herself as a master of the genre. Ogawa has won the Akutagawa Prize, Japan’s
most coveted literary award, as well as the Shirley Jackson Award.

Ogawa’s most successful work in English (translated by Stephen Snyder) is The

Housekeeper and the Professor, a work which is told from the perspective of a
housekeeper and single parent who is hired to take care of an aged mathematics
professor who shows her the magic of mathematics while also becoming increasingly
detached from reality. It is a story about love in all its forms, but it is not a love story.

Her most recent work in English, The Memory Police, (also translated by Stephen
Snyder) was originally published back in 1994 but it reads like a book written in 2019
and very appropriate for our current political climate. It tells the story of an island where
things and ideas disappear at random, and so go away the people’s memories of these
things, too. But some people don’t forget, and they are taken away by the titular
memory police. It’s a frightening Orwellian masterpiece by one of Japan’s greatest
modern writers.

2. Haruki Murakami. If there’s one famous Japanese author, classic or

contemporary, who needs no introduction, it’s Haruki Murakami. Here’s one of
those rare authors in translation who is as much a household name in the West
as he is in Japan. With his brand of off-kilter and surrealist stories and his
reliable themes of cats, lost women, jazz music, and parallel worlds, he is an
author beloved the world over.

His bestselling novel is also his most grounded and least surreal. Norwegian Wood
tells them story of a university student who falls in love with two women: one, the
girlfriend of a friend who took his own life; the other, an eccentric girl who does as she
pleases.

Murakami’s most accomplished novel is, perhaps, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, in
which a helpless and quasi-useless man living in a quiet Tokyo neighbourhood loses
first his cat and then his wife. In order to find her, he must climb down into the bottom of
an empty well and find a way into a parallel world.

3. Hiromi Kawakami. One of the truly excellent contemporary Japanese

authors, Hiromi Kawakami stands out as an writer who understands the
relationships between ordinary people. These relationships may be romantic,
platonic, professional, or familial. Love and friendship are her tools. And, with
them, she crafts some of the greatest stories of her time.
Kawakami’s most celebrated novel in translation is Strange Weather in Tokyo, a
novel that brings together a Tokyo salarywoman and her former teacher in a gripping
romance. The book cleverly uses this romance to weave together a theme of post-war
Japan and pre-war Japan attempting to understand and exist alongside one another.

The most recent Kawakami novel to appear in English is The Ten Loves of Nishino, a
novel structured in a truly original and experimental style. Ten stories from ten women’s
perspectives paint a vibrant image of the man Nishino. Though we never see the world
through his eyes, we are reintroduced to him over and again by the ten loves of his life
and how they each experienced life with him.
4. Yukio Mishima. Knowing where to begin with Mishima is a trial in itself. A
largerthan-life character, Mishima was a radical far-right political activist who
fervently believed in returning Japan to its militaristic past. He believed this so
fiercely that he attempted a coup against the government, which failed
spectacularly and led to him committing seppuku. In his lifetime, Mishima
penned dozens of stories, almost all of which were, at least, very transparent
metaphors for his own views on post-war Japan and, at most, manifestoes for
change and how the modern Japanese women and men should live and change.
Mishima also came close several times to being awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature and, when news of his suicide broke, his dear friend and actual Nobel
Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata immediately followed suit and committed
suicide himself.

The book which best summarises Mishima’s views and his mission is The Sailor Who
Fell from Grace With The Sea. This short novel describes a young man who watches
his mother fall madly for a sailor. The boy is inspired by the rugged, self-sufficient
masculinity of the sailor but his respect slowly turns to hate as the sailor abandons the
sea in favour of love and a peaceful life. The metaphor at play here is transparent
enough, and spells out the radical mindset of Mishima plainly.

5. Yoko Tawada. Tawada is a fiercely original and unique Japanese author

who, today, bases herself in Germany. She has written books in both
Japanese and German to great success. Tawada has the uncanny ability to
 write abstract novels that are at once strangely distant and entirely relatable in
the modern world.

Tawada’s breakout success in translation was Memoirs of a Polar Bear. This tale
follows three different bears, one who escapes Soviet Russia, another a circus bear
and daughter of the first, and the third a baby born in Berlin Zoo.

In 2018, Tawada brought the world a dystopian Japanese novel of intense clarity in the
form of The Last Children of Tokyo. In this near-future world, children are born frail
and grey-haired as natural resources have been depleted and cities are emptying as
pollution levels become unbearable.
6. Yasunari Kawabat. There are few authors more respected and revered
than Yasunari Kawabata. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kawabata
arguably bridges the gap between classical Japanese authors and
contemporary writers. He had the heart and mind of a poet and wrote with a
romanticism and delicacy rarely seen since.

One of Kawabata’s most famous works is Snow Country. A novella though it may be,
it’s a dense and beautiful work that follows the romance of a man who flees Tokyo and
heads into the Japanese wilderness to meet with a geisha he firmly believes he is in
love with.
Another beloved book by Kawabata is Thousand Cranes, a family drama focussed
around the young man Kikuji, who has been invited to have tea with his late father’s
former mistress, but is soon drawn into a battle between her and a Mrs. Ota, while
simultaneously juggling the fact that he is having his future marriage arranged for him.

7. Sayaka Murata. Given that Murata currently has only one novel out in
English, for her to appear on this list of famous Japanese writers she must be
very special indeed. And that, she is. Sayaka Murata has spent much of her
adult life writing fiction, all the while working part-time at a Tokyo convenience
store. Her breakout hit novel of 2018, Convenience Store Woman, brought her
such enormous global success that it skyrocketed her into the upper echelons
of modern Japanese writers.

Convenience Store Woman, in part inspired by Murata’s own experiences, tells the
story of a woman in her late thirties who has spent her entire adult life working as a cog
in the convenience store machine. The novel is a scathing indictment of the well-oiled
machine that is corporate Tokyo, as well as the strict ladder that young Japanese
people are expected to climb. It is nothing short of a work of genius, and has made
Murata an international literary celebrity.
 8. Junji Ito. The only male writer on this list to be a graphic artist rather
than a novelist, Junji Ito is a very special kind of writer. His horror stories, both
written and drawn with the most abstract and unsettling venom, will chill you to
your core. In many readers’ minds, Ito is a greater storyteller of unsettling horror
and real terror than even writers like Stephen King. His ability to weave a tale of
frightening dread, and to depict each of these tales visually with gruesome skill is
unparalleled.

A perfect place to begin is with Ito’s short story collection, Shiver, in which
a handful of protagonists are subject to the most frightful of terrors. In one, the
nation is overcome by the arrival of floating heads that resemble real citizens,
and begin to chase after their counterparts before slinging a noose around their
neck and floating away with their body. In another, a model with striking and
unsettling looks is hired by a film crew, only for them to go missing, one by one.

In 2018, Ito adapted Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein into a graphic novel in which is
unquestionably the most faithful and successful adaptation of Shelley’s novel to exist in
any other form, on or off the screen. Ito’s art proved to marry Shelley’s gothic
atmosphere perfectly.

9. Natsuo Kirino. Kirino is, without question, Japan’s most powerful, and
respected feminist author. Her books are sometimes savage, sometimes
cleverly subversive takedowns of the patriarchal norms of Japanese society. She
has done so much for the rise of feminist voices in modern Japan and she
should be lauded forever for this.
Her most scathing attack on patriarchy came in the form of Out, a thick novel about a
small group of women factory workers. When one of these women grows tired of her
life and hits breaking point, she murders her disgrace of a husband and seeks the help
of her colleague in hiding the body and ensuring her freedom.

A novel which approaches its feminist themes in a more poetic and fairy tale
manner is The Goddess Chronicle. In this mystical novel, two sisters who live
on an island will be forced to follow two different destinies: one becoming the
blessed Oracle and the other being cast out to complete the prophecy.

10. Kenzaburo Oe. Oe is another of Japan’s treasured and lauded Nobel

Prize winners. His books about the changing landscape of Japanese society and
intense, troubled family drama are unforgettable. What is perhaps most
remarkable is how well they’ve aged. There’s an agency and tone to Oe’s books
that has kept them feeling fresh through the decades.
His novel The Silent Cry is a post-war masterpiece that epitomises everything
mentioned above. Two brothers from a quiet Japanese village go their separate ways –
one to Tokyo and the other to the US – only to be reunited under troubling
circumstances as their ancestral home comes under threat from the unstoppable forces
of international capitalism.

Death By Water is a similar novel, but a far more clearly autobiographical one which
pits its protagonist, inspired by Oe himself, against his darkest memories. He is a writer
suffering from writer’s block and desperate to understand the father he lost and never
really knew.