Literatures of the World
Literature knows no geographical bounds; authors can be found in nearly all corners of the globe. Find out more about regional literary styles and forms.
Literatures of the World Encyclopedia Articles
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Persian literature
Persian literature, body of writings in New Persian (also called Modern Persian), the form of the Persian language written since the 9th century with a slightly extended form of the Arabic alphabet and...
Italian literature
Italian literature, the body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th century. Until that time nearly all literary work composed in Europe during the Middle...
Russian literature
Russian literature, the body of written works produced in the Russian language, beginning with the Christianization of Kievan Rus in the late 10th century. The unusual shape of Russian literary history...
Spanish literature
Spanish literature, the body of literary works produced in Spain. Such works fall into three major language divisions: Castilian, Catalan, and Galician. This article provides a brief historical account...
Irish literature
Irish literature, the body of written works produced in Ireland or by Irish writers. This article discusses Irish literature written in English from about 1690; its history is closely linked with that...
New Journalism
New Journalism, American literary movement in the 1960s and ’70s that pushed the boundaries of traditional journalism and nonfiction writing. The genre combined journalistic research with the techniques...
Latin American literature
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...
Arabic literature
Arabic literature, the body of written works produced in the Arabic language. The tradition of Arabic literature stretches back some 16 centuries to unrecorded beginnings in the Arabian Peninsula. At certain...
African American literature
African American literature, body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary War period, African American writers have engaged in a creative, if often contentious,...
African literature
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. Traditional written literature,...
German literature
German literature, German literature comprises the written works of the German-speaking peoples of central Europe. It has shared the fate of German politics and history: fragmentation and discontinuity....
Japanese literature
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....
Chinese literature
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...
Celtic literature
Celtic literature, the body of writings composed in Irish and the languages derived from it, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, and in Welsh and its sister languages, Breton and Cornish. For writings in English...
English literature
English literature, the body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles (including Ireland) from the 7th century to the present day. The major literatures written...
American literature
American literature, the body of written works produced in the English language in the United States. Like other national literatures, American literature was shaped by the history of the country that...
French literature
French literature, the body of written works in the French language produced within the geographic and political boundaries of France. The French language was one of the five major Romance languages to...
Canadian literature
Canadian literature, the body of written works produced by Canadians. Reflecting the country’s dual origin and its official bilingualism, the literature of Canada can be split into two major divisions:...
Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature, the body of written works produced in the Yiddish language of Ashkenazic Jewry (central and eastern European Jews and their descendants). Yiddish literature culminated in the period...
Greek literature
Greek literature, body of writings in the Greek language, with a continuous history extending from the 1st millennium bc to the present day. From the beginning its writers were Greeks living not only in...
