Literature : A World History, Volumes 1-4 (Hardcover)

Contents

Full Table of Contents vii

Timeline xi

Contributors to Volume 1 lix

General Introduction: Literature, History, World lxiii

Anders Pettersson and David Damrosch, with the collective of editors

Reflections on the Idea of Literaturelxiii

About Literature: A World Historylxxviii

Introduction to Volume 1: The World before 200 ce 1

Anders Pettersson

1 East Asia7

Zhang Longxi, Bruce Fulton, and Gunilla Lindberg-Wada

Introduction: East Asia as a Region7

Chinese Literature9

Poetry in Pre-Qin China9

Prose Works in Pre-Qin China17

The Literature of the Han Dynasty20

The Literature of the Jian-an Period (196–220)27

2 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania30

Harish Trivedi, Harry Aveling, Teri Yamada, and Susan Najita

Introduction30

South Asia31

The Vedas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads 31

The Great Epics44

Collections of Tales48

Early Tamil Literature54

Southeast Asia57

Oceania58

3 Worlds Apart: Comparing Literary Traditions before the Global Age62

Wiebke Denecke

4 West and Central Asia 79

As ad E. Khairallah, David Damrosch, and Bo Utas

Introduction79

The Ancient Near East82

The Invention of Writing82

What Was Literature?87

The First Patron of Literature95

The Bible as Literature? 98

Iran101

5 Africa107

Karin Barber, Biodun Jeyifo, Eileen Julien, and Steve Vinson

Introduction107

Ancient Egypt 108

Language, Script, and “Literature”108

Ancient Egyptian Genres110

Orality 123

6 Writing Systems and Cultural Memory128

David Damrosch

7 Europe141

Anders Pettersson

Introduction141

Ancient Greece146

Greek Epic and Lyric Poetry146

Classical Greek Drama 157

Classical Greek Prose167

Literature in Greek, 300 bce–200 ce 174

Ancient Rome180

Latin Literature before 100 bce 180

First-century bce Latin Poetry and Prose184

Latin Literature during the First Two Centuries ce 201

Writing, Reading, and Literary Thought in Greco-Roman Culture206

Concluding Remarks: Greco-Roman Literary Culture in a Wider Perspective209

8 The Americas214

Djelal Kadir, Quentin Youngberg, Albert Braz, and Donatella Izzo

9 Literatures before 200 ce: Concluding Remarks222

Anders Pettersson

Full Table of Contents

Volume 1: Before 200 ce

Timeline xi

Contributors to Volume 1 lix

General Introduction: Literature, History, World lxiii

Introduction to Volume 1: The World before 200 ce 1

1 East Asia 7

2 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania30

3 Worlds Apart: Comparing Literary Traditions before the Global Age62

4 West and Central Asia 79

5 Africa 107

6 Writing Systems and Cultural Memory 128

7 Europe 141

8 The Americas 214

9 Literatures before 200 ce: Concluding Remarks222

VOLUME 2: 200–1500

Contributors to Volume 2 ix

Introduction to Volume 2: Peoples, Languages, and Literatures between 200 and 1500 ce 229

1 East Asia 235

2 Court Literature in East Asia and Europe 345

3 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania 355

4 Animal Stories in South Asia and Europe 426

5 West and Central Asia 433

6 Alexander the Great in Medieval Literature 527

7 Africa 542

8 The Circum-Mediterranean Scene in the First Centuries of the Second Millennium – Mirrored in the Works of Ramon Llull 589

9 Europe 596

10 Christian and Islamic Mysticism 670

11 The Americas 683

VOLUME 3: 1500–1800

Contributors to Volume 3 ix

Introduction to Volume 3: Literature of the World between 1500 and 1800 697

1 East Asia 705

2 South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania 754

3 West and Central Asia 813

4 Africa 862

5 Europe 892

6 The Americas 977

7 Utopia and Anti-Utopia in the Literary World 1016

VOLUME 4: 1800–2000

Contributors to Volume 4 ix

Introduction to Volume 4: Literature of the World between 1800 and 2000 1029

1 East Asia 1034

2 South and Southeast Asia 1091

3 Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand 1179

4 West and Central Asia 1221

5 Africa 1322

6 Europe 1413

7 The Americas 1517

Index 1547