AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE a. VERDIC PERIOD (1500 B.C – 500 B.

C) between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and

 Afro-Asian literature is literature that encompasses - This period is named for the Vedas, a set of the Pandavas set sometime 3102 BC.
the cultural and political world of people with both hymns that formed the cornerstone of Aryan • made up of almost 100,000 couplets divided into
African and Asian heritage. culture 18 parvans.
 The term was coined around 1950 to 1955 and -Hindus consider the Vedas, • Parvans also called as sections
relates to people who share the two cultures. VEDAS • Mahabharata is an exposition on dharma (codes
- which were transmitted orally by priests, to be the of conduct), including the proper conduct of a king,
 In many island areas around the world, such as
most sacred of all literature for they believe these of a warrior, of a man living in times of calamity,
Cuba, there are people of both African and Asian
to have been revealed to humans directly by the and of a person seeking to attain emancipation
descent who have started families together and
gods. from rebirth.
are creating children of both cultures.
RIGVEDAS BHAGAVAD GITA
 The Afro-Asian literature genre also includes
• which has come to mean “hymns of supreme • Meaning—The Blessed Lord’s Song
Asian characters that pop up in African American
sacred knowledge,” • It is regarded by the Hindus in somewhat the
literature and African American characters that
• foremost collection or Samhita made up of 1,028 same way as the Gospels are by Christians
pop up in Asian literature.
hymns. • It forms part of Book IV and is written in the form
 Afro-asian literature is the reflection of the storm • The oldest of the Vedas, it contains strong, of a dialogue between the warrior Prince
and stress of the developing nation seeking a energetic, non-speculative hymns, often Arjuna and his friend and charioteer, Krishna,
place under the sun comparable to the psalms in the Old Testament. who is also an earthly incarnation of the god
CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRO-ASIAN Vishnu.
LITERATURE b. EPIC & BUDDHIST AGE RAMAYANA
• There is often emphasis on the history, culture, • -refers to the late Vedic age, it is called epic age • was composed in Sanskrit, probably not before
and customs of a group of people when telling because it is the period of composition of the two 300 BC, by the poet Valmiki and consists of some
their stories. great epics, Mahabharata and the Ramayana. 24,000 couplets divided into seven books.
• Works were handed by mouth from generation
• This time was also the growth of later Vedic • It reflects the Hindu values and forms of social
to generation to entertain, educate and remind
literature, new Sanskrit literature, and Buddhist organization, the theory of karma, the ideals of
the people about their past, heroic deeds of their literature in Pali. wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor and
people, ancestry and culture. • The Dhammapada was also probably composed promises.
•
during this period.
INDIA • The Maurya Empire (322-230 B.C.) ruled by c. CLASSICAL PERIOD (A.D – 1000 A.D)
I. LITERATURE Ashoka promoted Buddhism and preached  The main literary language of northern India during
THE INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION goodness, nonviolence, and ‘righteousness’ this period was Sanskrit, in contrast with the
-flourished in northern India between 2500 and 1500 although this period was known for warfare and Dravidian languages of southern India.
B.C. iron-fisted rule.  Sanskrit, which means ‘perfect speech’ is
-an ancient civilization located in what is Pakistan and • The Gupta Dynasty (320-467 B.C.) was the next considered a sacred
northwest India today. great political power. During this time,  language, the language spoken by the gods and
Hinduism reached a full flowering and was goddesses.
The Aryans evident in culture and the arts. PANCHANTRA
a group of nomadic warriors and herders, were the  a collection of Indian beast fables originally written
earliest known migrants into India. They brought MAHABHARATA in Sanskrit.
with them a well-developed language and literature and • traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyasa  It is intended as a textbook of artha (worldly
a set of religious beliefs. • consists of a mass of legendary and didactic wisdom); the aphorisms tend to glorify
material that tells of the struggle for supremacy
 shrewdness and cleverness more than helping of • His sympathy for their poverty and backwardness ANITA DESAI
others. was later reflected in his works. • An English-language
SAKUNTALA PREM CHAND Indian novelist and author of
• a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa, tells of the love • pseudonym of Dhanpat Rai Srivastava children’s books, she is
between Sakuntala and King Dushyanta • Indian author of numerous novels and short considered India’s premier
MRCCHAKATIKA stories in Hindi and Urdu who pioneered in imagist writer.
• The Little Clay Cart adapting Indian themes to Western literary styles. Major Works:
• is attributed to Shudraka, a king. Major Works: • Cry, the Peacock
• Sevasadana (House • Clear Light of Day
d. MEDIEVAL & MODERN AGE of Service) • Fire on the Mountain
(1000 A.D - PRESENT) • Manasarovar (The
 Persian influence on literature was considerable Holy Lake)
during this period. Persian was the court language • Godan (The Gift of a VIR SINGH
of the Moslem rulers. Cow) • A Sikh writer and theologian,
he wrote at a time when Sikh
GITANJALI religion and politics and the
• Song Offerings was originally published in KAMALA MARKANDAYA Punjabi language were under
India in 1910 and its translation followed in • Her works concern the heavy attack by the English
1912. struggles of contemporary and Hindus.
THE TAJ MAHAL Indians with conflicting Major Work:
• a poem by Sahir Ludhianvi, is about the Eastern and Western values. • Kalghi Dhar Chamatkar- This novel is about the life
mausoleum in North India built by the Mogul Major Work: of the 17th century guru Gobind Singh.
emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz- • Nectar in a Sieve- Her first
iMahal. novel and most popular work
ON LEARNING TO BE AN INDIAN
• an essay by Santha Rama Rau illustrates the
is about an Indian peasant’s
narrative of her difficult life.
CHINA
telling effects of colonization on the lives of the I. LITERATURE
people particularly the younger generation. R. K. NARAYAN  Chinese literature reflects the political and social
• One of the finest Indian authors of his generation history of China and the impact of powerful
writing in English. religions that came from within and outside the
INDIA • His style is graceful, marked by genial humor, country.
elegance, and simplicity.
II. MAJOR WRITERS Major Work:
 Its tradition goes back thousand of years and has
often been inspired by philosophical questions
KALIDASA • Swami and Friends- about the meaning of life, how to live ethically in
• a Sanskrit poet and dramatist His first novel is an society, and how to live in spiritual harmony with
is probably the greatest Indian episodic narrative the natural order of the universe.
writer of all time. recounting the
adventures of a group of
RABINDRANATH TAGORE schoolboys
• Tagore is a Bengali poet and CHINA
mystic who won the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1913. II. MAJOR WRITERS
CHUANG TZU He wrote many poems speaking bitterly against the P'ang-huang (Hesitation)
 was the most important early social and economic problems that were plaguing Yeh-ts'ao (Wild Grass)
interpreter of the philosophy China. Chao-hua hsi-shih (Morning Flowers Picked in
of Taoism. . Evening)
WORKS
LIEH TZU • Chang hen ge ("Song of Everlasting Sorrow")
 was a Taoist teacher who
had many philosophical
which tells the story of Yang Guifei
• Songs of the Land of Ch'in
JAPAN
differences with his • New Music Bureau Poems I. LITERATURE
forebears Lao-Tzu and • The Song of the Pipa Player
Chuan Tzu Early Japan borrowed much from Chinese culture but
 He argued that a Li Ch’ing-chao (A.D. 1084 – evolved its own character over time. Early Japan’s
sequence of causes 1151) political structure was based on clan, or family.
predetermines everything • regarded as China’s greatest
that happens, including woman poet and was also
one of the most liberated
POETRY
one’s choice of action. One of the oldest and most popular means of
women of her day.
expression and communication in the Japanese
LUI AN She was brought up in court society and was trained
culture. It was an integral part of daily life in ancient
His royal title was the Prince of in the arts and classical literature quite an unusual
Japanese society, serving as a means through which
Hauinan. Together with upbringing for a woman of the Sung dynasty.
anyone could chronicle experiences and express
philosophers and under his • Highly educated for her time
emotions
patronage, he produced a • wrote lyrical with such emotional intensity and
Choka
collection of essays on creativity of voice and meter that she was
- poems that consist of alternate lines of five and seven
metaphysics, cosmology, regarded as China's greatest female poet
syllables with an additional seven-syllable line at the
politics, and conduct. WORKS
end.
- the grandson of the founder Sorrow
of the fou nder of the Han dynasty. • Last Night
Manyoshu
• Autumn Love
Book of Ten Thousand Leaves
an anthology by poets from a wide range of social
SSU-MA CH’IEN Chou-Shu-jen (1881 – 1936)
classes, including the peasantry, the clergy, and the
was the greatest of China’s ‘Grand has been called the ‘father of the
ruling class.
Historians’ who dedicated himself to modern Chinese short story
because of his introduction of Tanka
completing the first history of China - the most prevalent verse form in traditional
the Records of the Historian. Western techniques. He is also
known as Lu Hsun whose stories Japanese literature. It consists of five lines of 5-7-
deal with themes of social concern, the problems of the 5-7-7 syllables including at least one caesura, or
Po Chu-I
poor, women, and intellectuals. pause.
was born two years after Tu Fu died,
at a time when China was still in Works
A Madman's Diary" (1918) Renga
turmoil from foreign invasion and
“Kong Yii” (1918) - A chain of interlocking tanka. Each tanka within a
internal strife.
"Medicine” (1919) renga was divided into verses of 17 and 14 syllables
Na-han (A Call to Arms) composed by different poets as it was fashionable for
groups of poets to work together during the age of Oe Kenzaburo (1935)
Japanese feudalism. WORKS a novelist whose rough prose
Minashiguri (虚栗, "A Shriveled Chestnut") (1683) style, at time nearly violating the
JAPAN • Nozarashi Kikō (Record of a Weather-Exposed
natural rhythms of the Japanese
language, epitomizes the
II. MAJOR WRITERS Skeleton) (1684) rebellion of the post-
• Fuyu no Hi (Winter Days) (1684) WWII generation which he writes.
ZEAMI MOTOKIYO • The Narrow Road to the Deep North He was awarded the Nobel Prize
 had acting in his blood for his for Literature in 1994.
father Kanami, a priest, was EXAMPLE Japanese writer and a major figure
one of the finest performers of • 行春や 鳥啼き魚の 目は泪 His works ar einfluenced by French and American
his day literature and literary theory
 At age 20 not long after his • Yuku haru ya/ Tori naki uwo no/ Me ha namida
father’s death, he took over Works
his father’s acting school and began to write • <English>
• Sevuntiin, 1961 – Seventeen (translated by
plays. Some say he became a Zen priest late • Spring is passing. Luk Van Haute)
in life; others say he had two sons, both of • Seiteki Ningen 1963 Sexual Humans,
them actors. According to legend, he died • The birds cry, and the fishes fill published as J (translated by Luk Van Haute)
alone at the age of 81 in a Buddhist temple near • Kojinteki na taiken, 1964 – (A Personal
• With tears on their eyes.
Kyoto. Matter)
• Atarashii hito yo meza meyo (1983; Rise
Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 1694) Yasunari Kawabata (1899 – Up O Young Men of the New Age!)
regarded as the greatest 1972)
haiku poet. He was born won the Nobel Prize for JUNICHIRO TANIZAKI
into a samurai family and Literature in 1968. a major novelist whose writing is
began writing poetry at an The sense of loneliness and characterized by eroticism and ironic wit.
early age. preoccupation with death that
After becoming a Zen permeates much of his mature
Buddhist, he moved into writing possibly derives from
an isolated hut on the the loneliness of his childhood
outskirts of Edo (Tokyo) where he lived the life of having been orphaned early. AFRICA
a hermit, supporting himself by teaching and He committed suicide shortly after the suicide of his
judging poetry. friend Mishima. I. LITERATURE
Bashō means ‘banana plant,’ a gift given him -Japanese novelist, short writer LITERARY FORMS
to which he became deeply attached. Over -His melancholic lyricism echoes an ancient Japanese A. Orature- is the tradition of African oral literature
time his hut became known as the Bashō Hut literary tradition in the modern idiom. which includes praise poems, love poems, tales,
until he assumed the name ritual dramas, and moral instructions in the form of
Bashō attempted to compress the meaning Works of KAWABATA proverbs and fables.
of the world into the simple pattern of his • Snow Country B. Griots- the keepers of oral literature in West
poetry, disclosing hidden hopes in small • Thousand Cranes Africa, may be a professional storyteller, singer,
things and showing the interdependence of • Sound of the Mountains or entertainer and were skilled at creating and
all objects.
 transmitting the many forms of African oral self and his country
literature. in the wake of post- CHINUA ACHEBE
independence One of the world’s most widely
FEATURES OF AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE Fragments recognized and praised writers,
• Repetition and parallel structure Chinua Achebe wrote some of the
• Repeat-and-vary technique Mariama Bâ most extraordinary works of the
• Tonal assonance • One of Africa’s most 20th century.
• Call-and-response format influential women Achebe is also a noted literary
• authors, Mariama Bâ is critic, particularly known for his
C. Lyric Poems- do not tell a story but instead, like known for her powerful passionate critique of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
songs, create a vivid, expressive testament to a feminist texts, which address the issues of gender Darkness (1899), in which he accuses the popular
speaker’s thoughts or emotional state. inequality in her native Senegal and wider Africa. novel of rampant racism through its othering of the
D. African Proverbs- they represent a poetic form that • a writer who made valuable explorations of the African continent and its people.
uses few words but achieves great depth of meaning terrain where African traditional cultures met Full name: Albert Chinualumogu Achebe
and they function as the essence of people’s values influences brought by European colonialism.
and knowledge. • Bâ herself experienced many of the prejudices WORK
E. Dilemma- or Enigma Tale. It is an important kind of facing women: she struggled for an education Things Fall Apart (1958), is a devastating depiction of
African moral tale intended for listeners to discuss and against her traditional grandparents, and was left the clash between traditional tribal values and the
debate to look after her nine children after divorcing a effects of colonial rule, as well as the tension between
F. Ashanti Tale- The tale exemplifies common prominent politician. masculinity and femininity in highly patriarchal
occupations of the Ashanti such as farming, fishing, WORKS societies.
and weaving. It combines such realistic elements with So Long A Letter (1981) depicts,
fantasy elements like talking objects and animals. simultaneously, its protagonist’s strength and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
powerlessness within marriage and wider Born in Nigeria in 1977,
AFRICA society. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is part
of a new generation of African
Un chant éclarate (A Scarlet Song)
II. MAJOR WRITERS writers taking the literary world by
MAHATMA GANDHI storm. Adichie’s works are primarily
character-driven, interweaving the
Ayi Kwei Armah background of her native Nigeria
Ayi Kwei Armah’s novels are known for their intense, ( October 2, 1869 - January 30,
1948, Delhi), and social and political events into the narrative.
powerful depictions of political devastation and social
Mohandas Karamchand Works:
frustration in Armah’s native Ghana, told from the point
Gandhi, Indian lawyer, politician, Purple Hibiscus (2003) is a bildungsroman,
of view of the individual.
social activist, and writer who depicting the life experience of Kambili and
- His works were greatly influenced by French
became the leader of the her family during a military coup,
existential philosophers, such as Jean Paul Sartre
nationalist movement against the British rule of India. Americanah (2013) is an insightful portrayal
and Albert Camus, and as such hold themes of
As such, he came to be considered the father of his of Nigerian immigrant life and race relations in
despair, disillusionment and irrationality.
country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his America and the western world.
doctrine of nonviolent protest (satyagraha) to achieve Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)
WORKS
The Beautiyful Ones Are Not Yet political and social progress.
Born (1968) centers around an unnamed
protagonist who attempts to understand his