Introduction to Afro-Asian Literature that label to the whole of the immense

landmass.
Asia, what?
Asia is the world’s largest and most diverse
Southeast Asian Literature
continent. It occupies the eastern four-fifths
of the giant Eurasian landmass. Asia is more The term Southeast Asia refers to the huge
a geographic term than a homogeneous peninsula of Indochina and the extensive
continent, and the use of the term to archipelago of what is sometimes called the
describe such a vast area always carries the East Indies. The region can be subdivided
potential of obscuring the enormous into mainland Southeast Asia and insular
diversity among the regions it encompasses. Southeast Asia. The political units contained
Asia has both the highest and the lowest in this region are Myanmar (Burma),
points on the surface of Earth, has the Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam,
longest coastline of any continent, is subject Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the
overall to the world’s widest climatic Philippines. The Philippines originally was
extremes, and, consequently, produces the not included, because Philippine history has
most varied forms of vegetation and animal not followed the general historical pattern of
life on Earth. In addition, the peoples of Asia Southeast Asia, but, because of its
have established the broadest variety of geographic position and the close affinities
human adaptation found on any of the of its cultures with the cultures of Southeast
continents. Asia, it is now usually regarded as the
eastern fringe of Southeast Asia.

Where did Asia get its name?

The name Asia is ancient, and its origin has The entire region of Southeast Asia, with the
been variously explained. The Greeks used single exception of Thailand, fell under colonial
it to designate the lands situated to the east rule, and Thailand itself survived more as a
of their homeland. It is believed that the buffer state than as a truly independent
name may be derived from the Assyrian kingdom. At the courts of the kings of Laos,
word asu, meaning “east.” Another possible Cambodia, and Vietnam, which fell under
explanation is that it was originally a local French suzerainty, and in the palaces of the
name given to the plains of Ephesus, which sultans of the British Malay states, vernacular
ancient Greeks and Romans extended to literature managed to survive for a time; but
refer first to Anatolia (contemporary Asia since these literatures had long ago ceased to
Minor, which is the western extreme of develop—as a result of harassment by the Thai
mainland Asia), and then to the known world in the case of Laos and Cambodia, by the
east of the Mediterranean Sea. When Portuguese in the case of Malaya, and by the
Western explorers reached South and East French in the case of Vietnam—they soon
Asia in early modern times, they extended became moribund. In all of Southeast Asia,
except Burma and Thailand, the vernacular and Taiwan (1895-1945), Japan cast a different
languages themselves lost their status, as the spell on the literature of those two countries with
languages of the colonial rulers became the its own variant of modern aesthetics.
languages of administration and of a new elite.
A revival of interest in the native languages and
literature occurred only toward the close of the
colonial period, as a consequence of national
movements for freedom.

East Asian Literature

A useful start to understanding “world literature”
in East Asia is to think in terms of cross-cultural
interactions within the region. A historical
perspective demands that we start with China.
The long and powerful Chinese cultural
hegemony, especially through the Confucian The two world wars of the twentieth century
schools of thought, left a lasting impact on the oriented East Asia towards American
development of China’s neighbors. culture, though writers of Mainland China
were denied access to this during the Cold
War period. The spread of “world literature”
is heavily dependent on translation. In the
case of East Asia, though, the language of
literature was largely monolingual in
classical times, as Chinese was the lingua
franca in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. When
Chinese civilization arrived in those
countries, none had a script of its own. The
Chinese writing system, coupled with the
sophisticated Confucian bureaucracy,
became the vehicle of development. It was
The Confucian canon is indeed “the repository not until Western modernization began to
of a cultural grammar” which “constituted the take hold of the region that translation
interpretive community of those with an orthodox became pivotal for both literary and cultural
education in East Asia” (Lee 2003: 5). Chinese developments.
literary norms, canons of poetry, lyrical prose,
and classical novels have shaped both the
ideological consciousness and the literary taste
of the gentry and ruling class of East Asian
countries, especially Japan and Korea.

When modernization and westernization

exposed China, Japan, and the entire East
Asian region to new cultural imaginations from
the later nineteenth century on, Anglo-European Recent decades of technological
influences prevailed. Modern literature in East advancement have triggered fundamental
Asia subsequently developed along a more changes in cultural behavior, giving rise to
dichotomized East/West, traditional/modern more dialogical, global, and virtual
path. During its colonization of Korea (1910-45) encounters. The literatures of East Asia are
drawing inspiration from pluralistic sources, Traditional written literature, which is limited
within as well as beyond their own region. to a smaller geographic area than is oral
literature, is most characteristic of those
sub-Saharan cultures that have participated
Middle East Asian Literature in the cultures of the Mediterranean. In
Twenty-first-century Middle Eastern particular, there is written literature in both
(primarily Arabic, Persian, and Turkish) Hausa and Arabic, created by the scholars
literature encompasses a rich variety of of what is now northern Nigeria, and the
genres, whose maturation has profited from Somali people have produced a traditional
internal and external influences upon this written literature. There are also works
literature over the past fourteen centuries. written in Geʿez (Ethiopic) and Amharic, two
Modern Arabic literature addresses the full of the languages of Ethiopia, which is the
range of human experience, often through a one part of Africa where Christianity has
realist approach that employs the Arabic been practiced long enough to be
language in ways ranging from the most considered traditional. Works written in
formal to the most colloquial. While Turkish European languages date primarily from the
and Persian literatures have both followed 20th century onward.
individual trajectories since the modern
period, they too evince a similar range with
respect to genre and employment of
language.

Themes in the literary traditions of

contemporary Africa are worked out
frequently within the strictures laid down by
the imported religions Christianity and Islam
and within the struggle between traditional
Although today these three literatures
and modern, between rural and newly
appear as discrete entities, they share a
urban, between genders, and between
long early religious, cultural, and political
generations. The oral tradition is clearly
history. While pre-Islamic Persian and
evident in the popular literature of the
Turkish literature would prove influential
marketplace and the major urban centers,
when taken up by writers in the first few
created by literary storytellers who
centuries after Islam, pre-Islamic Arabic
manipulate the original materials much as
literature provided the first literary model.
oral storytellers do, at the same time
remaining faithful to the tradition. Some of
African Literature the early writers sharpened their writing
abilities by translating works into African
languages; others collected oral tradition;
African literature is the body of traditional most experienced their apprenticeships in
oral and written literature in Afro-Asiatic and one way or another within the contexts of
African languages together with works living oral traditions.
written by Africans in European languages.