Asian literature

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Asian literature is the literature produced in Asia.

Contents
1 Examples
2 Classical Indian literature
3 Classical Chinese and Japanese literature
4 Classical West Asian literature
5 Modern Asian literature
6 See also

Examples
East Asian literature
o Chinese literature
o Japanese literature
o Korean literature
South Asian literature
o Indian literature
o Pakistani literature
o Bangladeshi folk literature
o Sri Lankan literature
Southeast Asian literature
o Thai literature
o Philippine literature
o Malaysian literature
o Indonesian literature
o Burmese literature
o Vietnamese literature
West Asian literature
o Persian literature
o Arabic literature
o Jewish literature
o Turkish literature

Classical Indian literature

Main article: Indian literature
Classical Chinese and Japanese literature
Main articles: Chinese literature and Japanese literature

In Tang and Song dynasty China, famous poets such as Li Bai authored works of great
importance. They wrote sh (Classical Chinese: ) poems, which have lines with equal numbers
of characters, as well as c () poems with mixed line varieties. Early-Modern Japanese
literature (17th19th centuries) developed comparable innovations such as haiku, a form of
Japanese poetry that evolved from the ancient hokku (Japanese language: ) mode. Haiku
consists of three lines: the first and third lines each have five morae (the rough phonological
equivalent of syllables), while the second has seven. Original haiku masters included such
figures as Edo period poet Matsuo Bash (); others influenced by Bash include
Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki.

Classical West Asian literature

Main articles: Persian literature, Arabic literature, Jewish literature, and Turkish literature

Modern Asian literature

The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer who was an Indian,
became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable
impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures
of Europe and the Americas. He also wrote the Indian anthem. Later, other Asian writers won
Nobel Prizes in literature, including Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1966), and Kenzabur e
(Japan, 1994). Yasunari Kawabata wrote novels and short stories distinguished by their elegant
and spartan diction such as the novels Snow Country and The Master of Go.

See also
The Literature section of the article Culture of Asia
The categories Literature by continent, Chinese literature, Korean literature, Indian
literature, and Japanese literature.
African literature
European literature
Oceanian literature
Latin American literature