World Literature

The Emergence of World Literature

  BESIDES other things, the nineteenth century will be remembered in history for the emergence of world literature. Welcoming this, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote in the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) - “Modern industry has established the world market... The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country....In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency; we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-side dress and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible and from the numerous national and local literatures there arises a world literature.” European writers were also well aware of the emergence of world literature. Goethe (1749-1832) had already made a reference to it.
   As a result of the imperialist and colonial expansion, Europe had come into contact with the cultures and literatures of the countries in Asia and Africa. It influenced, and in turn was influenced by, the literatures of these countries.
   By the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, Europe had become the centre of world literature. Though the great age of literature had already ended, yet in these twilight years the European literature had not altogether lost its pristine glory.
   The biggest literary achievement of the nineteenth century Europe is fiction. Interesting fables and stories were produced even earlier, but what can be described as ‘novel’ was a different phenomenon altogether. It refers to that form of prose which is the product of modern European genius and sensibility. ‘Novel’ has been rightly defined as the ‘modem middle-class epic’. It is a true portrayal of contemporary society as well as a sharp critique of modern civilization. Its content is day-to-day life and its process is realism.
   At the turn of the century, the great tradition of European fiction had not exhausted itself completely. It was still in evidence in the underdeveloped Russia as against the developed nations like England and France. The greatest novelists of this period are Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Both were the prime critics of modern European civilization. Both were ill at ease with the industrial advancement and material prosperity. They were also mindful of that aspect of the European society which consisted in the destruction of villages, the misery of peasants, the sad plight of factory workers, and the spiritual down all of the middle class. While sharply criticizing modern society, Dostoevsky (1821-81) in Brothers Karamazov (1879) and Tolstoy (1828-1910) in Resurrection (1899) have hinted at the advent of a new system and the birth of a new human order.
   In Britain, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), William Morris (1834-96) and John Ruskin (1819-1900), following the tradition of realism in British fiction, were painting moving pictures of the disintegration of the rural society, the ugliness of industrialized cities, and the ruination of the handicrafts. The French author, Zola, in his novel Germinal (1885), gave the miners the voice of revolution. Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906), the Norwegian playwright, was shaking the roots of the bourgeois society by depicting in his plays the anomalies of the middle class family life.
   In poetry, the lofty and revolutionary tradition of romanticism had ended, and had been replaced by a new trend whose ultimate aim was to effect an accurate expression of the poet’s unique experiences through the medium of symbols. The French symbolist movement is the main poetic revolution of this period and its representative poets are Stephane Mallarme (1842-98) and Jean Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91).

The Beginning of the Twentieth Century-Some Innovations

  The period from the beginning of the twentieth century till the First World War (1914-18) witnessed many innovations in literature along With other arts. If constant renewal is an essential condition of the capital, then art in the capitalist age cannot escape the repercussions of that condition. In this, art has followed science where ‘progress’ is the keyword and ‘new’ and ‘later’ are equivalents of ‘superior’. The artist, therefore, realized that arts must constantly renew themselves, ‘contemporary’ being synonymous with ‘technical innovation’. This led to the movement of art nouveau, (literal meaning, new art), also known as avant-garde) (literal meaning, vanguard). Paris became the centre of the avant-garde. Young artists from different countries of the world started getting together in Paris. Some of them were ‘emigres’, others ‘exiles’, and still others ‘boheme’. According to historians, towards the end of the last century there were about twenty thousand inhabitants of Paris who called themselves artists. Paris became famous as the ‘city of light’. Great innovators and distinguished artists such as the novelist Marcel Proust (1871-1922), the poet Paul Valery (1817-1945) along with the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), the Russian painter Marc Chagall (1889), and the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky(1882-1971), the Italian painter Modigliani (1884-1920) and Poland’s Paul Klee (1879-1940) lived in Paris.
   The new writers, like their artist counterparts, were in need of new forms and new idiom of language because they wanted to give expression to those new depths of consciousness that had so far remained unexpressed. They needed tools to explore the irrational. Marcel Proust in his great novel Remembrance of Things Past pulled apart one by one the layers of memory in search of identity, and thus invented a new technique of novel-writing.
   The poets too tried free verse in order to explore the inherent possibilities of the language, and divested poetic diction of unnecessary Figures of speech by emphasizing the ‘exact’ image. From this point of view, the notable-poets of the period are Paul Valery, W.B. Yeats (1865-1939), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) and T.S. Eliot (1888-1965).
   At about the same time, the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) published a new manifesto of poetry (1909) in which he stressed the need for making poetry dynamic, consistent with the spirit of the modern machine age. He called himself a Futurist. Outside Italy, Futurism had its impact on some Russian poets too. Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) was attracted towards this ‘ism’ for some time in the beginning. In English a new movement in poetry, known as Imagism, began with Ezra Pound (1885-1974) as its main supporter and T.E. Hulme (1883-1917) as its theorist. It was a direct revolt against the long-winded eloquence of Romanticism, and favoured delimiting poetic expression to the creation of concrete and exact images.
   All these movements of art nouveau proved to be short-lived. The reason or their transience was the inherent flaw of these movements themselves. They suffered from a number of built-in contradictions - tension between elitism and popular aspirations, between the hope of general renewal and the pessimism of middle classes. Besides this, the avant-garde artist was characterized by a reversed vision of the past rather than a vision of the future. The majority of avant-garde artists were apolitical and, like the Italian Futurists, some of them were inclined towards the Right. The fact is that in spite of their long discourses on the revolution in art, these experimentalist artists were not in the least radical in their own philosophy of life. In their totality, these movements in arts were a direct revolt against the nineteenth century realism notwithstanding extremes; the movement did produce a few talented poets such as the French Apollinaire (1880-1919) and the Russian poet Alexander Blok (1880-1921).

Western Literature between the Two World Wars

  Not only was the First World War detrimental to the creative experimentation in art and literature, it also put-an end to the hope of social regeneration which had marked the beginning of the twentieth century. The war had shaken the foundations of the European society. Paris still continued to be the centre of attraction for writers and artists alike but the ‘city of light’ was not as dazzling as before. The writers looked upon the European culture as a dying culture. Man’s fate appeared uncertain, and frightening aspects of irrationality had become far too apparent. It gas in fact a period of ‘cultural crises.
   Spengler has delineated this age as The Decline of the West (1918-22). T.S. Eliot called it the Waste Land (1922). Thomas Mann, in his famous novel The Magic Mountain (1924), presented a picture of the ailing European society through metaphor of a tuberculosis sanitorium.
   Though new experiments in the field of literature did not come to a complete halt, their main concern now was to address themselves to the critique of civilization. Freud’s ideas became an integral part of the pervasive intellectual milieu and provided an incentive for identifying the irrational drives lying dormant in the human subconscious. James Joyce (1882-1941), in his highly experiment network Ulysses (1922), unfolded the thinnest possible layers of the human mind within a circle of events lasting twenty four hours. D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), disregarding the Freudian theory of sex, revealed in his novels the impotence of Europe through sexual images. A new movement in art known as Dadaism had been set in motion in 1916 the primary aim of which was to express the absurd meaninglessness of life. Following the Dadaists, Andre Breton (1896-1966) started another movement in art, called Surrealism, according to which automatic writing was the best method of liberating human consciousness, as the association of images lying buried in the sub-conscious could be retrieved only through this. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) also wrote her psychological novels during this period indicating that life was a stream of sense impressions without purpose or direction.
   There were some novelists at that time who, though they did not make any new experiments in fiction, made an effort to understand the non European character with a view to grasping the meaning of life. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), a Pole by birth, became a British subject and adopted English as the medium of his creative expression. In his novel Heart of Darkness (1909) he discusses the situation of the whites of Africa. Likewise, E.M. Forster (1879-1971), in his novel A Passage to India (1924), describes the experience of living among the Indian masses. The French novelist Andre Malraux’s (b. 1901) The Human Condition (1933) makes the onset of the Chinese revolutionary struggle the living subject matter of the novel.
   Between the two world wars, not only the big European countries but also the smaller ones produced a few highly talented literary artists. Federico Garcia Lorca (1899-1936) of Spain, who achieved international fame for his lyrics and poetic plays, is a good example. Among the Central European countries, the Czechoslovakian literary tradition is particularly rich. The Czechoslovak writers of this period became internationally recognized. Jaroslav Hasek (1884-1923) and Karl Capek (1906-38) are two such examples. Hasek’s grand novel The Good Saldier Svejk is a satire on the First World War and Austrian imperial army, and on the Habsburg dynasty which ruled over the Czechoslovak people. Capek’s satirical description remains unparalleled. There were two notable poets in Hungary at about the same time. They are Attila Jozef (1906-38) and Miclosh Radnoti (1912-45).Their poems which appeared posthumously, took the literary world by storm. The internationally known Hungarian literary critic and aesthetician George Lukacs (1885-1971) is considered the pillar of Marxist literary criticism. Even a small country like Ireland can also be mentioned in this context. It produced famous English authors like G. B. Shaw, W. B. Yeats, James Joyce and John M. Synge.
   In the 1930s, a new philosophy, called ‘Existentialism’, influenced writers in Germany and France. Under its impact some important novels and plays were produced. Two French writers, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) and Albert Camus (1913-60) received global acclaim as existentialists. Sartre’s famous novel La Nausee (1938) and Camus’ L’ Estranger (1942) are important works of the period. The former means ‘nausea’ or ‘the absurdity of life’, the latter means ‘the outsider’ or ‘stranger’ depicting the alienation of man. Franz Kafka (1883-1924), a German writer of Czechoslovakia, may also be mentioned with reference to the existentialist literature. His famous novel The Trial deals with the story of an ordinary person who has been declared ‘criminal’, though he never comes to know what crime he has committed, nor does he know how and where he should seek justice.
   This period is also noteworthy for having produced a very distinguished German literary artist in the sphere of drama and theater, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956). He wrote good poetry too, but is better known to the world as the author of revolutionary plays like The Mother Courage and the The Caucasian Chalk Circle as well as for his original concepts like Epic Theatre and Alienation Effect.

Twentieth Century American Literature

  The American literature made its mark in the nineteenth century through the works of authors like Walt Whitman (1819-92), the poet of democracy, the daring novelist Herman Melville (1819-91), and the keen humorist/satirist Mark Twain (1835-1910). However, the American literature acquired its independent national identity after the First World War. Material prosperity, industrial advancement and political power attracted a host of European writers and intellectuals to the United States of America, which served as the principal abode of refuge for those who had fled Europe as well as other immigrants. They had flocked into the country just before the Second World War. The coming together of these writers from different countries and the Native American Indians and blacks gave rise to a new symbiosis in the United States. This process resulted in the American literature taking on a complexion different from that of the contemporary European literature.
   The tradition of realism was still alive in American fiction, though Europe had in the meantime given it up. Theodore Dreiser’s (1871-1945) novel An American Tragedy (1925) and John Steinbeck’s (b. 1902) novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939) are outstanding examples of this. In fact, the affable European sensibility found it impossible to bear this ruthless realism, William Faulkner’s (1897-1962) novels dealing with the undiscovered life in the deep south are indicators of the original American tradition. The American novelist of this period, who received international recognition, is Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). His Old Man and the Sea is considered an outstanding novel for its dispassionate depiction of struggle and its biblical language, though his importance as a writer is due mainly to his short stories.
   Like the novelists, there were also poets in the USA steeped in the typical American hue. Among them figures Robert Frost (1874-1963) who is well known for his simplicity, and images and metaphors drawn from daily life. T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound are American by birth, but their major creative work was done in England and their sensibility was basically European. In their place, America had a reflective and modernist poet like Wallace Stevens (1879-1955). The American literary critics look upon William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) as their own and maintain that his poems can be said to be ‘in the American grain’.
   The 1920s saw the emergence of a great cultural movement which is associated with the self-assertion of the black people. Called the Harlem (the New York slum inhabited by the blacks) Renaissance, it produced poets, writers, scholars and musicians of international repute. They included the poet, short story writer and novelist Langston Hughles (1902-67) and the poet Claud McKay who had migrated from Jamaica to the USA.
   After the Second World War, America witnessed the emergence of ‘Beatnic’ poetry with Allen Ginsburg in the forefront. It became famous at the international level mainly as a variant of avant-garde.
   The American contribution to literature consists in its literary criticism more than its creative literature. A poet-critic has appropriately called it the Age of Criticism in America. The American criticism is also known as New Criticism. After the sixties, the phenomenon most talked about in America is literary theory. This theory is called Deconstruction. Its pro-pounder is Jacque Derrida, a French thinker, but the American universities provided the fertile land for it.

The Twentieth Century Latin American Literature

  Latin America consists of such South American, Central American, and Caribbean countries as Mexico, Chile, Nicaragua, Cuba, etc., which were once under the colonial rule of Spain and Portugal. The language of their literatures is, therefore, Spanish and Portuguese. The Latin American literature, in spite of being very close to European literature, has in many ways its own distinct features. One reason for this is the economic backwardness of the Latin American countries. Another reason is their geography. Some of these countries have remained isolated on account of their dense forests and fierce rivers while some others due to their vast deserts. Most of them are inhabited by a large non-white population. There also exists a powerful and living tradition of age-old myths and legends. All this has lent a distinct complexion lo the Latin American literature.
   In the Latin American literature, the Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario (1867-1916) is a precursor of the modernist movement. He played an important role in giving a new direction to the Spanish literature. Another important name in this connection is that of the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957). In fact, the Latin American literature is significant especially for its poetry. Among the poets, those who acquired international recognition are Cesar Vallejo (1895-1938) of Peru, Pablo Neruda (1904-73) of Chile, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1984) of Argentina, Nicolas Guillen (b. 1902) of Cuba, Octavio Paz (b. 1914) of Mexico, and Ernesto Cardenal (b. 1925) of Nicaragua.
   Latin American fiction has its own individual character. The stories of Jorge Luis Borges, written in the style of fables, are considered unparalleled in world literature.
   Latin American novel owes its international reputation to the Colombia writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928) whose famous novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is regarded as very significant for its ‘magic’ realism.
   The best known poet of French language in this region is Aime Cesaire (b. 1913). Born in Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean, Cesaire was one of the founders of the negritude movement.
   National awareness and social justice are the two forceful strands of the Latin American literature which is of paramount interest to the freedom-loving peoples of the world for its revolutionary spirit and novelty of its forms.

Twentieth Century Soviet Literature

  In the USSR, besides the literature in the Russian language, there are highly developed literatures in more than a dozen languages of the Baltic, Caucasian and Central Asian Republics. Each literature has a characteristic tradition of its own. After the Socialist Revolution of 1917, the languages of the various Republics, along with Russian, found a rare chance of blossoming forth and enriching themselves. However, it is beyond doubt that the development of literature in the Soviet-Union and the direction it took was largely determined by the Russian literature.
   Maxim Gorki (1868-1936), an influential and inspiring Soviet writer, commands international respect for his short stories about the life of tramps and nomads, and for his novel Mother (1907). Even after the Revolution, he wrote similar novels but most of his time was then given to guiding and encouraging other Soviet writers and to performing non-literary tasks, The most representative novel of Soviet Russia is And Quiet Flows the Don (1929) written by Mikhail Sholokhov (1905-1984). A number of important short stories too were produced after the Revolution, The stories of Isaac Babel (1894-1938), and those of Ivan Bunin (1870-1953) are rated as classics already. Ilya Ehrenburg (18911967) wrote novels about the fascist aggressions and the Second World War. However, the twentieth century Russian fiction did not touch the same heights as it had done in the nineteenth century.
   The most important Soviet writer after the Second World War is Changez Atmotov (b. 1928) and the most significant story-writer is Vasili Shuksin (1929-74). Among those who have recently acquired international fame are two Siberain writers, Valentin Rasputin (b. 1937) and Astafayeb (b. 1924).
   The twentieth century Russian poetry is in a relatively better position. A number of poetic innovations were tried at the outset of the twentieth century. Marked by extremism, the experimentalist poets, having acquired a degree of maturity after the Revolution, produced balanced and meaningful poems. The forerunner among these poets is Alexander Blok (18801921). His poem entitled The Twelve, which he wrote to welcome the Revolution, is his immortal creation. Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) is a representative poet of the soviet Revolution. Other noteworthy poets who are internationally recognized are Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Osip Mandelshtam (1891-1938) and Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925). The generation of poets after the Second-World War, which claimed international repute; includes important names like chgeny Yevtushenko (b.1933) and Andrei Voznesensky (b. 1933).
   It is now openly admitted in the Soviet-Union that Stalinism and its repressive policies caused an irreparable damage to literature and its growth for about three decades between 1924 and 1953. The same situation obtained for about two decades even after the death of Stalin. The most prominent of Russian writers, who chose, or were forced, to go and live abroad is Alexander Solzhenityn (b. 1918). He was given the Nobel Prize in 1970. He continues to live abroad and espouses ideas of Russian and Slav nationalism and opposition to socialism. During the recent years, Glasnost has provided complete freedom to literary creation. Consequently, along with new pieces, the banned literature of the past is slowly coming to light. In spite of these difficulties, it can be said that the twentieth century Russian literature is in no way qualitatively inferior to the contemporary European and American literature. on the contrary, it appears more life-like and fresh in some ways.

Development in Asian Literatures

  European intervention has played a decisive role in the development of modem Asian literature. You have already read about the establishment of European colonial domination over the countries of Asia and North Africa. Most of them had come under the direct rule of European colonial powers while the rest, like China, were controlled by them indirectly. Japan was the only major country in Asia to have escaped colonial rule. At the time of the European intervention, the Asian countries, though they had a rich and long history of cultural and literary development, were passing through a period of stagnation. The European intervention stirred up, in some measure, the social and cultural life in Asia. Though economically and politically subservient, the Asian countries were introduced to some elements of modern science and technology. The process of industrialization had begun. One by one, the Asian countries adopted the European system of education, which gradually, led to the birth of an educated class well conversant with either English or French, apart from its own a Live tongue. This bilingually trained class assumed the leading role in the development of modem Asian literature. Under the leadership of this neo-educated class, the Asian countries ‘experienced the spread of a new cultural consciousness at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. This development is often described as the renaissance in Asian countries.
   The European Orientalists too made their contribution to the Asian renaissance. The European scholars discovered ancient manuscripts in the Eastern countries and edited and published them. The excavation of ancient historical remains by European archaeologists provided the missing links in the story of history. These excavations led to the finding of Angkor-Vat, Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Ajanta Caves, and the cities of Tigris Euphrates valley. It is an irony of history that Europe which, on the one hand, was responsible for the disintegration of Asia’s ancient social system was, on the other hand, digging out the ancient historical remains of Asian civilizations from the depths of the earth. The European Orientalists, thus, created their favorites myth of the Orient and Orientalism which influenced the Asian literature to a considerable extent.
   The reaction to the contact with the West was different in every Asian country. However, one feature was common to all. None rejected the Western literature completely. While redis covering their ancient literary tradition the Asian writers also adopted many European literary forms such as narrative prose in the novel and free verse in poetry.
   Although Asian literature adopted the Western forms, its content was local and, by the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, predominantly nationalist. That is why the entire literature of that period reverberates with the now of national awakening and national liberation. It was a curious mixture of glorification of the past and criticism of the age old conventions.
   The modern Asian literature has a characteristic of its own which sets it quite apart from the Latin American and the African literature. In spite of heavy Western influence, the Asian countries did not produce that literature in a European language hut in their own. The Asian writers wrong poetry, stories, or novels in English or French are an exception to the rule, unlike the writers in Latin America and Africa.

The Indian Literature

  The national awakening in Asia found its expression first in the Indian literature, and its foremost representative writer was Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Tagore was the first Asian writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1913). It follows that he was also the first to achieve international fame. Tagore represents a happy combination of the ancient Indian tradition and the new European consciousness. His is the singular voice singing the song of national awakening and international humanism. His sixty-year long literary perseverance and practice yielded a wide spectrum of writings covering all forms of prose and poetry-poems, short stories, novels, essays, etc. In every form that he tried, he set up a model of excellence. He was awarded the Nobel Prim for his slim volume of poems entitled Gitanjali. These poems were originally written in Bengali, and later translated into English by the poet himself. Though he had a perfect command over English, Tagore chose Bengali, his mother tongue, as the medium for his creative writing. This proves his sense of national pride. Tagore gave Indian poetry a new type of lyric. Through his collection of stories entitled Galpa Guchchha, running into three volumes, Tagore set the pace of the modem short story in India. Some of these stories deserve a permanent place in the world literature. His novels entitled Cam and Ghare Baire reflect the genius of a supreme novelist. In the sphere of music also, Tagore was an original creator. Rabindra Sangeet bears ample testimony to it. In his old age, he made some experiments in painting which art critics even today consider high quality works of an. Tagore's multifaceted genius incidentally reminds us of the complete artist of the European renaissance. One of the pioneers of the Indian freedom movement, Tagore was also the progenitor of Indian literature. Mahatma Gandhi used to address him as ‘Gurudev’ out of respect.
   Function - The most significant outcome of the Indo-European contact is the ‘novel’ which came into its own in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The first important writer of that period is the famous Bengali novelist, Bankimchandra Chatterji (1838-94). His novels are mostly historical. Anand Math (1882) is the best known among them, especially for its powerful national songs like ‘Vandemataram’. It was From Chand (1880-1936), a novelist and short story writer in Urdu-Hindi, who carved a distinct place for India in world fiction. Making the Indian peasant the protagonist of his fiction, he narrated the realistic tale of peasants’ misery and struggle. Among his novels numbering about a dozen, Rangbhoomi (1924) and Gaudan (1936) are immortal works. HIS short stones numbering about three hundred contain classic pieces such as Kafm. Poor ki Ram, Sawa Ser Gehun, Shatranj ke Khilari, etc.
   The tradition of the novel dealing with rural life set-up by Prem Chand was further strengthened by Bengali writers. Notable among them are Bibhuti Bhushan Banerji (1899-54). Tara Shankar Banerji (1898-1971), and Manik Banerji (1908-56). Bibhuti Bhushan’s Pather Panchali (1929) has been filmed by Satyajit Ray, and thus has become internationally famous. Tara Shankar’s Ganadevta and Manik’s Padmanadir Majhi have been translated into several languages. This tradition gained momentum in Hindi through Phanishwarnath Renu’s (1921-77) Maila Anchal (1954), in Oriya through Gopinath Mohanty's a). 1915 Praja, in Malayalam through Takazhi Shivashankar Pillai's (b. 1912) Chemeen, in Gujarati through Panna Lal Patel’s (b. 1918) Makelajeet in Kannada through Shivram Karanth’s (b. 1902) Choman Doodi, and in Marathi through Bhal Chandra Nemade’s (b. 1938) Kosla. Similar novels dealing with rural life and regional predilections have also been written in other Indian languages.
   Among novelists who deal with the problems of the middle class social and family life, the most popular one is the Bengali writer, Sharat Chandra Chatterji (1876-1938). In Hindi, Jainendra Kumar (1905-1988) is very famous among the writers of psychological novels. In Kannada, Samskara, a novel written by U.K. Anantamurthy (b. 1932) deals with a moral conflict.
   The partition of India in 1947 was a historical tragedy. A number of important novels dealing with it have been written in Urdu and Hindi, the most significant among them being Yashpal’s (1903-1973) Jhootha Such (1958-60) and Qurratual Ain Haider’s (1927) Aug Ka Dariya (1961).
   After Independence, there started a Dalit movement in Marathi writing with reference to the ‘depressed classes’. Under its impact, writers dealing with the life of these classes produced some extremely moving novels basing them on their own experiences of the lowest social stratum. The best known among these novels is Daya Pawar’s (b. 1935) Achool. Another writer connected with this movement is Babu Rao Bagul (b. 1931).
   Short Story - The beginning of the modem short story in India was coeval with the novel. The Writers who perfected and enriched the art of short-story writing after Rabindranath Tagore and Premchand are Yashpal and Jainendra in Hindi, Vaikom Mohammad Basheer (b. 1914) in Malayalam, and Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-55), Rajendra Singh Bedi (1915-84) and Krishan Chandra (1914-77) in Urdu. Short story writing in Indian languages has continuously progressed since Independence through the medium of magazines and journals, and many new talented writers in this field have come to the fore.
   Poetry - Though there has been a well-established and fairly rich tradition of poetry in Indian languages, modern Indian poetry as a whole moved in new directions after coming into contact with the European literature. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Indian poetry witnessed the rise of Romantics. Tagore was a herald of this movement with Wordsworth and Shelley in English as its main sources of inspiration. However, the difference between the English Romantic poetry and the Indian Romantic poetry lay in the latter’s inherent emphasis on anti-feudalism and anti-imperialism. In fact, the Indian Romantic poetry was a vocal representation of the Indian freedom movement in that it produced a number of notable romantic poets in all the Indian languages. Among those who deserve special mention arc Mohammad Iqbal (1876-1938) in Urdu, Nirala (1897-1961) in Hindi, Qazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) in Bengali, Keshavsut (1866-1905) in Marathi, and G. Shankar Kurup (b.1902) in Malayalam. Subramaniya Bharati (1882-1921), a distinguished Tamil nationalist poet, also belongs to the same period.
   Indian poetry underwent a new change in 1936 as a result of the Progressive Writers’ Movement. Forsaking nights of fancy and standing on the terra firma, it took to realism both in thought and language. It moved out of the narrow confines of nature and personal love, and addressed itself to expressing themes of day-to-day me and the misery of ordinary people. New experiments were made in poetry at about the same time. To some extent the modernist poetry in English led by Eliot was responsible for this trend. The new poetry in Indian languages is represented mainly by Agyea (1911-1987) and Muktibhod (1917-64) in Hindi, Majaaz (1909-55) and Faiz (1911-84) in Urdu, Jeevanananda Das (1899-1954) and Sukant Bhattacharyya in Bengali, B.S. Mardhekar (1907-56) in Marathi, and Uma Shankar Joshi (1911-87) in Gujarati.
   New poetry progressed further after Independence. A new generation of talented poets came to the fore. Their works were translated into English and were recognized internationally. Some of these poets are Raghubir Sahay and Kedarnath Singh (Hindi), Shakti Chattopadhyaya (Bengali), Dilip Chitre and Arun Kolhatkar (Marathi), and Ramakant Rath (Oriya).
   Drama and Theatre - Having been exposed to the Western drama and theatre, the Indian dramatists and actors of the theatre not only revived their own tradition of drama, but also made new experiments in it by combining the Western and Eastern styles. This Endeavour was inspired by Moliere, Ibsen, Chekhov, and Brecht, be31des Shakespeare. It resulted in the revival and refinement of the various styles of the folk theatre. The organized efforts of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1936 went a long way in establishing New Drama and Theatre and creating a popular interest in them. The most significant contributions to drama and theatre were made by Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Among the new dramatists, the outstanding ones are Badal Sarkar (Bengali), Vijay Tendulkar (Marathi) and Girish Karnad (Kannada). Those 'who helped promote the theatre arc Shambhu Mitra, Ibrahim Alkazi, Shriram Lagoo, B. V. Karanth HabibTanveer and Satyadev Dubey.
  

Important Indian writers writing in English are Mulk Raj Anand (b. 1905), Raja Rao (b. 1909) and R.K. Narayan (b. 1906).

Chinese Literature

  In 1911, a revolution took place in China under the leadership of Dr Sun Yat Sen (1866-1925). This revolution led to the overthrow of the Manchu imperial dynasty and the establishment of the Chinese Republic. Inspired by May Fourth Movement a new literary movement led by Hu Shi (1891-1962) and Chen Tu-hsiu (1879-1942), now spelt as Chen Du Xiu, started in China. It stressed the use of ‘Bai-hua’ (plain language) instead of the existing artificial language, and proved to be a pace-setter in using the language of conversation for literary expression in China.
   The period 1917-37 is considered to be one of revolutionary change in the history of the Chinese literature. A feeling of nationalism spread far and wide in China during this period. On the one hand, the Chinese intellectuals were being introduced to modern West European ideas and science and technology, and on the other hand, they were also being influenced by the Russian socialist revolution. The nationalist political patty known as Guomindang’ founded by Dr Sun Yat-Sen included communists also. But after his death in 1925 Chiang Kai-shek not only expelled them from the party but also ordered their liquidation. During this period of intense political turmoil, an ideological polarization took place among the Chinese intellectuals and writers. Some were inclined towards Western Europe while others preferred Soviet Russia and socialism.
   The most important Chinese writer of this period is Lu Hsun (1881-1936). He is often regarded as a combination of G.B. Shaw and Maxim Gorki on account of his keen satire and hnmane compassion for the oppressed. Lu Hsun created a new type of realistic fiction. He did not write a novel, but A Madman’s Diary and The Story of Ai Q are his immortal contributions to world fiction. Like his stories, Lu Hsun's short satiridal essays also played a revolutionary role in public awakening. Lu Hsun’s tradition of realism was carried on by Mao Dun (1896-1981), now spelt as Mao Dun, a novelist and short story writer, who was later, appointed Minister of Culture in the Socialist China. His best known novel is Midnight (1923). In 1927-28 he produced a trilogy entitled Disillusion, Agitation, and Pursuit, which later appeared as a single volume under the title Eclipse. It presents a realistic picture of the mental condition of various social classes during a period characterized by foreign aggression, feudalism, economic backwardness, and national disorder.
   This left-wing tradition produced an outstanding poet Kuo Mo-go (1892-1978), now spelt as Guo Moruo, who later became the Deputy Prime Minister in the socialist government of China. But the most important Chinese revolutionary poet is Ai Qing (b. 1910) who at the age of 26 brought about a complete revolution in Chinese poetry in 1936 through his first collection of poems. He was inspired by Rimbaud, Mayakovsky and Whitman. He continued writing till 1957. He was then sent to a commune as apolitical suspect for ‘ideological reform’ where he lived a life of loneliness for twenty years. After the change in political situation in China, he was rehabilitated, and even as an old man he is still writing poetry with renewed enthusiasm.
   Among the non-left Chinese writers, Hu Shi remained an uncompromising experimentalist. Pa Chin (b. 1904), now spelt as Ba Jin, restricted his interest to a presentation of the disintegration of the Confucian family. Among the followers of this trend, Eileen Chang’s novel The Rice-Sprout Song (1955) is regarded as a landmark in Western countries. Likewise, Chien Chung-shu’s (now spelt as Qian Zhong shu) novel The Besieged City (1947) has also been highly praised. The most important writer of this generation is Lao She (1899-1966). His novel The Ricksha-puller has won international repute.
   The Chinese literature has seriously suffered on account of the political uncertainty, especially during the Cultural Revolution in China. However, novels, short stories and poems of a high order were produced in China in the twentieth century, enriching world literature.

Japanese Literature

  The beginning of modem literature in Japan is closely linked with the Meiji Restoration (1868). Japanese intellectuals and writers came into contact with Western literature during this period. Literatures in English and European lane guages were translated into Japanese on a large scale. The language of everyday speech for literary use was particularly emphasized. Shoyo Tsubouchi’s Elements of the Novel (1883) is the holy book of modem Japanese literature. It underlines the importance of realism in fiction, which was amply exemplified in Tsubouchi’s own realistic novels.
   Mori Ogai (1862-1922) has the distinction of imparting artistic maturity to Japanese fiction. Another veteran novelist of the same period is Natsume Soseki (1846-1916). Soseki’s novel Wagahai Wa Neko De Aru (I am a Cat) is the autobiography of a teacher’s pet cat. It is a satire on the absurdities of life and the hollowness of middle-class society. His best known work is Botchan, which is the autobiography of a school teacher.
   The period 1912-25 is known as the Taisho age in Japanese literature. Japan's victory in the war against Russia and the resultant self-confidence on the part of Japan created a mentality which is the hall-mark of the literature of this period. Shiga Naoya’s (1883-1971) novel Anya Koora (A Dark Night) can be regarded as the representative work of this peirod.
   The Showa period in Japanese literature coincides with Hirohito’s accession to the throne in 1926. At the time of the formation of Japanese Workers’ Association in 1928, proletarian literature was produced at a fast pace. Significantly enough, many writers of this type of literature belonged to the working class. The fascist forces began to gain ground in Japanese society after Japan’s occupation of Manchuria in 1931 and Japanese aggression in other pans of China later. The Japanese intellectuals found this atmosphere painful and stifling. This is realistically expressed in the works of Ryunosuka Akutagawa (1892-1937). The general gloom and hopelessness of the Showa period is reflected in the works of Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) also.
   Japanese poetry is known the world over for its Haiku, which is an ancient form of poetry. In modern times, new Japanese poets have revived Haiku with a fresh perception. Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) is one of the four major Haiku writers. There was a rise of Romanticism in Japanese poetry also in the beginning of the twentieth century. Kafu Nagai (1879-1959) and Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) are outstanding among the Japanese writers since the Second World War. Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1968.

Arab, Turkish, and Persian Literature

  Ameen Rihani (1876-1940) and Khalil Gibran (1831-1931), also known as Mahjari or the New York poets, arc the pioneers of modern Arabic poetry. They revived the concept of the visionary poet of the pre-Islamic and Sufi tradition. Being inspired by Walt Whitman, Rihani wrote free verse and prose-poetry in Arabic.
   Since the forties, four distinct phases can be identified in Arabic poetry - (1) Taf’la (1947-57) - Its representative poets are Al-Sayyab (1926-64) and Al-Bayati (1926). It is also referred to as the Iraqi school. Al-Bayati was associated with the Iraqi communist party. His Story of Rain is well known and popular. (2) Majallat Shi’r Movement (1957-67) - It is also known as the Syrian School. All the poets of [ms phase are Christian Arabs. (3) Huzairan Experience (1967-82) - Also known as the June experience, the subject matter of the poetry of this period is the humiliating defeat suffered by Arabs against Israel. Mahmoud Darwish (b.1942) a Palestinian poet of international repute is a representative of this phase. (4) Beirut Experience (1982) - In June 1982 Lebanon was attacked and captured by Israel. The poets who expressed their anguish over it can be said to represent this phase. The poetry of these phases is replete with a powerful sense of the Arab national identity.
   The greatest Turkish poet and pioneer of new Turkish literature is Tevfik Fikret (1887-1915). A staunch critic of contemporary social evils, he had an inflexible faith in science. When Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Republic of Turkey, started the process of modernization of Turkey, he put on his agenda the reform of the Turkish language. The Turkish Linguistic Society was formed in 1932, which promoted the language of everyday speech. The Latin script was adopted. It was the beginning of a revolutionary period in Turkish literature. The most important revolutionary poet of this period is Nazim Hikmet (1902-63). He commands international fame. He spent many years of his life in prison and many more in exile in the Soviet Union.
   Turkish poetry came under the influence of the modernist poetry of the West. This trend is best reflected in the poems of Orhan Veli Kanik (1914-50). There were many ‘peasant’ poets in Turkey in the ties. The most prominent among them is Mehmet Basaran (b.1926). Sezai Karakoe (b.1933) is an important experimentalist among the young Turkish poets. He has translated a number of French poems into Turkish. A traditionalist in his religious beliefs, he is a surrealist m the technique of poetry. The most promising among the new revolutionary poets is Ataol Behramoglu (b.1942).
   Nima Yoshech (1896-1959) is a pioneer of modern Persian poetry Iran. He spread revolutionary ideas in Iran under the influence of the French Revolution. Kare Shabe Pa is his famous poem; its theme centers round the plight of an ordinary person. Nima’s tradition was carried forward by the greatest contemporary poet Ahmed Shamloo (b. 1925). Shamloo was imprisoned several times for his communist ideology. He introduced free verse in Persian poetry. Among the Iranian novelists, two names stand out prominently; Buzug Alvi, known for his progressive ideas and his novel Chashmcha, and Sadiq Hidayat (1903-51), who can be described as part existentialist. He wrote psychological novels in the form of fantasies. One of his novels has been translated into English, entitled the Blind Owl. Overcoming a number of obstacles in their way, the women writers of Iran have also come forward. They are revolutionary in their ideas. Farogh Farukhzad (1934-66) is particularly notable among these writers.
   After the dictatorial rule of the Shahs for about fifty years, Ayotullah Khomeini’s religious dogmatism imposed serious restrictions on Iranian poets and writers. As a result of this, modern Persian literature has remained static in spite of ancient traditions. As if that was not enough, whatever significant writing was done amidst these restrictions during this period in Iran, remains unknown to the world outside.

African Literature

  African literature made us debut on the world stage after the Second World War. A strong reaction against colonialism and racial discrimination in Africa had set in even during the first decade of the twentieth century. Gandhiji was the first to raise his voice against racial oppression in South Africa. Jomo Kenyatta was among the first African nationalist leaders after the First World War. However, it was only after the Second World War that a powerful wave of nationalism swept the whole of Africa. The foremost leader of the nationalist movement was Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. He was the first to give the call ‘Freedom Now’. Being the keynote of African nationalism, anti-colonialism became the subject matter of the emerging African literature. As in politics, so in literature the new awakening was actualized and led by Western-educated African intellectuals. African literature is different from Asian literature in that it has generally used as is medium European languages like French, English, Portuguese, etc.
   Leopold Sedor Senghor (b. 1906) is the first African writer to have become internationally famous. He was elected the first President of Senegal when the French colonial rule ended there in 1960. He is recognized as the greatest African poet, writing in French. He is also called the apostle of negritude. According to him, “Negritude is the awareness, defence and development of African cultural values.” In 1948 he brought out an anthology of African poems dealing with the theme of negritude with a preface written by Jean-Paul Sartre.
   Another important writer of Senegal is the novelist Sembene Ousmane (b.1923) who helped establish the African identity at the international level through his realistic novels, short stories, and films. Ousmane had to put up a long struggle to reach this level in literature. First a fisherman, then a dock-worker, and finally a trade union leader, he was also a member of the French Communist Party. Ousmane is a ‘committed’ writer. He put dynamic realism into the African novel. His novels entitled Le Mandat and Xala, which he himself made into films, are known the world over.
   Among the South African writers, two names are particularly renowned-the poet Denis Brutus (b.1924) and the novelist Alex la Guma (b.1925). Literary writers have suffered unspeakable tenures as a result of the policy of apartheid practised by the white racist regime in South Africa. Imprisonment and exile are common occurrences. Such hard conditions have rendered the South African literature particularly militant in tone. All its poets are natural activists in the political struggle. Denis Brutus’ poems, for instance, describe the experiences of imprisonment and exile. For their exquisite expression of agony and the freshness of their symbolism, these poems are an invaluable part of the stock of contemporary English poetry.
   La Guma, a committed novelist, is a member of the South African Communist Party. He became famous after the publication of his first novel A Walk in the Night (1962). He wrote a number of moving stories which were published in the Black Orpheus. In 1973 la Guma was awarded the prestigious literary Lotus Prize by the Afro-Asian Writers’ Association.
   Nigeria is ahead of other African countries in the development of literature. The number of its writers is larger, and the size of its published literature much bigger than that of other countries. The Nobel Prize for literature, though a controversial matter in itself these days, was given to Wole Soyinka (1934), a Nigerian English poet, playwright and novelist. He was the first African literary writer to be honoured with this award. Many of his plays have had a run in Britain, and critical reviews of his novel Interpreters have appeared in the ‘Superlative‘.
   Chinua Achebe (b.1930) is another internationally recognized writer of Nigeria. He has played a key role in making African literature internationally popular through his novels, short stories, essays, and lectures. Some critics rate Achebe higher than Soyinka. His important works are Things Fall Apart (1958) and A Man of the People. A collection of his short stories entitled Girls at War and other Stories (1972) is also well known. He has written some poetry also. Beware Soul and Brothers (1971) is a collection of his poems. He edits a literary journal O kike to promote and publish contemporary African literature. In his capacity as Editorial Advisor to Heinemann Educational Books’ African Writers Series, Achebe has made invaluable contribution to the publication of African literature.
   Gabriel Okara (b.1921) is a veteran poet of Nigeria. He was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (1979) for his collection of poems The Fisherman's Invocation (1978). Okara has made a unique experiment in language by mixing English with his local dialect. His poems echo the African oral tradition.
   Christopher Okara (1932-67) is a revolutionary poet of Nigeria. He was a Major in the Biafran Army, and was killed in fighting during the Nigerian Civil War. He became a legend in Nigeria. Writers like Achebe and Soyinka have written poems in his memory.
   The most important and revolutionary Kenyan novelist is Ngugi Wa Thiong’o (b. 1938). He has suffered imprisonment as well as exile in independent Kenya for his writings. Since he was not allowed to return to Kenya, he stayed in England for twelve years. He made his mark with the publication of his first novel Weep Not Child (1964). His other important novels are The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, and Petals of Blood (1977). He wrote a play entitled I Will Marry When I Want in collaboration with another writer named Ngugi Wa Mirii. When the play was staged, it turned out to be so explosive that the Kenyan government banned its performance. Ngugi is perhaps the most revolutionary of all African writers. After Ngugi, Meja Mwangi (b.1948) is the most ‘vigilant’ of the second generation of writers. His best known novel is Kill Me Quick (1973), for which he received the Kenyatta Prize in 1974. It presents a picture of the problems of the poor and the downtrodden of his times. Making a clear distinction between himself and Ngugi, Mwangi says that Ngugi has written about personal tragedies of the participants in the Mau-Mau movement while he (Mwangi) has initiated an impersonal mechanism in his works. Some of Mwangi’s important novels are Carcass for Hounds, Going Down River Road and Cockroach Dance. The thematic Content of African literature has radically changed after the independence of the African countries; ‘Colonial experience’ and ‘culture conflict’ have ceased to be major concerns of African literature. The new literature is pitted against the enemy within. In some countries, the novel is moving away from the village to the city, while in other countries literature is being increasingly used to express the common man’s discontent and aspirations.
   A new movement has started in African literature, which emphasizes the use of local languages as the medium of literature. Ngugi and other writers have started writing in the local African languages instead of English, French, and other European languages. Thus, literary works are being produced in African languages also.