Learning Competency:

Identify representative texts and

authors from Asia, North
America, Europe, Latin America,
and Africa, EN12Lit-IIa
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS AND
AUTHORS FROM ASIA, NORTH
AMERICA, EUROPE, LATIN
AMERICA, AND AFRICA
WHAT I KNOW
Where do these continental countries belong? Write
Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa
on the space provided.
1. Japan ____________ 7. Egypt ___________
2. Korea ____________ 8. Kenya ___________
3. Colombia __________ 9. Tanzania ____________
4. Greece ____________ 10. China ____________
5. Spain ______________ 11. Mexico ____________
6. Portugal ____________12. USA ____________
 What is World Literature?

World literature is the totality of all national

literatures. The formation of literature in
different countries happened not at the same
time, which is connected with the emergence
of writing and artistic creativity. Each nation`s
literature has its own artistic and national
features.
The term “world literature” was introduced by
Jogann Wolfgang von Goethe. He used the word
“Weltliteratur” in 1827.
Jogann Wolfgang von Goethe
- studied the characteristic features and
interrelationships of different national literatures, the
tendencies of their development and their
achievements.
- He studied the works of famous writers which
presented different literary phenomena of different
historic periods.
World literature is the cultural
heritage of all humanity.
WRITERS IN ASIA
HARUKI MURAKAMI
(January 12, 1949)
- is a Japanese writer.
- His books and stories have been
bestsellers in Japan as well as
internationally, with his work being
translated into 50 languages and selling
millions of copies outside his native
country.
- His work has received numerous awards,
including the World Fantasy Award, the
Frank O'Connor International Short Story
Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the
Jerusalem Prize.
YOUNG-HA KIM
- (November 11, 1968) was born in
Hwacheon. - He moved from place to
place as a child, since his father was in the
military.
- As a child, he suffered from gas poisoning
from coal gas and lost memory before ten.
- He was educated at Yonsei University in
Seoul, majoring business administration,
but he didn't show much interest in it.
Instead he focused on writing stories.
- His career as a professional writer started
in 1995 right after discharge.
CATHERINE LIM
- (March 21, 1942) is a Singaporean
fiction author known for writing
about Singapore society and of
themes of traditional Chinese
culture.
- Hailed as the "doyenne of
Singapore writers", Lim has
published nine collections of short
stories, five novels, two poetry
collections, and numerous political
commentaries to date.
CATHERINE LIM
- Her social commentary in 1994,
titled The PAP and the people -
A Great Affective Divide and
published in The Straits Times,
criticised the ruling political
party's agendas.
Ming Di
- is a Chinese poet and translator, and
the author of six collections of poetry
published in China.

- She went to Boston for graduate studies

and currently lives in California.

- She has translated four books of poetry

from English to Chinese, including
Dancing in Odessa Poems — and Essays
by Ilya Kaminsky (Shanghai Arts and
Literature Publishing House, 2013).
Arthur Waley
- (August 19, 1889 ) was an English
orientalist and sinologist who
achieved both popular and scholarly
acclaim for his translations of
Chinese and Japanese poetry.

- Among his honours were the CBE in

1952, the Queen's Gold Medal for
Poetry in 1953, and he was invested
as a Companion of Honour in 1956.
GOVIND VINAYAK
KARANDIKAR
- (August 23, 1918 March 14, 2010)
– known as Vindā Karandikar, was a
well-known Marathi writer.

- In 2003, he was presented with

the Jnanpith Award, which is
India's one of the most prestigious
literary awards.
- He has also received for his
literary work some other
awards, including
- Keshavasut Prize,
- Soviet Land Nehru Literary
Award,
- Kabir Samman
- India's highest literary award,
for lifetime achievement, the
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in
1996.
 WRITERS IN
NORTH AMERICA
JENNY HOLLOWELL
- is an American novelist and short
fiction writer, and a partner and
executive producer of music house and
record label Ring The Alarm.

- Her debut novel Everything Lovely,

Effortless, Safe was published in 2010,
leading her to be named one of the
"best new writers" by The Daily Beast.
JENNY HOLLOWELL
- received a BFA from Virginia
Commonwealth University

- MFA in Creative Writing from the

University of Virginia

- Her short fiction has appeared in

Glimmer Train, Scheherezade, and the
anthology New Sudden Fiction, and was
named a distinguished story by The Best
American Short Stories
PADGETT POWELL
- (April 25, 1952) Padgett Powell is an American
novelist in the Southern literary tradition.
- His debut novel, Edisto (1984), was nominated
for the American Book Award and was
excerpted in The New Yorker.

- Powell has written five more novels including

- A Woman Named Drown (1987),
- Edisto Revisited (1996), a sequel to his debut,
- Mrs. Hollingsworth's Men (2000),
- The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? (2009),
- You & Me (2012),
PADGETT POWELL
- In addition to The New Yorker,
Powell's work has appeared in
The Paris Review, Harper's,
Grand Street, Oxford American,
The New York Times Book
Review, and other publications.
RICHARD BLANCO
- (February 15, 1968) was born in Madrid
and immigrated to the United States as
an infant with his Cuban-exile family.

- He was raised in Miami and earned a BS

in civil engineering and MFA in creative
writing from Florida International
University.

- Blanco has been a practicing engineer,

writer, and poet since 1991.
RICHARD BLANCO
- His collections of poetry include City of a
Hundred Fires (1998), which won the Agnes
Starrett Poetry Prize;
- Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005),
winner of the PEN/American Beyond Margins
Award;
- Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), winner of
the Thom Gunn Award,
- the Maine Literary Award, and the Paterson
Prize; One Today (2013); Boston Strong
(2013); and How to Love a Country
(forthcoming 2019).
YANN MARTEL
- (June 25, 1963) is a Spanish-born Canadian
author best known for the Man Booker
Prize-winning novel Life of Pi, a number 1
international bestseller published in more
than 50 territories.

- It has sold more than 12 million copies

worldwide and spent more than a year on
the Bestseller Lists of the New York Times
and The Globe and Mail, among many other
best-selling lists.
YANN MARTEL
- It was adapted to the screen and directed
by Ang Lee, garnering four Oscars (the most
for the event) including Best Director and
won the Golden Globe Award for Best
Original Score.
DAVID STEPHEN MITCHELL
- (January 12, 1969) is an English author, he
is known for such bestselling novels as
number9dream and Cloud Atlas.
- The latter work was made into a major
motion picture.
- After completing his education, he taught
English in Japan for eight years and used
his savings to finance his early writing
career.
- Both his early novel, Ghostwritten, and his
later work, Cloud Atlas, consist of
separate but interrelated stories.
ANN GRAY
- (May 4, 1946)is the author of a number of
collections including Painting Skin (Fatchance
Press, 1995) and The Man I Was Promised
(Headland, 2004),
- Ann was commended for the National Poetry
Competition 2010 and won the Ballymaloe Poetry
Prize in 2014.
- Her studies for an MA in Creative writing from the
University of Plymouth led to her collection of
poems about the sudden loss of her partner, At
The Gate (Headland, 2008).
- ‘My Blue Hen’ is one of many written since that
publication, which, she says, “prove” she was not
finished with those poems.
WRITERS
IN
EUROPE
 JEAN-MARIE GUSTAVE LE CLEZIO
- (April 13, 1940) J, usually identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, is a French
writer and professor.

- The author of over 40 works, he was awarded the 1963 Prix Renaudot
for his novel Le Procès-Verbal and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature
for his life's work, as an "author of new departures, poetic adventure
and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the
reigning civilization".
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN
- (September 25, 1964) Ruiz Zafón
was born in the City of Barcelona.
- Growing up in Spain, he began his
working life by making money in
advertising.
- His grandparents had worked in a
factory and his father sold
insurance.
- In the 1990s Ruiz Zafón moved to
Los Angeles where he worked
briefly in screen writing.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN
- He is fluent in English.
- Ruiz Zafón's first novel, El Príncipe de la
Niebla (The Prince of Mist, 1993),
earned the Edebé literary prize fosr
young adult fiction.
- He is also the author of three additional
young adult novels, El palacio de la
medianoche (1994), Las luces de
septiembre (1995) and Marina (1999).
- The English version of El Príncipe de la
Niebla was published in 2010.
TEOLINDA GERSAO

- (January 30, 1940) is a Portuguese

writer.
- Born in Coimbra, she studied at the
Universities of Coimbra, Tübingen
and Berlin.
- She also taught at the Technical
University of Berlin, Lisbon
University, and the Universidade
Nova de Lisboa, among others.
TEOLINDA GERSAO
- A full-time writer since the
mid1990s, Gersao is the author
of more than a dozen books.
- She has won several literary
prizes for her work.
- Her novel The Word Tree set in
colonial Mozambique, was
translated into English by
Margaret Jull Costa.
ZDRAVKA EVTIMOVA
- (July 24,1959) (born in Pernik,
Bulgaria) is a contemporary
Bulgarian writer.
- She has four short story
collections and four novels
published in Bulgarian.
- Her short stories have appeared
in many international literary
journals.
ZDRAVKA EVTIMOVA
- Some of her short story collections were
translated into other languages.

- Zdravka works as a literary translator from

English, French and German. Zdravka Evtimova
has translated more than 25 novels by English,
American and Canadian authors into Bulgarian
language.

- She translates the work of Bulgarian writers.

WRITERS IN
LATIN AMERICA
ANA MARIA SHUA (April 22, 1951)
(born in Buenos Aires) is an
Argentine writer.
• published over eighty books in
numerous genres including:
novels, short stories, micro
fiction, poetry, drama, children's
literature, books of humor and
Jewish folklore, anthologies, film
scripts, journalistic articles, and
essays
 • writing has been translated into
many languages, including English,
French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish,
Korean, Japanese, Bulgarian, and
Serbian.
• Her stories appear in anthologies
throughout the world.
• She has received numerous national
ANA MARIA SHUA and international awards, including
a Guggenheim Fellowship.
  is one of Argentina’s premier living
writers
 She is particularly known in the
Spanish-speaking world on both
sides of the Atlantic as “the Queen
of the Microstory.

ANA MARIA SHUA

ANTONIO UTGAR (1974) is (born in
Bogotá, Colombia)
 A globetrotter, he has lived in
Mexico, Spain, and the United
Kingdom, and is currently based in
Palestine-Israel
 He devotes part of his time to
writing nonfiction about his home
country, Colombia, as well as the
Middle East, and was granted the
Colombian National Journalism Award in
2005.
 • Published two short story
collections, Trece circos comunes
(Thirteen Ordinary Circuses,
1999) and De ciertos animals
tristes (Of Certain Sad Animals,
2000), as well as other stories
which have appeared in
international literary magazines
and more than twenty-five
anthologies
ANTONIO UTGAR
ANTONIO UTGAR
• also tried his hand at longer
narrative forms: his novel
Zanahorias voladoras (Flying
Carrots) was published in 2004,
followed by Tres ataúdes blancos
(Three White Coffins), which won
the Herralde Prize in 2010 and was
shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos
Award in 2011.
JORGE LUIS ARZOLA (1966) was born
in Jatibonico, Cuba.
 Unlike those authors who have up
to now shaped the image of Cuban
literature, Arzola belongs to a new
generation of writers, the so-
called “novísimos“
RAÚL ZURITA (January 10, 1950) is a
Chilean poet.
 He won the Chilean National Prize
for Literature in 2000.
 Zurita spent four years earning his
living as a computer salesman
during a period of financial
hardship. At the same time he was
a guest reader at the Faculty of
Philosophy at the Universidad de
Chile in Santiago
  The first of his poems to be
published appeared in 1975 in
"Manuscritos", the Philosophy
Faculty's publication.
 Four years later "Purgatorio" was
published, the first part of a
poetic trilogy which Zurita would
not conclude for another fourteen
years. The book became a huge
success.
RAÚL ZURITA
FRANCISCO XAVIER ALARCÓN
(February 21, 1954 Januar – y 15,
2016) was a Chicano poet and
educator.
 One of the few Chicano poets to
have "gained recognition while
writing mostly in Spanish" within
the United States.
 His poems have been also
translated into Irish and Swedish.
FRANCISCO XAVIER ALARCÓN
 He made many guest appearances at public
schools so that he could help inspire and
influence young people to write their own
poetry especially because he felt that children
are "natural poet.“
 Wrote poetry in English, Spanish and Nahuatl,
often presented to the reader in a bilingual
format. His poetry is considered minimalist in
style
WRITERS IN
AFRICA
Read the poem written by a modern Chinese
poet, Yu Xiuhua, who became well known in
2014 with her online poem “Crossing Half of
China to Sleep with You.” Explore one of her
poems .

On the Threshing Floor, I Chase

Chickens Away
Yu Xiuhua translated by Ming Di
And I see sparrows fly over. They look around
as if it’s inappropriate to stop for just any grain of rice.
They have clear eyes, with light from inside.
Starlings also fly over, in flocks, bewildered.
They flutter and make a sound that seems to flash.
When they’re gone, the sky gets lower, in dark blue.
In this village deep in the central plain
the sky is always low, forcing us to look at its blue,
the way our ancestors make us look inside ourselves,
narrow and empty, so we look out again
at the full September –
we’re comforted by its insignificance but hurt by its smallness.
Living our life this way, we feel secure.
So much rice. Where does it come from?
So much gold color. Where does it come from?
Year after year I’ve been blessed, and then deserted.
When happiness and sadness come in the same color code, I’m happy
to be forgotten. But who am I separated from? I don’t know. I stay close to my own hours.
Read one of Arthur Waley’s works. Arthur
Waley was a 20th century scholar who
translated numerous Chinese and Japanese
classics.

Battle
Chu’ü Yüan translated by Arthur Waley
“We grasp our battle-spears: we don our breast-plates of hide.
The axles of our chariots touch: our short swords meet.
Standards obscure the sun: the foe roll up like clouds.
Arrows fall thick: the warriors press forward.
They menace our ranks: they break our line.
The left-hand trace-horse is dead: the one on the right is smitten.
The fallen horses block our wheels: they impede the yoke.
They grasp their jade drum-sticks: they beat the sounding
drums. Heaven decrees their fall: the dread Powers are angry.
- horses!”
The warriors are all dead: they lie on the moor-field.
They issued but shall not enter: they went but shall not return. The
plains are flat and wide: the way home is long.

Their swords lie beside them: their blacks bows, in their hand .
Though their limbs were torn, their hearts could not be repressed .
They were more than brave: they were inspired with the spirit of “Wu.”
Steadfast to the end, they could not be daunted.
Their bodies were stricken, but their souls have taken Immortality –
Captains among the ghosts, heroes among the dead.
Group Activity: Do an online search of a
short story or novel that have written of our
authors from Asia, North America, Europe,
Latin America, and Africa. Make sure that
your output provides the following
information: (content, theme, setting, Subject
matter). Use your media tool in making your
output.