Asian literature

Asian literature is the literature produced in Asia.

Examples

• East Asian literature
  • Chinese literature
  • Japanese literature
  • Korean literature
• Central Asian literature
  • Bengali literature
  • Indian literature
  • Pakistani literature
  • Tamil literature
• West Asian literature
  • Arabic literature
  • Persian literature
  • Turkish literature
• South East Asian Literature
  • Philippine literature

Tang dynasty Chinese poet Li Bai, in a 13th century depiction by Liang Kai.

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 shī (Classical Chinese: 詩) poems, which have lines with equal numbers of characters, as well as cí (詞) poems with mixed line varieties. Early-Modern Japanese literature (17th–19th centuries) developed comparable innovations such as haiku, a form of Japanese poetry that evolved from the ancient hokku (Japanese language: 発句) 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 Bashō (松尾芭蕉); others influenced by Bashō include Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki.

Classical Persian and Arabic literature

Main articles: Persian literature and Arabic literature

Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel laureate.

Modern 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 Kenzaburo Oe (Japan, 1994).

See also

• The Literature section of the article Culture of Asia
• The categories Chinese literature, Korean literature, Indian literature, Japanese literature, and Philippine literature.