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Thread: What is your nationality and one of your nations writers??

  1. #31
    Registered User Lulim's Avatar
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    I am german. There are quite some authors both contemporary and past. Heinrich Böll, Bertold Brecht, Heinrich Kleist, Günther Grass, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Heinrich Heine, Hermann Hesse, to name a few. Not so good with women – Julia Franck, Christa Wolf, Sibylle Lewitscharoff ...

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    Quote Originally Posted by WICKES View Post
    I am English-British. I guess the most obvious choice is Shakespeare. Among the arts this island has only really excelled in literature. In painting and music the continental Europeans have far more to boast about.
    No can match the Germans in classical music, of course. But Brits surely have several excellent composers - Vaughan Williams, Elgar...; and artists - Turner, Constable... And in modern popular music the Brits are well ahead of continental Europe (Beatles, Stones...)

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    Metamorphosing Pensive's Avatar
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    Pakistan has produced some really great writers which makes it quite difficult to make a choice. Unfortunately many of them stand quite unknown to the world especially when it come to prose. Writers like Saadat Hassan manto, a short story writer basically and novelists like Altaf Fatima and Khadija Mastoor. And then there are wonderful poets like Faiz Ahmed Faiz (a revolutionary writer) and Sahir Ludhianwi. But since I must narrow down to one writer, I think it will have to be the renowned national hero Allama Iqbal who played an important role as a revolutionary poet as well as an essay-writer, economist and political leader.
    I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lulim View Post
    I am german. There are quite some authors both contemporary and past. Heinrich Böll, Bertold Brecht, Heinrich Kleist, Günther Grass, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Heinrich Heine, Hermann Hesse, to name a few. Not so good with women – Julia Franck, Christa Wolf, Sibylle Lewitscharoff ...
    I am English-British, but I love Herman Hesse. I am trying to learn German so that I can read him in the original. I also loved Thomas Mann's Death In Venice.

  5. #35
    I'm Scottish, so take your pick from the world's finest.

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  6. #36
    Serious business Taliesin's Avatar
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    I'm Estonian. Our most noted prose writer is probably Anton Hansen Tammsaare - at least this is the official canon as taught in schools. His pentalogy "Truth and Justice" is rather good, I think. Karl Ristikivi, who emigrated to Sweden and writes about being a stranger (plus some very fine poetry), deserves to be mentioned, as does Jaan Kross, who died a few years ago but was before that considered a living classic. Andrus Kivirähk is very popular nowadays and has an excellent sense of humour, which, sadly, relies too much on Estonian tropes that wouldn't be understood outside of the country. As for poetry, there is Juhan Viiding/Jüri Üdi who is somewhat difficult to understand as his poetry is rather decentralized, full of paradox, irony, wordplay and sudden change of perspective. I should probably also mention Uku Masing, a polyglot who knew about 65 languages and translated from 20, for his metaphysical poetry and essays.
    If you believe even a half of this post, you are severely mistaken.

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    Registered User Darcy88's Avatar
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    I'm Canadian and one of my nation's most esteemed authors is Alice Munro. Its kind of neat because she lived for years in my town and some of her short stories are set here.

  8. #38
    rat in a strange garret Whifflingpin's Avatar
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    I'm English and (today) I think the most English book is "Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame.
    Voices mysterious far and near,
    Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
    Are calling and whispering in my ear,
    Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?

  9. #39
    Executioner, protect me Kyriakos's Avatar
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    Greek The ancients are very known, as is Constantine Cavafy. But you could have a look at the penguin classics edition of Alexander Papadiamantis's "The murderess", which arguably is the best novel written in Greek ever.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kyriakos View Post
    Greek The ancients are very known, as is Constantine Cavafy. But you could have a look at the penguin classics edition of Alexander Papadiamantis's "The murderess", which arguably is the best novel written in Greek ever.
    Are you, as a modern Greek person, able to read Plato and Homer? As a modern Englishman Shakespeare's English can occasionally be difficult (400 years ago), Chaucer more so (600 years ago) and a poem like the battle of Maldon (roughly 1000 years ago)... incomprehensible. I have often wondered how a modern Greek finds The Odyssey, which is nearly 3000 years old. Is the language strange to you? Or can you read The Illiad and Odyssey with relative ease?

  11. #41
    Executioner, protect me Kyriakos's Avatar
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    Good question We were taught elementary ancient greek in highschool, for two years, but the answer is definitely that now i cannot read the Odyssey from the original. In fact i cannot read anything older than Koine Greek. The rather basic Koine of the New Testament is easy to read for anyone who knows (modern) Greek, but most of the ancient texts are not.

    But they are still part of Greek literature, in fact most of it that is great belongs still to that era

  12. #42
    All are at the crossroads qimissung's Avatar
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    I'm American, and we also have some great poets, including Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot, and one of my favorites, Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Last edited by qimissung; 01-22-2012 at 03:14 PM.
    "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
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    Quote Originally Posted by qimissung View Post
    I'm American, and we also have some great poets, including Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath, T. S. Eliot, and one of my favorites, Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Hey, T S Eliot became a British citizen and died here. Sylvia Plath also died here (but you can have her). Then again, W H Auden moved to the USA and became an American citizen. Tell you what...you can have Auden if we can have Eliot. Deal?

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    I'm from New Zealand. My absolute favourite author from home is Maurice Gee. I also think Kathrine Mansfield is superb, and Janet Frame is wonderful.

  15. #45
    All are at the crossroads qimissung's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by WICKES View Post
    Hey, T S Eliot became a British citizen and died here. Sylvia Plath also died here (but you can have her). Then again, W H Auden moved to the USA and became an American citizen. Tell you what...you can have Auden if we can have Eliot. Deal?
    Deal. I knew Eliot lived for most of his adult life in England, but he was born in the states, so I decided to include him. I didn't know that about Auden (whom I do like), but Kipling also lived for a number of years here, and I wondered that about him-do the British get to claim him, or do we?
    "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
    "Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai
    "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka

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