Non-Western Literature

[islandclimber]

So I'm just about to start on a few new books from African and Chinese Literature and was wondering if anyone had any other recommendations in those areas, or any other literature from outside the west...

I've read a bit of Chinese Lit from writers such as Li Bei, Luo Guanzhong, Cao Xueqin, Ba Jin, etc... but am looking for more as I haven't gone that in depth yet...

and then in African Lit I've read a couple books by Wole Soyinka.. The Lion and the Jewel being the main one... and then Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart

oh the books I bought are
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera
The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy by Camara Laye
Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo
Six Records of a Floating Life Shen Fu

also if wanted this thread can be used to discuss non-western literature and the lack of recognition/translations/etc. if anyone is interested...

thanks.. :)

[stlukesguild]

There was a post with a good bit of discussion upon the topic of "the other canon" or the what we imagined as being the essential works of Non-Western literature:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37176

JBI is currently exploring Chinese literature. I have some familiarity with Chinese poetry... but lean more toward the Japanese. I also have a fondness for Persian/Islamic/Middle-Eastern literature. Certainly East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc...), Indian, and Middle-Eastern/Islamic cultures each contain a wealth of literature to rival that of Western literature... and one that would demand as much study as that of Western literature before one might begin to be considered something of an "expert".

[stlukesguild]

Ooops! Double Post.:blush:

[JBI]

There was a post with a good bit of discussion upon the topic of "the other canon" or the what we imagined as being the essential works of Non-Western literature:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37176

JBI is currently exploring Chinese literature. I have some familiarity with Chinese poetry... but lean more toward the Japanese. I also have a fondness for Persian/Islamic/Middle-Eastern literature. Certainly East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc...), Indian, and Middle-Eastern/Islamic cultures each contain a wealth of literature to rival that of Western literature... and one that would demand as much study as that of Western literature before one might begin to be considered something of an "expert".

Actually, sadly enough I'm not reading much of anything lately, besides some poetry, and the odd essay - my classwork takes up far to much time.

Though, I was meeting almost every day with a friend of mine (who is now in back in China for a few months, unfortunately for me) to study French, and to discuss cultures and poetry. So I did run into some interesting chestnuts, like this one by Su Shi, which supposedly every child in China knows by heart (according to her):

http://wenwen.soso.com/z/q78266803.htm

And a Karaoke version of it sung by Faye Wang so you can get a feel for the words better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz8-FzYxP3w

Generally I like Chinese poetry, and there is a very good introductory text into it by Wai Lim-Yip

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Poetry-2nd-ed-Revised/dp/0822319462/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247373689&sr=8-1

I've also read somewhat widely in Japanese classical poetry (essentially anything I can get my hands on) and there is actually a nice edition of the first Japanese Anthology available,
http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Thousand-Leaves-Translation-Anthology/dp/0691000298/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247374252&sr=1-3

And a decent, from what I found, general introduction to classical poetry:
http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Japanese-Poetry-Steven-Carter/dp/0804722129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247374330&sr=1-1

As for prose, well, I'm sure there are people better fit to comment (as I am sure there are people better fit to comment on the verse as well), so I better leave it for them.

I wish I knew more about other traditions, but unless you consider Hebrew verse to not be Western, and hold any interest in it (generally, I don't consider myself a Westerner, and don't consider Hebrew a Western language, and Sephardic Hebrew poetry Western Poetry).


Oh and I know a fair bit on Lao Zi - I have the first couple of sections memorized in Italian, strangely enough, as, when I study the language, I like to translate documents, and I just happened to walk over that one, and it wasn't too difficult - in a few weeks I'm probably going to translate it from French, and who knows - maybe in a decade I'll be competent enough to translate it from the original.

[promtbr]

Novels recommended to me by WLF members from that part of the World:

From China:

The Garlic Ballads--Mo Yan

Red Sorghum-- Mo Yan

From North Korea:

The Guest-- Hwang Sok-yong

From Africa--

Season of Migration to the North-- Tayeb Salih

Grain of Wheat-- Ngugi wa Thiong'o (mentioned as a Nobel candidate)

The Palm-Wine Drinkard-- Amos Tutuola


They are on my shelves, but haven't read them (yet) hope that helps..


---

[Pecksie]

Two Japanese authors whose books I've enjoyed are Yukio Mishima and Junichiro Tanizaki. I have yet to read Kawabata :)

[kratsayra]

I love to give recommendations on African literature. I listed a few in a thread on Commonwealth Lit: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showpost.php?p=743141&postcount=7



oh the books I bought are
The House of Hunger by Dambudzo Marechera
The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy by Camara Laye
Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo
Six Records of a Floating Life Shen Fu

The Dark Child is a classic, although I'm not sure what it would be like to read in a context other than that of having to read the classics of African Lit. Let me know what you think!

I love Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy, but I haven't read anything else of hers. I really should. Again, can't wait to hear what you think!



From Africa--

Season of Migration to the North-- Tayeb Salih

Grain of Wheat-- Ngugi wa Thiong'o (mentioned as a Nobel candidate)

The Palm-Wine Drinkard-- Amos Tutuola

I second these. Anything by Ngugi is great. Season of Migration to the North is really fascinating. And The Palm-Wine Drinkard has its very own version of English - it's quite an adventure to read!

[islandclimber]

Thank you all :D the recommendations are great, and I will definitely be looking into them...

and Kratsayra, I will let you know what I think for sure :)

JBI, I don't know anything about Hebrew verse, but I would be interested in it, do you have any recommendations there?

[stlukesguild]

I don't know anything about Hebrew verse, but I would be interested in it, do you have any recommendations there?

The Bible- King James translation
The Five Books of Moses- Robert Alter translation
The Song of Solomon- Stephen Mitchell translation
The Book of Psalms- Robert Alter translation
The Poet's Book of Psalms (Translations of Psalms into English by poets including Milton, Sidney, Coleridge, Christopher Smart, etc...)
The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492- tr. Peter Cole
Selected Poems of Solomon ibn Gabriol- tr. Peter Cole
Selected Poems of Schmuel HaNagid- tr. Peter Cole
The Book of Legends (Ha Aggadah)- Bialik and Kavnitzky

Among contemporary writers: A.B. Jehoshua, Amos Oz, Joel Hoffmann, Yuhuda Amichai

[JBI]

I don't know anything about Hebrew verse, but I would be interested in it, do you have any recommendations there?

The Bible- King James translation
The Five Books of Moses- Robert Alter translation
The Song of Solomon- Stephen Mitchell translation
The Book of Psalms- Robert Alter translation
The Poet's Book of Psalms (Translations of Psalms into English by poets including Milton, Sidney, Coleridge, Christopher Smart, etc...)
The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492- tr. Peter Cole
Selected Poems of Solomon ibn Gabriol- tr. Peter Cole
Selected Poems of Schmuel HaNagid- tr. Peter Cole
The Book of Legends (Ha Aggadah)- Bialik and Kavnitzky

Among contemporary writers: A.B. Jehoshua, Amos Oz, Joel Hoffmann, Yuhuda Amichai
OF the list, I like the Cole book the best - the Biblical ones I dismiss, since I haven't read, them, and am not particularly interested in seeking them out, as I prefer the original - is there no definitive Yehuda HaLevi available? Certainly if their is an ibn Gabriol and HaNagid there must be a HaLevi out-there somewhere - he is, after all, the central poet of the Diaspora.


Have you also looked into Bialik's verse? I know there is this version: http://www.amazon.com/C-N-Bialik-Selected-Jewish-Classics/dp/1585676276/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247438941&sr=8-1 which has decent enough translations, if I remember correctly (though I was just using it as an aid, so I wasn't really scrutinizing it too sharply) but there must be others available - also, Agnon is a must read - his Short Stories are the best, but I have a particular liking for his novel T'mul Shilshom (translated as Only Yesterday) - though I am yet to find anyone who has read it but me.

[stlukesguild]

Cole certainly includes more than a fair number of Halevi's poems in the volume The Dream of the Poem. I am surprised that he has not translated a separate volume of Halevi as he has ibn Gabriol and HaNagid... but perhaps such is in the works. I actually have an older Halevi translation which is actually a translation of a translation (Hebrew to German to English) by the renowned Jewish scholar/theologian/philosopher, Franz Rosenzweig. Taking a quick look on Amazon I find only a single promising Hebrew to English translation of Halevi. This is rather surprising considering his centrality among post-Biblical Hebrew poets... to the point that he was translated by Heinrich Heine and even stood as a source of inspiration for Byron's Hebrew Melodies.

I do have a fairly sizable volume of Agnon's works. I failed to mention him because I was uncertain as to whether he wrote initially in Hebrew or Yiddish as did Sholem Yankev Abramovitsh, Sholem Aleichem, I. L. Peretz, I.J. Singer, and I.B. Singer.

[JBI]

He started in Yiddish, but all his major works are in Hebrew (and idiosyncratic Hebrew at that, that I find him almost impossible to read). He though, perhaps fits better into the West than anywhere else - his novels seem rooted in European novels at any rate (as is Bialik too, though I think the Sphardic poets you mentioned are outside of the West, in the sense that Persian and Arabic poets are).