000			a
999			_c31832 _d31832
008			230420b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9780691186528
082			_a809 _bLAN
100			_aLande, Joel B. _eed.
245			_aHow literatures begin : a global history
260			_bPrinceton University Press, _aPrinceton : _c2021
300			_avi, 423 p.; _bill., (b & w), _c24 cm
365			_b35.00 _cUSD _d85.90
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aThe emergence of a literature in any language is an improbable and complex historical achievement. In fact, many known languages throughout history did not develop writing, let alone a literature. This book, a collectively written early history of different literary traditions across the globe and through time, presents a global, comparative account of literary origins spanning the Mediterranean, Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Seventeen chapters, each written by a scholar with expertise in a particular language and literature, trace the creation of writing and its interaction with oral practices, the rise of print circulation, the passage from sacred to secular writing and reading practices, the use of cultural models, the role of translation, and related issues as they apply to the emergence of literature. The contributions explore the historical context as well as the practices, technologies, and institutions that encouraged the emergence of distinct literatures, from classical Chinese and the resultant establishment of Japanese and Korean traditions, to the advent of Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and other literatures of the Mediterranean; the birth of European vernaculars against the cosmopolitan backdrop of post-classical Latin; and the later development of African American and Latin American literatures under conditions of colonial expansion and racial oppression. The volume is designed to enable readers to better understand the similarities as well as the differences in the origins of major and enduring literatures across time.
650			_aComparative Literature
650			_aAfrican Literature
650			_aArabic Literature
650			_aAmerican Literature
650			_aBeginnings of African American Literature
650			_aChinese literature
650			_a English Literature
650			_aGerman Literature
650			_aGreek Literature
650			_aIndian Literature
650			_a Latin Literature
650			_aPersian
650			_a Russian literature
650			_aSwahili literature
650			_aSyriac literature
650			_a Vermacularization
700			_aFeeney, D. C. _eed.
942			_2ddc _cBK