If we're evaluating literatures by the number of enduring masterpieces — books which are considered true works of art in their own right — my vote would have to go with England. The people of that island have been producing masterpieces with regularity from Gawain and the Green Knight to the present day. But if our metric is the enduranc…
If we're evaluating literatures by the number of enduring masterpieces — books which are considered true works of art in their own right — my vote would have to go with England. The people of that island have been producing masterpieces with regularity from Gawain and the Green Knight to the present day. But if our metric is the endurance of ideas, characters, stories, and moods, taken apart from the works in which they are featured, I would say that Greece has to be the winner. I haven't read a single Greek literary work, but I know all the stories and characters simply from cultural osmosis. Actually, if I'm thinking along those lines, the Hebrews with their Bible would have to take the prize.
Curious how cultures with an independent literary tradition, with no ties to the west, would view this question. Would Chinese or Indian readers admit the excellence of Greek and English books?
Think you’ve identified several very interesting ways of looking at the question. The Greek point is an excellent one. Considering how Homer and Herodotus invented their respective literary traditions, not to mention the philosophy and plays, it’s hard to look past them as originating the entire Western cultural tradition.
But then as you say, those of other great literary traditions, the Chinese or Indians, have founders of their own. Hard to say how much we’re blinkered by our particular cultural inheritance.
If we're evaluating literatures by the number of enduring masterpieces — books which are considered true works of art in their own right — my vote would have to go with England. The people of that island have been producing masterpieces with regularity from Gawain and the Green Knight to the present day. But if our metric is the endurance of ideas, characters, stories, and moods, taken apart from the works in which they are featured, I would say that Greece has to be the winner. I haven't read a single Greek literary work, but I know all the stories and characters simply from cultural osmosis. Actually, if I'm thinking along those lines, the Hebrews with their Bible would have to take the prize.
Curious how cultures with an independent literary tradition, with no ties to the west, would view this question. Would Chinese or Indian readers admit the excellence of Greek and English books?
Think you’ve identified several very interesting ways of looking at the question. The Greek point is an excellent one. Considering how Homer and Herodotus invented their respective literary traditions, not to mention the philosophy and plays, it’s hard to look past them as originating the entire Western cultural tradition.
But then as you say, those of other great literary traditions, the Chinese or Indians, have founders of their own. Hard to say how much we’re blinkered by our particular cultural inheritance.
You got me on "the Hebrews with their Bible" — I'm obligated to cede prime storytelling to that one, for binding reasons.