Batch 3 of 21st Reporters Flashcards
Homer is known for the “The Iliad and The Odyssey”. These epics are about the heroic
achievements of Achilles and Odysseus, respectively.
Greek Literature
Sophocles was a tragic playwright. He was known for “Oedipus the
King” which marks the highest level of achievement of Greek drama.
Greek Literature
Francesco Petrarca, or Petrach (1304 – 1374) perfected the Italian sonnet, a major
influence on European poetry, written in vernacular, his sonnets were published in the
Canzoniere.
Italian Literature
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 1375) is known for “Decameron”, a classic Italian
masterpiece. The stories were written in vernacular.
Italian Literature
Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616) was known for his novel “Don Quixote”, one of the
most widely read works of Western Literature. Its titular character’s name is the origin of
the word “quixotic” which means hopeful or romantic in a way that is not practical.
Spanish Literature
Gustave Flaubert (1821 – 1880) a novelist, was a major influence on the realist school.
His masterpiece, “Madame Bovary”, marked the beginning of a new age of realism.
French Literature
Guy de Maupassant (1850 – 1893) is considered as the greatest French Story writer. A
naturalist, he wrote objective stories which present a real “slice of life”.
French Literature
Lope de Vega (1562 – 1635) – an outstanding dramatist, wrote as many as 1800 plays
during his lifetime, including cloak and sword drama, which are plays of upper middle-
class manners and intrigue.
Spanish Literature
(1828 – 1910) –(Russian ) known for his novels “War and Peace” and “Anna
Karenina”. A master of realistic fiction, he is considered as one of the world’s greatest
novelists.
Leo Tolstoy
(1860 – 1904) (Russian) is a master of modern short story and a Russian
playwright. His works such as “The Bet” and “The Misfortune” reveal his clinical approach
to ordinary life.
Anton Checkov
(The Vanguardia) Creacionismo,
founded by Vicente Huidobro (1893 – 1948) a Chilean poet, in 1916
(The Vanguardia) Ultraismo,
introduced to South America by Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986), an
Argentine writer in 1921
Estridentismo
founded in Mexico City by Manuel Maples Arce (1898 – 1981), a
Mexican writer in 1921
(The Vanguardia) Surrealism
which is said to have started in Argentina when the Argentinian poet Aldo
Pellegrini (1903 – 1973) launched the first Surrealist magazine 1928
This Nigerian writer was known for his novel “Things Fall Apart”
(1958), considered as the best-known African novel of the 20th Century. It deals with emergent
Africa, where native communities, like Achebe’s Igbo community, came in contact with white
missionaries and its colonizers.
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)
This Nigerian writer received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, becoming the first black African to receive such award. As a playwright, he wrote the satire “A Dance of the
Forests” (1963), his first important play that depicts the tradition of his people, the Yoruba. It was
staged in 1960 during the Nigerian independence celebrations. Also, he wrote fiction and poetry.
Wole Soyinka
This South African writer received the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1991. She was known for her works that dealt with the effects of apartheid on her
country. Apartheid was a system in which people of color had less political and economic rights
than that of the white people, so the former was forced to live separately from the latter.
Nadine Gordimer (1923 – 2014)
is considered as China’s greatest poet. He was known for his works of
lushi. A lushi has eight lines, each of which has five or seven syllables following a strict
tonal pattern. It became widely popular during the tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), the golden
age of art and literature in Chinese history.
Du Fu (712-770)
also called Li Po, rivaled Du Fu for the title of China’s greatest poet.
Unlike Du Fu, he wrote less formal verse forms. A famous drinker, he frequently celebrated
drinking in his poetry.
Li Bai (701-762)
Japan’s first literary figure was known for his works of tanka and
choka. The tanka, the basic form of Japanese poetry, has five lines in five-seven-five
seven-seven syllable pattern. On the other hand, the choka has alternating lines of five and
seven syllables and ends with an extra line of seven syllables
Kakinomoto Hitomaro
was regarded as the supreme haiku poet. Emerged from the
early Tokugawa period (1603-1770), the haiku is composed of three lines of a renga, a
poem usually with a hundred linked verses. Basho’s verses appear with his travel accounts
like The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1694).
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
a Chilean poet, wrote “Residence on Earth”, a collection of poetry
inspired by surrealism (an art form that combines unrelated images or events in a very strange and
dreamlike way).
Pablo Neruda (1904 – 1973)
a Mexican poet, wrote poems with surrealist imagery. His major
works were published in “Freedom Under Parole”.
Octavio Paz (1914 – 1998)
was known for his fantastic stories, published later as a
collection entitled “Ficciones”.
Jorge Luis Borges (1899 – 1986)
a Cuban writer, wrote “The Kingdom of This World”, a novel
of the magic realism genre, in which elements of fantasy or myth are included matter-of-factly in
seemingly realistic fiction.
Alejo Carpenter (1904 – 1980)
a Guatemalan writer, wrote the novel “The President”.
This novel along with Carpenter’s novel introduced magic realism.
Miguel Angel Asturias (1899 – 1974)
