WESTERN LITERATURE, HISTORY OF

history of literatures in the languages of the Indo-European family, along with a small number of other languages whose cultures became closely associated with the West, from ancient times to the 20th century. Diverse as they are, European literatures, like European languages, are parts of a common heritage. Greek, Latin, Germanic, Baltic and Slavic, Celtic, and Romance languages are all members of the Indo-European family. (Finnish and Hungarian and Semitic languages of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Hebrew, are not Indo-European. Literatures in these languages are, however, closely associated with major Western literatures and are often included among them.) The common literary heritage is essentially that originating in ancient Greece and Rome. It was preserved, transformed, and spread by Christianity and thus transmitted to the vernacular languages of the European Continent, the Western Hemisphere, and other regions that were settled by Europeans. To the present day, this body of writing displays a unity in its main features that sets it apart from the literatures of the rest of the world. Such common characteristics are considered here. For specific information about the major national literatures or literary traditions of the West, see such articles as American literature; English literature; German literature; Greek literature; Latin-American literature; and Scandinavian literature. Various other Western literaturesincluding those in the Armenian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Romanian languagesare also treated in separate entries. Additional reading General introductory works Fernand Baldensperger and Werner P. Friederich, Bibliography of Comparative Literature (1950, reprinted 1960), comprehensive coverage of literatures, classified by author, country, and according to genre, theme, etc.; Antony Brett-James, The Triple Stream: Four Centuries of English, French, and German Literature, 15311930 (1953, reprinted 1977), contains useful comparative tables arranged chronologically; John M. Cohen, A History of Western Literature, rev. ed. (1963), a useful factual and critical account; Jean-Albert Bede and William B. Edgerton (gen. eds.), Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, 2nd ed. (1980), contains over 1,800 articles, including surveys, critical essays, and biographies, with bibliographies; William F. Thrall and Addison Hibbard, A Handbook to Literature, 4th ed. by C. Hugh Holman (1980), good coverage of literary terms and movements; Rene Wellek, A History of Modern Criticism: 17501950, 4 vol. (1955 ), surveys theory in the major European nations since the Renaissance. Ancient period Julius A. Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament in Its Historical Development, 3rd ed. (1962); Sir Paul Harvey (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (1937, reprinted with corrections 1969), a basic reference work; Maurice Platnauer (ed.), Fifty Years of Classical Scholarship (1954), contains valuable bibliographies; C.M. Bowra, Landmarks in Greek Literature (1966); Robert Flaceliere, Histoire littraire de la Grce (1962; Eng. trans., A Literary History of Greece, 1964), a systematic, readable survey of ancient literature; Kenneth J. Dover et al., Ancient Greek Literature (1980); Herbert J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Literature from Homer to the Age of Lucian, 4th ed. rev. (1961); and A Handbook of Latin Literature from the Earliest Times to the Death of St. Augustine, 3rd ed. (1954, reprinted with suppl. bibliog. 1966), two standard works; Michael Grant, Roman Literature (1954), a good short account; William A. Laidlaw, Latin Literature (1951), a useful introduction; John Wight Duff, A Literary History of Rome, 2nd3rd ed., 2 vol., ed. by A.M. Duff (196064, 3rd ed. reprinted 1979), standard introduction containing comprehensive and scholarly surveys, with supplementary bibliographies. The Middle Ages H.M. Chadwick, The Heroic Age (1912, reprinted 1974), a comparative study covering Greek, Teutonic, Slavonic, and Celtic literatures and cultures; E.K. Chambers, The Mediaeval Stage, 2 vol. (1903), a standard reference work; W.T.H. Jackson, The Literature of the Middle Ages (1960), and (ed.), The Interpretation of Medieval Lyric Poetry (1980); Charles W. Jones (ed.), Medieval Literature in Translation (1950), a good, readable anthology; C.S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (1936, reprinted 1958), a critical study of courtly love in medieval literature; Roger S. Loomis (ed.), Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages (1959), an excellent survey. The Renaissance Ernst Cassirer, Paul O. Kristeller, and John H. Randall (eds.), The Renaissance Philosophy of Man (1948), a collection of excerpts from the writings of Renaissance philosophers; Joseph A. Mazzeo, Renaissance and Revolution: The Remaking of European Thought (1966), useful background reading; Henry O. Taylor, Thought and Expression in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd rev. ed., 2 vol. (1959), a good standard work. The 17th century Mario Praz, Studi sul concettismo, 2 vol. (193446; Eng. trans., Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, 2 vol., 193948), a standard and readable work; Joel E. Spingarn (ed.), Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century, 3 vol. (1909, reprinted 1957), a valuable collection. The 18th century Lilian R. Furst, Romanticism in Perspective, 2nd ed. (1979), on the Romantic movement in France, England, and Germany, and The Contours of European Romanticism (1979); John B. Halsted (ed.), Romanticism (1969), a collection of extracts and key essays by the leading figures of western European Romanticism, with a long introduction and chronological table; Paul Hazard, La Pense europenne au XVIIIe sicle (1963; Eng. trans., European Thought in the Eighteenth Century, 1963); Daniel Mornet, The Development of Literature and Culture in the XVIIIth Century (1954), an extensive survey; Mario Praz, La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica (1930; 5th ed., 1976; Eng. trans., The Romantic Agony, 2nd ed., 1951; reissued with corrections, 1970), a remarkable work, now a classic in this field; John G. Robertson, Studies in the Genesis of Romantic Theory in the Eighteenth Century (1923, reprinted 1962). The 19th century Georg Brandes, Creative Spirits of the Nineteenth Century (1923, reprinted 1967); Benedetto Croce, Poesia e non poesia, 7th ed. (1964; Eng. trans., European Literature in the Nineteenth Century, 1924, reprinted 1967); Janko Lavrin, Aspects of Modernism: From Wilde to Pirandello (1935, reprinted 1968); John Lucas (ed.), Literature and Politics in the Nineteenth Century (1971). The 20th century Erich Auerbach, Mimesis (1946; Eng. trans. 1953), traces the development of Realism from ancient to modern times; Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren (eds.), Understanding Poetry, 4th ed. (1976), and Understanding Fiction, 3rd ed. (1979); and Cleanth Brooks and Robert B. Heilman, Understanding Drama, rev. ed. (1948), detailed anthologies, with explications of textsinvaluable introductions, especially to the study of modern writing, though not limited to 20th-century literature; Gyorgy Lukacs, Studies in European Realism (1950, reprinted 1972), an important work by a major Marxist critic; Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. rev. (1970), a general and theoretical work, especially useful as a guide to modern literature; Claude Mauriac, L'Alittrature contemporaine (1958; Eng. trans., The New Literature, 1959); Stephen Spender, The Struggle of the Modern (1963) and The Thirties and After (1978); Edmund Wilson, Axel's Castle (1931), The Triple Thinkers, rev. ed. (1948, reprinted 1977), and The Twenties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period, ed. by Leon Edel (1975). The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica