FOREIGN LITERATURE (PART ONE) FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS by Luan Rexhepi and Qazim Baroni CONTENTS 1. CLASSICAL GREEK LITERATURE 2. HOMER AND THE HOMIC EPOS 3. THE RENAISSANCE 4. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 5. CLASSICISM 6. MOLIERE 7. ROMANTICISM 8. BYRON 9. CRITICAL REALISM 10. HONORE DE BALZAC 11. JACK LONDON (PART TWO) SOCIALIST REALISM INTRODUCTION MAXIM GORKY VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY BERTOLT BRECHT Translated by William Bland Published by The Albanian Society, 26, Cambridge Road, Ilford, Essex IG3 8LU 1 CLASSICAL GREEK LITERATURE (Introduction) Ancient Greek and Latin literature is the basic of that of Europe. Greek literature is the oldest literature of Europe and was a literature in the full original meaning of the word. That of Rome flourished later; it developed on the basis of Greek literature and profited from its successes. (1) The Ancient Greek created all genres of literature, and left us masterpieces which serve as models, preserving their old names (principally Greek): the poem, the epic, the lyric, the tragedy, the comedy, the ode, the elegy, the epigram, etc. We call this Greek and Roman literature "classical". (2) Recent archaeological discoveries and new studies in the fields of ethnography and linguistics, the discovery of the Aegaeo-Mycenaean civilisation, tell us that the Greeks, at the beginning of their history, had some direct or indirect links with the peoples of the East, such as the Babylonians, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, by whom they were influenced. This is confirmed by the fact that the earliest literary production of the Greeks arose in Asia Minor. Greek colonisation also had importance for the stimulation of creative activity. But the Ancient Greeks quickly surpassed the other peoples in all fields. The Beginnings of Greek Literature The most ancient moments of classical Greek literature are the epic poems "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" of Homer, which originated in Asia Minor, among the Ionians. This is not to say that the Greeks were lacking in poetic creation before Homer, only that the Homeric poems were the oldest works of artistic value were written down, and so passed into historic tradition. This was assisted by the invention of the alphabet, of northern Semitic origin, which was received and further developed by the Greeks of Asia Minor, especially by the Ionians, in the 9th and 8th centuries BC, when the epopee (3) of Homer is thought to have been drafted. The invention of writing was the decisive factor which served for the development not only of the epopee, but of every form of culture. The Greeks themselves had no doubt that there had been poets before Homer - authors of epic works of smaller artistic merit of which nothing has reached us. The Homeric poems, with their perfected art of story-telling, with their beautiful elaborated literary figures, signify the greatest flowering of the Greek epopee, demonstrating that poetry had passed through a long period of development. This is shown clearly by the content of the poems, in which we find. 1) The civilisation of the East and its literature -- that of Egypt and Babylon -- is much older that that of Ancient Greece and Rome, but the peoples of Europe were not familiar with this literature. 2) Classical: of the highest rank. This term was used later for writers of the first rank in every epoch and in every country. 3) Epopee: a collection of narrative folk songs about some historic event which describe the life of the people and its heroes. Today the epopee takes the form of the novel or cycle of novels which depict a fairly long period of time. 4) beliefs and customs, songs, legends 5) and fables; by the language, style and metre of the work; and by external evidence -- in particular by archaeological discoveries which had been made.6) Here must be mentioned, first of all, the discovery of the Aegaeo-Mycenaean civilisation, which flowered during the 2nd millennium BC. We find many elements of this civilisation in the poems of Homer such as, for example, arms of bronze, clothing, ornaments, etc. Therefore, in the Homeric poems we find traces of an older civilisation than that of the Greeks, which began in the 9th and 8th century BC. These elements were preserved up to the time of Homer, with whom Greek literature began, through an uninterrupted tradition of myths, songs, legends - that is, through folklore. Economic-Social Conditions Marx and Engels called ancient society "slaveowning society". With the creation of slavery came "the first great division of society into classes: slave-owners and slaves, exploiters and exploited". This society, which developed during the process of the destruction of tribal society, produced a development of the productive forces. In place of tools of stone, men secured metal tools. In place of a poor and primitive hunting economy, which did not know either livestock or agricultural farming, both these forms of farming developed, with a division of labour between them, and at the same time the possibility of the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a minority. Slavery created the possibility of the flowering of the Ancient Greek world. Engels said that "without slavery there could have been no Greek state, no Greek science or art....And, without the basis laid in Greece and Rome, there would be no modern Europe". The society of the Ancient Greeks passed through all the stages of development of slaveowning production. It tells us clearly about the growth of the slaveowning order, its decline and its passage into the feudal order. Tribes and Language Different Greek tribes spoke different dialects. Each of the main tribes, without speaking of subdivisions, had its own special dialect, not only in speech but also in writing, which had attained a literary level. It is characteristic that the flowering of the literary genre in a particular dialect caused it to be utilised later in that dialect also by writers from other tribes. The principal dialects which attained the level of literary languages were Aeolic, Doric and Ionic, but the most important of all was Attic, a form of Ionic. When, after the Persian Wars, Athens took first place not only in trade, but also in political and cultural life, the dialect of Athens - Attic - became the literary language of all Greeks. Periods of Development of Greek Literature The development of Greek literature embraces a long period of 15 centuries, from Homer (9th century BC) to the 6th century AD, when Ancient gave way to Byzantine civilisation. From period to period appeared various literary genres in accord with economic-social changes. The principal periods are four: The first period is called Hellenic (7), because all the Greek tribes contributed to literary development. But it is also called Ionic, because literature flowered particularly among the Ionians at a time when the tribal order was disintegrating, when there were arising aristocracy and slavery, which at that time had a patriarchal character. This period began at the time of the first origins of literature in the 9th century BC, that is to say, from the time of the Homeric poems to the Persian Wars, around 500 BC. In this period appeared and developed the following genres: a) the heroic epic (9th - 8th centuries BC), represented by Homer's poems "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey", two masterpieces of importance to the development not only of Greek but of world literature; b) the didascalic (8) epic, represented by Hesiod. This poetry flourished later (8th-7th centuries BC) when, alongside the aristocracy, new social forces appeared: peasants and craftsmen. The worship of heroes had lost its first interest. In the poem "Works and Days", we pass from the heroic epopee of Homer to epic poetry with an erudite (9) and didactic character. In it we find the first lyrical outpourings of the poet in struggle against the difficulties of life and the malevolence of men. Hesiod writes from the position of a free peasant, who toils on his land under the oppression of corrupt kings and judges. The principle of Hesiod is: "Man can find happiness only in work; work alone brings freedom", Hesiod gives moral advice and technical instruction about agriculture, navigation, etc. c) Lyric (10) poetry flowered during the 7th and 6th centuries BC on the basis of folk song when, with the creation of slaveowning states, class struggle sharpened, tribal society was finally destroyed and the slaveowning system fully established. The development of craftsmanship gave an impetus to trade. Colonies increased. City-states developed and became stronger, opening the road to the birth of democracy. The new conditions of life demanded a new poetry which would reflect partly the common thoughts of the new times and partly the personal feelings of the poets. The lyric poetry of the Greeks was closely linked with music. Its name itself, which means "poetry sung to the accompaniment of the lyre" (the national musical instrument of the Greeks), makes this clear. Of the various genres of the lyric, the first to appear was the elegy, or lament, which in its origins dealt with the subjects of war, politics and philosophy. In this genre we must mention the patriotic elegies of Tyrtaeus, which call to arms. 7) Hellenic: The Greeks called themselves "Hellenes"; the term "Greek" is Roman. 8) Didascalic (or didactic): educational. These are works setting out scientific theories, rules of morality, teaching instructions, etc., presented in verse from and in a way which can be read easily. 9) Erudite: learned, scholarly. 10) Lyric: from "lyra", lyre, a Greek music instrument. Lyrical poetry depicts, in a manner characteristic of song, feelings and thoughts which arise under the influence of the real world.