Literature

Ramayana Resources

Scene from the epic Ramayana: Kumbhakarna battles the monkeys, 1100-1200 CE, former kingdom of Angkor

Read summaries of the narrative, including one illustrated with art from different regions. See a beautiful digitized version of the tale. Watch a controversial modern film based on the epic.

Yamato

Image credit: Tsukioka Yoshitoshiderivative work: AMorozov - Yamato_Takeru_at_16.jpg, Public Domain

The tales of Prince Yamato Takeru are told in the Japanese chronicles Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, and others. This image, from a 19th century woodblock print, depicts Yamato as he is about to set off on his adventures.

Sundiata

Image credit: Jeanniot (grav.) - Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public Domain

Sundiata (also spelled Sunjata, Sundjata, or Soundjata) is an oral epic celebrating the life of Sundiata, the founder of the thirteenth-century Mali Empire of West Africa. There are written versions of the epic (just as there are written summaries of movies or film adaptations of books) but...

Ramayana

Image Credit: From the Metropolitan Museum of Art , via Open Access

The Ramayana originated in north India as an oral epic poem, performed with musical accompaniment and dance. Written, illustrated manuscripts of the poem were later produced from Pakistan to Indonesia. This means that the Ramayana has expressions in oral performance, dance, music, literature, and illustration. Modern...

Migration & Diaspora

Summer Institute for Community College Teachers

May 31 - June 2, 2018

The 2018 Summer Institute for Community College instructors will consider migration and diaspora from the standpoints of wide-ranging disciplines, including history, anthropology, sociology, journalism, and international law. Join your teaching colleagues in this exploration of human migrations of the distant past, causes of migration, the subjective experiences of both new migrants and those living in long-established diasporas, and current issues in global migration....

Epic of Gilgamesh

Close-up of cuneiform tablet

See images of some of the original tablets. Learn about the history of writing. Hear parts of the epic read in the original Akkadian.

Literature for Children and Young Adults

Recommended literature from around the world.

Sundiata Plot Summary

This plot summary of the Sundiata epic organizes the tale using the Monomyth structure.


Call to Adventure

The young prince Sunjata has grown so popular in Niani that Queen Sassouma is jealous and fears that the people will prefer him as king to her own son, Dankaran Touman. Determined to rid herself of the young prince, Sassouma orders the nine great witches of Mali to deceive and murder him. However, when they actually encounter Sunjata, they are so impressed with his kindness and generosity that they...

Yamato Text Excerpts

These passages come from B.H. Chamberlain's 1882 translation of the Kojiki. The full text is available at sacred-texts.com.

Yamato-Take Slays His Elder Brother
Yamato-Take Slays the Kumaso Bravoes
Yamato-Take Slays the Idzumo Bravo
Yamato-Take is Sent to Subdue the East and Visits His Aunt at Ise
Yamato-...

Yamato Bibliography of Sources

Literary Histories


Keene, Donald. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1993.

Konishi, Jin'ichi. A History of Japanese Literature: Volume One. Trans. Aileen Gatten. Princeton: Princeton University press, 1984. (Chapter One: The Kojiki (33-61)).

There are many other surveys and histories of Japanese literature. Keene's work is the standard and most general and wide-ranging survey of premodern...