Are you well versed in your own country's literary tradition, or do you just slut it up with foreign """classics"""?
oh god that photo GET IT OFF GET IT OFF
>>7839578
I'm British and I read our classics ofc. Id be interested in seeing responses of people from less uh universally literature recognised countries.
>>7839578
I have read a lot in English and also translations from other languages, but Estonian literature and specifically poetry makes me inspired like no other I have read. Sad that more people do no get to experience it. Doomed to be viewed as lesser I suppose.
Bengali here.
Kind of in a dilemma. I can understand the language used in genre fiction but barely feel interested, but I'm not proficient enough to understand the classics. It's just sad.
>>7839908
Chinese.
Actually fluent in Mandarin, but the only classics I've read (journey to the west, romance of the three kingdoms) were English translation versions.
>>7839908
>I have read
>I have read
Why am I so useless?
>>7839578
Arab here.
I read plenty of Arabic poetry and some Western classics.
Arabic fiction rarely interests me, though I've read a few good novels. English poetry is not that good, I think the English language is just not suited for poetry. And before anyone gets butthurt I have read good examples of English poetry, but generally speaking I think Arabic or Farsi are much more poetic languages.
>>7839922
Not Arab, but yeah English feels weird for poetry.
>>7839578
I'm versed enough to know it's pretty shit. The little that is of some value has come from writers who left this close-minded second-and-a-half world country in their youth, wrote in other languages (mostly French) and -- explicitly or not -- repudiated their cruddy fatherland.
>>7839928
Where from?
>>7839578
this is an - A E S T H E T I C - board, plz delete ur picture of a crackwhore
>>7839927
poetry is 1000x easier in romance languages and the like, as everything rhymes automatically
>>7839578
austria
>Are you well versed in your own country's literary tradition
yes
I'm swedish and I have read some of our classics, but I wouldn't say I am well versed. But then again our language is so insignificant, that even our greatest writer wrote some of his books in french
Italian here, and relatively well versed. I actually studied foreign languages in uni, but all courses offer a couple classes on latin and classic literature.
>tfw you read Dante in high school
I refuse to read both American, and Western literature in their entirety. And I am much more bettter and beyondly good at knowing the earth and the self.
>Canadian "literature"
Oh sure there are gems here and there but Can Lit is like the homely wife that occasionally lets you stick it in her ass and is fine with you sleeping around with sexier national literatures so long as you don't get her involved and bring back the bacon
>>7839932
Why does it matter? It's an irrelevant shithole, as I was saying.
>>7839942
there's some really good 20th century shit min vän
>>7839922
definitely agree. But imo, farsi is the most poetic country in the middle-east and has the only poetries that are really powerful, like works of Hafez/Hafiz.
>>7839988
Because it is a thread about irrelevant shitholes. Does it cause pain to say where you are from?
>mexico
well i liked pedro paramo.
>>7839996
got any recommendations?
English, ive read a lot but no way near enough to consider myself versed im too busy slutting myself out to russian german and latin american lit to stat loyal
>>7839921
that isn't incorrect
>>7839578
>Tfw Russian
I'm Belgian and I went through some Belgian poetry. I've also read the Surrealists although it was quite awful in my opinion. One of my favorite novel remains “Escal-Vigor” by Georges Eekhoud. Belgium is really productive and honestly quite unique yet what I would call classics are quickly done.
I'm American so I don't read books.
I'm French and have almost only read French and German books, I really don't know much about English-language literature. Only stuff I've read in English was the Picture of Dorian Gray and some poems here and there. I also partially went through Frankenstein but the part about the monster was starting to bore me so I stoped and never got back to it. Maybe I should, I really enjoyed the thing at first.
>>7839964
Aside from reading Fifth Business once in high school, I am completely in the dark about Canadian literature. We don't exactly have an illustrious history, culturally speaking.
>>7839578
Brazilian here. I've read a lot of Brazilian 19th century classics but I feel I don't have enough time to read its contemporary literature (most of it is shit though) so I prefer to read the foreign classics right now.
>>7840240
Irish. Yes, but mostly through college.
I'm still scurred of Ulysses though.
>>7840356
What were your favourites?
My country (europoor) is full of degenerates, so I honestly doubt that more than a handful of books worth reading were ever published. The few that I read were absolute garbage. Nothing to be surprised of though, it's just a consequence of communism. Maybe one day.
>>7839964
sounds deeply depressing
as an USAmerican, I have read excerpts of most of the classics in U.S. lit. I'm not really jazzed about them, to be honest. I liked leaves of grass, respect Moby Dick, enjoy Fitzgerald (reads very authentic, both American and intellectual to me which I think is interesting), but that's basically it for me. Our tradition of comics, movies, TV, music are all miles ahead of the literary tradition here and such will it probably be until the hour of Happening
Hemingway is cool but he seems too muted to me, if you're a writer you shouldn't hold your tongue so much. Faulkner is completely unintelligible to me, don't know why he's the master.. don't understand him at all. Actually really like Vonnegut. I know he's enjoyed mainly by midbrow plebs (like Shakespeare!!!) but there's something very authentic about his stuff. He also incorporated Sci-Fi in a way that isn't cheap or floaty/autistic like in Magical Realism.
Leave it to an American to write 1000 characters about things he knows nothing about
>>7840550
The fuck is the point if you do not say where you are from?
>>7840578
All this Ameridisrespect
fuck off faggot
>>7839578
Why do I keep seeing this woman posted everywhere?
>>7840389
Maybe J.M Synge's plays. I appreciate Yeats but I can't say I like him. Too much of his poetry is inextractible from historical context or his personal life which is a literary pet peeve of mine. The Second Coming always gives me chills though. There's some surprisingly good current lit around. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing is a particularly fantastic novel.
>>7839578
>canada's literary tradition
I'd rather not
>>7840356
What about Cre na Cille?
>>7839578
Australian
I'm quite passionate about our literary heritage and we have some quality books in our canon but I seem to be mostly alone in my enthusiasm.
>>7840720
I have a World lit module and we just had a few lectures on Australia. I thought it was fascinating.
As part of my English degree from a Canadian University I was obligated to take a year long course on Canadian literature, so I would say I'm somewhat familiar. Most of it was boring, especially the early settler narratives. (White women talking about how harsh Canadian winters are)
I'm far more familiar with American and British literature.
>>7840746
It was a very brief overview of Australian colonial history. Mostly focused on the new settlers forming a national literature that was primarily masculine and about man vs environment. Then the last lecture was about contemporary tensions over Australian history between aboriginals and conservatives. I have no idea if it was a fair representation but I'm planning on doing my essay on Aussie lit once the essay titles come out and do some digging.
>>7840042
You should Rulfo's short fiction, he has one book called 'the burning plain' in English, unsure of Spanish title.
As an Australian I'd say I'm reasonably well versed in our country's poetry.
>All this self-hatred for Canadian Lit
Atwood is pretty good
Ondaatje is supremely comfy
Purdy is good (though overrated in Canada)
and Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers is the Canadian Ulysses
At least try and read a few books before giving up on the most beautiful country in the world
I'm English but I have family in Australia, and I made an effort to read some of Australia's big literary figures. Patrick White and Les Murray are definitely worthwhile and Australia produced a truly great children's author in Paul Jennings (whose surrealism and creepiness rivals Roald Dahl's). There are some poets and novelists in the English canon that aren't read widely enough outside England but, I believe, represent sides of the English national character and culture that are not usually examined by foreign readers. Philip Larkin is one of the most popular poets in the UK but he's hardly read overseas, which is a shame because his work shows a side of England - the bitterness, the misery, the sexual frustration, the toxic emotional repression - that isn't really explored enough by foreign readers. Larkin probably sums up the post-war, post-imperial national temperament better than any other English writer.
>>7839578
>tfw from a country that has created nothing worth reading
>>7840858
That's because there are like 20 people in the whole country, don't take it to heart.
>>7840858
Don't worry anon. Patrick White was Australia's greatest novelist and he called his nationality "a disability".
>>7839578
I'm Mexican, and yes I read a ot of our literature. We have quite a few of very good poets on our canon.
Swedish
As far as poetry goes I've only ever read Swedish.
>>7840936
List them pls
Being a Pole, I have to face some of the worst written works known to mankind.
Namely: Mickiewicz (the guy responsible for our national 'epic', Pan Tadeusz; basically, a praise - more of an eulogy - of the declining nobility, which was the cause of Poland's downfall in 17th/18th century), Kochanowski (a man, who has persisted in our history due to writing a serie of lamentations concerning his deceased daughter, who probably never existed).
But, I've to admit, that Poles are also responsible for some truly grand works; Ferdydurke by Gombrowicz is a masterpiece.
>irish master race, desu
>>7840947
a pachecho si a los demas nunca.
Irish.
Not as well acquainted as I'd like to be but I'm getting better,
>tfw starting with the Gaels
>>7839578
I slut it up, sadly.
I'm chilean and my country has some good writers, but I haven't take the time to read them. There's just too much to read and too little time.
>>7840785
>Atwood is pretty good
This may be true, but I don't like it.
American. I haven't read anything by Mark Twain, haven't read most of Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald... I've read Pynchon though!
>america
>classics
kek
I am Venezuelan, and I kind of read Venezuelan authors, but since I'm living in the states for uni, it's kind of hard to find books at the uni library, but still I have read a couple, and plan to read a couple more this year.
Uslar Pietri is seriously underrated by the lit world. He is on another level with historical fiction.
>Canadian "literature" tradition
Yuck. There are a few good authors, but by and large it's tripe.
>>7840785
>Ondaatje is supremely comfy
I love Ondaatje. plus isnt saul bellow considered canadian? i always wonder what determines if an expatriate is considered a writer from his new country (Bellow, Nabokov) or their birth country (Beckett) seems like it's arbitrarily decided
>>7841395
I know that feel. All Canadian novels are the same, focusing on multiculturalism and being accepting to everyone. :(
>>7840764
Read "The Battlers" by Kylie Tennant and the "Harp in the South" trilogy by Ruth Park. Those books really get to the heart of it all.
>>7841741
>confirmed for not having read any canlit
pleb
>tfw Argentina
>muh Borges
>muh Cortazar
>muh Sabato
>muh Arlt
>muh Mujica Lainez
>muh Quiroga
definitely well versed
Indian.
I read the abridged versions of the Mahabharata and Ramayana in school as required reading, but beyond that no. Indian lit doesn't really appeal to me tbqh.
I've read some amazing Canadian authors and I actually adore em
I said some but I meant two, Norman Levine and Mordecai Richler but their works actually got me into reading because.of how much depth they introduced.
If anyone else has more suggestions I'd be interested
>>7842638
A lot of the translations for Mahabharata are just downright atrocious, some alright, while others making it extremely readable, perhaps your translation was just inadequate? Also if you know much about this suggestion on best translations pls
>New Zealand
>Being around long enough to have a "literary tradition"
>>7840858
dw bro I'll make it
