Books Forever

Literature history is the historical production of prose or poetry writings that seek to provide the reader / listener / observer with entertainment, insight, or guidance, as well as the production of the literary techniques used in the communication of those pieces. Not all works makeup literature. Some recorded items, such as data compilations (e.g., a check register) are not considered literature, and this article only relates to the history of the above mentioned works. Literature and writing are not synonymous while they are related. The very first writings from ancient Sumer by any fair interpretation do not constitute literature — the same is true of any early Egyptian hieroglyphics or of the thousands of logs from ancient Chinese regimes. When written record-keeping was more like "literature" than anything else, academics have always disagreed; the concept is highly subjective. However, despite the importance of distance as a cultural isolator in earlier decades , literature 's historical growth has not occurred at an even rate worldwide. The problems of creating a uniform global literature history are compounded by the fact that many texts have been lost, either deliberately, by accident, or by the total disappearance of the originating culture over the millennia. For example, much has been written about the collapse of the Alexandrian Library in the 1st century BC, and the countless key texts that are thought to have been lost to the flames for ever. Nevertheless, other primary texts, which have a qualifying position as the first stirrings of literature , can be excluded. Some early examples include Gilgamesh's Epic, in its Sumerian edition predating 2000 BC, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead written down in Ani's Papyrus in around 1250 BC but possibly dating back to around the 18th century BC. Ancient Egyptian literature was not included in early literature history studies since Ancient Egypt's writings were not translated into European languages until the 19th century, when the Rosetta stone was deciphered. Iliad and Odyssey of Homer date back to the 8th century BC and mark the beginning of Classical Antiquity . They stand also in an oral tradition that extends back to the late Bronze Age. Post-dating Indian śruti texts (such as the Yajurveda, the Atharvaveda and the Brahmanas) as well as the Hebrew Tanakh and the mystical series of poems attributed to Lao Tze, the Tao te Ching, date back to the Iron Age, but their dating is difficult and uncertain. There was also oral transmission of the great Hindu epics, possibly predating the Maurya period.