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Period: 3000 BCE to
Timeline of Literature Studied
Earliest text: Gilgamesh
Latest text: Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) -
2100 BCE
Gilgamesh
c. 2100-1200 BCE
Tablets discovered in Nineveh, Northern Iraq in the 19th century
Cuneiform on baked clay tablets; Languages: Akkadian, Sumerian -
600 BCE
Rāmāyana
c. 600-300 BCE up through 200 CE
Maharishi Valmiki
Centered on the city of Ayodhya, India
Language: Sanskrit -
879
Alf Laylah wa-Laylah (One Thousand and One Nights)
Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, trans. One Thousand and One Nights
Collected over many centuries with stories and influences from North Africa, the Middle East, and West, Central, and South Asia.
Oldest manuscript fragment dates to c. 879 CE.
Language: Arabic -
1000
Genji Monogatari
Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji)
Author: Murasaki Shikibu
Written in Japan in the 11th century
Language: Japanese -
1300
Sunjata
Sunjata
as told by Tassey Condé; trans. David C. Conrad
c. 13th-14th century; Mali -
1550
Popol Vuh
Written form, c. 1550 in Quiché Mayan language
Translated in 18th century by Father Ximénez
Guatemala -
El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha), first printed in 1605 in Madrid, Spain.
Language: Early Modern Spanish