The
history of literature of the
early modern period
The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...
(
16th,
17th and partly
18th century literature), or early modern literature, succeeds
Medieval literature, and in Europe in particular
Renaissance literature.
In Europe, the Early Modern period lasts roughly from 1550 to 1750, spanning the
Baroque period and ending with the
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...
and the
wars of the French Revolution. The Early Modern period in
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
corresponds to the rule of the
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty (; , ) was one of Iran's most significant ruling dynasties reigning from Safavid Iran, 1501 to 1736. Their rule is often considered the beginning of History of Iran, modern Iranian history, as well as one of the gunpowder em ...
. In
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, the "Early Modern period" (
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
) is taken to last down to 1868 (the beginning of Industrialization during the
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
). In
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, the
Mughal era lasts until the establishment of the
British Raj
The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent,
*
* lasting from 1858 to 1947.
*
* It is also called Crown rule ...
in 1857. The
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
underwent various attempts of modernization from 1828 (
Tanzimat).
Chinese literature
The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with the earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age. The Han dynasty, Han (202  ...
of the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
remains mostly unaffected by European influence, and effects of modernization that would lead up to the
New Culture Movement
The New Culture Movement was a progressivism, progressive sociopolitical movement in China during the 1910s and 1920s. Participants criticized many aspects of traditional Chinese society, in favor of new formulations of Chinese culture inform ...
became apparent only from the Late Qing period in the 1890s.
Europe
A new spirit of science and investigation in Europe was part of a general upheaval in human understanding, which began with the discovery of the
New World
The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...
in 1492 and continues through the subsequent centuries, even up to the present day.
The form of writing now commonplace across the world—the
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
—originated from the early modern period and grew in popularity in the next century. Before the
modern novel became established as a form there first had to be a transitional stage when "novelty" began to appear in the style of the epic poem.
Plays for entertainment (as opposed to religious enlightenment) returned to Europe's stages in the early modern period.
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
is the most notable of the early modern playwrighters, but numerous others made important contributions, including
Pierre Corneille,
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
,
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tr ...
,
Pedro Calderón de la Barca,
Lope de Vega
Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Spanish Baroque literature, Baroque literature. In the literature of ...
and
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...
. From the 16th to the 18th century
commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...
performers improvised in the streets of Italy and France. Some Commedia dell'arte plays were written down. Both the written plays and the
improvisation
Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...
were influential upon literature of the time, particularly upon the work of Molière. Shakespeare drew upon the arts of
jester
A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town ma ...
s and strolling players in creating new style comedies. All the parts, even the female ones, were played by men (''
en travesti'') but that would change, first in France and then in England too, by the end of the 17th century.
The earliest work considered an
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
in the sense the work is usually understood dates from around 1597. It is ''
Dafne'', (now lost) written by
Jacopo Peri for an elite circle of literate
Florentine humanists who gathered as the "
Camerata".
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
's ''
Don Quixote de la Mancha'' has been called "the first novel" by many literary scholars (or the first of the modern European novels). It was published in two parts. The first part was published in 1605 and the second in 1615. It might be viewed as a parody of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'' (and other examples of the
chivalric romance
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalri ...
), in that the novel form would be the direct result of poking fun at a collection of heroic folk legends. This is fully in keeping with the spirit of the age of enlightenment which began from about this time and delighted in giving a satirical twist to the stories and ideas of the past. This trend toward satirising previous writings was only made possible by the
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
. Without the invention of
mass-produced copies of a book it would not be possible to assume the reader will have seen the earlier work and will thus understand the references within the text. In the 18th century
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...
and
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...
wrote famous novels.
The 16th century saw outstanding
epic poems of
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
and
Luís de Camões. Later the most well-known
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
s were
Juana Inés de la Cruz,
John Milton and
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early ...
. In turn
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...
and
Charles Perrault are appreciated for their
fable
Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...
s.
Ottoman Empire
The two primary streams of Ottoman written literature are poetry and
prose
Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...
. Of the two, poetry—specifically, Divan poetry—was by far the dominant stream. Moreover, until the 19th century, Ottoman prose did not contain any examples of
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
; that is, there were no counterparts to, for instance, the European
romance,
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
, or
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
(though analogous genres did, to some extent, exist in both the Turkish folk tradition and in Divan poetry).
Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly
ritual
A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
ized and
symbol
A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...
ic art form. From the Persian poetry that largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of
symbol
A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...
s whose meanings and interrelationships—both of similitude (مراعات نظير ''mura'ât-i nazîr'' / تناسب
''tenâsüb'') and opposition (تضاد ''tezâd'')—were more or less prescribed.
Until the 19th century, Ottoman prose never managed to develop to the extent that contemporary Divan poetry did. A large part of the reason for this was that much prose was expected to adhere to the rules of ''sec'' (سجع, also transliterated as ''seci''), or
rhymed prose, a type of writing descended from the Arabic ''
saj''' and which prescribed that between each adjective and noun in a sentence, there must be a
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
.
Nevertheless, there was a tradition of prose in the literature of the time. This tradition was exclusively
nonfictional in nature—the
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...
tradition was limited to narrative poetry.
Persia
Regarding the tradition of Persian love poetry during the
Safavid era, Persian historian
Ehsan Yarshater
Ehsan Yarshater (; April 3, 1920 – September 1, 2018) was an Iranian historian and linguist who specialized in Iranology. He was the founder and director of the Center for Iranian Studies, and Hagop Kevorkian Professor Emeritus of Iranian Stud ...
notes, "As a rule, the beloved is not a woman, but a young man. In the early centuries of Islam, the raids into
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
produced many young
slaves
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
. Slaves were also bought or received as gifts. They were made to serve as pages at court or in the households of the affluent, or as soldiers and bodyguards. Young men, slaves or not, also, served wine at banquets and receptions, and the more gifted among them could play music and maintain a cultivated conversation. It was
love toward young pages, soldiers, or novices in trades and professions which was the subject of lyrical introductions to panegyrics from the beginning of Persian poetry, and of the ghazal."
[Yar-Shater, Ehsan. 1986. ''Persian Poetry in the Timurid and Safavid Periods,'' Cambridge History of Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.973-974. 1986]
After the 15th century, the ''Indian style'' of Persian poetry (sometimes also called ''Isfahani'' or ''Safavi'' styles) took over. This style has its roots in the
Timurid era and produced the likes of
Amir Khosrow Dehlavi, and Bhai
Nand Lal Goya.
India
Classical Sanskrit literature went into decline in the High Middle Ages, to the benefit of
Middle Indic vernaculars such as
Old Hindi, notably in use for Late Medieval
Bhakti poetry. The
Mughal era sees the development of various literary dialects such as ''
Dakkhini'' or ''
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
'', the latter showing heavy
Persian influence.
The earliest examples of
Khariboli can be seen in some of
Kabir and
Amir Khusro
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253 – 1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau, sometimes spelled as, Amir Khusrow or Amir Khusro, was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar, who lived during the per ...
's lines. More developed forms of Khariboli can be seen in some mediocre literature produced in early 18th century. Examples are ''Chand Chhand Varnan Ki Mahima'' by Gangabhatt, ''Yogavashishtha'' by Ramprasad Niranjani, ''Gora-Badal ki katha'' by Jatmal, ''Mandovar ka varnan'' by Anonymous, a translation of Ravishenacharya's ''Jain Padmapuran'' by Daulatram (dated 1824).
China
*
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
**
Gui Youguang 歸有光 (1506–1571)
**
Yuan Hongdao 袁宏道( 1568–1610)
**
Xu Xiake 徐霞客 (1586–1641)
**
Gao Qi 高啟
**
Zhang Dai 張岱
**
Tu Long 屠隆
**
Wen Zhenheng 文震亨
*
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
**
Fang Pao 方苞 (1668–1749)
**
Liu Dakui 劉大櫆 (1698–1779)
**
Yao Nai 姚鼐 (1731–1815)
**
Yuan Mei 袁枚 (1716–1798)
**
Gong Zizhen 龔自珍 (1792–1841)
**
Wei Yuan 魏源 (1794–1857)
Japan
Literature during the largely peaceful
Edo Period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, in large part to the rise of the working and middle classes in the new capital of
Edo (modern
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
), developed forms of popular drama which would later evolve into
kabuki
is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
.
The
joruri and kabuki dramatist
Chikamatsu Monzaemon became popular at the end of the 17th century.
Matsuo Bashō wrote ''
Oku no Hosomichi'' (奥の細道, 1702), a travel diary.
Hokusai, perhaps Japan's most famous woodblock print artist, also illustrated fiction as well as his famous
36 Views of Mount Fuji.
Many genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period, helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries. Although there was a
minor Western influence trickling into the country from the
Dutch settlement at Nagasaki, it was the importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest outside influence on the development of Early Modern Japanese fiction.
Ihara Saikaku might be said to have given birth to the modern consciousness of the novel in Japan, mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary tales of the pleasure quarters.
Jippensha Ikku wrote ''
Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige
, abbreviated as ''Hizakurige'' () and known in translation as ''Shank's mare, Shank's Mare'', is a comic picaresque novel (kokkeibon) written by Jippensha Ikku (十返舎一九, 1765–1831) about the misadventures of two travelers on the Tōka ...
'', which is a mix of travelogue and comedy. Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in developing the ''
yomihon'', which were historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as
Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dyna ...
and ''
Shui hu zhuan''. Two ''yomihon'' masterpieces were written by
Ueda Akinari: ''Ugetsu monogatari'' and ''Harusame monogatari''.
See also
{{Portal, Literature
*
16th century in literature
*
17th century in literature
*
Renaissance literature
References