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An experimental novel is a written work - often a novel or a magazine that places great emphasis on innovations regarding style and technique. The History of literature begins with the history of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia, although the oldest literary texts that have come down to us date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late 3rd millennium BC. The earliest literary author known by name is Enheduanna... Indian literature is generally acknowledged, but not wholly established, as the oldest in the world. ... Literature in Sanskrit, one of Indias two oldest languages, and the basis of several modern languages in India. ... Tamil literature is literature in the Tamil language which most prominently includes the contributions of the Tamil country (or Tamizhagam) history, a large part of which constitutes the modern state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as some parts of Karnataka and Andra pradesh. ... // Classical texts Main article: Chinese classic texts China has a wealth of classical literature, both poetry and prose, dating from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BCE) and including the Classics attributed to Confucius. ... At the moment this page contains a list of links. ... Latin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Persian literature (in Persian: ) spans two and a half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. ... According to the mediæval poet Jean Bodel, the Matter of Rome was the literary cycle made up of Greek and Roman mythology, together with episodes from the history of classical antiquity, focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. ... The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle is a body of legendary history that springs from the Old French medieval literature of the chansons de geste. ... The Arthurian legend or the Matter of Britain is a name given collectively to the legends that concern the Celtic and legendary history of the British Isles, especially those centered on King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. ... Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (encompassing the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. ... Center For Arabic Culture (CAC) Christina Campo-Abdoun & Seifed-Din Abdoun http://cacac. ... See also: Pre 13th century in literature, other events of the 13th century, 14th century in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 13th century in literature, other events of the 14th century, 15th century in literature, list of years in literature. ... Renaissance literature is European literature, after the Dark Ages over an extended period, usually considered to be initiated by Petrarch at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, and sometimes taken to continue to the English Renaissance and into the seventeenth century. ... See also: 14th century in literature, other events of the 15th century, 16th century in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 15th century in literature, other events of the 16th century, 17th century in literature, list of years in literature. ... See also: 16th century in literature, other events of the 17th century, 1700 in literature, list of years in literature. ... 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This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... Modernism is a term which covers a variety of political, cultural and artistic movements rooted in the changes in Western society at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. ... Structuralism is a general approach in various academic disciplines that explores the interrelationships between fundamental elements of some kind, upon which some higher mental, linguistic, social, cultural etc structures are built, through which then meaning is produced within a particular person, system, culture. ... This article or section needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and... Postmodernism has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians as it connotes to many the hotly debated idea that the modern historical period has passed. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext which provides a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... This page indexes the individual year in literature pages. ... Jorge Luis Borges Argentine literature is placed among the most important in Spanish language, with world-famous writers such as José Hernández, Jorge Luis Borges, Manuel Puig, Julio Cortázar and Ernesto Sábato. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Mexican literature plays an important role in Mexican culture. ... This topic is considered to be an essential subject on Wikipedia. ... Australian literature in English began soon after the establishment of the country by Europeans. ... New Zealand claims as its own many writers, even those immigrants born overseas or those emigrants who have gone into exile. ... Pakistani literature, that is, the literature of Pakistan, as a distinct literature came into being when Pakistan gained its nationhooood as a sovereign state in 1947. ... Tamil literature is literature in the Tamil language which most prominently includes the contributions of the Tamil country (or Tamizhagam) history, a large part of which constitutes the modern state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as some parts of Karnataka and Andra pradesh. ... Literature in Hindi, the language spoken by the majority of people in India. ... Urdu literature has a long and colorful history that is inextricably tied to the development of that very language, Urdu, in which it is written. ... 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Intellectual history means either: the history of intellectuals, or: the history of the people who create, discuss, write about and in other ways propagate ideas. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... A collection of magazines A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers. ... A literary genre is one of the divisions of literature into genres according to particular criteria such as literary technique, tone, or subject matter (content). ... A Literary technique or literary device may be used by works of literature in order to produce a specific effect on the reader. ...

Early History

The first text generally cited in this category is Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759). This extraordinary text "pre-breaks" most of the "rules" that would be subsequently advanced for the writing of fiction. Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (November 24, 1713 – March 18, 1768) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and clergyman. ... The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (or, more briefly, Tristram Shandy) is a novel by Laurence Sterne. ...

As a "life story" Tristram Shandy is utterly impractical, spending the first half on trying to have the titular hero be born, and on utterly irrelevant digressions about the narrator's father, his Uncle Toby, and anybody else within range of the narrative. Suddenly the narrative leaps forward by decades, and the narrator is seen near the end of his life, riding a coach at breakneck speed across France, trying to escape Death.

In its postmodern approach to narrative, and its willingness to use such graphic elements as an all-black page (for mourning) and a page of marbled end-paper within the text, Sterne's novel is a foundational text for many post-World War II authors. But alongside the experimental novel, critical attacks on the experimental novel are also to be found at this early period. Samuel Johnson, for instance, is quoted in Boswell as saying "The merely odd does not last. Tristram Shandy did not last." Samuel Johnson circa 1772, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. ... James Boswell James Boswell (October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795) was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland. ...

Almost as early is Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist and His Master. Portrait of Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767 Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher and writer. ...

See also

• Antinovel
• Ergodic literature
• Metafiction
• Modernist literature
• Nouveau roman
• Postmodern literature