ernestd Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4629 days ago 5 posts - 11 votes Speaks: Spanish, Catalan*, English
| Message 1 of 33 08 April 2012 at 5:22am | IP Logged |
If you had to name ONE and only ONE representative work of each language literature, which one would it be? Try to
name the best known in popular culture, not your personal taste.
It's clear that for Spanish literature would be 'Don Quixote'. For English literature I guess it would be 'Hamlet'? I am
curious to hear the chosen one for French, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, etc.
Edited by ernestd on 08 April 2012 at 5:22am
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4705 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese
| Message 2 of 33 08 April 2012 at 8:10am | IP Logged |
My favorite "classic" Brazilian book is "Capitães da Areia", by Jorge Amado.
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
Gosiak Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5116 days ago 241 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Norwegian, Welsh
| Message 3 of 33 08 April 2012 at 8:52am | IP Logged |
For Poland it is "Pan Tadeusz".
1 person has voted this message useful
|
vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4762 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish
| Message 4 of 33 08 April 2012 at 9:31am | IP Logged |
For Russian, Pushkin essentially codified literary Russian and his "Eugene Onegin" has been referred to as "the encyclopedia of Russian life", but if we go by being known in the global popular culture then we'd probably have to go with "War and Peace".
3 persons have voted this message useful
|
squonk Groupie United States Joined 4736 days ago 44 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Irish
| Message 5 of 33 08 April 2012 at 5:02pm | IP Logged |
For Czech, I nominate Jaroslav Hašek's "The Good Soldier Švejk" (Osudy dobrého vojáka
Švejka za světové války).
But I'm not Czech; I wonder if natives would agree with my choice.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
viedums Hexaglot Senior Member Thailand Joined 4656 days ago 327 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French Studies: Vietnamese
| Message 6 of 33 08 April 2012 at 5:09pm | IP Logged |
For Thai, it would have to be the long narrative poem "Khun Chang Khun Phaen". The linguist William Gedney said of this work, “I have often thought that if all other information on traditional Thai culture were to be lost, the whole complex could be reconstructed from this marvellous text.”
Also a really excellent translation by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit has just been published.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4705 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese
| Message 7 of 33 08 April 2012 at 6:32pm | IP Logged |
vonPeterhof wrote:
For Russian, Pushkin essentially codified literary Russian and his "Eugene Onegin" has been referred to as "the encyclopedia of Russian life", but if we go by being known in the global popular culture then we'd probably have to go with "War and Peace". |
|
|
Just out of curiosity, I don't know about other countries, but here in Brazil, Dostoyevsky is much more "famous" than Pushkin or Tolstoi.
Edited by fabriciocarraro on 08 April 2012 at 6:32pm
1 person has voted this message useful
|
ReQuest Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5022 days ago 200 posts - 228 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 33 08 April 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
Dutch either Camera Obscura - Hildebrand (pseudonym for Nicolaas Beets) or Max Havelaar - Multatuli (pseudonym for Eduard Douwes Dekker).
2 persons have voted this message useful
|