Western literature

Western literature, also known as European literature,[1] is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, including the ones belonging to the Indo-European language family[1] as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque and Hungarian. Western literature is considered one of the defining elements of Western civilization.

History of literature by era
Bronze Age
Ancient Egyptian Akkadian Sumerian
Classical
Avestan Chinese Greek Hebrew Latin Tamil Pali Prakrit Sanskrit Syriac
Early Medieval
Matter of Rome Matter of France Matter of Britain Armenian Byzantine Georgian German Japanese Kannada Middle Persian Turkish
Medieval
Old Bulgarian Old English Middle English Arabic Persian Armenian Byzantine Castilian Catalan Dutch French Georgian German Bengali Hindi Old Irish Italian Japanese Korean Malayalam Nepal Bhasa Norse Russian Serbian Telugu Turkish Welsh
Early Modern
Renaissance Baroque
Modern by century
18th 19th 20th 21st
Literature portal

The best of Western literature is considered to be the Western canon. The list of works in the Western canon varies according to the critic's opinions on Western culture and the relative importance of its defining characteristics.

Western literature includes written works in many languages: