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/lit/ - Literature

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7008899 No.7008899 [Reply] [Original]

If you had to list the 10 most important/influential literary works, what would they be?

Bonus points if you can explain why

>> No.7008905

1. Don Quixote - 1604 - Miguel de Cervantes
2. The Holy War - 1682 - John Bunyan
3. Gil Blas - 1715 - Alain Sage
4. Robinson Crusoe - 1719 - Daniel Defoe
5. Gulliver痴 Travels - 1726 - Jonathan Swift
6. Roderick Random - 1748 - Tobias Smollett
7. Clarissa - 1749 - Samuel Richardson
8. Tom Jones - 1749 - Henry Fielding
9. Candide - 1756 - de Voltaire
10. Rasselas - 1759 - Samuel Johnson


And fuck you, read them and find out for yourself.

>> No.7008908

The Odyssey

The Divine Comedy

Don Quixote

The Three Theban Plays

King Lear

Macbeth

Hamlet

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Paradise Lost

Ulysses

>> No.7008912

>>7008905
That subtle 痴

>> No.7008926

It's hard to say "works", because the idea of a standalone literary "work" itself is not universal. I mean, Wordsworth is arguably the most influential poet in the English language, but what work of his would you list that is in itself, divorced from the rest of his corpus, influential? His one major standalone epic, The Prelude, was almost entirely ignored until the 20th century.

>> No.7008936

>no Bible

>> No.7008937

>>7008926
tl;dr: your question (along with the "list your 5 favourite books" threads etc.) are privileging the novel (and perhaps the poetic epic I suppose) above lyric poetry, short story and other forms of literature, when they historically were considered the higher and more influential form.

>> No.7008942

>>7008899

The Bible
The Odyssey
Plato's dialogues
Divine Comedy
Canterbury Tales
Don Quixote
Shakespeare's plays
The poetry of Wordsworth
Ulysses
Infinite Jest

>> No.7008968

Homers work and the Bible should be the Free square

Kafka was a huge influence so Metamorphosis
Crime and Punishment was a game changer

>> No.7008988

>>7008968
>game changer

Fuck off pleb

>> No.7008993

>>7008942
>Infinite Jest

Nice jest

>> No.7008997

>>7008988
>pleb

Fuck off

>> No.7009004

>>7008988
great argument.

>> No.7009009

How necessary is to for one to be "guided" through a reading of the Bible (i.e., by taking a course)? Is it anymore necessary than for other "great books?"

>> No.7009011

>>7008899
Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals
>Christianity, explained
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit
>the story of culture, the master/slave dialectics, phenomenology
Kafka, The Trial
>bureaucracy, absurdism
Kundera, The unbearable lightness of Being
>The Kitsch
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs
>father of the kinky male feminist
Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
>romanticism
Bukowski, Ham on Rye
>coming of age during the great depression
Salinger, Catcher in the Rye
>a high school classic (at least for Anglos)
Céline, Journey to the End of the Night
>the inherent misanthropy of philanthropy
Marie NDiaye, Three Strong Women
>On Survival in extreme conditions. Goncourt Prize winner.

>> No.7009013

>>7008993
read >>7009004

>> No.7009015

>>7009013
Fuck off memelord

>> No.7009016

>>7009004
I'd call it a game-changer tbh imo

>> No.7009022

>>7009011
lol

>> No.7009028

>>7009015
>>7009016
read >>7009004

>> No.7009032

The meme trilogy is the most important set of works in literature.

>> No.7009033

>>7009028
Read 8=====D~

>> No.7009034

>>7009033
read >>7009004

>> No.7009038

>>7009009
as long as youre guided by the lord
amen

>> No.7009094

>>7008905
>4. Robinson Crusoe - 1719 - Daniel Defoe
a personal favorite.

>>7009004
underrated post

>>7009009
the footnotes are totally sufficient. Genesis and the 1st books (the Arch of Alliance...) are good, then it gets repetitive and dull.

>> No.7009104

>>7009022
t. critics

>> No.7009108

>>7009094
>underrated
Your definition of underrated is invariably fucked.

>> No.7009131

>>7009011
You just picked your favorite books.

>> No.7009145

Iliad

Odyssey

Oedipus Rex

Herodotus' Histories

Xenophon's March of the Ten Thousand

Bible

Aeneid

Metamorphosis

City of God

Whatever the fuck Martin Luther's shit was (name's on the tip of mt tongue, but can't remember).

>> No.7009148

>>7009131
I actually dismissed some that nobody read.
and if you want a scientific answer, then google most influential works of fiction.
you'll probably get something akin to the list of the top 10 most quoted scholars.
yeah, I guess I should have included Homer and Shakespeare.

>> No.7009170
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7009170

>>7009145
Do you mean Metamorphoses?

>Martin Luther's shit was (name's on the tip of mt tongue, but can't remember)
Ye-no then.

>> No.7009184

>>7009131
Marie NDiaye, Three Strong Women
>According to the description by Maya Jaggi in The Guardian: "Moving mainly between France and Senegal, this novel explores survival, inheritance and the feared repetition of history – within families, as between peoples. Its three heroines have an unassailable sense of their own self-worth, while their psychological battles have an almost mythic resonance."
WP

the word "mythic" is totally deserved.
was totally worth the Goncourt, and I believe this book will remain influential.

>> No.7009189

>>7009145
95 theses?

>> No.7009191

The Theogony
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Plato's Republic
The Old Testament
The New Testament
Hamlet
Finnegans Wake
Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest

If you'd consider the old and new testaments as one book, I'd add The Art of War.

>> No.7009334

>>7009170

>Do you mean Metamorphoses?
Yes

And actually fuck Luther, Plato's Republic is of more significance.

>> No.7009335

>>7009191
>If you'd consider the old and new testaments as one book
No. And anyone who does is legitimately braindead.

>> No.7009336

>>7009011

Is this guy serious?

>> No.7009346

>>7009336
yes
but I know you guys despise the Catcher in the Rye, so I tried to add a witty remark
Venus in furs was influential (Kraft-Ebbing, Freud, Lou Reed...), but I felt like adding a stupid comment.

I'm a serious man, torn between Nietzsche and Kant.
Didn't Lacan refer to Kant as a (Sacher-) masochist?

>> No.7009559

>>7009145
Surely you mean On The Jews and Their Lies