Is there a really difference between the Arabic culture and literature, and the Western culture and literature ? We here in middle east call both of Europe and America with the West. We see the west as the modern world, I have some experience in the Arabic culture and the Arabic literature, but I suppose that western culture and literature have more or different works which have new taste for me. I'm now trying to discover that new taste of western works by using the English language and I hope I'll found something that will make me happy.
Well, every work of art is influenced by the culture of its creator, so the link between culture and literature is the same for both Eastern and Western literature. If you want a good introduction to Western writers, I would suggest searching for "best American writers" or "best European writers" or something along those lines. The list of writers is way too large to post here. You can also look for anthologies of American or European literature. Just the other day, at the bookstore, I saw a collection of the best American and European short stories, so I know there are a bunch of collections like that available. The good thing about anthologies is that they usually give some sort of historical or cultural context, making it easier to understand the poems. Finally, I know the Middle East has some great poetry, so look for Western poets as well. Again, an anthology is a great place to start. Let me know if you have any more questions about this.
I think anthology is good start as you said, it's a new word to me but I translated it by English-English dictionary, I liked its definition, it comes from Greek word (anthos) which means flower, a collection of literature writings will be like a collection of flowers. For the Arabic poems there's some bad points, they aren't translated well to English or to any European languages, I don't agree the normal translation of the Arabic poems, there's many kind of Arabic poems as I think, like: - Classical Arabic poems that before Islam age. - Classical Arabic poems after Islam coming (the first centuries of Islam). - Modern Classical Arabic poems of modern age. - Modern Classical Arabic poems with modern poems styles. - Modern poems with modern Arabic dialects with classical style of Arabic poems. - Modern poems with modern Arabic dialects with new styles for poems.
