List of years in literature

This article gives a chronological list of years in literature (descending order), with notable publications listed with their respective years and a small selection of notable events. The time covered in individual years covers Renaissance, Baroque and Modern literature, while Medieval literature is resolved by century.

History of literature by era
Ancient (corpora)
Bronze Age Sumerian Ancient Egyptian Akkadian Ugarit Hittite Classical Classical Chinese Aramaic Ancient Greek Ancient Hebrew Classical Latin Ancient Meitei Syriac Prakrit Tamil Sangam Classical Sanskrit
Early Medieval
Telugu Kannada New Persian Pali Armenian Byzantine Greek Welsh Old English Georgian Old German Japanese Old Turkic Arabic Norse Bulgarian
Medieval by century
10th 11th 12th 13th 14th
Early Modern by century
15th 16th 17th
Modern by century
18th 19th
Contemporary by century
20th 21st
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Note: List of years in poetry exists specifically for poetry.

See Table of years in literature for an overview of all "year in literature" pages.

Several attempts have been made to create a list of world literature. Among these are the great books project including the book series Great Books of the Western World, now containing 60 volumes. In 1998 Modern Library, an American publishing company, polled its editorial board to find the best 100 novels of the 20th century: Modern Library 100 Best Novels. These attempts have been criticized for their anglophone bias and disregard of other literary traditions.