Literature

Nine countries where the oral epic lasted into the twentieth century.

Thirteen islands where four European languages produced creoles and literatures.

Three countries, three alphabets, between three empires.

Nine countries where writing begins in the languages of the missions.

Seven countries between two oceans, where the poet long stood in for an institution.

Six countries where Persian poetry and Turkic epic meet.

Six countries that changed borders more often than languages.

Eighteen countries and a lingua franca that carries a literature of its own.

Four countries and an alphabet that came from Byzantium.

Five countries between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, writing in three languages.

Fifteen countries, three languages of civilisation and a poetry older than Islam.

Three countries, two colonial languages and an industry that exports its stories.

Six countries that shared one script before each had its own.

Nine countries where the sagas precede the European novel by three centuries.

A continent of islands where writing arrived with the missions.