Dialogue of Cultures in the Poetics of Eastern and Western Literature

Abstract

The article examines the dialogue of cultures in the poetics of Eastern and Western literature, focusing on mutual influence, thematic intersections, and aesthetic strategies. The study analyzes the main characteristics of Eastern poetry, including Persian, Chinese, and Japanese literary traditions, which are marked by cyclical conceptions of time, symbolism, harmony with nature, integration of philosophical and religious ideas, and a focus on collective and spiritual dimensions. In contrast, Western literature — from ancient Greece and Rome through the Middle Ages, the Early Modern period, and Modernist practices — emphasizes linear narrative, dramatic conflict, individuality, and historical progression. Special attention is given to the processes of mutual influence between East and West through translation, adaptation of literary forms, and cultural borrowing. The article explores instances of Eastern motifs in European literature, beginning with One Thousand and One Nights and the works of Goethe, Byron, and Victor Hugo, as well as the reverse influence of Western narrative structures on Eastern literature, including the modernization of the novel in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan and China. The study also investigates the contemporary dimension of cultural dialogue in the context of globalization, digital communication, and transnational literary circulation. The article emphasizes that the dialogue of cultures is not a static relationship but a dynamic process through which literature serves as a medium for rethinking aesthetic values, philosophical ideas, and ethical orientations. Such interactions foster the creation of transnational texts, enriching world literature and promoting intercultural understanding.