Around and through the 21st century, new voices and visions are ascendant in the highest reaches of world literature. This article reviews some of the greatest writers working today. It offers a sample of their works that continue to afflict the night of war, mass deportation, chemical generation, widespread violence, and exploitation, in sum, the whole armor of human experience. Writing as a craft, therefore, finds its payoff as voice: what the writer has to say, what they need to say, matters. Their works affect other individuals’ lives, passing a portion of their being and a broken abundance of conscience onto the following pairs of eyes.
Haruki Murakami: A Blend of the Surreal and the Everyday
Haruki Murakami, the Japanese novelist, and translator, is famous for blending the everyday with the surreal. His novels, filled with desperate loners and alienated protagonists, have a universal appeal. The most renowned novel, 1Q84, is a prime example, transposing the reader into a parallel world that is both familiar and utterly strange, thus perhaps reflective of our existence.
Murakami significantly influenced modern literature, and students may be assigned to write a capstone project to analyze his writing. If you wonder, “Who can write my capstone project? Top Essay Writing is a trustworthy solution for that. Expert writers will help you understand the subtleties of Murakami’s writing and ensure your project is well-crafted and insightful.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Giving Voice to the Voiceless
With her novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), which focuses on the Biafran War, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie exposed the dynamic potential of Africa’s art and literature on the continent and beyond. Like Dangarembga, Adichie’s novel presents a vast and multi-layered human drama, illustrating the workings of colonialism and war through intimate and nuanced storytelling of love, betrayal, and desire. It prompts us to look beyond stereotypes and make sense of African history and identity trajectories.
J.K. Rowling: Redefining Modern Mythmaking
No writer of our time has created a sweeping new mythology and supplanted it on the world stage as entirely and as successfully as J K Rowling has with her “Harry Potter” books. Her sorcery-laced adventures of Harry, Hermione, and Ron have created a universe as loved by adults as young bookworms, drawing whole societies into its folds. Rowling’s books and films have seen new motifs that convey universal themes, such as friendship, courage, and the fight between good and evil.
Elena Ferrante: An Enigmatic Presence
Were it not for the fact that no one seems to know who Elena Ferrante is – the Italian writer of the famous “Neapolitan Novels” of two friends, from girlhood to senility, exploring the worst and the best that a female friendship has to offer. The mess that forms all relationships in the social daze of Italy, it wouldn’t be fair to compare our Amy to Ferrante. Ferrante describes intimate emotions better than anyone. Writing a discussion board post on Elena Ferrante’s works is much more exciting with expert guidance. If you have challenges with any literary assignment, don’t hesitate to ask experts for prompt assistance.
Kazuo Ishiguro: Exploring the Human Condition
Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go presents the world we will likely inhabit as a haunted, understated dystopia. Here are its main ingredients:
- Dystopian Future – Ishiguro creates a bleak landscape where humans are designed only to serve the medical needs of others.
- Cloned Individuals – No mythical creatures are featured; they are just cloned humans. Bred to donate organs to “higher” humans.
- Protected Exploitation – They enjoy, or are intended to enjoy, a protected social status – but insofar as that status is granted in return for their willingness to play a sacrificial part, we are witnessing a form of exploitation.
- Science-Inflected Humanity – Ishiguro frames these ethical questions not as strictly sci-fi but from the human point of view – from which they feel as pertinent as they do disturbing.
By blending science fiction elements with profound human questions, Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go” invites readers to reflect on morality, identity, and the essence of being human.
A Century of Stories
These writers are just a small selection of those who have helped to shape the literary landscape over the 21st century and, in doing so, have changed and entertained so many of us and our ways of seeing for the better. There is so much more to come as we face fresh challenges and discover new opportunities, but literature will remain, as it always has been, one of our most essential tools for making sense of the world around us.
