The textbook on the basis of the thesaurus approach sets out the history of foreign literature, considers its origins (mythology, folklore, the first literary monuments of the Ancient East); genres of ancient and medieval literature, literature of the Renaissance, Renaissance, Baroque, classicism, Enlightenment, pre-romanticism; literary trends of the 19th century (romanticism, realism), directions and trends of the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries (naturalism, symbolism, aestheticism, neo-romanticism), the literary process of the 20th - early 21st centuries (modernism, realism, postmodernism, mass literature) are characterized. The creativity of writers of different eras and peoples is analyzed - from Homer to representatives of modern literature.