To give some examples of western "classic literature" I'm talking Homer, St. Augustine, Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, etc. These are authors who's works are considered to be "Great Books". These works are comedies, epics, plays, and poems--fiction. As a side question why are these considered great books? Is there reason to read these great books today? Is there any historical significance or purpose to reading these great books?
Hi. Just a quick suggestion to x-post this question to /r/AskLiteraryStudies for their input.
Yes, definitely.
While the language use of these authors is very antiquated, the fact remains that these are all authors that had an enormous influence on the historical development of literature. Many of the themes, narrative structures, etc. that are still heavily used today can be traced back to these authors. At the same time, they also offer insight into the historical period (and its society) in which they were written.
The reason why these exact books have become canonical is a bit complex, but one of the main reasons is that in the Roman Antiquity (up until the 17th century), these books were explicitly prescribed as valuable enough to be worthy of imitation (because of their aesthetic and moral qualities). By imitating these authors, new writers could legitimize their own work. For example, Dante's Inferno is in many ways a poetic elaboration of Book VI of the Aeneid.