Portal:Literature
Introduction
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.
Literary criticism is one of the oldest academic disciplines, and is concerned with the literary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts. The study of books and other texts as artifacts or traditions is instead encompassed by textual criticism or the history of the book. "Literature", as an art form, is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, fiction written with the goal of artistic merit, but can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Within this broader definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles, or other written information on a particular subject. (Full article...)
General images -
The Diary of a Nobody is an English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in Punch magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book form, with extended text and added illustrations, in 1892. The Diary records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances over a period of 15 months.
Although its initial public reception was muted, the Diary came to be recognised by critics as a classic work of humour, and it has never been out of print. It helped to establish a genre of humorous popular fiction based on lower or lower-middle class aspirations, and was the forerunner of numerous fictitious diary novels in the later 20th century. The Diary has been the subject of several stage and screen adaptations, including Ken Russell's "silent film" treatment of 1964, a four-part TV film scripted by Andrew Davies in 2007, and a widely praised stage version in 2011, in which an all-male cast of three played all the parts.
Selected excerpt
“ | Something I may not win attracts me ever,— Something elusive, yet supremely fair, Thrills me with gladness, but contents me never, Fills me with sadness, yet forbids despair. |
” |
— Florence Earle Coates, "The Ideal" in Poems |
More Did you know
- ... that although J. R. R. Tolkien translated the Old English poem Beowulf in the 1920s, he did not like the result so it was published only posthumously in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary?
- ... that the 1928 Hindi novel Nirmala uses fiction to promote social reform of the dowry system in India?
- ... that although Crown Duel's fictional setting of Sartorias-deles is most like New Zealand, its customs and fashions were inspired by the court of Louis XIV?
- ... that Crown Princess Yaza Datu Kalaya is the subject of some of the "most beautiful poems in Burmese literature" by her nephew and husband Natshinnaung?
- ... that as a young girl, Margaret George became interested in Cleopatra because they both had dark hair, and later wrote a best-selling novel about her?
Selected illustration
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the Three Bards are the most celebrated poets in the history of Polish literature?
- ... that according to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the 1913 Polish novel The Cross and the Crescent is "perhaps the first example" of the genre of military science fiction in Polish literature?
- ... that Peter Demetz, who taught German literature at Yale University from 1956 to 1991, was born in Prague where he was persecuted under the Nazis and escaped the Communist regime in 1949?
- ... that despite a career writing queer literature, Chen Xue's 2019 novel Fatherless City had a "putatively straight premise"?
- ... that a poem by Moses da Rieti includes an encyclopedia of the sciences, a Jewish paradise fantasy, and a post-biblical history of Jewish literature?
- ... that Children's Fantasy Literature is the first work to address the genre's 500-year history in depth?
Today in literature
- 1475 - Thomas Murner, German writer born
- 1609 - Philip Warwick, English writer born
- 1754 - George Crabbe, English poet born
- 1798 - Adam Mickiewicz, Polish poet born
- 1822 - Matthew Arnold, English poet born
- 1863 - William Makepeace Thackeray, English writer died
- 1865 - Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter and writer died
- 1879 - Émile Nelligan, Quebec poet born
- 1881 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer born
- 1910 - Fritz Leiber, American writer born
- 1914 - Herbert Reinecker, German writer born
- 1929 - Mary Higgins Clark, American author born
- 1945 - Nicholas Meyer, American author born
- 1950 - Dana Gioia, American poet born
- 1969 - Mark Millar, Scottish comic book writer born
- 1973 - Stephenie Meyer, American author born
- 1977 - Samael Aun Weor, Columbian writer died
- 1982 - Louis Aragon, French writer died
- 1986 - Gardner Fox, American writer died
- 1993 - Norman Vincent Peale, American writer died
- 2002 - Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author died
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Genres: | Alternate history · Children's literature · Crime · Fantasy · Horror · Mythology · Romance · Science fiction |
Authors: | Honoré de Balzac · Roald Dahl · William Shakespeare |
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Regions: | Australian literature · Indian literature · Persian literature |
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