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.
The term is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, which encompasses fiction written with the goal of literary merit.Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Within its broad 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
“ | The pedigree of honey Does not concern the bee ; A clover, any time, to him Is aristocracy. |
” |
— Emily Dickinson, "The pedigree of Honey" |
More Did you know
- ... that Norwegian surrealist poet Triztán Vindtorn changed his first name into the name of his favorite pub?
- ... that The Six Wives of Henry VIII inspired Lecia Cornwall to write historical novels?
- ... that Stolen Childhood was the first full-length book on the history of children enslaved during the American slave-era?
- ... that the Indian poet and philosopher Dwijendranath Tagore wrote the book Boxometry about the construction of boxes?
- ... that The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five, a science fiction novel by Doris Lessing, was adapted for the opera in 1997 by Philip Glass?
Selected illustration
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Romanian literary scholar Dan Simonescu, who edited a chronicle dealing with the reign of Michael the Brave, had to delete any mention of Michael having "all the Jews murdered"?
- ... that the poet Fernando Pessoa considered Alberto Caeiro, one of his own heteronyms, to be his master?
- ... that the cultural scholar Hermann Bausinger wrote a book about the history of literature from Swabia from the 18th century to the present, published for his 90th birthday?
- ... that literary critic Leslie Fiedler called the novel Band of Angels "operatic in the worst sense of the word"?
- ... that the North-Western Regional Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) ran an underground network to distribute literature to German soldiers in occupied areas?
- ... that The Man Without Talent is an I-novel, a genre of semi-autobiographical confessional literature that has been popular in Japan since the early twentieth century?
Today in literature
- 19 BC - Virgil, Roman poet died
- 1542 - Juan Boscán Almogáver, Spanish poet died
- 1719 - Johann Heinrich Acker, German writer died
- 1832 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish writer died
- 1866 - H. G. Wells, English writer born
- 1895 - Sergei Yesenin, Russian poet born
- 1902 - Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet born
- 1937 - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit is published.
- 1938 - Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić Croatian writer died
- 1944 - Fannie Flagg, American actress and novelist born
- 1947 - Stephen King, American author born
- 1947 - Marsha Norman, American playwright born
- 1972 - Henry de Montherlant, French writer died
- 1974 - Jacqueline Susann, American novelist died
- 2002 - Robert Forward, American writer died
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