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...)
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Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays.
Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. Its plot is based on an Italian tale, translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1567. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but, to expand the plot, developed supporting characters, particularly Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597.
Shakespeare's use of his poetic dramatic structure, especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of sub-plots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play.
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“ | As no one was now at home, Cinderella went to her mother's grave beneath the hazel-tree, and cried, "Shiver and quiver, little tree, Silver and gold throw down over me." Then the bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her, and slippers embroidered with silk and silver. |
” |
— Brothers Grimm, "Cinderella" in Grimm's Household Tales |
More Did you know
- ... that an episode in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream may have been a "riff" on the medieval German poem Der Busant?
- ... that Spock Must Die! and Spock, Messiah! were the first two original novels for adults to be written in the Star Trek universe?
- ... that the poem Nachuk Tahate Shyama, written by Swami Vivekananda, relates to one's surrender to the Hindu goddess Kali?
- ... that in 1845 Robert Browning met Elizabeth Barrett and wrote "Meeting at Night", the "most sensual poem" he had written up to that time?
- ... that according to James Joyce, Édouard Dujardin's 1887 novel Les Lauriers sont coupés is the first example of the stream of consciousness technique?
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Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Bulkboeken ('bulk books') were cheap reprints of Dutch literary classics, published from 1971 to the late 1990s, and again from 2007?
- ... that the exclusive secret society Hamilton House from the television show Gossip Girl was based on St. Anthony Hall, a social and literary fraternity?
- ... that John Seigenthaler hosted a literary interview program which ran for 42 years on Nashville Public Television?
- ... that the Three Bards are the most celebrated poets in the history of Polish literature?
- ... that Galadriel's gift of some of her hair to Gimli in The Lord of the Rings has echoes in both English literature and Norse legend?
- ... that History of the Mission of the Evangelical Brothers in the Caribbean by C. G. A. Oldendorp was the first book to publish Igbo-language terms in 1777?
Today in literature
- 1513 - Jacques Amyot, French writer born
- 1602 - Jean-Jacques Boissard, French poet died
- 1624 - Paul Pellisson, French writer born
- 1751 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright born
- 1762 - André Chénier, French writer born
- 1786 - Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, French Canadian writer born
- 1821 (O.S.) - Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian writer born
- 1842 - Allan Cunningham, Scottish poet and author died
- 1871 - Paul Valéry, French poet born
- 1885 - Ezra Pound, American poet born
- 1886 - Zoe Akins, American playwright born
- 1935 - Ágota Kristóf, Hungarian writer born
- 1935 - Robert Caro, American biographer born
- 1968 - Rose Wilder Lane, American journalist and author died
- 1968 - Conrad Richter, American novelist and short story writer died
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Regions: | Australian literature · Indian literature · Persian literature |
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