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 Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination. The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. After the death of his subject Haley authored the book's epilogue, which describes their collaboration and summarizes the end of Malcolm X's life.
While Malcolm X and scholars contemporary to the book's publication regarded Haley as the book's ghostwriter, modern scholars tend to regard him as an essential collaborator who intentionally muted his authorial voice to allow readers to feel as though Malcolm X were speaking directly to them. Haley also influenced some of Malcolm X's literary choices; for example, when Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam during the composition of the book, Haley persuaded him to favor a style of "suspense and drama" rather than rewriting earlier chapters into a polemic against the Nation. Furthermore, Haley's proactive censorship of the manuscript's antisemitic material significantly influenced the ideological tone of the Autobiography, increasing its commercial success and popularity although distorting Malcolm X's public persona.
Selected excerpt
“ | I don’t know why it should be so, but it is an undeniable fact that there is nothing makes a man look so supremely ridiculous as losing his hat. The feeling of helpless misery that shoots down one’s back on suddenly becoming aware that one’s head is bare is among the most bitter ills that flesh is heir to. And then there is the wild chase after it, accompanied by an excitable small dog, who thinks it is a game, and in the course of which you are certain to upset three or four innocent children—to say nothing of their mothers—butt a fat old gentleman on to the top of a perambulator, and carom off a ladies’ seminary into the arms of a wet sweep. | ” |
— Jerome K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow |
More Did you know
- ... that Begum Akhtar Riazuddin, the first woman to write modern Urdu travelogues, was one of the 1000 PeaceWomen nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005?
- ... that Danilo Kiš's final work, the 1983 collection The Encyclopedia of the Dead, helped make him one of the most important figures for the post-Yugoslav generation of writers?
- ... that Joe D'Cruz won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Korkai, which is based on history and the lives of Parathavars?
- ... that the satirical novel Er ist wieder da was priced at €19.33, a deliberate reference to Hitler's ascent to power in that year?
- ... that although Maya Angelou is best known for her autobiographies, she has also been successful as a poet?
Selected illustration
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the poet Fernando Pessoa considered Alberto Caeiro, one of his own heteronyms, to be his master?
- ... that the Three Bards are the most celebrated poets in the history of Polish literature?
- ... that Cathie Dunsford was unable to find many books about lesbianism in the 1970s, but by the 1980s had herself become a writer and anthologist of lesbian literature?
- ... 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 a teacher of medieval literature and comic books writes the blog Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle?
- ... that in the Forum of Augustus in Rome, elogia were hung on statues of commanders and Augustus's ancestors?
Today in literature
- 1773 - John Hawkesworth, English writer died
- 1839 - Louis-Honoré Fréchette, French Canadian poet born
- 1880 - Alexander Blok, Russian poet born
- 1889 - George S. Kaufman, American playwright born
- 1892 - Guo Moruo, Chinese writer born
- 1906 - Henri Charrière, author of Papillon born
- 1922 - José Saramago, Portuguese writer born
- 1930 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author born
- 1946 - Terrence McKenna, American writer born
- 1952 - Robin McKinley, American writer born
- 1954 - Andrea Barrett, American writer born
- 1967 - Craig Arnold, American poet born
- 1973 - Alan Watts, English writer died
- 1976 - Danny Wallace, British author born
- 1995 - Jack Finney, American author died
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Regions: | Australian literature · Indian literature · Persian literature |
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