Literature
With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
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Featured content, January 29, 2024
The Time a Law Clerk Successfully Forged a New Shakespeare Play to Impress His Dad
A law clerk once convinced London that he had discovered dozens of documents written by Shakespeare.
10 Frequently Confused Literary Terms
Do you confuse "denotation" with "connotation"? Oh, the irony! ...or is it coincidence?
How did Albert Camus die?
How did Albert Camus die?
Why Do Languages Die?
How does someone become the last known speaker of a language?
Spanish literature
Spanish literature, the body of literary works produced in Spain. Such works fall into three major language divisions: Castilian,...
Polish literature
Polish literature, body of writings in Polish, one of the Slavic languages. The Polish national literature holds an exceptional...
Chinese literature
Chinese literature, the body of works written in Chinese, including lyric poetry, historical and didactic writing, drama,...
Italian literature
Italian literature, the body of written works produced in the Italian language that had its beginnings in the 13th century....
Literature Quizzes
A Quiz About Children’s Authors
Take a trip from the land of Oz to Narnia alongside Max and Peter Rabbit to figure out how much you know about writers of...
Exploring French Literature Quiz
The roots of French literature can be traced, arguably, to the Roman occupation of western Europe. This quiz doesn’t go back...
French Writers Quiz
How much do you know about the men and women who wrote some of the greatest works of French literature? Test yourself with...
African American Writers Quiz
Who wrote Beloved? How about Home to Harlem? Test your knowledge of African American writers with this...
Byways of German Literature Quiz
Think you know the major figures of German literature? Goethe, Schiller, Kafka, Sebald? That won’t help you here. Use this...
Literary Awards Quiz
The most prestigious award a writer can receive is the Nobel Prize for Literature. How well do you know the winners of this...
The Play’s the Thing
You’ll have grounds more relative than this quiz to catch your conscience about how much you know of the history of the theatre...
10 British Poets: A Quiz
This quiz will test your knowledge of ten notable poets from Great Britain. Find out how much you know about their lives...
Poets and Poetry of Great Britain Quiz
Whose book The Hunting of the Snark has been called the longest and best-sustained nonsense poem in the English...
Novels and Novelists Quiz
What was Arthur Conan Doyle’s actual profession? Who invented the historical novel? Settle in for this novel-length quiz...
Literature Videos
Literature Subcategories
Folk Literature & Fable
Step into the world of folklore, fables, legends, tall tales, and epics, in which heroes are known to undertake arduous journeys and dragons, fairies, and giants abound. Stories such as these circulated long before systems of writing were developed; ballads, folktales, poems, and the like were transmitted exclusively by word of mouth before written languages took over, and they continue to captivate listeners and readers to this day.
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Jean de La Fontaine
French poet
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vampire
legendary creature
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fable
literature
Fictional Characters
Here you'll find some of your favorite fictional characters from literature, film, television, and the like, whether it's the analytical mastermind Sherlock Holmes and his endearing associate Dr. Watson or the menacing and helmeted Darth Vader, the ill-tempered Donald Duck, or the teenage sleuth Nancy Drew.
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Black Panther
fictional character
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Doctor Strange
fictional character
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Spider-Man
fictional character
Journalism
Extra, extra! Although the content and style of journalism and the medium through which it is delivered have varied significantly over the years, journalism has always given us a way to keep up with current events, so that we always have our fingers on the pulse.
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Katie Couric
American broadcaster
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Joseph Moses Levy
British journalist
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Christiane Amanpour
journalist
Libraries & Reference Works
Looking to impress your friends with your expansive knowledge of historical events, philosophical concepts, obscure words, and more? We may be biased, but it seems fair enough to say that reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and textbooks have provided such a service for years (in some cases, hundreds or even thousands of years). You can look for them at your local public library, which likely stores books, manuscripts, journals, CDs, movies, and other sources of information and entertainment.
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Newberry Library
library, Chicago, Illinois, United States
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James D. Dana
American geologist and mineralogist
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Claude Bernard
French scientist
Literatures of the World
Literature knows no geographical bounds; authors can be found in nearly all corners of the globe. Find out more about regional literary styles and forms.
Articles
Literary Criticism
Everyone's a critic. But not all literary criticism involves judging the quality of a text; it can also focus on interpreting the meaning of a work or evaluating an author's place in literary history.
Articles
- literary criticism
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Samuel Johnson
English author
- textual criticism
Literary Terms
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
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- nonfictional prose
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tragedy
literature
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sonnet
poetic form
Nonfiction
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Or that's the idea, at least. Nonfiction works center on facts and real events. Although there is some debate about which kinds of literature qualify as nonfiction, the genre typically includes books in the categories of biography, memoir, science, history, self-help, cooking, health and fitness, business, and more.
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- nonfictional prose
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blog
Internet
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essay
literature
Novels & Short Stories
Whether it's Don Quixote, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, or The Fall of the House of Usher, novels and short stories have been enchanting and transporting readers for a great many years. There's a little something for everyone: within these two genres of literature, a wealth of types and styles can be found, including historical, epistolary, romantic, Gothic, and realist works, along with many more.
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Ulysses
novel by Joyce
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The Sound and the Fury
novel by Faulkner
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Catch-22
novel by Heller
Oratory
I have a dream... Four score and seven years ago... It's not a fluke that these phrases came to be so widely known and remembered. Truly great and persuasive speeches elicit strong emotional reactions in their audiences and may have broad historical repercussions. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, quoted above, are two iconic examples of successful oratory, as are Elizabeth I's speech to the troops at Tilbury and Winston Churchill's first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons.
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oratory
rhetoric
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Tecumseh
Shawnee chief
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Quintilian
Roman rhetorician
Plays
All the world's a stage, as Shakespeare put it in As You Like It; and the stage is where you'll find performances of works by such famed playwrights as Anton Chekhov, Eugene O'Neill, and the Bard himself, among many others.
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The Cherry Orchard
play by Chekhov
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Death of a Salesman
play by Miller
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Faust
play by Goethe
Poetry
Poetry is a vast subject that encompasses much more than just your average Roses are red, violets are blue poem. Delve into the category of literature that Percy Bysshe Shelley called a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted; sonnets, haikus, nursery rhymes, epics, and more are included.
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ballade
poetry and song
- light verse
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Beowulf
Old English poem