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 18, 2021
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.
#WTFact / Literature

Was there a feud between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway?
Was there a feud between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway?
Companion / Literature

Why Is There an R in Mrs.?
There’s no r in missus, so what’s it doing in the abbreviation?
Demystified / Literature

Dramatic literature
Dramatic literature, the texts of plays that can be read, as distinct from being seen and heard in performance. The term...
Encyclopedia / Literature

Literature
Literature, a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to those imaginative works of poetry and prose...
Encyclopedia / Literature
Chinese literature
Chinese literature, the body of works written in Chinese, including lyric poetry, historical and didactic writing, drama,...
Encyclopedia / Literature

Literary criticism
Literary criticism, the reasoned consideration of literary works and issues. It applies, as a term, to any argumentation...
Encyclopedia / Literature

Literature Quizzes
Literature Videos
Literature Subcategories

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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Erasmus
Dutch humanist
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The Little Prince
fable by Saint-Exupéry
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Minstrel
entertainer

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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Batman
fictional character
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Fantastic Four
fictional characters
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Green Lantern
comic-book character

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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Amy Goodman
American journalist, columnist, and author
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Barbara Walters
American journalist
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Bob Woodward
American journalist and author

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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Asa Gray
American botanist
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Georges-Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon
French naturalist
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Dictionary
reference work

Literature knows no geographical bounds; authors can be found in nearly all corners of the globe (except, perhaps, on the open sea). Find out more about regional literary styles and forms.
Articles
- French literature
- Canadian literature
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New Journalism
American literary movement

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.
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Charles Baudelaire
French author
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Edward Said
American professor and literary critic
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Northrop Frye
Canadian literary critic

This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
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Haiku
Japanese literature
- Nonfictional prose
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Tragedy
literature

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Nonfiction works are all about 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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Essay
literature
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Autobiography
literature
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The Abolition of Man
work by Lewis

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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Dracula
novel by Stoker
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Novel
literature
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The Catcher in the Rye
novel by Salinger

"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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Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
French bishop
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Tecumseh
Shawnee chief
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Quintilian
Roman rhetorician

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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A Midsummer Night's Dream
work by Shakespeare
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Waiting for Godot
play by Beckett
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Pygmalion
play by Shaw

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," and which includes sonnets, haikus, nursery rhymes, epics, and more.
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