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, June 21, 2020
Was there a feud between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway?
Was there a feud between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway?
Companion / Literature

7 Quintessential National-Spelling-Bee-Winning Words
Can you spell these? (T-h-e-s-e!)
List / Literature

The “Howl” Heard Round the World
In 1956, Allen Ginsberg’s groundbreaking Beat poem “Howl” was published in the collection Howl and Other...
Spotlight / Literature

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

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

English literature
English literature, the body of written works produced in the English language by inhabitants of the British Isles (including...
Encyclopedia / Literature

Persian literature
Persian literature, body of writings in New Persian (also called Modern Persian), the form of the Persian language written...
Encyclopedia / Literature

African literature
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with...
Encyclopedia / Literature

Literature Quizzes
Literature Videos
Literature Subcategories

Step into the world of folklore, fables, legends, 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 readers and listeners to this day.
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Guslar
Balkan singers
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Erasmus
Dutch humanist
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The Little Prince
fable by Saint-Exupéry

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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Captain America
fictional character
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Thor
fictional character
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Robin
fictional 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.
Articles
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Barbara Walters
American journalist
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Bob Woodward
American journalist and author
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Nellie Bly
American journalist

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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Edward O. Wilson
American biologist
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Benjamin Spock
American pediatrician
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Athanasius Kircher
German Jesuit priest and scholar

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

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
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T.S. Eliot
American-English poet, playwright, and literary critic
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge
British poet and critic
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Roland Barthes
French critic

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

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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Unsafe at Any Speed
work by Nader
- Journalism
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The Feminine Mystique
work by Friedan

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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Short story
literature
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The Fall of the House of Usher
story by Poe
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The War of the Worlds
novel by Wells

"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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Tecumseh
Shawnee chief
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Quintilian
Roman rhetorician
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St. Augustine
Christian bishop and theologian

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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Faust
play by Goethe
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Death of a Salesman
play by Miller
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Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
play by Albee

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.
Articles