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.
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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"The Open Boat" is a short story by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). First published in 1897, it was based on Crane's experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship, the SS Commodore, sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men, an oiler named Billie Higgins, drowned after the boat overturned. Crane's personal account of the shipwreck and the men's survival, titled "Stephen Crane's Own Story", was first published a few days after his rescue.
Crane subsequently adapted his report into narrative form, and the resulting short story "The Open Boat" was published in Scribner's Magazine. The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous correspondent, with Crane as the implied author, the action closely resembles the author's experiences after the shipwreck. Praised for its innovation by contemporary critics, the story is considered an exemplary work of literary Naturalism, and is one of the most frequently discussed works in Crane's canon.
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“ | Don't laugh at the spinsters, dear girls, for often very tender, tragic romances are hidden away in the hearts that beat so quietly under the sober gowns, and many silent sacrifices of youth, health, ambition, love itself, make the faded faces beautiful in God’s sight. Even the sad, sour sisters should be kindly dealt with, because they have missed the sweetest part of life, if for no other reason. And looking at them with compassion, not contempt, girls in their bloom should remember that they too may miss the blossom time. That rosy cheeks don’t last forever, that silver threads will come in the bonnie brown hair, and that, by-and-by, kindness and respect will be as sweet as love and admiration now. | ” |
— Louisa May Alcott, Little Women |
More Did you know
- ... that though Amir Hamzah was a Muslim, analyses of his poem "Padamu Jua" have found Christian influences?
- ... that Claude Houghton's novel I Am Jonathan Scrivener may have influenced the film Citizen Kane?
- ... that in one of his 75 poems, Chairil Anwar predicted his place of burial?
- ... that the first edition of the Star Trek novel Killing Time included overtones of Kirk/Spock slash fiction?
- ... that publication of one of Adam Mickiewicz's first poems, "Ode to Youth", was delayed due to censorship?
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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 in the Forum of Augustus in Rome, elogia were hung on statues of commanders and Augustus's ancestors?
- ... that Imagining Mars: A Literary History "presents a compelling case that 'Mars matters'"?
- ... that The Tale of Genji's Kaoru Genji has been called literature's first antihero?
- ... that Walid Daqqa wrote several works of prison literature, including a children's novel about a boy who uses magical olive oil to visit his imprisoned father?
- ... that Sheila Egoff, Canada's first professor of children's literature, returned to her library work immediately after retirement?
Today in literature
- 1719 - John Harris, English writer died
- 1866 - Tristan Bernard, French writer born
- 1870 - Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian writer born
- 1881 - Sidney Lanier, American writer died
- 1885 - Elinor Wylie, American writer born
- 1887 - Edith Sitwell, English poet born
- 1900 - Taylor Caldwell, American author born
- 1962 - Karen Blixen, Danish author died
- 1962 - Jennifer Egan, American writer born
- 1994 - James Clavell, Australian-born American author (Shogun) died
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