Portal:Literature
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The Literary Portal
The history of literature begins with the history of writing, in the Bronze Age of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, although the oldest literary texts date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late 3rd millennium BC. The earliest literary authors known by name are Ptahhotep and Enheduanna, dating to ca. the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, respectively. More about Literature...
Selected article
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845. It is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. The raven, sitting on a bust of Pallas, seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of a number of folk and classical references.
Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically. His intention was to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explains in his 1846 follow-up essay "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty by Charles Dickens. Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship". The poem makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.
The first printing of "The Raven" was in the January 29, 1845, issue of the New York Evening Mirror. Its publication made Poe widely popular in his lifetime though it did not bring him much financial success. The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Although critical opinion is divided as to its status, it remains one of the most famous poems ever written.
Selected picture
Crowds among the books on display at the 41st Cairo International Book Fair, February 2009.
Image: Mohd Tarmizi
Did you know ...
... that Zsigmond Móricz (pictured) was a Hungarian novelist who wrote about the Hungarian peasantry and issues of poverty?
... that Annie John is a 1985 novel by Jamaica Kincaid about a girl growing up in Antigua?
... that Ulrike Folkerts was the first woman at the Salzburg Festival to play the role of Death in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's version of Everyman, Jedermann?
... that Ronald Knox was both a theologian and a crime writer, and that Evelyn Waugh wrote his biography?
... that Merriam Modell was a U.S. author of pulp fiction, and that her novel Bunny Lake Is Missing was filmed by Otto Preminger starring Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward?
... that "The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations" is a descriptive list which was created by 19th century French writer Georges Polti to categorize every dramatic situation which might occur in a story or performance?
... that Animal Farm, The Pursuit of Love, Brideshead Revisited, and Cannery Row were all first published in 1945?
Topics
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Quotes
| “ | The contents of someone's bookcase are part of his history, like an ancestral portrait. | ” |
A day in literature
- 1664 - Henry Wharton, English writer born
- 1832 - Émile Gaboriau, French writer, novelist and journalist born
- 1877 - Muhammad Iqbal, Indian National poet of Pakistan born
- 1905 - Erika Mann, German writer born
- 1911 - Tabish Dehlvi, Pakistani poet born
- 1911 - Howard Pyle, American author died
- 1918 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet died
- 1928 - Anne Sexton, American poet born
- 1929 - Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer born
- 1934 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer born
- 1937 - Roger McGough, English poet born
- 1953 - Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and author died
- 2004 - Iris Chang, American author died
News
- 22 September, 2009 - English poet and playwright Tony Harrison has won the inaugural PEN/Pinter prize. Guardian
- 25 August, 2009 - The Hugo Awards for the best science fiction or fantasy were given, Hugo Award for Best Novel went to Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book.worldswithoutend.com
- 25 August, 2009 - Michael Holroyd was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his biography A Strange Eventful History.Guardian
- 3 June, 2009 - American author Marilynne Robinson wins the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel, Home. BBC
- 26 May, 2009 - Alice Munro won the £60,000 Man Booker International Prize. Guardian
New books
- 20 October, 2009 - Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut
Categories
Subcategories of Literature:
Anthropomorphism – Books – Children's books – Essays – Essayists – Fiction – Genres – Gothic writing – LGBT literature – Literary awards – Literary characters – Literary concepts – Literary genres – Literary magazines – Literary movements – Literature by nationality – Literature in English – Medieval literature – Minimalism – Narratology – Novels – Pataphysics – Plays – Poetry – Short stories – Small press publishers – Literature stubs – Theatre – Traditional stories – Writers – Young adult literature – Zines
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- Start an article: fictography, Belarus literature, gutter rhyme, photobiography, seven by nine squares, working class literature, storycraft, structural exegesis, Structural Irony, Summary Theme, thematic coherence, threnos More...
- Expand: alter ego, English studies, Verisimilitude, Flash prose, German literature of the Baroque period, Identification, composite character, hexameter, internal rhyme, hypertextuality, Midnight Magic, Modernist poetry, high burlesque, Swahili literature, The Freedom Writers Diary, More...
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