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.
Literary criticism is one of the oldest academic disciplines, and is concerned with the literary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts. The study of books and other texts as artifacts or traditions is instead encompassed by textual criticism or the history of the book. "Literature", as an art form, is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, fiction written with the goal of artistic merit, but can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Within this broader definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles, or other written information on a particular subject. (Full article...)
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The Man in the Moone is a book by the English divine and Church of England bishop Francis Godwin (1562–1633), describing a "voyage of utopian discovery". Initially considered to be one of his early works, it is now generally thought to have been written in the late 1620s. It was first published posthumously in 1638 under the pseudonym of Domingo Gonsales. The work is notable for its role in what was called the "new astronomy," the branch of astronomy influenced especially by Nicolaus Copernicus, the only astronomer mentioned by name, although the book also draws on the theories of Johannes Kepler, William Gilbert, and Galileo Galilei.
The work tells the story of Gonsales, a Spaniard who discovers a species of wild swan able to carry substantial loads, the gansa, and contrives a device that allows him to harness many of them together and fly around an island, and eventually, to the moon and back.
Some critics consider The Man in the Moone, along with Kepler's Somnium, to be one of the first works of science fiction. Although the book was well known in the 17th century, and even inspired parodies by Cyrano de Bergerac and Aphra Behn, modern literary critics do not consider it to be very important.
Selected excerpt
“ | Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words? | ” |
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray |
More Did you know
- ... that an episode in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream may have been a "riff" on the medieval German poem Der Busant?
- ... that Spock Must Die! and Spock, Messiah! were the first two original novels for adults to be written in the Star Trek universe?
- ... that the poem Nachuk Tahate Shyama, written by Swami Vivekananda, relates to one's surrender to the Hindu goddess Kali?
- ... that in 1845 Robert Browning met Elizabeth Barrett and wrote "Meeting at Night", the "most sensual poem" he had written up to that time?
- ... that according to James Joyce, Édouard Dujardin's 1887 novel Les Lauriers sont coupés is the first example of the stream of consciousness technique?
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Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... 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 the Three Bards are the most celebrated poets in the history of Polish literature?
- ... that Abdul Ahad Azad is recognised for laying the foundations of literary criticism in Kashmiri literature?
- ... that Bulkboeken ('bulk books') were cheap reprints of Dutch literary classics, published from 1971 to the late 1990s, and again from 2007?
- ... that Edo literature was influenced by British colonialism in the late 19th century, which introduced the Roman script and Christianity to the Edo people?
- ... that Galadriel's gift of some of her hair to Gimli in The Lord of the Rings has echoes in both English literature and Norse legend?
Today in literature
- AD 65 - Lucan, Roman poet died
- 1660 - Petrus Scriverius, Dutch writer died
- 1736 - Johann Albert Fabricius, German bibliographer died
- 1795 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer died
- 1864 - Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet born
- 1883 - Jaroslav Hašek, Czech novelist born
- 1936 - Alfred Edward Housman, English poet died
- 1938 - Larry Niven, American author born
- 1945 - Annie Dillard, American writer born
- 1971 - John Boyne, Irish novelist born
- 1994 - Richard Scarry, American author died
- 1998 - Nizar Qabbani, Syrian poet died
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