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 17, 2025
Where Does the Concept of a “Grim Reaper” Come From?
Harvester of souls since when?
Diagnosing 9 of Charles Dickens’s Most Famous Characters
Dickens had a knack for expertly portraying human diseases.
What did Sir Walter Scott write?
What did Sir Walter Scott write?
9 Obscure Literary Terms
Know your eye rhymes.
Latin literature
Latin literature, the body of writings in Latin, primarily produced during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, when...
dramatic literature
Dramatic literature, the texts of plays that can be read, as distinct from being seen and heard in performance. The term...
Russian literature
Russian literature, the body of written works produced in the Russian language, beginning with the Christianization of Kievan...
Korean literature
Korean literature, the body of works written by Koreans, at first in Classical Chinese, later in various transcription systems...
Literature Quizzes
Writer’s Block
What name was given to the generation of writers Ernest Hemingway belonged to? Test your literary knowledge in this study...
Getting Into (Fictional) Character
What is the name of the schoolteacher in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"? Where does Sherlock Holmes live? Test your knowledge...
Open Books
In which decade did Anne Frank write her diary? To which literary genre does The War of the Worlds belong? Test...
Writer’s Digest
With which U.S. state is the writer John Steinbeck closely associated? Test the "state" of your literary knowledge in this...
Greek and Roman Literature: Fact or Fiction?
Was the Trojan Horse a real horse? Did Homer really write the Iliad? Test your knowledge of Greek and Roman literature...
Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?
Was the first Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles?" From London addresses to famous quotes, grab your magnifying...
Shakespearean Plays: Fact or Fiction?
Is the title character of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet a prince of England? From Twelfth Night to The...
William Shakespeare: Fact or Fiction?
Is William Shakespeare nicknamed "the Bard of Avon?" Did Shakespeare always spell his name one way? Spell check your smarts...
Write vs. Wrong: Fact or Fiction?
Who did Helen Keller dedicate her autobiography to? What was Lewis Carroll’s profession? Sort right from wrong in this quiz...
Indian Literature: Fact or Fiction?
You may be familiar with Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, but how much do you know of Indian literature? Sort...
Literature Videos
Literature Subcategories
Folk Literature & Fable
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.
Articles
Fictional Characters
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.
Articles
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Richard III
fictional character
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Hamlet
fictional character
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Thor
fictional character
Journalism
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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Katie Couric
American broadcaster
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Joseph Moses Levy
British journalist
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Christiane Amanpour
journalist
Libraries & Reference Works
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.
Articles
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James D. Dana
American geologist and mineralogist
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Claude Bernard
French scientist
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Noah Webster
American lexicographer
Literatures of the World
Literature knows no geographical bounds; authors can be found in nearly all corners of the globe. Find out more about regional literary styles and forms.
Articles
- Irish literature
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New Journalism
American literary movement
- Latin American literature
Literary Criticism
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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Edward Said
American professor and literary critic
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Harold Bloom
American literary critic and author
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Charles Baudelaire
French author
Literary Terms
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
Articles
- metaphor
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epic
literary genre
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epistolary novel
literature
Nonfiction
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Or that's the idea, at least. Nonfiction works center on 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.
Articles
- journalism
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The Feminine Mystique
work by Friedan
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The Diary of a Young Girl
work by Frank
Novels & Short Stories
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.
Articles
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Ulysses
novel by Joyce
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The Sound and the Fury
novel by Faulkner
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Catch-22
novel by Heller
Oratory
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.
Articles
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Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
French bishop
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Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
French politician and orator
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Daniel Webster
American politician
Plays
; 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.
Articles
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Hamlet
work by Shakespeare
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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
play by Albee
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Henry IV, Part 1
work by Shakespeare
Poetry
; sonnets, haikus, nursery rhymes, epics, and more are included.
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poetry
literature
- utopian poetry
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metre
prosody
