Literature
Articles in this category
Biography in literature
The relationship between biography and literature is multifaceted, manifesting in both scholarly analysis and fictional forms. Literary biography explores individuals' lives by merging historical facts with narrative conventions, often integrating discussions of their creative works—a complex balance that writers like ...
Meta-reference
Meta-reference is a form of self-reference occurring in various media, such as films, books, and video games, where an artifact comments on itself, its medium, or media in general from a "meta-level." This technique makes the recipient aware of the work's artificial nature and production, thereby triggering a consciousness of its media...
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the in-depth study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature, often shaped by literary theory—the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Its roots extend to the classical period, notably with Aristotle's Poetics in the 4th century BC, which introduc...
Literary theory
Literary theory systematically studies the nature of literature and its analysis methods, evolving since the 19th century into an interdisciplinary field influenced by philosophy, semiotics, and cultural studies. While formally established as a profession in the 20th century, its roots span back to ancient Greece with Aristotle...
Gnomic poetry
Gnomic poetry consists of concise, meaningful sayings put into verse to aid memory, forming a key part of wisdom literature that expresses general truths about the world. Flourishing in ancient Greece around the 6th century BC, poets like Theognis, Solon, and Hesiod (w...
Literary genre
A literary genre categorizes literature based on aspects like technique, tone, content, or length, with distinctions that are flexible and evolve over time. The foundational concept originated with Aristotle in ancient Greece, who classified "species" such as epic, tragedy, and comedy in his treatises Rhetoric...
Japanese poetry
Japanese poetry broadly includes works written in various forms of the Japanese language, poetry in Chinese by Japanese poets (kanshi), and ryūka from the Okinawa Islands. Its literary record began significantly during the Tang dynasty when Japanese poets encountered Chinese poetry, le...
Literary devices in The Lord of the Rings
J. R. R. Tolkien, a philologist and author, masterfully employed a range of sophisticated literary devices in his iconic high fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, published in 1954–55. This monumental epic quickly garnered immense popularity from the 1960s, consistently ranking as one of the most beloved books in numerous glob...
Essays of Elia
Here is a comprehensive summary of the article about Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia:
Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia, a highly celebrated collection, was first published in book form in 1823, following initial appearances in The London Magazine from 1820 to 1825. Lamb wro...
Semiotic literary criticism
Semiotic literary criticism, also known as literary semiotics, analyzes literature through the theory of signs (semiotics), heavily influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure's structuralism. Emerging from Russian formalism and structuralist linguistics, early figures like Vladimir Propp, Algirdas Julius Greimas, and Viktor Shklovsky aimed to...
Stanhope essay prize
The Stanhope essay prize was a prestigious undergraduate history award established in 1855 at Balliol College, Oxford, by Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope. This annual prize quickly gained recognition for attracting exceptional academic talent, with its list of winners featuring many individuals who later achie...
Eight-legged essay
The eight-legged essay (bāgǔwén) was a highly structured and rigid essay format central to the imperial civil service examinations during China's Ming and Qing dynasties. Designed to test candidates' deep knowledge of Confucian classics and governmental ideals, it required coherent wri...