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 Penelopiad is a novella by Margaret Atwood. It was published in 2005 as part of the first set of books in the Canongate Myth Series where contemporary authors rewrite ancient myths. In The Penelopiad, Penelope reminisces on the events during the Odyssey, life in Hades, Odysseus, Helen, and her relationships with her parents. A chorus of the twelve maids, whom Odysseus believed were disloyal and whom Telemachus hanged, interrupt Penelope's narrative to express their view on events. The maids' interludes use a new genre each time, including a jump-rope rhyme, a lament, an idyll, a ballad, a lecture, a court trial and several types of songs.
The novella's central themes include the effects of story-telling perspectives, double standards between the sexes and the classes, and the fairness of justice. Atwood had previously used characters and storylines from Greek mythology in fiction such as her novel The Robber Bride, short story The Elysium Lifestyle Mansions and poems "Circe: Mud Poems" and "Helen of Troy Does Counter Dancing" but used Robert Graves' The Greek Myths and E. V. Rieu and D. C. H. Rieu's version of the Odyssey to prepare for this novella.
Selected excerpt
“ | When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred! |
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— Alfred Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" |
More Did you know
- ... that William Blake's character Spectre, which represents unchanging reason in his spiritual mythology, may have been inspired by the poet William Cowper?
- ... that the Pingyao Zhuan, a shenmo fantasy novel written in the Ming Dynasty, is loosely based on a historical revolt?
- ... that the novels of Jane Austen became popular with the public only after the publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869?
- ... that, as a prize for having written "O Armatolos", Bulgarian poet Grigor Parlichev was awarded a laurel wreath by king Otto of Greece?
- ... that the Goosebumps novella One Day at Horrorland was adapted into a two-part television episode, two video games, a comic, and a book series?
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- ... that Māori fiction written in English, now a key part of New Zealand literature, only emerged in the 1950s?
- ... that Romanian literary scholar Dan Simonescu, who edited a chronicle dealing with the reign of Michael the Brave, had to delete any mention of Michael having "all the Jews murdered"?
- ... 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?
- ... that despite specializing in literature and serving as a senior editor of the Zhonghua Book Company, historian Zhang Zhenglang never published a single book of his own?
- ... that Susan Chitty's memoir on her mother, Antonia White, was viewed as a "literary assassination" when published?
- ... that Gunhild Bergh was the second woman in Sweden to be awarded a PhD in literary history?
Today in literature
- 1834 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet died
- 1897 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
- 1905 - Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer born
- 1902 - Eric Hoffer, American philosopher born
- 1907 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer born
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