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, and including 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, and 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, memoir, 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 Open Boat" is a short story by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). First published in 1897, it was based on Crane's experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. Crane was stranded at sea for thirty hours when his ship, the SS Commodore, sank after hitting a sandbar. He and three other men were forced to navigate their way to shore in a small boat; one of the men, an oiler named Billie Higgins, drowned after the boat overturned. Crane's personal account of the shipwreck and the men's survival, titled "Stephen Crane's Own Story", was first published a few days after his rescue.
Crane subsequently adapted his report into narrative form, and the resulting short story "The Open Boat" was published in Scribner's Magazine. The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous correspondent, with Crane as the implied author, the action closely resembles the author's experiences after the shipwreck. Praised for its innovation by contemporary critics, the story is considered an exemplary work of literary Naturalism, and is one of the most frequently discussed works in Crane's canon.
Selected excerpt
“ | Something I may not win attracts me ever,— Something elusive, yet supremely fair, Thrills me with gladness, but contents me never, Fills me with sadness, yet forbids despair. |
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— Florence Earle Coates, "The Ideal" in Poems |
More Did you know
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- ... that the novels of Jane Austen became popular with the public only after the publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen in 1869?
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- ... 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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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?
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- ... that Susan Chitty's memoir on her mother, Antonia White, was viewed as a "literary assassination" when published?
- ... that a teacher of medieval literature and comic books writes the blog Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle?
- ... that Children's Fantasy Literature is the first work to address the genre's 500-year history in depth?
- ... that despite a career writing queer literature, Chen Xue's 2019 novel Fatherless City had a "putatively straight premise"?
Today in literature
- 1552 - Alexander Barclay, English poet died
- 1580 - Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet died
- 1863 - Louis Couperus, Dutch novelist born
- 1911 - Terence Rattigan, British playwright born
- 1915 - Saul Bellow, American writer born
- 1928 - Maurice Sendak, American writer born
- 1949 - Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer died
- 1982 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German author died
- 1991 - Vercors, French writer died
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Regions: | Australian literature · Indian literature · Persian literature |
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