Portal:Literature
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The history of literature begins with the history of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, although the oldest literary texts that have come down to us date to a full millennium after the invention of writing, to the late 3rd millennium BC. The earliest literary authors known by name are Ptahhotep and Enheduanna, dating to ca. the 24th and 23rd centuries BC, respectively.
Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the earliest works of feminist literature or philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to the educational and political theorists of the eighteenth century who wanted to deny women an education. She argues that women ought to have an education commensurate with their position in society and then proceeds to redefine that position, claiming that women are essential to the nation because they educate its children and because they could be "companions" to their husbands, rather than mere wives. Instead of viewing women as ornaments to society or property to be traded in marriage, Wollstonecraft maintains that they are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men.
Wollstonecraft was prompted to write the Rights of Woman by Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord's 1791 report to the French National Assembly which stated that women should only receive a domestic education; she used her commentary on this specific event to launch a broad attack against sexual double standards and to indict men for encouraging women to indulge in excessive emotion. Wollstonecraft wrote the Rights of Woman hurriedly in order to respond directly to ongoing events; she intended to write a more thoughtful second volume, but she died before she was able to complete it.
While Wollstonecraft does call for equality between the sexes in particular areas of life, such as morality, she does not explicitly state that men and women are completely equal. Her ambiguous statements regarding the equality of the sexes have since made it difficult to classify Wollstonecraft as a modern feminist, particularly since the word and the concept were unavailable to her. Although it is commonly assumed now that the Rights of Woman was unfavorably received, this is a modern misconception based on the belief that Wollstonecraft was as reviled during her lifetime as she became after the publication of William Godwin's Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798). The Rights of Woman was actually well-received when it was first published in 1792.
Memorial to Cædmon, St Mary's Churchyard, Whitby, North Yorkshire, Great Britain. (image details)
Image credit: Richard Thomas
Charles Baudelaire (French IPA: [ʃaʀl bod'lɛʀ]) (April 9, 1821 – August 31, 1867) was one of the most influential French poets of the nineteenth century. He was also an important critic and translator.
In 1846 and 1847 he became acquainted with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, in which he found tales and poems which had, he claimed, long existed in his own brain but never taken shape. From this time until 1865, he was largely occupied with his translated versions of Poe's works, which were widely praised. These were published as Histoires extraordinaires ("Extraordinary stories") (1852), Nouvelles histoires extraordinaires ("New extraordinary stories") (1857), Aventures d'Arthur Gordon Pym (see The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym), Eureka, and Histoires grotesques et sérieuses ("Grotesque and serious stories") (1865).
... that English poet W. H. Auden, who died in 1973, is interred in Kirchstetten, Lower Austria?
... that many works of fiction are set in the London Underground system or use it as a major plot element?
... that "Tarry, Jew: The law hath yet another hold on you" are words spoken by Portia, who is disguised as a judge, and addressed to Shylock in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice?
... that Robert Lowell's 1960 poem "For the Union Dead" is about Robert Gould Shaw (pictured), the white colonel in command of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry which was defeated by the Confederate Army in the Battle of Fort Wagner (July 18, 1863)?
... that Alan Ayckbourn's plays are usually premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, North Yorkshire?
... that "À une madone" (English translation) is a poem by Charles Baudelaire from his 1857 collection, Les Fleurs du mal?
... that Sally Bowles is an English cabaret singer in 1930s Berlin in Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel, Goodbye to Berlin, and that she was played by Liza Minnelli in the 1972 movie, Cabaret?
| “ | Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. | ” |
- 1773 - Étienne Aignan, French writer born
- 1821 - Charles Baudelaire, French poet born
- 1899 - P. L. Travers, Australian author born
- 1912 - Lew Kopelew, Russian author born
- 1996 - Richard Condon, American novelist died
- 1997 - Helene Hanff, American writer died
- 30 March, 2007 - The 2007 Hugo Award nominees have been named. The winners will be announced at the 65th Worldcon, Aug. 3 - Sep. 3, in Yokohama, Japan.(scifi.com)
- 19 March, 2007 - The 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction longlist is announced. (Orange Prize)
- 12 March, 2007 - The diaries of Charles Darwin's wife have been published online, giving an insight into his life. (darwin-online.org.uk)
- 26 February, 2007 - Philip Roth is awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. (Guardian)
- 20 February , 2007 - Susan Patron's children's book The Higher Power of Lucky is banned for a single word in some U.S. schools. (Guardian)
- 1 February , 2007 - J. K. Rowlings' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last of seven instalments, will be published on 21 July. (Guardian)
Subcategories of Literature:
Anthropomorphism - Books - Children's books - Essays - Essayists- Fiction - Genres - Gothic writing - LGBT literature - Literary awards - Literary characters - Literary concepts - Literary genres - Literary magazines - Literary movements - Literature by nationality - Literature in English - Medieval literature - Minimalism - Motif of harmful sensation - Narratology - Novels - Pataphysics - Plays - Poetry - Short stories - Small press publishers - Literature stubs - Theatre - Traditional stories - World War I literature - Writers - Young adult literature - Zines
WikiProjects connected with literature:
- Literature
- Books
- Comics (Also under Visual arts)
- Children's literature
- Critical Theory (Also under Philosophy)
- Horror
- Irish literature
- Mythology (Also under Religion)
- Poetry
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