Literature
From Conservapedia
Literature as an art, consists of writings whose value lies in the beauty of form or emotional effect.” [1] Traditionally, this encompasses such diverse forms of expression as novels, poetry, and others. Literary criticism is usually itself considered a form of literature.
The art of literature is not reducible to the words on the page; they are there because of the craft of writing. As an art, literature is the organization of words to give pleasure; through them it elevates and transforms experience; through them it functions in society as a continuing symbolic criticism of values. The Art of Literature Encyclopædia Britannica.
The content of literature is as limitless as the desire of human beings to communicate. Literary criticism is usually itself considered a form of literature.
While epic poetry is a form of artistic expression, it is generally considered that literature began with the recording of such epics, rather than their oral recitation. In ancient Mesopotamia, the development of ideographic glyphs allowed the recording of the Epic of Gilgamesh in the city of Akkadia for an Assyrian king in the seventh century B.C., arguably the first piece of literature that we possess today. It was preceded by multiple other items of literature that we know of, such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, but while Egyptologists believe this to have been recorded as early as the eighteenth century B.C., extant copies date from 250 B.C.[2]
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Poetry Sample
We call it a grain of sand
but it calls itself neither grain nor sand.
It does just fine without a name,
whether general, particular,
permanent, passing,
incorrect or apt.
Wislawa Szymborska, from "View with a Grain of Sand". Poetry Samples
A novel criticism
About Anna Karenina.
Anna Karenina was published in serial form from 1873-1877. It created a great stir in society; reports from the time claim that everyone in Russian Society was discussing the book and waiting eagerly for the next installment to appear. The critical reaction was mostly positive and, like the novel itself, passionate. It was published on the heels of Leo Tolstoy's great opus, War and Peace (1863-1869) and solidified his reputation as one of Russia's most important 19th-century writers. This was quite a feat, given that his contemporaries included Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Gogol and Lermontov.... Although the critical reaction to Anna Karenina was favorable and the public was shaken by the strength of both the story and Tolstoy's prose, Tolstoy himself was dissatisfied with the novel... About Anna Karenina Literature ClassicNotes™
The Iliad (fragment)
Book I
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.
And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son of Jove and Leto; for he was angry with the king and sent a pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus had dishonoured Chryses his priest. Now Chryses had come to the ships of the Achaeans to free his daughter, and had brought with him a great ransom: moreover he bore in his hand the sceptre of Apollo wreathed with a suppliant's wreath and he besought the Achaeans, but most of all the two sons of Atreus, who were their chiefs.
"Sons of Atreus," he cried, "and all other Achaeans, may the gods who dwell in Olympus grant you to sack the city of Priam, and to reach your homes in safety; but free my daughter, and accept a ransom for her, in reverence to Apollo, son of Jove."
On this the rest of the Achaeans with one voice were for respecting the priest and taking the ransom that he offered; but not so Agamemnon, who spoke fiercely to him and sent him roughly away. "Old man," said he, "let me not find you tarrying about our ships, nor yet coming hereafter. Your sceptre of the god and your wreath shall profit you nothing. I will not free her. She shall grow old in my house at Argos far from her own home, busying herself with her loom and visiting my couch; so go, and do not provoke me or it shall be the worse for you."
Homer [1]. Translated by Samuel Butler.
See also
- Spanish Golden Age
- Liberal Arts college
- World History Lecture One
- Poetry
- Author With a list of "Top authors".
External links
- The Internet Classics Archive by Daniel C. Stevenson.
- Project Gutenberg
- An Online Library of Literature
- Literature Open Directory.
- Top 50 Poems
- Literature of the Western World: Greek & Roman
- The Cambridge History of English and American Literature An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes.
- A Brief History of Spanish-language Literature
