Literature
With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
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Featured content, April 28, 2025
5 Good Books That Inspired Bad Deeds
Words gone wild.
Why Is There an R in Mrs.?
There’s no r in missus, so what’s it doing in the abbreviation?
10 Frequently Confused Literary Terms
Do you confuse "denotation" with "connotation"? Oh, the irony! ...or is it coincidence?
What did Sir Walter Scott write?
What did Sir Walter Scott write?
American literature
American literature, the body of written works produced in the English language in the United States. Like other national...
Yiddish literature
Yiddish literature, the body of written works produced in the Yiddish language of Ashkenazic Jewry (central and eastern European...
Icelandic literature
Icelandic literature, body of writings in Icelandic, including those from Old Icelandic (also called Old Norse) through Modern...
rhetoric
Rhetoric, the principles of training communicators—those seeking to persuade or inform. In the 20th century it underwent...
Literature Quizzes
Gods, Goddesses, and Greek Mythology
Do you know which hero took a dip in the River Styx? Or what mysteries lurk inside the Labyrinth?
An Odyssey of Grecian Literature
Who was Odysseus’s wife? What author wrote The Republic? From famous philosophers to epic journeys, embark upon...
A Study of William Shakespeare
How many sonnets did William Shakespeare publish? Where is Romeo and Juliet set? From couplets and quatrains to...
The Life and Work of William Shakespeare
Who was Hamlet’s mother? How many sonnets did Shakespeare write? Broaden your literary horizons in this quiz spanning the...
The Life and Works of English Authors
You may be familiar with Alice in Wonderland and A Christmas Carol, but how much do you know about Virginia...
Name That Author
Who wrote The Wealth of Nations? Who wrote Inferno and the other books of The Divine Comedy?...
Who Wrote It?
From The Divine Comedy to The Da Vinci Code, test your knowledge of the authors behind the plays, poems,...
What’s In A Name?
Who wrote Things Fall Apart? From Sherlock Holmes to Winnie-the-Pooh, see if you can pick up the pieces by attaching...
A Study of Poetry
If roses are red and violets blue, in poetry, what does the word "foot" refer to? Take your knowledge beyond red roses and...
Getting Into Character
What dramatic character sold his soul to the devil? Who is the hero of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book? Test your...
Literature Videos
Literature Subcategories
Folk Literature & Fable
Step into the world of folklore, fables, legends, tall tales, and epics, in which heroes are known to undertake arduous journeys and dragons, fairies, and giants abound. Stories such as these circulated long before systems of writing were developed; ballads, folktales, poems, and the like were transmitted exclusively by word of mouth before written languages took over, and they continue to captivate listeners and readers to this day.
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vampire
legendary creature
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fable
literature
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The Little Prince
fable by Saint-Exupéry
Fictional Characters
Here you'll find some of your favorite fictional characters from literature, film, television, and the like, whether it's the analytical mastermind Sherlock Holmes and his endearing associate Dr. Watson or the menacing and helmeted Darth Vader, the ill-tempered Donald Duck, or the teenage sleuth Nancy Drew.
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Richard III
fictional character
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Hamlet
fictional character
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Thor
fictional character
Journalism
Extra, extra! Although the content and style of journalism and the medium through which it is delivered have varied significantly over the years, journalism has always given us a way to keep up with current events, so that we always have our fingers on the pulse.
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Edward R. Murrow
American journalist
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I. F. Stone
American journalist
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Hunter S. Thompson
American journalist
Libraries & Reference Works
Looking to impress your friends with your expansive knowledge of historical events, philosophical concepts, obscure words, and more? We may be biased, but it seems fair enough to say that reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and textbooks have provided such a service for years (in some cases, hundreds or even thousands of years). You can look for them at your local public library, which likely stores books, manuscripts, journals, CDs, movies, and other sources of information and entertainment.
Articles
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E.O. Wilson
American biologist
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Georges-Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon
French naturalist
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Pliny the Elder
Roman scholar
Literatures of the World
Literature knows no geographical bounds; authors can be found in nearly all corners of the globe. Find out more about regional literary styles and forms.
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- Irish literature
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New Journalism
American literary movement
- Latin American literature
Literary Criticism
Everyone's a critic. But not all literary criticism involves judging the quality of a text; it can also focus on interpreting the meaning of a work or evaluating an author's place in literary history.
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Roland Barthes
French critic
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Helen Archibald Clarke and Charlotte Endymion Porter
American writers
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge
British poet and critic
Literary Terms
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
Articles
Nonfiction
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Or that's the idea, at least. Nonfiction works center on facts and real events. Although there is some debate about which kinds of literature qualify as nonfiction, the genre typically includes books in the categories of biography, memoir, science, history, self-help, cooking, health and fitness, business, and more.
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Novels & Short Stories
novels and short stories have been enchanting and transporting readers for a great many years. There's a little something for everyone: within these two genres of literature, a wealth of types and styles can be found, including historical, epistolary, romantic, Gothic, and realist works, along with many more.
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novel
literature
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short story
literature
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
novel by Hugo
Oratory
speech and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, quoted above, are two iconic examples of successful oratory, as are Elizabeth I's speech to the troops at Tilbury and Winston Churchill's first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons.
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Tecumseh
Shawnee chief
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Quintilian
Roman rhetorician
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John Donne
English poet
Plays
; and the stage is where you'll find performances of works by such famed playwrights as Anton Chekhov, Eugene O'Neill, and the Bard himself, among many others.
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Hamlet
work by Shakespeare
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Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
play by Albee
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Henry IV, Part 1
work by Shakespeare
Poetry
; sonnets, haikus, nursery rhymes, epics, and more are included.
Articles
- light verse
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Beowulf
Old English poem
- heroic poetry
