- aesthetic distance (literature)
aesthetic distance, the frame of reference that an artist creates by the use of technical devices in and around the work of art to differentiate it psychologically from reality. German playwright Bertolt Brecht built his dramatic theory known in English as the alienation effect to accomplish
- aesthetic experience
aesthetics: Three approaches to aesthetics: …held to be involved in aesthetic experience. Thus, in the seminal work of modern aesthetics Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790; The Critique of Judgment), Immanuel Kant located the distinctive features of the aesthetic in the faculty of “judgment,” whereby we take up a certain stance toward objects, separating them from our…
- aesthetic judgment
aesthetics: The aesthetic experience: Aesthetic judgment, however, seems to be in conflict with itself. It cannot be at the same time aesthetic (an expression of sensory enjoyment) and also a judgment (claiming universal assent). Yet all rational beings, by virtue of their rationality, seem disposed to make these judgments. On…
- aesthetic object (philosophy)
aesthetics: Three approaches to aesthetics: The philosophical study of the aesthetic object. This approach reflects the view that the problems of aesthetics exist primarily because the world contains a special class of objects toward which we react selectively and which we describe in aesthetic terms. The usual class singled out as prime aesthetic objects is…
- aesthetic regime (political philosophy)
Jacques Rancière: aesthetic. Under the “ethical regime of images,” which he associates with the ideal state of Plato, art strictly speaking does not exist, and visual or literary images, understood as copies of things that are real or true, are produced only to reinforce the social order.…
- aesthetic surgery (medicine)
plastic surgery: Aesthetic surgery: Aesthetic, or cosmetic, surgery is the enhancement of normal structures that are subject to age-related changes or that have unusual features that are distressing to the patient. The procedures used to address these issues are often performed in the physician’s office (as opposed…
- Aesthetica (work by Baumgarten)
Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten: …work, written in Latin, was Aesthetica, 2 vol. (1750–58). The problems of aesthetics had been treated by others before Baumgarten, but he both advanced the discussion of such topics as art and beauty and set the discipline off from the rest of philosophy. His student G.F. Meier (1718–77), however, assisted…
- Aestheticism (art movement)
Aestheticism, late 19th-century European arts movement which centred on the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, and that it need serve no political, didactic, or other purpose. The movement began in reaction to prevailing utilitarian social philosophies and to what was
- aesthetics (philosophy)
aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated. To provide more than a general definition of the subject
- Aesthetik (work by Hegel)
tragedy: Hegel: …influential German philosopher, in his Aesthetics (1820–29), proposed that the sufferings of the tragic hero are merely a means of reconciling opposing moral claims. The operation is a success because of, not in spite of, the fact that the patient dies. According to Hegel’s account of Greek tragedy, the conflict…
- Aestii (people)
Balt, member of a people of the Indo-European linguistic family living on the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea. (The name Balt, coined in the 19th century, is derived from the sea; Aestii was the name given these peoples by the Roman historian Tacitus.) In addition to the Lithuanians and the
- aestivation (biology)
dormancy: Homoiotherms and heterotherms: …summer; such hibernation is called estivation. As a means of avoiding environmental stresses, hibernation and estivation are not common devices among warm-blooded animals and they are far less common among birds than among mammals.
- AETA (United States [2006])
ecoterrorism: In 2005 the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) expanded the definition of animal enterprise terrorism to include “interfering with” the operations of an animal enterprise, extended protection to third-party enterprises having a relationship to or transactions with an animal enterprise, expanded the definition of animal enterprise to include…
- Aeterne rerum Conditor (hymn by Saint Ambrose)
St. Ambrose: Literary and musical accomplishments: …composing beautiful hymns, notably “Aeterne rerum Conditor” (“Framer of the earth and sky”) and “Deus Creator omnium” (“Maker of all things, God most high”). He spared no pains in instructing candidates for baptism. He denounced social abuses (notably in the sermons De Nabuthe [“On Naboth”]) and frequently secured pardon…
- Aeterni Patris (encyclical by Leo XIII)
Aeterni Patris, an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on Aug. 4, 1879, which strengthened the position of the philosophical system of the medieval Scholastic philosopher-theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and soon made Thomism the dominant philosophical viewpoint in Roman
- Aethalia (island, Italy)
Elba, island off the west coast of Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Elba has an area of 86 square miles (223 square km) and is the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is famous as Napoleon’s place of exile in 1814–15. Administratively Elba is part of Tuscany regione, Italy. Its coast is
- Aethelbald (king of Wessex)
Aethelbald was the king of Wessex (from 855/856), the son of Aethelwulf, with whom he led the West Saxons to victory against the Danes at Aclea (851). He reportedly rebelled against his father either before (855) or on the latter’s return from Rome in 856 and deprived him of Wessex, which he ruled
- Aethelbald (king of Mercia)
Aethelbald was the king of the Mercians from 716, who became the chief king of a confederation including all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms between the River Humber and the English Channel. His predominance was made possible by the death of the strong king Wihtred of Kent (725) and the abdication of Ine
- Aethelberg (queen of Northumbria)
Eadbald: …a marriage between his sister Aethelberg and Edwin of Northumbria, on whose defeat and death in 633 he received his sister in the company of Paulinus and offered the latter the bishopric of Rochester. Eadbald was succeeded as king by his son Eorcenberht.
- Aethelberht (king of Wessex)
Aethelberht was the king of the West Saxons, or Wessex, who succeeded to the subkingdom of Kent during the lifetime of his father Aethelwulf and retained it until the death of his elder brother Aethelbald, when he became sole king of Wessex and Kent, the younger brothers Aethelred and Alfred
- Aethelberht I (king of Kent)
Aethelberht I was the king of Kent (560–616) who issued the first extant code of Anglo-Saxon laws. Reflecting some continental influence, the code established the legal position of the clergy and instituted many secular regulations. Aethelberht’s marriage to Bertha (or Berhta), daughter of
- Aethelflaed (Anglo-Saxon ruler)
Aethelflaed was an Anglo-Saxon ruler of Mercia in England and the founder of Gloucester Abbey. The eldest child of King Alfred the Great, she helped her brother Edward the Elder, king of the West Saxons (reigned 899–924), in conquering the Danish armies occupying eastern England. Aethelflaed became
- Aethelfrith (king of Bernicia and Deira)
Aethelfrith was the king of Bernicia (from 592/593) and of Deira, which together formed Northumbria. Aethelfrith was the son of Aethelric and grandson of Ida, king of Bernicia, and his reign marks the true beginning of the continuous history of a united Northumbria and, indeed, of England. He
- Aethelfrith the Destroyer (king of Bernicia and Deira)
Aethelfrith was the king of Bernicia (from 592/593) and of Deira, which together formed Northumbria. Aethelfrith was the son of Aethelric and grandson of Ida, king of Bernicia, and his reign marks the true beginning of the continuous history of a united Northumbria and, indeed, of England. He
- Aetheling (Anglo-Saxon aristocrat)
Aetheling, in Anglo-Saxon England, generally any person of noble birth. Use of the term was usually restricted to members of a royal family, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle it is used almost exclusively for members of the royal house of Wessex. It was occasionally used after the Norman Conquest to
- Aethelred (king of Mercia)
Aethelred was the king of Mercia, who was a benefactor of many churches in his several provinces and at last retired to a monastery. He succeeded his brother Wulfhere in 675 and early on spent most of his time in warfare. In 676 he ravished Kent, taking Rochester. In 679, in a battle on the banks
- Aethelred (king of England)
Ethelred the Unready was the king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet “unready” is derived from unraed, meaning “bad counsel” or “no counsel,” and puns on his name, which means
- Aethelred I (king of Wessex and Kent)
Aethelred I was the king of Wessex and of Kent (865/866–871), son of Aethelwulf of Wessex. By his father’s will he should have succeeded to Wessex on the death of his eldest brother Aethelbald (d. 860). He seems, however, to have stood aside in favour of his brother Aethelberht, king of Kent, to
- Aethelred of Rievaulx, Saint (Cistercian monk)
Saint Aelred of Rievaulx was a writer, historian, and outstanding Cistercian abbot who influenced monasticism in medieval England, Scotland, and France. His feast day is celebrated by the Cistercians on February 3. Of noble birth, Aelred was reared at the court of King David I of Scotland, whose
- Aethelred Unraed (king of England)
Ethelred the Unready was the king of the English from 978 to 1013 and from 1014 to 1016. He was an ineffectual ruler who failed to prevent the Danes from overrunning England. The epithet “unready” is derived from unraed, meaning “bad counsel” or “no counsel,” and puns on his name, which means
- Aethelstan (king of Denmark)
Guthrum was a leader of a major Danish invasion of Anglo-Saxon England who waged war against the West Saxon king Alfred the Great (reigned 871–899) and later made himself king of East Anglia (reigned 880–890). Guthrum went to England in the great Danish invasion of 865, and in mid-January 878 he
- Aethelstan (king of England)
Athelstan was the first West Saxon king to have effective rule over the whole of England. On the death of his father, Edward the Elder, in 924, Athelstan was elected king of Wessex and Mercia, where he had been brought up by his aunt, Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians. Crowned king of the whole
- Aethelweard (English chronicler)
Aethelweard was an English chronicler and likely ealderman of the western provinces (probably the whole of Wessex), a descendant of King Alfred’s brother Aethelred. He wrote, in elaborate and peculiar Latin, a chronicle for his continental kinswoman, Matilda, abbess of Essen. In the printed version
- Aethelwold (Anglo-Saxon bishop)
English literature: Late 10th- and 11th-century prose: Aethelwold, bishop of Winchester and one of the leaders of the reform, translated the Rule of St. Benedict. But the greatest and most prolific writer of this period was his pupil Aelfric, a monk at Cerne and later abbot of Eynsham, whose works include three…
- Aethelwulf (Anglo-Saxon king)
Aethelwulf was an Anglo-Saxon king in England, the father of King Alfred the Great. As ruler of the West Saxons from 839 to 856, he allied his kingdom of Wessex with Mercia and thereby withstood invasions by Danish Vikings. The son of the great West Saxon king Egbert (ruled 802–839), Aethelwulf
- aether (theoretical substance)
ether, in physics, a theoretical universal substance believed during the 19th century to act as the medium for transmission of electromagnetic waves (e.g., light and X-rays), much as sound waves are transmitted by elastic media such as air. The ether was assumed to be weightless, transparent,
- Aether (Greek mythology)
Chaos: Nyx begat Aether, the bright upper air, and Day. Nyx later begat the dark and dreadful aspects of the universe (e.g., Dreams, Death, War, and Famine). This concept tied in with the other early notion that saw in Chaos the darkness of the underworld.
- Aetherius Society (international organization)
new religious movement: Scientific NRMs: UFO groups and Scientology: …by Gabriel Green, and the Aetherius Society, organized by George King, maintained that space aliens held the key to the salvation both of the planet as a whole and of every individual on Earth.
- Aethia pusilla (bird)
auklet: …of the family is the least auklet (Aethia pusilla), about 15 cm (6 inches) long. It winters far north in rough waters. The plainest and grayest species is Cassin’s auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus), a common resident from the Aleutians to Baja California.
- Aethionema (plant)
stonecress, (genus Aethionema), genus of about 65 species of mostly sprawling low herbs of the mustard family (Brassicaceae). Most species are native to chalky, dry soil areas of the Mediterranean region, with a few species in eastern Asia. A number of stonecresses are grown as rock garden or
- Aethionema cordifolium (plant)
stonecress: Lebanon stonecress (A. cordifolium) has rose-pink flowers on 10- to 25-cm (4- to 10-inch) plants. Fragrant Persian stonecress (A. schistosum) rarely reaches more than 30 cm in height and is cultivated for its fragrant pink flowers.
- Aethionema grandiflorum (plant)
stonecress: Persian stonecress (Aethionema grandiflorum) is a perennial with rosy-lavender flowers and grows to over 30 cm (1 foot). Lebanon stonecress (A. cordifolium) has rose-pink flowers on 10- to 25-cm (4- to 10-inch) plants. Fragrant Persian stonecress (A. schistosum) rarely reaches more than 30 cm in…
- Aethionema schistosum (plant)
stonecress: Fragrant Persian stonecress (A. schistosum) rarely reaches more than 30 cm in height and is cultivated for its fragrant pink flowers.
- Aethiopica (work by Heliodorus of Emesa)
Heliodorus of Emesa: …as the author of the Aethiopica, the longest and most readable of the extant ancient Greek novels.
- Aethiopis (work by Arctinus)
Achilles: The poet Arctinus in his Aethiopis took up the story of the Iliad and related that Achilles, having slain the Ethiopian king Memnon and the Amazon Penthesilea, was himself slain in battle by Priam’s son Paris, whose arrow was guided by Apollo.
- Aethra (Greek mythology)
Aethra, in Greek mythology, daughter of King Pittheus of Troezen and mother of Theseus. Thinking to help fulfill the prophecy of the Oracle at Delphi regarding how the childlessness of King Aegeus of Athens would end, Pittheus (whose prospects for a son-in-law had recently vanished) plied Aegeus
- Aetiocetidae (fossil whale family)
cetacean: Annotated taxonomy: †Family Aetiocetidae 1 genus, possibly 2. Upper Oligocene. Toothed but with symmetrical skull and other typical mysticete features. North America. †Family Mammolodontidae 1 genus. Upper Oligocene? Lower Miocene? Australia. †Family Kekenodontidae 2 genera. Upper Oligocene. Europe and New Zealand.
- aetiology (pathology)
human disease: Classifications of diseases: The etiologic classification of disease is based on the cause, when known. This classification is particularly important and useful in the consideration of biotic disease. On this basis disease might be classified as staphylococcal or rickettsial or fungal, to cite only a few instances. It is…
- Aëtius (Syrian bishop)
Aëtius was a Syrian bishop and heretic who, during the theological controversies over the Christian Trinity, founded the extreme Arian sect of the Anomoeans (q.v.). His name became a byword for radical heresy. Originating probably near Antioch, Aëtius studied there under Arian masters while
- Aetius, Flavius (Roman general)
Flavius Aetius was a Roman general and statesman who was the dominating influence over Valentinian III (emperor 425–455). The son of a magister equitum (“master of the cavalry”), Aetius in his youth spent some time as a hostage with the Visigothic leader Alaric, and later with the Huns, thus
- Aetna (volcano, Italy)
Mount Etna, active volcano on the east coast of Sicily. The name comes from the Greek Aitne, from aithō, “I burn.” Mount Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe, its topmost elevation being about 10,900 feet (3,320 metres). Like other active volcanoes, it varies in height, increasing from
- Aetobatus narinari (fish)
stingray: …the spotted duckbilled ray (Aetobatus narinari), a large Atlantic and Pacific species that can cause deep wounds with its tail spines, and the bat stingray (Myliobatis californicus), a Pacific form noted for its depredations on the shellfish of San Francisco Bay.
- Aetolia (district, Greece)
Aetolia, district of ancient Greece, located directly north of the Gulf of Corinth and bounded by Epirus (north), Locris (east), and Acarnania (west). In modern Greece, Aetolia is linked with Acarnania in the department of Aitolía kai Akarnanía. Aetolia, particularly its cities Pleuron and Calydon,
- Aetolian League (state, ancient Greece)
Aetolian League, federal state or “sympolity” of Aetolia, in ancient Greece. Probably based on a looser tribal community, it was well-enough organized to conduct negotiations with Athens in 367 bc. It became by c. 340 one of the leading military powers in Greece. Having successfully resisted
- aetosaur (fossil reptile)
crurotarsan: Other lineages include the aetosaurs (“eagle lizards”), a group of herbivorous quadrupedal species that lived during the Late Triassic (229 million to 200 million years ago), the ornithosuchians (“bird crocodiles”), the rauisuchids (“Rau’s crocodiles”), and several single, ungrouped taxa. There is much disagreement concerning the evolutionary position of the…
- AEU (British union)
Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union: …through the merger of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union (EETPU).
- Aextoxicaceae (plant family)
Berberidopsidales: …of two families (Berberidopsidaceae and Aextoxicaceae) containing a total of four species, found only in Chile and Australia. It is one of the basal orders among the core eudicots (a major clade, or plants with a common genetic lineage).
- Aextoxicum punctatum (plant)
Berberidopsidales: …one genus with one species, Aextoxicum punctatum, a rare evergreen tree from Chile. The plant is covered by scales, and the leaves are more or less opposite. The flowers are rather inconspicuous but quite distinctive. Male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The bud is enclosed by bracteoles,…
- Af climate (meteorology)
wet equatorial climate, major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by consistently high temperatures (around 30 °C [86 °F]), with plentiful precipitation (150–1,000 cm [59–394 inches]), heavy cloud cover, and high humidity, with very little annual temperature variation. Wet
- af Klint, Hilma (Swedish artist)
Hilma af Klint was a Swedish painter who worked at the turn of the 20th century but whose art was largely unknown until a 2018 exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York. The show drew attention to her bold abstract paintings, which were influenced by spiritualism, a popular 19th-century belief
- AF of L (labor organization)
American Federation of Labor (AFL), federation of North American labour unions that was founded in 1886 under the leadership of Samuel Gompers as the successor to the Federation of Organized Trades (1881), which had replaced the Knights of Labor (KOL) as the most powerful industrial union of the
- Afakani language
Ijoid languages: …approximately two million speakers, and Defaka (Afakani), a solitary language spoken by very few. All these languages are found in the relatively narrow coastal Niger River delta region of Nigeria. The Ijo language cluster includes the languages of the Eastern Ijo, namely Kalabari, Okrika, and Ibani; the Brass Ijo, including…
- Afanasev, Aleksandr (Russian historian and scholar)
Aleksandr Afanasev was a historian and scholar of Russian folklore known for his compilation of Russian folktales. Afanasev studied law at Moscow University. His early work included a study of Russian satirical journals of the late 18th century (1859) and commentaries on contemporary Russian
- Afanassjewa, Tatiana A. (Russian mathematician)
Paul Ehrenfest: …and his wife, Russian mathematician Tatiana A. Afanassjewa, renounced their religions (Judaism and Christianity, respectively) because such interconfessional marriages were not allowed in Austro-Hungary. Having seriously complicated their chances to find regular academic positions, the couple moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, where they subsisted on temporary teaching incomes between 1907…
- Afanasyevskaya culture
Central Asian arts: Neolithic and Metal Age cultures: …yet often overlapping cultures: the Afanasyevskaya, Andronovo, and Karasuk, so called after the villages near which each culture was identified.
- āfāqī (people)
India: Bahmanī consolidation of the Deccan: The new settlers (āfāqīs) also had a political effect, as they soon began competing successfully for important positions within the political hierarchy. The original rebels from the Delhi sultanate and their descendants, who came to be called dakhnīs (i.e., Deccanis—from the Deccan), thought of themselves as the old…
- Afar (people)
Afar, a people of the Horn of Africa who speak Afar (also known as ’Afar Af), a language of the Eastern Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They live in northeastern Ethiopia, southeastern Eritrea, and Djibouti, where, with the Issas, they are the dominant people. It is thought
- ’Afar Af
Afar: …Horn of Africa who speak Afar (also known as ’Afar Af), a language of the Eastern Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They live in northeastern Ethiopia, southeastern Eritrea, and Djibouti, where, with the Issas, they are the dominant people. It is thought that the Afar were the first…
- Afar Depression (area, Africa)
continental landform: Tectonic geomorphology: The Afar Triangle at the foot of the Red Sea is shaped by newly formed faults that cut unweathered basaltic lava flows on a newly emergent seafloor in an almost totally tectonic landscape. In the Appalachians, south of the glaciated knobs, an ancient mountain system sheathed…
- Afar Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (political party, Djibouti)
Djibouti: Multiparty politics and civil war: …and in late 1991 the Afar Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Front pour la Restauration de l’Unité et de la Démocratie; FRUD) took up arms against the Issa-dominated government; the conflict quickly developed into civil war. By mid-1992 FRUD forces occupied some two-thirds of the country, although…
- Afar language
Afar: …Horn of Africa who speak Afar (also known as ’Afar Af), a language of the Eastern Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. They live in northeastern Ethiopia, southeastern Eritrea, and Djibouti, where, with the Issas, they are the dominant people. It is thought that the Afar were the first…
- Afar Triangle (area, Africa)
continental landform: Tectonic geomorphology: The Afar Triangle at the foot of the Red Sea is shaped by newly formed faults that cut unweathered basaltic lava flows on a newly emergent seafloor in an almost totally tectonic landscape. In the Appalachians, south of the glaciated knobs, an ancient mountain system sheathed…
- Afars and Issas, French Territory of the
Djibouti, small strategically located country on the northeast coast of the Horn of Africa. It is situated on the Bab el Mandeb Strait, which lies to the east and separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden. Formerly known as French Somaliland (1896–1967) and the French Territory of the Afars and
- AFBF (American organization)
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), largest farmers’ organization in the United States. The AFBF, founded in 1919, is an independent nongovernmental federation of farm bureaus from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The AFBF was an outgrowth of the county farm bureau movement, which started shortly
- AFC (mining)
coal mining: Haulage: …mechanized longwall systems is an armoured face conveyor (AFC). In addition to carrying coal from the face, the AFC serves as the guide for the longwall shearer, which rides on it (see above, Mining methods: Longwall mining).
- AFC (Australian government organization)
Australia: Film: …AFDC was replaced by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) in 1975, and a more culturally refined Australian film style emerged. Period films such as Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career (1980), and Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant (1980) were well received by critics and audiences…
- AFC (geology)
igneous rock: Assimilation: …combined process, referred to as AFC for assimilation–fractional crystallization, has been proposed as the mechanism by which andesites are produced from basalts.
- AFC Ajax (Dutch football club)
Ajax, Dutch professional football (soccer) club formed in 1900 in Amsterdam. Ajax is the Netherlands’ most successful club and is best known for producing a series of entertaining attacking teams. Ajax was promoted to the top Dutch league, the Eredivisie, for the first time in 1911. Under the
- AFC Asian Cup (football)
Asian Cup, Asian football (soccer) competition that takes place every four years and is that continent’s premier football tournament. The Asian Cup is governed by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and was first held in 1956, with South Korea winning the inaugural title. The first Asian Cup
- AfD (political party, Germany)
Alternative for Germany (AfD), far right-wing German political party founded in 2013. Established during the rise of Euroskepticism in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis, the party has since adopted a platform based on German nationalism and Islamophobia. In the 2010s some German conservatives
- Afḍal, al- (Fāṭimid caliph)
Fatimid dynasty: The end of the Fatimid state: Badr’s son and successor al-Afḍal in effect renounced the claims of the Egyptian Fatimid dynasty to the universal caliphate.
- AFDC (Australian government organization)
Australia: Film: Formed in 1970, the Australian Film Development Corporation (AFDC) was a government-funded agency charged with helping the film industry create commercial films for audiences at home and abroad. The success of Stork (1971) gave birth to a rash of “ocker” comedies, a genre that centred on boorish male characters…
- Afemai (people)
African dance: Masquerade dancers: …Ikpelweme ancestral masqueraders of the Afemai people of Bendel State, Nigeria, wear richly coloured, close-fitting costumes with face masks and elaborate headpieces of embroidered cloth, which allow for a dance that accelerates into a climax of rapid, abrupt movement. The Nago and Akakayi ancestral masqueraders of the Gwari wear close-fitting…
- Afer, Publius Terentius (Roman dramatist)
Terence was, after Plautus, the greatest Roman comic dramatist, the author of six verse comedies that were long regarded as models of pure Latin. Terence’s plays form the basis of the modern comedy of manners. Terence was taken to Rome as a slave by Terentius Lucanus, an otherwise unknown Roman
- Afewerki, Isaias (president of Eritrea)
Isaias Afwerki is an Eritrean independence leader and has been the president of Eritrea since 1993. When Isaias was born in 1946 in Asmara, the city was under the United Nations-mandated control of the United Kingdom. Eritrea itself was federated to Ethiopia in 1952 and was forcibly annexed 10
- Affair in Trinidad (film by Sherman [1952])
Vincent Sherman: Women’s pictures: …Lone Star as well as Affair in Trinidad, the latter marking Rita Hayworth’s return to the screen after she retired to marry Prince Aly Khan; Glenn Ford costarred.
- affair of honour
duel, a combat between persons, armed with lethal weapons, which is held according to prearranged rules to settle a quarrel or a point of honour. It is an alternative to having recourse to the usual process of justice. The judicial duel, or trial by battle, was the earliest form of dueling. Caesar
- Affair of the Diamond Necklace (French history)
Affair of the Diamond Necklace, scandal at the court of Louis XVI in 1785 that discredited the French monarchy on the eve of the French Revolution. It began as an intrigue on the part of an adventuress, the comtesse (countess) de La Motte, to procure, supposedly for Queen Marie-Antoinette but in
- Affair of the Necklace, The (film by Shyer [2001])
Hilary Swank: …next few films—the historical drama The Affair of the Necklace (2001), the thriller Insomnia (2002), and the sci-fi adventure The Core (2003)—were only marginally successful, though she did win praise for her performance as American suffragist Alice Paul in the TV movie Iron Jawed Angels (2004). Lightning struck again, however,…
- Affair to Remember, An (film by McCarey [1957])
Harry Warren: …such films as Marty (1955), An Affair to Remember (1957), Jerry Lewis’s The Caddy (1953) and Cinderfella (1960), and Satan Never Sleeps (1962) and the theme for the 1955–61 television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. He continued to compose but published little music after 1962.
- Affair, The (American television series)
Anna Paquin: …(2019) of the TV series The Affair. In the true-crime miniseries A Friend of the Family (2022), Paquin played the mother of a young girl who was repeatedly kidnapped by a family friend.
- Affaire Dreyfus, L’ (film by Méliès)
History of film: Méliès and Porter: …such as L’Affaire Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Affair, 1899), his first, which followed the logic of linear temporality to establish causal sequences and tell simple stories. By 1902 he had produced the influential 30-scene narrative Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). Adapted from a novel by…
- Affaire Lemoine, L’ (work by Proust)
Marcel Proust: Life and works: …Proust’s favourite French authors—called “L’Affaire Lemoine” (published in Le Figaro), through which he endeavoured to purge his style of extraneous influences. Then, realizing the need to establish the philosophical basis that his novel had hitherto lacked, he wrote the essay “Contre Sainte-Beuve” (published 1954), attacking the French critic’s view…
- Affaire, L’ (novel by Johnson)
Diane Johnson: …2003), Le Mariage (2000), and L’Affaire (2003). She continued to explore the clash of cultures with Lulu in Marrakech (2008), which is set in Morocco. In Lorna Mott Comes Home (2021), a woman returns to the United States after living in France for a number of years.
- Affandi (Javanese artist)
Southeast Asian arts: Java: 20th and 21st centuries: …social themes were the painters Affandi and Hendra Gunawan. Affandi, the first Southeast Asian artist to achieve a worldwide reputation, is considered the father of modern painting in Indonesia. His Expressionist style of portraiture is characterized by a thick impasto built up of paint applied with his fingers. Gunawan painted…
- Affected Young Ladies, The (work by Molière)
Molière: Early life and beginnings in theater: …play, Les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Young Ladies), prefigured what was to come. It centers on two provincial young women who are exposed by valets masquerading as masters in scenes that contrast, on the one hand, the women’s desire for elegance coupled with a lack of common sense and,…
- affection (psychology)
love: … characterized by strong feelings of affection for another arising out of kinship, companionship, admiration, or benevolence. In a related sense, “love” designates a benevolent concern for the good or welfare of others. The term is also used to refer to sexual attraction or erotic desire toward another. Love as an…
- affections, doctrine of the (music)
doctrine of the affections, theory of musical aesthetics, widely accepted by late Baroque theorists and composers, that embraced the proposition that music is capable of arousing a variety of specific emotions within the listener. At the centre of the doctrine was the belief that, by making use of
- affective disorder (psychology)
affective disorder, mental disorder characterized by dramatic changes or extremes of mood. Affective disorders may include manic or depressive episodes and often combinations of the two. Persons with an affective disorder may or may not have psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, or
- affective fallacy (literary criticism)
affective fallacy, according to the followers of New Criticism, the misconception that arises from judging a poem by the emotional effect that it produces in the reader. The concept of affective fallacy is a direct attack on impressionistic criticism, which argues that the reader’s response to a