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.
Browse Subcategories
Featured content, July 18, 2025
Persian literature
Persian literature, body of writings in New Persian (also called Modern Persian), the form of the Persian language written...
Japanese literature
Japanese literature, the body of written works produced by Japanese authors in Japanese or, in its earliest beginnings, at...
African American literature
African American literature, body of literature written by Americans of African descent. Beginning in the pre-Revolutionary...
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...
French literature
French literature, the body of written works in the French language produced within the geographic and political boundaries...
Literature Quizzes
A Night at the Theatre Quiz
Find your seat and settle in for a long night of showing what you know about plays, playwrights, theatres, and other aspects...
A Nobel Prize for Literature (Mostly) Quiz
Every question in this quiz—except one—is about winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. (The exception is about a novelist...
A Piece of (Carrot) Cake: Fact or Fiction?
Do carrots require tight soil? Do carrots come only in the color orange? Sort through the facts and see if this quiz is a...
A Quick Quiz on Arthurian Legend
Which author brought the figure of King Arthur into literature? What is the name of King Arthur’s wife? Test your knowledge....
A Quiz About Children’s Authors
Take a trip from the land of Oz to Narnia alongside Max and Peter Rabbit to figure out how much you know about writers of...
A Quiz About Walls and More
Walls. Canals. Dykes. Towers. Artfully arranged piles of stones. If people build it big enough and strong enough, it’ll make...
A Quiz from Shrews to Whales
Shrews are tiny. Whales are massive. Find out what you know about these two mammals and all the others that are somewhere...
A River Runs Through It: Fact or Fiction?
Does Delhi, India, lie far from any river? Do many large rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal? Keep your head above water,...
A Royal Vocabulary Quiz
Get your dukes in a row.
A Serving of Asparagus: Fact or Fiction?
Are all kinds of asparagus good to eat? Does asparagus grow wild in many parts of the world? Test your knowledge from A to...
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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proverb
folk literature
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guslar
Balkan singers
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praise song
African literature
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.
Articles
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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.
Articles
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Amy Goodman
American journalist, columnist, and author
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Barbara Walters
American journalist
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Walter Cronkite
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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Paracelsus
German-Swiss physician
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Georgius Agricola
German scholar and scientist
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Benjamin Spock
American pediatrician
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.
Articles
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Edward Said
American professor and literary critic
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Harold Bloom
American literary critic and author
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Charles Baudelaire
French author
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.
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novel
literature
- nonfictional prose
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tragedy
literature
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.
Articles
- journalism
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The Feminine Mystique
work by Friedan
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The Diary of a Young Girl
work by Frank
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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The War of the Worlds
novel by Wells
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The Fall of the House of Usher
story by Poe
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The Catcher in the Rye
novel by Salinger
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.
Articles
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Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
French bishop
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Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
French politician and orator
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Daniel Webster
American politician
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
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metre
prosody
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sonnet
poetic form
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The Waste Land
poem by Eliot
