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African American Literature African-American literature reflects the characteristics and heritage that form the cultural underpinnings of the modern black community in the United States. Read about Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler, Alex Haley, Derek Walcott, Booker T. Washington, Alice Walker and many more authors who have helped create the rich canon of modern-day African-American literature. Web:
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American Literature What good is American Literature? Well, if you are an American high school student, you can study American literature in order to pass your exams and graduate. For the rest of us, though, American literature is far less utilitarian: all we can do is read and enjoy it. Regardless of your motivations, you'll find these resources useful and enlightening. Web:
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Asian American Literature To be Asian in America is to experience the clash between two very different cultures. Asian-American literature commonly explores themes such as individual- vs. group-identity; Asian stereotypes, especially with respect to women; assimilation and cultural traditions; and immigration and return to the homeland. Web:
Australian Literature As the philosopher J. Wellington Wimpy used to say, "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for some Australian literature today." Well, today, all Wimpy would have to do is use the Net, and he would be able to find enough Australian literature and information about Australian writers to satisfy even the largest literary appetite. Web:
Beat Generation The Beat generation refers to a number of American writers and artists who were popular in the 1950s. Among this group were novelists William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac (writer of the seminal beat book "On the Road"), and poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The Beats were the fathers of the 1960s, so their work is particularly relevant to our life today (seeing as the 1960s was an abrupt watershed in twentieth century culture). Web:
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British Literature British literature is the basis of modern Western culture. Traditionally, British literature is studied with respect to several major historical periods: Middle Ages (pre-15th century: Dante, Chaucer, Thomas Malory, the epic poem "Beowulf"); Renaissance (15th to 17th century: Shakespeare, John Milton, John Donne); Restoration (18th century: Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, Robert Burns); Romantic (early 19th century: William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Jane Austen, the Brontė sisters); Victorian (late 19th century: Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson, Oscar Wilde, George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans]); and Modernism (20th century: E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Katherine Mansfield, William Butler Yeats). Web:
Classics If you are looking for something old to go with your something new, borrowed and blue, you can easily find something on the Net. Here are databases, information on classical antiquity, Roman law, Latin language, links to museums, college classics departments, classical organizations and journals. Web:
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Cowboy Literature In the 1700s, the United States was settled by strong, independent men and women, who had to make their own way with limited help from the government. Over time, the qualities of these frontiersman have been enshrined in the American self-image, creating a country in which individualism and independence are seen as the birthright -- and responsibility -- of all able-bodied people. To an American, the archetypal favorite son is the cowboy, a mostly mythical character who lived in the Old West, rode his horse from place to place, and worked hard to wrest what he could from a stubborn land, depending only on his ingenuity, his persistence and the sweat of his brow. In actual fact, the historical cowboy life that we celebrate only existed for about two decades in the years following the Civil War (the late 1800s), and was a lot more difficult and desolate than most people realize. Still, from Wyatt Earp to Jesse James, from Roy Rogers to Quick Draw McGraw, the cowboy -- as he is portrayed in literature, the movies and on television -- is an integral part of the spirit of the United States, the epitome of what it means to be an American. Web:
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First Lines You will have a lot of fun visiting this Web site, where you will find a collection of first lines from well-known books. The idea is to read a line and then try to guess what book it came from. Here is my favorite: "James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat back in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death." (The book is "Goldfinger" by Ian Fleming.) Web:
Gothic Literature A Gothic novel is one inspired by the English genre of fiction popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Gothic novels are characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror in a pseudo-medieval setting. Fans of Gothic literature have expanded the original definition somewhat, but the basic characteristics still remain. Web:
Jewish Literature The expression "Jewish literature" seem innocuous enough. However, even a cursory glance into the literature reveals a variety of work that almost surpasses human understanding. When you consider that, within the family of Jewish literature, Woody Allen must somehow co-exist with Rabbi Shuley Boteach (a noted Chabad scholar), you can only wonder how so many types of people can arise from the same roots. Go figure. Web:
Latino Literature Latino literature embraces a large variety of prose and poetry from different traditions including the various Mexican, Mexican-American, Spanish, Native, Central and South American cultures. Although Latino literature is heterogeneous, there are important themes you will encounter repeatedly, for example, the intermixing of languages; multi-ethnic heritages; poverty; agriculture-based communities; and the maintaining of cultural identity across geographical borders. Web:
Literary Calendar If you have ever wondered what happened in the world of literature on a particular day, this Web site can tell you. Select any day of the year, and you will find out all the interesting literary events that occurred on that day. Of course, the first thing you have to do is put in your birthday. I did and I found out that the most interesting thing that happened on my birthday was that, in 1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 44. (By the way, my birthday is December 21, and money is always in good taste.) Web:
Literary Theory It's one thing to read literature. It's another thing to be able to understand it so well as to appreciate the underlying principles and forces that drive the creation and expression of the literary arts. This Web site is host to a list of links to literary theory resources around the Net. You can find information on classical, enlightenment, romantic, 19th and 20th century literature, as well as contemporary literary theory. Web:
Literature Resources Literature and related resources abound on the Net. To help you find what you need (and some interesting places to browse), here are some Web sites I find particularly useful, as they offer comprehensive collections of literary resources. You can start with these sites and spend all day cruising the Net for things literary. Just about everything you need to get started on a hot search of literature is here somewhere. Web:
Literature Talk and General Discussion If you like to talk about literature, there are many people on the Net ready to accommodate you. Here are several general discussion groups that are good places to start (one of which is for children's literature). Usenet:
Mysteries Curling up with a mystery and a cup of hot cocoa is a great way to spend the night -- especially a dark and stormy night, and some people just can't get enough. My favorite mysteries are the Perry Mason stories written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Whatever your favorite, I guarantee that there are many people on the Net who feel the same way. Web:
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Native American Literature Explore the culture of Native Americans through their literature. Scholars and other people interested in Native American literature share thoughts on book reviews, articles about poetry and fiction, and offer criticism and information on new publications or conferences. Inclusive in the term "Native American" are indigenous peoples of the United States (including native Alaskans and native Hawaiians), Canada and Mexico. Web:
Russian Literature Russia is the largest country in the world and has, for centuries, enjoyed a strong literary tradition, dating from the introduction of Christianity in the 10th century and continuing to the present day. Explore Russian literature and read about some of the greatest writers who have ever lived, among them Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Gogol and Tolstoy. Web:
Spoken Literature I bet the last time anyone read you a story was when you were a kid. If you like your literature served up orally, there is a lot of writing available for listening over the Net: novels, stories, poetry, essays, biographies, and so on. While I was writing this, Lydia (my copy editor) and I listened to Charles Bukowski read one of his stories "The Soldier, His Wife And The Bum", and Kurt Vonnegut read an excerpt from "Breakfast of Champions". Boy, talk about bedtime stories. Web:
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