This Month's Free Articles
- Baron d'Holbach
- J. G. Ballard
- Joy Cowley
- Mario Vargas Llosa
- Zora Neale Hurston
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare)
- Adrienne Rich's Poetry (Adrienne Rich)
- Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (Tony Kushner)
- La Mort de l'auteur [The Death of the Author] (Roland Barthes)
- The Anthills of the Savannah (Chinua Achebe)
Featured Articles
British Seaside Fiction
The article explores the evolution of British seaside fiction from the 19th to the early 20th century, examining how coastal resorts became symbolic backdrops for exploring social, moral, and cultural themes. Early works highlighted the dual nature of seaside resorts as places of liberation and potential transgression, seen in Austen's Persuasion and Stoker's Dracula. The genre evolved to encompass humour, social satire, and sensationalism, often reflecting anxieties about class, morality, and illicit behaviour. By the 20th century, crime and romance genres dominated, with settings like Brighton and Margate providing both escapism and critique, while later neo-Victorian works revisited these themes, blending nostalgia with modern scepticism.
Contemporary Romanian Cinema
The article traces the evolution of Romanian cinema from its early struggles with underdevelopment and propaganda-driven content under communism to the internationally acclaimed Romanian New Wave of the 2000s. It highlights significant precursors like Lucian Pintilie, whose work laid the foundation for stylistic realism and political critique. The New Wave, epitomized by directors such as Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu, and Corneliu Porumboiu, is marked by naturalistic storytelling, minimalism, and philosophical depth, often avoiding overt political commentary. Despite challenges like diminished infrastructure and competition from foreign media, the movement reinvigorated Romanian cinema’s global standing.
Italian sonnet tradition
The essay provides an overview of the Italian sonnet tradition, exemplifying the birth of vernacular poetry in the thirteenth century in Sicily, which then evolved through intellectual exchanges and literary innovations, blending courtly love with philosophy. Subsequent centuries saw its refinement by poets like Dante and Petrarch, who popularized the form globally. Female voices, such as the Compiuta Donzella, also contributed unique perspectives, challenging social norms. The sonnet’s adaptability allowed it to address diverse themes, from love and politics to science, with figures like Galileo Galilei incorporating it into scientific discourse. Over time, it inspired artistic and literary experimentation, maintaining its relevance into modernity and influencing sonnet forms across Europe.
Review of Alexander von Humboldt: Perceiving the World, West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2023
The first review article published by The Literary Encyclopedia, it offers a brilliant insight into a fascinating new collection on the work of Alexander von Humboldt, the ur-scientist, written by one of the leading experts in his life and work. Together with the biographical entry on Humboldt, and the recommended readings associated to it, the LE thus offers a solid introduction into the work of this quintessential Enlightenment figure and the manifold aspects of his rich and diverse intellectual heritage.
The Muslim Orient in Eighteenth Century France
Providing a general context for how the fascination for the Orient and all things Oriental came to a high point in European culture in the eighteenth century, the article then proceeds to look at the particular manifestations of this tendency in French writing. Ranging from accounts pervaded by wonder and curiosity in a variety of travel writings to reflections on political traditions and practices (Montesquieu and Voltaire), such narratives also advanced knowledge of Islam beyond the prejudiced views that were dominant in Europe. In addition, fictional imaginative writings that proliferated at the time, especially the work that popularised the Orient above all others (Antoine Galland’s Les Contes des Mille et Une Nuits [One Thousand and One Night’s Tales]) served as rich sources of geographic, historical or anthropological knowledge.
