Questions tagged [history-of-literature]
Questions about historical development within literature: for example, the history of a particular literary theme or idea, or of literature in a particular country or context. For questions about real-world history as it relates to literature, use [historical-context] instead. For questions about publication dates of specific works or editions, use [textual-history].
238 questions
7
votes
1
answer
154
views
Stories From the Year Without a Summer
I have seen the story many times: Percy and Mary Shelley (not yet wed) paid an a visit to Lord Byron in 1816. Attributed now to the eruption at Mount Tambora, this year was unseasonably cool. Spending ...
- 173
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Use of "limited third-person point of view", vs "omniscient third person point of view" over the past century or so
I notice that a lot of popular recent fiction,
for example Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" , and George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" are written in limited/subjective third-person point of ...
11
votes
1
answer
520
views
Why did attitudes change towards tragedy?
Views on whether or not tragedy provides a fulfilling end to a work have changed over the centuries and it has slipped in and out of popularity in contemporary works of a given period. Great literary ...
- 2,176
6
votes
1
answer
337
views
First English Renaissance play where women disguise as men?
In several of Shakespeare's plays, women disguise as men (for a variety of reasons). For example,
In The Merchant of Venice, Portia disguises as a lawyer; Jessica disguises as a man when eloping with ...
- 51.1k
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why was/is James Joyce's writing revolutionary for its time?
I love his writing, but I don't know why he is considered one of the great fiction writers in English. Why was James Joyce's writing so "revolutionary" for its time? I know that at one time ...
- 229
5
votes
0
answers
2k
views
To what extent did Defoe attempt to apply formal realism in Robinson Crusoe?
I recently finished writing a paper on Robinson Crusoe for my English class on the rise of the novel. We had read the novel concurrently with excerpts from Ian Watt's The Rise of the Novel, in which ...
- 6,092
14
votes
3
answers
778
views
What is the origin of epigraphs?
What are the origins of putting epigraphs in a work?
Wikipedia has this example from 1700, but no explanation on when or why epigraphs came into vogue.
Facsimile of the original title page for ...
- 143
7
votes
0
answers
100
views
What qualities have led to the enduring popularity of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?
The short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving has remained extremely popular. Wikipedia lists 24 film and TV adaptations including the well known Tim Burton film and, perhaps more ...
- 23.6k
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
When did the perspective-switching trend begin?
In many Young Adult novels I have read lately (in the past couple years), the book changes the perspective every chapter (or every page).
For instance, The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon (ISBN: ...
- 169
16
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How and why did the story of King Cnut change?
The 11th-century king Cnut/Knut/Canute of Denmark, Norway, and England is today best known for the story of how he sat on the beach commanding the waves to turn back. The original account of this ...
- 76.7k
3
votes
0
answers
51
views
Did the SDS invent a new literary form?
In 1965 Arthur Waskow "asked [Paul Booth] whether anyone had ever considered the possibility that the New Left was inventing a 'new literary form.'" (Smoking Typewriters 21, McMillian 2011; ...
- 5,062
1
vote
2
answers
150
views
Type of book written by L.M Alcott
Somewhere or other, many years ago, I read that there was a name for the type of book written by the likes of L.M. Alcott. That they were a backlash against the novels of the time and meant to teach ...
- 999
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What does postmodernism mean in terms of literature?
In trying to learn about literature I have frequently encountered the idea of postmodernism. But as I have little humanities experience I have had trouble getting my head around the concept. Can ...
- 999
10
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What is the difference between a philosophical novel and a novel of ideas?
Wikipedia calls the novel of ideas a subgenre of philosophical fiction, without defining the first term. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory (2010) uses the terms "novel of ideas" and "...
- 209
6
votes
1
answer
713
views
Was "It was a dark and stormy night" deliberately purple prose?
Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel Paul Clifford is most famous for its opening phrase, "It was a dark and stormy night". Today, this phrase is seen as a textbook example of purple prose - writing which is ...
- 76.7k
19
votes
1
answer
3k
views
When did men dressed as women stop being the norm in English theatre?
This excellent answer by Joshua Engel draws a comparison between men dressed as women in Shakespeare-era plays and perspective jumps in modern cinema:
The audience would, of course, have been aware ...
- 76.7k
49
votes
1
answer
2k
views
History of Spoilers
I live in the USA, where people react poorly if you spoil a move or a book for them. However, the question What is the benefit in the Prologue "spoiling" the play in Romeo + Juliet? raises ...
user111
4
votes
0
answers
90
views
Earliest example of older male author being flattered by female fan, breaking relationship after discovering she confused him with famous namesake
I'm sure I have seen this theme in literature or film more than once:
An older male author is flattered by a young, female student, after she says she loves his books. They start a relationship. ...
- 307
13
votes
1
answer
487
views
What is the earliest hybrid graphic novel?
Malice (2009) was the first hybrid graphic novel I read, though I've seen more than one other since.
By "hybrid graphic novel," I mean a book that contains passages of both traditional, unillustrated ...
- 6,050
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Was Twain the first author to write of Zombies?
Although the word is not used, Twain's zany novel of title-frenzy and mad-scientist capitalistic schemes The American Claimant (sequel to The Gilded Age) describes the intent by the megalomaniac ...
11
votes
3
answers
916
views
Why are there so many references to Moneylenders and Jews in 19th century fiction?
In 19th century fiction, there are a lot of references to moneylenders as "Jews". For example, in "Framley Parsonage", by Anthony Trollope, Lord Lufton says "the pocket-books of the Jews are stuffed ...
- 2,583
27
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Why are haiku usually of 17 syllables?
One of the characteristics of Haiku is that the poems are usually of 17 syllables (5-7-5). Exceptions exist, of course, but 17 is the norm.
Why 17? How did the originators of Haiku come to settle on ...
- 7,099
7
votes
1
answer
353
views
Why is the study of Philology in decline?
Philology is a branch of English academia, described on Wikipedia as "a combination of literary criticism, history, and linguistics". I am no expert, but its central premise appears to be that these ...
- 23.6k
66
votes
7
answers
13k
views
Has copy protection ever been used in physical books?
"Digital rights management", DRM, is almost a standard in the e-book industry. Have copyright holders ever tried to protect physical books from scanning, for example in a way how banknotes are ...
- 1,119
57
votes
2
answers
14k
views
Where did the idea of a "true name" come from?
There's a common trope in Western fantasy that, up until now, I've sort of taken for granted: the "true name."
This is the idea that all things have true names that are somehow more closely linked to ...
user80
21
votes
2
answers
890
views
How did the Inklings originate?
The (original) Inklings were a group of Oxford academics and writers, their most famous members including J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Hugo Dyson. They used to meet regularly, ...
- 76.7k
20
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Was Paradise Lost the first major work of literature to give "sympathy for the devil"?
John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost was first published in England in 1667. While this is long after the Protestant Reformation where alternative ideas about Christianity became slightly more ...
user403
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What are the charactaristics of German Trümmerliteratur?
Trümmerliteratur is a literary movement that originated in Germany shortly after the Second World War. What are typical charactaristics of Trümmerliteratur?
How can a work that is Trümmerliteratur be ...
- 776
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How does a book become "an American classic"?
It seems that, in passing, some books are referred to as "an American classic," or "one of the great American classics." This seems like it's a whole subsection of what counts as "classic literature."
...
user80
4
votes
2
answers
207
views
What is the origin of including formulas in a literary text?
One of the most striking things about Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson was the fact that the novel's text was full of mathematical formulas.
In some ways, this approach resembles, for example, ...
- 4,654
16
votes
1
answer
329
views
What was the first book that explicitly used "A Hero's Journey" as a checklist?
Obviously, many stories told fit "A Hero's Journey" - that's the whole point of it.
George Lucas was famous for explicitly making the Star Wars story based on Campbell's checklist and acknowledging ...
- 4,654
26
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Did Borges invent the idea of writing reviews/summaries of imaginary literary works?
In reading short stories by the great Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges, I've noticed a repeated theme: many of these stories are written in the style of a review or summary of a much larger and ...
- 76.7k
9
votes
1
answer
333
views
Was J.R.R. Tolkien building on a past tradition when relying heavily on languages he made up?
It is a uncontested and well known fact that Tolkien was a linguist, and he wrote Middle-Earth as a setting for his languages.
However, what interests me is whether the approach he took was out of ...
- 4,654
18
votes
2
answers
787
views
Who first referred to Odysseus as Ulysses?
When I was in high school, Homer's Iliad, Homer's Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid were taught as a trilogy of sorts.
Was Virgil the first Roman to refer to Odysseus as 'Ulysses' or was there another (...
- 671
25
votes
2
answers
530
views
Was pretending to be an abridgement of a made-up work invented by William Goldman?
William Goldman's The Princess Bride is famous (among other reasons) for a literary device it employs - it pretends to be an abridgment (or "the good parts version") of a longer work by S. ...
- 4,654
15
votes
3
answers
533
views
Has a parody of a work of literature ever become more successful than the original work?
I was thinking of this when I read Nineteen-Neighty-Four, a fanfic with My Little Pony ponies in a 1984-ish world.
Parodies can be really successful as a way of challenging another work, or the ideas ...
- 325
22
votes
1
answer
218
views
How wide was the exploration of Japan's culture in American literature before 1905?
Prior to Russo-Japanese war and Teddy Roosevelt's efforts to end it, I don't recall USA being overly involved with Japan.
As such, was that reflective in American literature?
How wide/common was the ...
- 4,654
19
votes
8
answers
1k
views
What fictional series has the longest release to completion?
I am being inspired by George R.R. Martin and his A Song of Ice and Fire series which is currently at 24 years (A Game of Thrones was released in 1996) since the publication of the first work in the ...
- 4,310