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Jules Verne: Five Weeks in a Balloon
1863’s Five Weeks in a Balloon, the first of Jules Verne’s famous Voyages Extraordinaires, follows the adventures of three explorers as they attempt to be the first men to traverse Africa from the east to the west utilising a hydrogen filled balloon to make the journey in a far shorter time than normal. The beginning of the book details the plans of the trips architect, Dr Ferguson, and contains what is essentially a justification of the idea including details of how the balloon would work, including the mathematics for its much vaunted ‘ascensional force’, and it is from this first section that true scientific fiction draws its origin.
The book also functions in part as a history of the exploration of Africa. Verne gives detailed descriptions of the extent of the various expeditions into Africa, including who they were made by, where they reached, and various ways in which the explorers died, usually in an unpleasant manner at the hands of either angry natives or nasty diseases. These tales serve to place the story in history in a believable fashion, and also to remind the reader that the outcome of the journey is far from certain, lending the tribulations the adventurers undergo an air of genuine danger.
The characters in the balloon are all different enough to give a sense of reality and engagement to the novel and make it stand apart from a merely didatic text with a plot thrown in. The Doctor is initially annoying and preachy. Kennedy the ‘sportsman’ appears to be a bloodthirsty and cynical character, whilst Joe the manservant is as toady and lickspittle as can be. However, over the course of the book, the group meshes together wonderfully, each performing their various roles with aplomb and honour. By the end of the book the set of characters that initially appeared so unpleasant have become familiar and well liked companions, so much so that the understated conclusion is both typical of the unassuming and modest heroism of the three, and a slight letdown as they dissapear with barely a trace or plaudit. The feeling one gets when one finishes the book represents a remarkable turnaround from such unpromising beginnings.
The book is pacy to say the least. After the initial slow start the action fairly cracks along with little time spent on each adventure. If a criticism were to be made, it could be said that the plot was unremittingly linear with the odd tedious lecture thrown in, but the sheer pace of the action keeps the reader travelling along with the balloon. There are certainly some dubious attitudes taken towards Africans by the characters but there appears to be no genuine malice there, and they are happy to get along with the natives whenever possible, and merely to defend themselves when they are attacked at regular intervals by hostile tribesmen, so in relation to many empire tracts of this period I found the level of racism stays just above a historically tolerable level.
I found this book to be surprisingly well written, if a little dry in places where Verne’s didatic instincts take over. It is highly episodic, but this partially helps to drive the story forwards and adds to the sense of discovery, as if one is actually joining the three friends in their balloon. A few criticisms could be made regarding Verne’s grasp of the science of hydrogen balloons, but that would be missing the point of what is essentially a rollicking adventure novel suffused with the spirit of the age of reason. A definite must-read for anyone who is either interested in the birth of science fiction, or those who enjoy tales of the dark heart of pre-colonial Africa a la Rider Haggard.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Journey to the Center of the Earth (French: Voyage au centre de la Terre, also translated under the titles A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey to the Interior of the Earth) is a classic 1864 science fiction novel by Jules Verne. The story involves German professor Otto Lidenbrock who believes there are volcanic tubes going toward the centre of the Earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull, encountering many adventures, including prehistoric animals and natural hazards, before eventually coming to the surface again in southern Italy, at the Stromboli volcano.
From a scientific point of view, this story has not aged quite as well as other Verne stories, since most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been disproved, but it still manages to captivate audiences when regarded as a classic fantasy novel.
Plot
The story begins in May 1863, the Lidenbrock house in Hamburg, Germany, with Professor Lidenbrock rushing home to peruse his latest purchase, an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga written by Snorri Sturluson ("Heimskringla"; the chronicle of the Norwegian kings who ruled over Iceland). While looking through the book, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script. (This is a first indication of Verne's love for cryptography. Coded, cryptic or incomplete messages as a plot device will continue to appear in many of his works and in each case Verne goes a long way to explain not only the code used but also the mechanisms used to retrieve the original text.) Lidenbrock and Axel transliterate the runic characters into Latin letters, revealing a message written in a seemingly bizarre code. Lidenbrock attempts a decipherment, deducing the message to be a kind of transposition cipher; but his results are as meaningless as the original.
Professor Lidenbrock decides to lock everyone in the house and force himself and the others (Axel, and the maid, Martha) to go without food until he cracks the code. Axel discovers the answer when fanning himself with the deciphered text: Lidenbrock's decipherment was correct, and only needs to be read backwards to reveal sentences written in rough Latin.[1] Axel decides to keep the secret hidden from Professor Lidenbrock, afraid of what the Professor might do with the knowledge, but after two days without food he cannot stand the hunger and reveals the secret to his uncle. Lidenbrock translates the note, which is revealed to be a medieval note written by the (fictional) Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm, who claims to have discovered a passage to the centre of the Earth via Snæfell in Iceland. In what Axel calls bad Latin, the deciphered message reads:
The Runic cryptogram
“ In Snefflls [sic] Iokulis kraterem kem delibat umbra Skartaris Iulii intra kalendas deskende, audas uiator, te [sic] terrestre kentrum attinges. Kod feki. Arne Saknussemm. ”

In slightly better Latin, with errors amended:
“ In Sneffels Jokulis craterem, quem delibat umbra Scartaris, Julii intra kalendas descende, audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges; quod feci. Arne Saknussemm ”

which, when translated into English, reads:
“ Descend, bold traveller, into the crater of the jökull of Snæfell, which the shadow of Scartaris touches (lit: tastes) before the Kalends of July, and you will attain the centre of the earth. I did it. Arne Saknussemm ”
Snæfellsjökull
Professor Lidenbrock is a man of astonishing impatience, and departs for Iceland immediately, taking his reluctant nephew with him. Axel, who, in comparison, is cowardly and anti-adventurous, repeatedly tries to reason with him, explaining his fears of descending into a volcano and putting forward various scientific theories as to why the journey is impossible, but Professor Lidenbrock repeatedly keeps himself blinded against Axel's point of view. After a rapid journey via Lübeck and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík, where the two procure the services of Hans Bjelke (a Danish-speaking Icelander eiderdown hunter) as their guide, and travel overland to the base of the volcano.
In late June, they reach the volcano, which has three craters. According to Saknussemm's message, the passage to the centre of the Earth is through the one crater that is touched by the shadow of a nearby mountain peak at noon. However, the text also states that this is only true during the last days of June. During the next few days, with July rapidly approaching, the weather is too cloudy for any shadows. Axel silently rejoices, hoping this will force his uncle – who has repeatedly tried to impart courage to him only to succeed in making him even more cowardly still – to give up the project and return home. Alas for Axel, however, on the second to last day, the sun comes out and the mountain peak shows the correct crater to take.
After descending into the crater, the three travellers set off into the bowels of the Earth, encountering many strange phenomena and great dangers, including a chamber filled with combustible gas, and steep-sided wells around the "path". After taking a wrong turn, they run out of water and Axel almost dies, but Hans taps into a neighbouring subterranean river. Lidenbrock and Axel name the resulting stream the "Hansbach" in his honour and the three are saved. At another point, Axel becomes separated from the others and is lost several miles from them. Luckily, a strange acoustic phenomenon allows him to communicate with them from some miles away, and they are soon reunited.
After descending many miles, following the course of the Hansbach, they reach an unimaginably vast cavern. This underground world is lit by electrically charged gas at the ceiling, and is filled with a very deep subterranean ocean, surrounded by a rocky coastline covered in petrified trees and giant mushrooms. The travelers build a raft out of trees and set sail. The Professor names this sea as the Lidenbrock Sea. While on the water, they see several prehistoric creatures such as a giant Ichthyosaurus, which fights with a Plesiosaurus and wins. After the battle between the monsters, the party comes across an island with a huge geyser, which Lidenbrock names "Axel's Island".
A lightning storm again threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead throws them onto the coastline. This part of the coast, Axel discovers, is alive with prehistoric plant and animal life forms, including giant insects and a herd of mastodons. On a beach covered with bones, Axel discovers an oversized human skull. Axel and Lidenbrock venture some way into the prehistoric forest, where Professor Lidenbrock points out, in a shaky voice, a prehistoric human, more than twelve feet in height, leaning against a tree and watching a herd of mastodons. Axel cannot be sure if he has really seen the man or not, and he and Professor Lidenbrock debate whether or not a proto-human civilization actually exists so far underground. The three wonder if the creature is a man-like ape, or an ape-like man. The sighting of the creature is considered the most alarming part of the story, and the explorers decide that it is better not to alert it to their presence as they fear it may be hostile.
The travellers continue to explore the coastline, and find a passageway marked by Saknussemm as the way ahead. However, it is blocked by what appears to be a recent cave-in and two of the three, Hans and the Professor, despair at being unable to hack their way through the granite wall. The adventurers plan to blast the rock with gun cotton and paddle out to sea to escape the blast. Upon executing the plan, however, they discover that behind the rockfall was a seemingly bottomless pit, not a passage to the centre of the earth. The travellers are swept away as the sea rushes into the large open gap in the ground. After spending hours being swept along at lightning speeds by the water, the raft ends up inside a large volcanic chimney filling with water and magma. Terrified, the three are rushed upwards, through stifling heat, and are ejected onto the surface from a side-vent of a stratovolcano. When they regain consciousness, they discover that they have been ejected from Stromboli, a volcanic island located in southern Italy. They return to Hamburg to great acclaim – Professor Lidenbrock is hailed as one of the great scientists of history, Axel marries his sweetheart Gräuben, and Hans eventually returns to his peaceful life in Iceland. The Professor has some regret that their journey was cut short.

At the very end of the book, Axel and Lidenbrock realize why their compass was behaving strangely after their journey on the raft. They realize that the needle was pointing the wrong way after being struck by an electric fireball which nearly destroyed the wooden raft.
Inspiration
The book was inspired by Charles Lyell's Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man of 1863 (and probably also influenced by Lyell's earlier ground-breaking work "Principles Of Geology", published 1830–33). By that time geologists had abandoned a literal biblical account of Earth's development and it was generally thought that the end of the last glacial period marked the first appearance of humanity, but Lyell drew on new findings to put the origin of human beings much further back in the deep geological past. Lyell's book also influenced Louis Figuier's 1867 second edition of La Terre avant le déluge which included dramatic illustrations of savage men and women wearing animal skins and wielding stone axes, in place of the Garden of Eden shown in the 1863 edition.[2]
Main characters Professor Otto Lidenbrock – A man of science and astonishing impatience and the uncle to Axel. Axel – The nephew of Professor Lidenbrock, overly cautious and unadventurous student. Hans Bjelke – A Danish-speaking Icelander eiderdown hunter who becomes their guide; dependable, resourceful and imperturbable. Grauben – The goddaughter of Professor Lidenbrock.
Prehistoric animals featured This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (March 2012)
Amazing Stories cover illustrating a scene from the novel Pterichthys Dipterides – A two-finned fish Leptotherium – A gazelle-like creature Merycotherium – A cattle-like creature Anoplotherium Mastodon Megatherium Unidentified Pterosaur (probably Pterodactylus) Unknown species of giant bird, probably a Teratorn Ichthyosaurus Plesiosaurus

Notes The 1871 English language edition published by Griffith and Farran (named Journey to the Centre of the Earth at Project Gutenberg) is an abridged and altered translation. It changes the Professor's name to Hardwigg, Axel's name to Harry (or Henry) Lawson, and Grauben's name to Gretchen. It omits some chapters, and rewrites portions of and adds portions to others. The Redactor's note by Norm Wolcott, at Project Gutenberg, claims that this translation is the most popularly reprinted one, despite the flaws. The 1877 translation by Ward, Lock, & Co., Ltd., translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson, is more faithful, though it too has some slight rewrites (according to the Redactor at its Project Gutenberg page, where its title is translated as Journey to the Interior of the Earth). The 1877 translation by Ward, Lock, & Co., Ltd., translated by Frederick Amadeus Malleson was adapted by AD Classic Books' 2008 edition of Journey to the Centre of the Earth. In this edit by A.R. Roumanis, antiquated writing and out of date sayings were replaced which makes this the most modernized version available. The novel frequently uses the device of the Professor explaining or arguing scientific matters with Axel, in order to communicate scientific facts on which the world-view is based. In the midst of their descent, this role reverses at one point, as Axel points out strata to the Professor as another example of the same story-telling method. Many things postulated in the novel are now known to be incorrect, including the temperature of space being minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and volcanoes erupting due to a reaction between water and chemicals in the Earth's crust.

Adaptations
Film 1959: Journey to the Center of the Earth, USA, directed by Henry Levin, starring James Mason and Pat Boone. In the film, the character of Axel becomes Alec and is more adventurous than cowardly as he is in the novel. The film introduces a main antagonist. 1978: Viaje al centro de la Tierra, Spain, directed by Juan Piquer Simón, starring Kenneth More and Pep Munné. It was distributed in Great Britain and the US as Where Time Began. 2008: Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 3-D film by Eric Brevig. Cast members include Brendan Fraser, Anita Briem and Josh Hutcherson. The film follows as a sequel to the original book. 2008: Journey to the Center of the Earth – A direct-to-DVD release by The Asylum, which is a loose adaptation of the original book. It was released as Journey to Middle Earth in the United Kingdom.

Walt Disney Pictures began work on a "Journey" in the late 1990s, but was not happy with the appearance of the subterranean caverns, so the project was scrapped and the cavern scenes were altered and used in the production of their 2001 film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Television

An animated television series, Journey to the Center of the Earth, first broadcast in 1967 on ABC, starring the voices of Ted Knight, Pat Harrington, Jr., and Jane Webb, only loosely based on Verne's novel.[3] A limited animation television special in the Famous Classic Tales series was aired by CBS in 1977. A 1989 movie called Journey to the Center of the Earth took only the title and a general idea from the Verne novel, and had a unique plot aimed at a teen audience. It was written by Debra Ricci, Regina Davis, Kitty Chalmers, and Rusty Lemorande, and was directed by Lemorande and Albert Pyun. It stars Emo Philips, Paul Carafotes, Jaclyn Bernstein, Kathy Ireland, Janet Du Plessis, Nicola Cowper, Lochner De Kock, and Ilan Mitchell-Smith. It was based on an uncompleted version, more faithful to Verne's text, written and directed by Lemorande, that had been left unfinished because of Cannon Films' premature closure. In 1993, NBC aired a made-for-TV film version with a cast including John Neville, F. Murray Abraham and Kim Miyori. The film used the title and general premise of Verne's novel, but had its heroes carry out the journey in an earth-penetrating machine.[4] A television series was supposed to follow, but was never produced.[citation needed] The Wishbone 1996 episode "Hot Diggety Dawg" was based on the novel, featuring several major scenes starring the title character as Professor Lidenbrock. The 1999 Hallmark Entertainment movie starred Treat Williams, Jeremy London, Bryan Brown, Tushka Bergen, and Hugh Keays-Byrne (this version deviates considerably from Verne's original). A TV film version by RHI Entertainment starring Rick Schroder, Peter Fonda, Victoria Pratt, Steven Grayhm and Mike Dopud was shot on location in and around Vancouver on high definition video during the summer of 2007. The show aired on February 4, 2008 and been released on DVD. Victoria Pratt and Peter Fonda's characters were added to the original story.
Theater
A stage version of Journey to the Center of the Earth, written by Gerald Fitzgerald and directed by Steven-Shayle Rhodes, was produced at Pegasus Theatre in Dallas, Texas in 2000, with substantial changes made to the characters and the plot. In 2014, Fitzgerald's 2-act script was adapted into a 3-act melodrama format and presented at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre in Dallas, directed by Joey Dietz.
Other
A thrill ride based on the book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, is open at The Mysterious Island section of Tokyo DisneySea's theme park. A water ride at Water World in Federal Heights, Colorado called 'Voyage to the Center of the Earth' is loosely based on the book. Video games called Journey to the Center of the Earth: in the early 1980s by Ozisoft;[5] in 1988 by Chip Software [6] for the Commodore 64; in 1989 by Topo Soft [7] for the ZX Spectrum and in 2003 by Frogwares.[8] A board game adaptation of the book designed by Rüdiger Dorn was released by Kosmos in 2008.[9] Rick Wakeman's album Journey to the Centre of the Earth combines song, narration and instrumental pieces to retell the story and Return to the Centre of the Earth tells the story of a later set of travelers attempting to repeat the original journey. A concept album called Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Rick Wakeman, was released in 1974. Rick Wakeman released a second concept album called Return to the Centre of the Earth in 1999. An 8-part radio serial was produced for BBC Radio 4 by Howard Jones in 1963. It starred Bernard Horsfall and Jeffrey Banks. A radio drama adaptation was broadcast by National Public Radio in 2000 for its series "Radio Tales". Alien Voices, an audio theater group led by Leonard Nimoy and John de Lancie, released a dramatized version of Journey to the Center of the Earth through Simon and Schuster Audio in 1997. A 90-minute radio adaptation by Stephen Walker directed by Owen O'Callan was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra on 20 November 2011 and re-broadcast on 11 and 12 November 2012. Nicholas Le Prevost starred as Professor Otto Lidenbrock, Nathaniel Parker as Axel and Oliver Senton as Hans. Rosemary McNab, an original female character who funds and accompanies the expedition (and has affairs with both Hans and Otto along the way), was played by Kristen Millwood.[10] Christopher Lloyd's character of Doctor Emmett Brown, one of the two main fictional characters of the Back To The Future film series, attributed the origins of his lifelong devotion to science to having read as a child the works of Jules Verne in general, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth in particular. (This is evident when he reveals that he tried to dig to the Center of the Earth at the age of twelve.) Back to the Future Part III, especially, pays homage to Journey of the Centre of the Earth where Dr. Brown carves his initials in a mineshaft after storing the time machine, just like Arne Saknussemm did to help guide future explorers. At the end of the film, it is also revealed that Dr. Brown's two sons are named Jules and Verne. The first part of the second season of Around the World with Willy Fog by Spanish studio BRB Internacional was "Journey to the Centre of the Earth". Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the Pellucidar series using the Journey to the Centre of the Earth concept. The surname of Kathy Ireland's character in Alien From L.A. (1988), a film about a girl who falls through the earth and discovers a repressive subterranean society, is Saknussemm. The 1992 adventure/role-playing game Quest for Glory III by Sierra Entertainment used Arne Saknoosen the Aardvark as a bit character for exploration information, alluding to the explorer Arne Saknussemm. The DC Comics comic book series Warlord took place in Skartaris, a land supposed to exist within a Hollow Earth. Its creator, Mike Grell, has confirmed that "the name comes from the mountain peak Scartaris that points the way to the passage to the earth's core in Journey to the Center of the Earth."[11] Louis MacNeice's final play Persons from Porlock contains a reference to Journey to the Centre of the Earth at the beginning. Because his mother used to read it aloud to him, Hank became 'completely fascinated' with 'caves and pot-holes and things' (p 111). At the end of the play 'Herr Professor Lidebrock' is one of the characters Hank meets down the pot hole. Hank says to him, 'Oh, my dear Professor, I've always wanted to meet you, since my mother used to read me your adventures. How you went down the volcano and ran into all those mastodons. But, of course, in your case you got out again.' The Professor replies, 'That was because I am a character in fiction.' He continues, 'Jules Verne invented me'(p 141).[12] Halldór Laxness, the only Icelandic author to be awarded the Nobel Prize, situated his novel Under the Glacier in the area of Snæfellsjökull. The glacier has a mystic quality in the story and there are several references to A Journey to the Center of the Earth in connection with it. In the Exile computer game series and its remake, the Avernum series, the player's party is exiled to a vast underground cavern similar to the one described in A Journey to the Center of the Earth. It also contains a subterranean ocean and networks of tunnels, but it is lit by bioluminescent mushrooms rather than an electric phenomenon. One of the goals of several of the games is to escape from the cavern.

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...Short talk In students’ point of view, literature is just a subject in our school education or a compilation of various writings impart of our history. However, in its deeper sense, how literature affects our life? Literature is the body of written works of language, period or culture. It must be an analysis of experience and a synthesis of the findings into a unity. It not only describes reality but also adds to it. They are a depiction of the different facets of common man’s life. It also serves as a food for thought and a tonic for imagination and creativity. Most of all, literature offers us lessons, motivations, and inspirations that help us to develop and improve our personality. We read literary works not only neither for pleasure nor a requirements in school. Authors also write literary pieces not just to gain income nor be famous. The purpose of literature in our lives is not only to narrate the appropriate sequence of events in the story. It is also not only to have knowledge in the past and present happenings in our life but to know the hidden reasons why it is written. It is because literature improves our personality by reminding us something we neglected and forget motivates and inspires us. It teaches us how to become a better person in our society and how we can contribute to our country’s success. We must remember, you must open your mind not only for the things seen but in the things not visible that contribute a meaningful part of our...

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Literature

...im a student of english language and literature department. i want to join this cite in order to get some views relating to my homeworks. today while i was studying for my research paper about multiculturalism in america, i came across a piece of useful paper on this cite which i have thought i can be helpful for my paper. and i have wanted to read the rest of it. that is why i want to register into the cite. A self-styled "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," writer Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Her poetry, and "indeed all of her writing," according to contributor Joan Martin in Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation, "rings with passion, sincerity, perception, and depth of feeling." Concerned with modern society's tendency to categorize groups of people, Lorde fought the marginalization of such categories as "lesbian" and "black woman," thereby empowering her readers to react to the prejudice in their own lives. While the widespread critical acclaim bestowed upon Lorde for dealing with lesbian topics made her a target of those opposed to her radical agenda, she continued, undaunted, to express her individuality, refusing to be silenced. As she told interviewer Charles H. Rowell in Callaloo: "My sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of me and my worlds. . . . [White, arch-conservative senator] Jesse Helms's...

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Literature

...1. Define Literature. Explain it. Literature is the art of written or spoken works. It uses beautiful, meaningful and expressive language. Literature is an expression of thoughts, feelings and imagination through language. It represents the art of one person’s mind through various abstracts and concretive ideas translated to beautiful language that produces different representations and meanings according to the developer and his readers. Readers and listeners of this literary works may interpret the author’s ideas into them and applying them into their lives. It is also the process of encoding one’s beautiful ideas and decoding by interpreter’s imaginative mind. Events or subjects shown in these works are that of the author’s experiences, environment, culture or just a pure imagination. 2. State the classification of prose. Prose is a continual narration and written in common sentence trend. It is the most typical form of written language that uses basic and ordinary grammatical structure with natural flow of sentences or speech. There are different classifications of a prose. Myth is a story or narrative about the origin of the universe, beliefs about the gods and goddesses, stories about man and mystical and mysterious beings. Legend is a narrative or tale of human actions that orally resurfaced version of ordinary source of things. An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. Essay is written piece that often come from author’s...

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Literature

...Written by Roger McGough, “At Lunch Time – A story of Love” is a poem that encourages its addressees to seize the moment and to enjoy life while they can. This ethical value, according to Russian Formalist, is not more important as its aesthetical value of the poem. Unlike the classical approaches to literary criticism that focus both on the aesthetical and ethical dimensions of a literary text, Formalists consider that a literary work is recognized through its form rather than its meaning. Accordingly, the literary devices of a text are indispensible to bring the meaning to the surface and to shed light on the literariness of a text. Following a Formalist stance, this essay will tackle some major artistic devices, which are irony and graphological deviation, and how they defamiliarize a literary text. The striking feature about this poem is the heavily presence of situational irony. This can be seen, for instance, in the speaker’s behavior. He seizes the opportunity of making love to a completely stranger woman in a bus. Ironically, the woman’s refusal of the speaker’s repulsiveness is simply because “it was too early in the morning and too soon after breakfast”. But after that “she joined the exercise”. Situational irony does not only draw readers’ attention to the humorist representation of love making, but also draws his attention to the artfulness of the poem making it unfamiliar from texts such as a newspaper article. This literary device also reflects a message transmitted...

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What Is Literature

...12:00 What is Literature? Poems, novels, and stories; these are some of the things that first came to my mind upon pondering on the question 'What is Literature?'. And just lately I have known that literature also includes songs, speeches, plays, and many others in written and spoken forms. I have also known that things that are produced out of creative imagination can be referred as literary works which are the ones that comprise literature. Considering this description of what literature is, the coverage of literature seems very puzzling. If literary works are those produced out of creative imagining, then it would directly point to fictional works. But then, there are also non-fictional works that are considered literary. There are literary essays and novels that are non-fictional. Examples of these are those based on true stories. Thus, literature goes beyond just creative imagination. And also, one person may consider a work produced out of creativity while another person may not, so then can that work be considered literary? Another important factor to be taken with high regard in discussing literature is periods of time since people coming from different historical periods may have different perceptions on what they consider 'literature'. It is vital to tackle these questions since literature is present in our everyday life, though it is not consciously felt by many. Terry Eagleton, a literary critic and writer, had written in his essay 'What is Literature?', “What matters...

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American Literature

...Katrina Bryant ENG/301 American literature is any written work of art that is created in the United States. American literature is like all literature, it has literary experiences and contextual history of America. It depicts how America has changed is still changing today. American literature has changed over time just like most canons of literary works. The uniqueness of American literature is that America from its beginning had a special philosophy of life and freedom. The special philosophy of life and freedom that made American literature so unique was reflected in its writings. Americans believed and had faith that God was and is the given of all our rights and freedom. We as Americans had faith in ourselves that we could succeed in anything that we try doing. The literature that we Americans wrote made life worth living because it was displayed for the world to read and understand that life was what we made it. Also by Americans having the ability to spring back from diversity made life worth living and George Washington was a perfect example of this. Literary canon is basically a suggested list of readings that belongs to a country or a certain period in time. Literary canon contains literary works that is mainly by authors who are accepted as an authority in their field and their writings constituting a serious body of literature in any given language. The works that are collected that is included in a literary canon is approved largely by cultural and...

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...Philippine literature is the literature associated with the Philippines and includes the legends of prehistory, and the colonial legacy of the Philippines. Most of the notable literature of the Philippines was written during the Spanish period and the first half of the 20th century in Spanish language. Philippine literature is written in Spanish, English,Tagalog, and/or other native Philippine languages. Contents  [hide]  * 1 Early works * 2 Classical literature in Spanish (19th Century) * 2.1 Poetry and metrical romances * 2.2 Prose * 2.3 Dramas * 2.4 Religious drama * 2.5 Secular dramas * 3 Modern literature (20th and 21st century) * 4 Notable Philippine literary authors * 5 See also * 6 References * 7 External links | ------------------------------------------------- [edit]Early works Doctrina Christiana, Manila, 1593, is the first book printed in the Philippines. Tomas Pinpin wrote and printed in 1610 Librong Pagaaralan nang mga Tagalog nang Uicang Castilla, 119 pages designed to help fellow Filipinos to learn the Spanish language in a simple way. He is also credited with the first news publication made in the Philippines, "Successos Felices", ------------------------------------------------- [edit]Classical literature in Spanish (19th Century) On December 1, 1846, La Esperanza, the first daily newspaper, was published in the country. Other early newspapers were La Estrella (1847), Diario de Manila (1848) and Boletin Oficial de Filipinas...

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Korean Literature

...KOREAN LITERATURE Korean literature is the body of literature produced by Koreans, mostly in the Korean language and sometimes in Classical Chinese. For much of Korea's 1,500 years of literary history, it was written in Hanja. It is commonly divided into classical and modern periods, although this distinction is sometimes unclear. Korea is home to the world's first metal and copper type, world's earliest known printed document and the world's first featural script. ------------------------------------------------- General overview In general, the written arts have a tradition in epigraphic inscriptions on stones, in early tombs, and on rarely found bamboo pieces that formed early books. Repeated invasions and sacking of the east and west capitals, as well as the difficulty in preserving written texts on bamboo, make works before 1000 rare. Those works were entirely written in Chinese characters, the language of scholars, but of course incorporated Korean words and mindset. Medieval scholars in Korea learned and employed written Chinese as western schoolmen learned Latin: as a lingua franca for the region. It helped cultural exchanges extensively. Notable examples of historical records are very well documented from early times, and as well Korean books with movable type, often imperial encyclopedias or historical records, were circulated as early as the 7th century during the Three Kingdoms era from printing wood-blocks; and in the Goryeo era the world's first metal type...

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