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folktale

(Encyclopedia)folktale, general term for any of numerous varieties of traditional narrative. The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to pre-industrial, ancient, and more modern and develop...

Ahmadiyya

(Encyclopedia)Ahmadiyya äh mə dēˈ yə [key], a contemporary messianic movement founded (1899) by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1839–1908), b. Qadiyan, the Punjab. His Barahin-i Ahmadiyya, which he began to publish in 1...

Kukai

(Encyclopedia)Kukai or Kobo-Daishi ko͞oˈkī, kōˈbō-dīˈshē [key], 774–835, Japanese priest, scholar, and artist, founder of the Shingon or “True Word” sect of Buddhism. Of aristocratic birth, he studie...

Delibes, Miguel

(Encyclopedia)Delibes, Miguel mēgĕlˈ dālēˈbās [key], 1920–2010, Spanish novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, b. Valladolid. Prolific and widely translated, he is known for his descriptions of prov...

Desai, Anita

(Encyclopedia)Desai, Anita dĕsīˈ [key], 1937–, Indian fiction writer, b. Mussoorie as Anita Mazumdar, grad. Delhi Univ. (B.A., 1957). A prolific novelist, she often paints a subtly intelligent and darkly evoca...

Turrell, James

(Encyclopedia)Turrell, James, 1943–, American installation and land artist, b. Los Angeles, grad. Pomona College (B.A., 1965), Claremont Graduate School (M.F.A., 1973). Turrell's career began in the 1960s art sce...

Oz, Amos

(Encyclopedia)Oz, Amos, 1939–2018, Israeli writer, b. Jerusalem as Amos Klausner. As a teenager he changed his name to Oz [Heb.,=strength]. A former kibbutz member, Israeli soldier, and schoolteacher, he became o...

Poiret, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Poiret, Paul pōl pwärĕˈ [key], 1879–1944, French couturier, b. Paris. He served an apprenticeship with Jacques Doucet in the 1890s, moved to the Maison Worth in 1900, and in 1903 opened his own ...

Vertov, Dziga

(Encyclopedia)Vertov, Dziga, 1896–1954, Soviet filmmaker, pseudonym of Denis Kaufman. Vertov introduced the idea of “Kino-Pravda” (or cinéma vérité), which was extremely influential worldwide, affecting ci...

Rodin, Auguste

(Encyclopedia)Rodin, Auguste ōgüstˈ rōdăNˈ [key], 1840–1917, French sculptor, b. Paris. He began his art study at 14 in the Petite École and in the school of Antoine Barye, earning his living by working fo...