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black humor

(Encyclopedia)black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usu...

Darling Range

(Encyclopedia)Darling Range, Western Australia state, Australia, at the edge of the Western Plateau, extending 200 mi (322 km) parallel with the southwest coast and rising to 1,910 ft (582 m) in Mt. Cooke. Gold and...

Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim

(Encyclopedia)Luzzatto, Moses Hayyim häˈyēm lo͞ot-tsätˈtō [key], 1707–47, Hebrew playwright, poet, and mystic, a leader of the renaissance of Hebrew literature, b. Padua. At 15 he formed a group to study k...

Cueva, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cueva, Juan de la dā lä kwāˈvä [key], 1550?–1610?, Spanish dramatist, one of the precursors of Lope de Vega. He spent the years from 1574 to 1577 in Mexico. Of his 14 plays, the most famous is...

Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien

(Encyclopedia)Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien sävēnyăNˈ sēränōˈ də bĕrzhəräkˈ [key], 1619–55, French novelist. Satirizing the customs and beliefs of his time, he wrote two fantastic romances about visit...

Dietrich, Marlene

(Encyclopedia)Dietrich, Marlene märlāˈnə dēˈtrĭkh [key], 1901–92, German-American film actress and singer, b. Berlin. Dietrich began her career as a violinist. She then studied drama, appearing on the stag...

Ewald, Johannes

(Encyclopedia)Ewald, Johannes yōhänˈəs āˈväl [key], 1743–81, Danish poet. Ewald's elegant verse made him the leading poet of his time. He studied for the ministry but soon turned to writing. His lyrical tr...

Baker, George Pierce

(Encyclopedia)Baker, George Pierce, 1866–1935, American educator, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Harvard, 1887. He taught (1888–1924) in the English department at Harvard and there conceived and instituted (1906) t...

Heywood, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Heywood, Thomas, 1574?–1641, English dramatist. A prolific writer, he claimed to have written and collaborated on more than 200 plays, most of which are now lost. Although he wrote dramas based on E...

Hochhuth, Rolf

(Encyclopedia)Hochhuth, Rolf rôlf hōkhˈho͞ot [key], 1931–2020, German dramatist. His provocative first drama, The Deputy (1963), accuses Pope Pius XII and the Roman Catholic clergy of tolerating Nazi crimes a...