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Polish literature

(Encyclopedia)Polish literature, the literary works of Poland. The regaining of Polish independence in 1919 after generations of partition inspired new literary activity. The Skamander group of urban poets, inclu...

Swedish literature

(Encyclopedia)Swedish literature, literary works in the Swedish language. In the early 20th cent. the fiction of Hjalmar Söderberg presaged a renewed emphasis on restraint and realism. Ludvig Nordström, Gust...

Japanese literature

(Encyclopedia)Japanese literature, literary works produced in the language of the islands of Japan. See also Asian drama. The immense public demand for fiction in postwar Japan has been fed by the prolific o...

négritude

(Encyclopedia)négritude nĕgˈrĭto͞odˌ, –tyo͞od [key], a literary movement on the part of French-speaking African and Caribbean writers who lived in Paris during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Adherents of négrit...

Novi Sad

(Encyclopedia)Novi Sad nôˈvē säd [key], Ger. Neusatz, Hung. Újvidék, city (1991 pop. 179,626), N Serbia, on the Danube River. The chief city and administrative center of Vojvodina prov. and an industrial cent...

obscenity

(Encyclopedia)obscenity, in law, anything that tends to corrupt public morals by its indecency. The moral concepts that the term connotes vary from time to time and from place to place. In the United States, the wo...

MacDiarmid, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)MacDiarmid, Hugh məkdûrˈmĭd, –mĭt [key], pseud. of Christopher Murray Grieve, 1892–1978, Scottish poet and critic, b. Langholm, Dumfrieshire. Passionately devoted to Communism and to Scottish...

Michener, James Albert

(Encyclopedia)Michener, James Albert mĭchˈnər [key], 1907–97, American author, b. New York City, grad. Swarthmore, 1929. His short-story collection Tales of the South Pacific (1947; Pulitzer Prize) was adapted...

Mistral, Frédéric

(Encyclopedia)Mistral, Frédéric frādārēkˈ mēsträlˈ [key], 1830–1914, French Provençal poet. With Théodore Aubanel he was one of the seven founders (1854) of the Félibrige, an organization to promote P...

La Bruyère, Jean de

(Encyclopedia)La Bruyère, Jean de zhäN də lä brüyĕrˈ [key], 1645–96, French writer. He lived (1684–96) as tutor in the house of the prince de Condé. His great work, Les Caractères de Théophraste, trad...