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nihilism

(Encyclopedia)nihilism nīˈəlĭzəm [key], theory of revolution popular among Russian extremists until the fall of the czarist government (1917); the theory was given its name by Ivan Turgenev in his novel Father...

optometry

(Encyclopedia)optometry ŏptŏmˈətrē [key], eye-care specialty concerned with eye examination, determination of visual abilities, diagnosis of eye diseases and conditions, and the prescription of lenses and othe...

Kurosawa, Akira

(Encyclopedia)Kurosawa, Akira äkēˈrä ko͞orōˈsäwä [key], 1910–98, Japanese film director, scriptwriter, and producer, b. Tokyo. He is regarded as one of the world's greatest directors. In Rashomon (1950),...

Barlow, Joel

(Encyclopedia)Barlow, Joel bärˈlō [key], 1754–1812, American writer and diplomat, b. Redding, Conn., grad. Yale, 1778. He was one of the Connecticut Wits and a major contributor to their satirical poem The Ana...

Rhys, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Rhys, Jean rēs [key], pseud. of Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams, 1894–1979, English novelist, b. Dominica. Her novels written in the 1930s mercilessly exploit her own emotional life, depicting pretty...

Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

Cuevas, José Luis

(Encyclopedia)Cuevas, José Luis, 1934–2017, Mexican expressionist painter and sculptor, b. Mexico City. He was essentially self-taught, his influences ranging from Bruegel and Goya to Posada and Grosz. Cuevas re...

Akhmadulina, Bella

(Encyclopedia)Akhmadulina, Bella (Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina), 1937–2010, Russian poet, b. Moscow, grad. (1960) Gorky Literary Institute, Moscow. Her first poem was published in 1955 and her earliest collecti...

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