|
Flash Fiction
Flash fiction is a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as "twitterature"); the "dribble" (also known as the "minisaga," 50 words); the "drabble" (also known as "microfiction," 100 words); "sudden fiction" (750 words); "flash fiction" (1,000 words); and "microstory".Christopher Kasparek, "Two Micro-Stories by Bolesław Prus," ''The Polish Review'', 1995, no. 1, pp. 99-103. Some commentators have suggested that flash fiction possesses a unique literary quality in its ability to hint at or imply a larger story. History Flash fiction has roots going back to prehistory, recorded at origin of writing, including fables and parables, notably ''Aesop's Fables'' in the west, and Panchatantra and Jataka tales in India. Later examples include the tales of Nasreddin, and Zen koans such as ''The Gateless Gate''. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drabble
A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length."Winners named in WLU drabble competition" , '''', October 1, 2011. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space. History The concept is said to have originated in UK science fiction fandom in the 1980s; the 100-word format was established by the |
Word Count
The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds (usually in words per minute). When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for English. Details and variations of definition Variations in the operational definitions of how to count the words can occur (namely, what "counts as" a word, and which words "don't count" toward the total). However, especially since the advent of widespread word processing, there is a broad consensus on these operational definitions (and hence the bottom-line integer result). The consensus is to acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. His story " An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" has been described as "one of the most famous and frequently anthologized stories in American literature", and his book ''Tales of Soldiers and Civilians'' (also published as ''In the Midst of Life'') was named by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 most influential American books printed before 1900. A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States, and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction. For his horror writing, Michael Dirda ranked him alongside Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. S. T. Joshi speculates that he may well be the greatest satirist America has ever p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daniil Kharms
Daniil Ivanovich Kharms (russian: Дании́л Ива́нович Хармс; – 2 February 1942) was an early Soviet-era Russian avant-gardist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist. Early years Kharms was born as Daniil Yuvachev in St. Petersburg, into the family of Ivan Yuvachev, a member of the revolutionary group The People's Will. By the time of his son's birth, Ivan Yuvachev had already been imprisoned for his involvement in subversive acts against Tsar Alexander III and had become a philosopher. Daniil invented the pseudonym Kharms while attending Saint Peter's School. While at Saint Peter's, he learned the rudiments of both English and German, and it may have been the English words "harm" and "charm" that he incorporated into "Kharms".Frazier, Ian (7 May 2015). "A Strangely Funny Russian Genius". ''The New York Review of Books'' 62 (8): 36–38. His pseudonym might have been also influenced by his fascination with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julio Cortázar
Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in America and Europe. He is considered one of the most innovative and original authors of his time, a master of history, poetic prose and short story in general and a creator of important novels that inaugurated a new way of making literature in the Hispanic world by breaking the classical moulds through narratives that escaped temporal linearity. He lived his childhood and adolescence and incipient maturity in Argentina and, after the 1950s, in Europe. He lived in Italy, Spain, and in Switzerland. In 1951, he settled in France for more than three decades and composed some of his works there. Early life Julio Cortázar was born on 26 August 1914, in Ixelles,Cortázar sin barb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature. Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he was a reporter for a few months for '' The Kansas City Star'' before leaving for the Italian Front to enlist as an ambulance driver in World War I. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and retu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasunari Kawabata
was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read. Early life Born into a well-established family in Osaka, Japan, Kawabata was orphaned by the time he was four, after which he lived with his grandparents. He had an older sister who was taken in by an aunt, and whom he met only once thereafter, in July 1909, when he was ten. She died when Kawabata was 11. Kawabata's grandmother died in September 1906, when he was seven, and his grandfather in May 1914, when he was fifteen. Having lost all close paternal relatives, Kawabata moved in with his mother's family, the Kurodas. However, in January 1916, he moved into a boarding house near the junior high school (comparable to a modern high school) to which he had formerly commuted by train. After graduating in March 191 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include the short story "The Metamorphosis" and novels ''The Trial'' and '' The Castle''. The term ''Kafkaesque'' has entered English to describe absurd situations, like those depicted in his writing. Kafka was born into a middle-class German-speaking Czech Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today the capital of the Czech Republic. He trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education was employed full-ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics."Stories ... which are among the supreme achievements in prose narrative.Vodka miniatures, belching and angry cats George Steiner's review of ''The Undiscovered Chekhov'', in ''The Observer'', 13 May 2001. Retrieved 16 February 2007. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov was a physician by profession. "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress." Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of ''The Seagull'' in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zygmunt Szweykowski
Zygmunt Szweykowski (7 April 1894 in Krośniewice – 11 February 1978 in Poznań) was a historian of Polish literature who specialized in 19th-century Polish prose. Life In 1932-39, Szweykowski held a professorship at the Free Polish University (''Wolna Wszechnica Polska'') in Warsaw and Łódź."Szweykowski, Zygmunt," ''Encyklopedia powszechna PWN'' (PWN Universal Encyclopedia), vol. 4, p. 370. During the World War II Nazi occupation of Poland, he participated, at the risk of his life, in underground university teaching in Warsaw. From 1946 he held a chair at Poznań University. In 1950 he was inducted into the Polish Academy of Learning, and in 1951 into the Polish Academy of Sciences. Szweykowski studied the 19th-century Polish novel. His books in this field included ''Powieści historyczne Henryka Rzewuskiego'' (The Historical Novels of Henryk Rzewuski, 1922) and ''Trylogia Sienkiewicza'' ( Sienkiewicz's ''Trilogy'', 1961). His specialty, however, was the writings of Bol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulistan Of Sa'di
''Gulistān'' ( fa, گُلِستان, Golestān, The Flower Garden; ), sometimes spelled Golestan, is a landmark of Persian literature, perhaps its single most influential work of prose. Written in 1258 CE, it is one of two major works of the Persian poet Sa'di, considered one of the greatest medieval Persian poets. It is also one of his most popular books, and has proved deeply influential in the West as well as the East. The ''Golestan'' is a collection of poems and stories, just as a flower-garden is a collection of flowers. It is widely quoted as a source of wisdom. The well-known aphorism still frequently repeated in the western world, about being sad because one has no shoes until one meets the man who has no feet "whereupon I thanked Providence for its bounty to myself" is from the ''Golestan''. The minimalist plots of the ''Golestans stories are expressed with precise language and psychological insight, creating a "poetry of ideas" with the concision of mathematical for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saadi (poet)
Saadi Shīrāzī ( fa, ابومحمّد مصلحالدین بن عبدالله شیرازی), better known by his pen name Saadi (; fa, سعدی, , ), also known as Sadi of Shiraz (, ''Saʿdī Shīrāzī''; born 1210; died 1291 or 1292), was a Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts. Saadi is widely recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition, earning him the nickname "The Master of Speech" or "The Wordsmith" ( ''ostâd-e soxan'') or simply "Master" ( ''ostâd'') among Persian scholars. He has been quoted in the Western traditions as well. '' Bustan'' has been ranked as one of the 100 greatest books of all time by ''The Guardian''. Biography Saadi was born in Shiraz, Iran, according to some, shortly after 1200, according to others sometime between 1213 and 1219. In the Golestan, composed in 1258, he says in lines evidently add ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
