Tag Archives: Literature

August 30

The Tragedies of Mary Shelley

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On the 30th of August 1797, English novelist Mary (Wollstonecraft) Shelley was born in London. She was the wife and muse of Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley, daughter of political philosopher William Godwin and of philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, she was most famous […]

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December 29

The Awakening of Joyce’s Lust for Beauty

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For those soul-searching, here is an excerpt from  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel of Irish writer James Joyce (1882 – 1941). This autobiographical Künstlerroman is unprecedented in literature for its use of free indirect speech prefiguring Joyce’s stream of consciousness technique. American modernist poet Ezra Pound had the novel published in book format […]

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November 09

Dylan Thomas’ Début on Air

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On the 9th of November 1953, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas died  in New York. Famous for such poems as ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ or ‘And death shall have no dominion’, Dylan is also remembered for his exceptionally fruitful collaboration with the BBC. Between 1943 and 1953, Dylan made approximately 145 appearances on air, reading poetry and prose. The […]

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November 07

Was Camus a Sisyphus or a Stranger?

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On the 7th of November 1913, Albert Camus, a French Noble Prize winning author, philosopher and journalist, was born in Dréan, French Algeria. Known for literary landmarks, such as The Stranger, The Plague or The Fall, he is considered one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Initially a close friend of Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus’ rejection […]

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October 25

Existential Pain of Alfonsina Storni

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On the 25th of October 1938, Alfonsina Storni, one of the most prominent Latin-American poets of the modernist period, drowned herself at La Perla beach in Mar del Plata, Argentina. She was born in 1892 of Italian-Swiss parents, Alfonso and Paulina, in Sala Caprisca in Switzerland. When she was four years old her parents decided […]

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October 22

Sartre Vs. Nobel. The Arguments Behind the Refusal

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 On the 22nd of October 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and refused it. The ceremony held by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm was not attended by the writer. In a public announcement, printed in Le Figaro on the 23rd of October 1964, Sartre expressed his regret at the scandal […]

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October 21

Was Don Quixote Kafka’s Alter Ego?

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On the 21st of October 1917 Franz Kafka wrote a brief parable The Truth about Sancho Panza. Its original title “Die Wahrheit über Sancho Pansa” was given by Max Brod, who later published the text in the volume “Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer”.  The parable is composed of only two sentences, yet its meaning is […]

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October 19

Quincunx, Electricity, Computer… The Mastermind of Sir Thomas Browne

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Sir Thomas Browne was an English author of numerous medical, religious, scientific and esoteric works. He was born on the 19th of October 1605 and died exactly 77 years later on the 19th of October 1682. This numerological symmetry seems in his case more of a necessity than a coincidence for it supports his theory […]

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October 14

The Tale of the Real Winnie Bear

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On the 14th of October 1926, Alan Alexander Milne’s iconic collection of children’s stories Winnie-the-Pooh was first published by Methuen in London. The story of the actual brown bear which inspired Milne’s cartoon teddy is a lot less known, even though it has been the subject of books, such as  Real Winnie: A One-of-a-kind Bear (2003) by Val Shushkewich, or even […]

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October 11

Piaf and Cocteau: Les Enfants Terribles

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When I write I disturb. When I make a film I disturb. When I paint I disturb. When I exhibit my paintings I disturb, and I disturb if I don’t. I have a knack for disturbing. (Jean Cocteau, Diary of an Unknown) On the 11th of October 1963, a French poet, novelist, designer, playwright, artist, […]

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