Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bely, Andrei

(Encyclopedia)Bely, Andrei bûryēsˈ nyĭkəlīˈəvyĭchˌ bo͞ogīˈĭf [key], 1880–1934, Russian writer. A leading symbolist, he had a close but stormy relationship with Aleksandr Blok. His poetry includes th...

Stoppard, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Stoppard, Tom, 1937–, English playwright, b. Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), as Tomas Straussler. During his childhood he and his family moved to Singapore, later (1946) settling ...

symbolists

(Encyclopedia)symbolists, in literature, a school originating in France toward the end of the 19th cent. in reaction to the naturalism and realism of the period. Designed to convey impressions by suggestion rather ...

Oates, Joyce Carol

(Encyclopedia)Oates, Joyce Carol, 1938–, American author, b. Lockport, N.Y., B.A. Syracuse Univ., 1960, M.A. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1961. She taught English at the Univ. of Detroit and the Univ. of Windsor, Ontario,...

O'Brien, Edna

(Encyclopedia)O'Brien, Edna, 1932–, Irish writer. Although she moved to London in 1954, her constant theme and recurring setting is Ireland. In richly sensual prose, O'Brien explores the dreams, failed marriages,...

Richardson, Dorothy M.

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Dorothy M., 1882–1957, English novelist. Her important work is Pilgrimage (12 vol., 1915–38; omnibus ed. 1938), a novel that records in great detail the inner experience of one woman. ...

Kafka, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Kafka, Franz fränts käfˈkä [key], 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish fami...

New Brunswick, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)New Brunswick, city (1990 pop. 41,711), seat of Middlesex co., central N.J., on the Raritan River; settled 1681, inc. as a city 1784. Originally developed as a commercial center (especially for collec...

Antunes, António Lobo

(Encyclopedia)Antunes, António Lobo, 1942–, Portuguese novelist. Trained as a physician, he was a field hospital doctor in Angola in the 1960s and later worked in a children's cancer hospital; both experiences s...

Banda, Joyce Hilda

(Encyclopedia)Banda, Joyce Hilda, 1950–, Malawian political leader, b. Nyasaland (now Malawi). First elected to parliament in 1999 as a member of the United Democratic Front, she was named minister for gender and...
 

Browse by Subject