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satire
satire term applied to any work of literature or art whose objective is ridicule. It is more easily recognized than defined. From ancient times satirists have shared a common aim: to expose foolishness in all its guises—vanity, hypocrisy, pedantry, idolatry, bigotry, sentimentality—and ...
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anti-hero
anti-hero principal character of a modern literary or dramatic work who lacks the attributes of the traditional protagonist or hero. The anti-hero's lack of courage, honesty, or grace, his weaknesses and confusion, often reflect modern man's ambivalence toward traditional moral and social virtues. ...
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Joseph Hall
Joseph Hall 1574-1656, English prelate and author. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and became bishop of Exeter, 1627-41, and of Norwich, 1641-47. The rise of Puritanism involved him in serious church difficulties, and his vigorous defense of the episcopacy against its attackers resu...
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novel
novel in modern literary usage, a sustained work of prose fiction a volume or more in length. It is distinguished from the short story and the fictional sketch, which are necessarily brief. Although the novel has a place in the literatures of all nations, this article concentrates on the evolutio...
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Joseph Rodman Drake
Joseph Rodman Drake 1795-1820, American poet and satirist, b. New York City. Under the name "The Croakers," he and his friend Fitz-Greene Halleck wrote a series of light satirical verses for the New York Evening Post (1819, first complete ed. 1860). Drake's longest serious poem is "The Culp...
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American literature
American literature literature in English produced in what is now the United States of America.
Colonial Literature
American writing began with the work of English adventurers and colonists in the New World chiefly for the benefit of readers in the mother country. Some of these early work...
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Roth v. United States
Roth v. United States case decided in 1957 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Samuel Roth of New York City was convicted of mailing obscene materials. On appeal his conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court, which held that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The...
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Fitz-Greene Halleck
Fitz-Greene Halleck , 1790-1867, American poet, b. Guilford, Conn. He was joint author, with Joseph Rodman Drake, of the humorous lampoons "Croaker Papers," most of which were printed in the New York Evening Post in 1819. In the same year he published his long satire, Fanny (1819), in the st...
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Juvenal
Juvenal (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) , fl. 1st to 2d cent. AD, Roman satirical poet. His verse established a model for the satire of indignation, in contrast to the less harsh satire of ridicule of Horace. Little is known about his life except that during much of it he was desperately poor. A tradit...
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Philip Roth
Philip Roth 1933-, American author, b. Newark, N.J., grad. Univ. of Chicago (M.A., 1955). His writings, noted for their irony and themes of identity, rebellion, and sexuality, deal largely with middle-class Jewish-American life. Roth gained his initial literary reputation with the short-story colle...
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