Literary History

Occup(ied) America: A Literary History

Joe Woodward | Posted 12.26.2011

Read More: History, Occupy Wall Street Movement, 1930s, John Dos Passos, Literary History, Biography, Great Depression, Occupy Wall Street, Books News
Joe Woodward

As I've watched and listened to the nascent movement "Occupy Wall Street," I've been driven to reread a favorite book of mine about America -- The American 1930s: A Literary History.

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Mansion That Inspired 'Great Gatsby' To Be Razed

AP | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sands Point, Long Island, West Egg, Literary History, Literary Homes, NY Real Estate, West Egg Mansion, Great Gatsby Mansion, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York News

SANDS POINT, N.Y. — A 25-room mansion some scholars believe inspired "The Great Gatsby" is to be razed for a subdivision. Randy Bond, village cle...

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The Beauty We Fear Part 4: From Mark Twain to Malcom X (Slideshow)

G. Roger Denson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Al-Masjid Al-Haram, East-West Relations, Islam, Malcom X, Dome of the Rock, Morrocco, World News Quiz, Mecca, Paul Bowles, Mosque of Kairouan, Marrakech, Literary History, Mosques, Naguib Mahfouz, Architecture, Travel, Khaled Hosseini, Spider's House, Christian-Islamic Relations, Orientalism, Edith Wharton, History, Shah Faisal Mosque, Arts News, Middle East, Interfaith, Saudia Arabia, Mark Twain, Kaaba, Slidepollajax, Travel News
G. Roger Denson

Even when Americans began to travel to Muslim lands, from the start they displayed a more diverse response to Islam and its mosques, which over the course of a century graduated from the crude to the reverent.

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The Beauty We Fear Part 3: The Mosques of Secular Muslim Writers (Slideshow)

G. Roger Denson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Religion, History, East-West Relations, Orientalism, Islam, Islamophobia, Literary History, Politics, Secularism, The Kite Runner, The Mosque in the Narrow Lane, Architecture, Khaled Hosseini, Naguib Mahfouz, Christian-Islamic Relations, Travel, Middle East, Interfaith, Slidepollajax, Sultan Selim Mosque, Salman Rushdie, Arts News, Mosques, World News Quiz, Midnight?S Children, Shah Faisal Mosque, Arts News
G. Roger Denson

Compared to the European writers discovering the great mosques of Islam for the first time, the mention of mosques is more muted and void of romance to the Muslim secularists inured to them from birth.

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The Beauty We Fear Part 2: The Great Mosques of European Novelists and Poets (Slideshow)

G. Roger Denson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Religion, History, East-West Relations, Mosque of Cordoba, Orientalism, Islam, Islamophobia, Literary History, Politics, Secularism, Architecture, Christian-Islamic Relations, Dome of the Rock, Travel, Middle East, Interfaith, Slidepollajax, Sultan Selim Mosque, Arts News, Mosques, World News Quiz, Arts News
G. Roger Denson

2010-10-25-jdfdf.jpgBy the end of the 19th century, mosques became lyrical, escapist, and hallucinogenic motifs for writers who had never even set sight on them.

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The Beauty We Fear: The Great Mosques of the World (Slideshow)

G. Roger Denson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Mosques, Interfaith, Religion, Travel, Middle East, Secularism, Slidepollajax, History, Politics, East-West Relations, Orientalism, Islam, Islamophobia, Literary History, Architecture, Christian-Islamic Relations, World News Quiz, Art News, Arts News
G. Roger Denson

2010-10-19-Screenshot20101019at9.17.42AM.pngFor the last three centuries, it's been an aesthetic and cultural conversion that keeps the secular minds of the West returning to the sacred architecture of Islam.

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Novels Are Older Than We Think

Guardian | Steven Moore | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Ancient Literature, History of Novels, Robinson Crusoe, John Barth, History of Literature, Brief History of Novel, Literary History, Realistic Novel, Thomas Pynchon, Daniel Defoe, Pamela, Books News

At university in the early 1970s, I was led to believe the novel originated in England in the 18th century, and no professor told me otherwise as I pu...

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