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Charles Dickens' 'Christmas Carol', Pushkin's 'Queen of Spades', Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' and Henry James' 'Turn of the Screw' are all examples of the same literary genre known as?

ghost stories. Dickens lived from 1812 till 1870. 'Christmas Carol' was published in 1843.Pushkin from 1799 till 1837.'Queen of Spades' was published in 1834. Washington Irving lived from 1783 till 1859. 'Sleepy Hollow' was published in Sketch-Book (1815)Henry James lived from 1843 till 1916.'The Turn of the Screw' was published in 1898.

Folly literature combines elements of fantasy and nonsense with a serious intent to expose and ridicule human behaviour. All the titles below have been classified by critics as belonging to the genre. Which of them came first?

Sebastian Brandt The Ship of Fools. The dates are :Brandt 1494 {;} Erasmus 1509 {;} Swift 1726 {;} K.A. Porter 1962. Also Candide by Voltaire (1759) has been classified within this category, although the usual label is: conte philosophique or philosophic tale.

What is the usual name given to a play designed to be read rather than performed such as Shelley's 'The Cenci' and Byron's 'Manfred' ?

closet drama. Other examples: 'Samson Agonistes' by John Milton and Shelley's 'Prometheus Unbound'.

The term 'history play' has been used for plays such as Christopher Marlowe's 'Edward {II;,} John Ford's 'Perkin Warbeck', Shakespeare's 'Henry VI'. What is a good alternative for that label?

chronicle play. Perkin Warbeck is the story of the Tournai-born impostor who lived in Flanders,Portugal and Ireland , before he accepted to impersonate Richard, the younger brother of the late Edward V of England and paid with his life for his unwise actions. Not a king's drama in the strict sense of the word. A modern example of a chronicle play is George Bernard Shaw Saint Joan. That anyway is the name he gives to it. Cathy Come Home (about homelessness) by Ken Loach (1966), Roots 1977 (the history of a slave and his family), Roe vs Wade 1989 are all examples of the docudrama, a genre which is very suitable for television. The docudrama should be distinguished from fictional dramas which make use of reality as historical context , but do not claim that the primary plot line is representing events that have actually occurred.

What is the literary genre that is represented by Chaucer's 'Parlement of Foules', Langman's 'Piers Plowman' , Dante's 'Divina Commedia' and even by Lewis Carroll's ' Alice In Wonderland'?

dream vision. Legends were what was to be read (from Latin 'legenda') during meals in abbey refectories. Typical of most medieval 'dream visions' was that the author , often on a May day, went to sleep, somewhere in agreeable surroundings and had a dream in which he met special people, witnessed strange events, etc.

What do Germans mean by 'Homecomers'(Heimkehrer) Literature such as Boll's 'Wo warst du Adam? {';Wolfgang} Borchert's ' Draussen vor der Tur'?

demobilised German soldiers finding their homes and families in a state of disarray at the end of WWII. Draussen vor der Tur dates back to 1947. Wo warst du Adam? to 1951.

What is the origin of the term 'agitprop' literature?

a Soviet Russian Department for Agitation and Propaganda. The Department of Agitation and Propaganda was created in September 1920 as part of the Central Committee Secretariat of the Soviet Communist Propaganda.

What is the correct term for a 'negative utopia' such as written by George Orwell (1984) and Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) ?

dystopia. Outopia (ou =not {;} topos = place is a pun upon the idea of eu-topia the land where everything is o.k. It literally suggests the Good Land is Nowhere.

Which 19th century author anglicised the title of More's 'Utopia' (literally no-where) but did so by creating an anagram?

Samuel Butler. Samuel Butler preceded Huxley's and Orwell with his novel 'Erewhon' (1872) in using the technique of writing about the future to satirize the present. In Butler's land of Erewhon the Victorians could find a distorted mirror image of some of their own opinions and practices. Anthony Trollope lived from 1815- {1882;} Thackeray from 1811 till 1868 {;} Samuel 'Erewhon' Butler from 1835 till 1868.

What is the general term for a novel such as 'Changing Places' (David Lodge-1975 {);} 'Lucky Jim' (Kingsley {Amis-1954);} 'Porterhouse Blues' (Tom Sharpe-1976 ) , 'The History Man' (Malcolm Bradbury-1975) that typically describes the world of students, lecturers, professors at a particular university?

campus novel. Tom Sharpe's Porterhouse Blues deals with Sir Godbert Evans attempts to modernise Porterhouse College in Cambridge.His main antagonist is the headporter Skullion. Lucky Jim, the story of Jim Dixon, the Welches, Urquhart, his pretty niece Christine was one of the glorious successes o fthe Angry Young Men generation. The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury shows us the eventful social life of Dr Howard Kir and his wife Barbara at the University of Watermouth. One of the professor's slogans is: 'Take a valium. Have a party. Go on a demo. Shoot a soldier. Make a bang. Bed a friend.' Changing Places. A Tale of Two Campuses is not just about the academic village but deals with differences in culture and lifestyle between U.S.A. and G.B. Morris Zapp, U.S.A. is the champion of specialisation. Philip Swallow, U.K. believes that all theory in 'un-English' Lodge was born in {1935;} Sharpe in 1928.Amis lived from 1922 till 1995. Malcolm Bradbury from 1932- 2000.