Blixen, Karen (1885–1962)
Karen Blixen was a singular figure in 20th century Danish literary life. In the 1930s, when Blixen started writing, Danish literature was dominated by social…
Karen Blixen was a singular figure in 20th century Danish literary life. In the 1930s, when Blixen started writing, Danish literature was dominated by social…
One of the emblematic figures of the French avant-garde, Claude Cahun was born Lucy Renée Mathilde Schwob on October 25, 1894 in Nantes, the niece…
Jane Ellen Harrison was a classicist credited with being the first woman to obtain a post in England as a ‘career academic’. Her scholarship combined…
Alan Crawley (born in Cobourg, Ontario on 23 August 1887; died on Vancouver Island in 1975) was an editor and critic who played a significant…
Ferdinand Tönnies was central to the professionalization of European sociology, co-founding the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (German Society for Sociology) in 1909 along with Max…
Lewis Nkosi is increasingly recognized as one of South Africa’s foremost literary critics, and also as an iconoclastic writer of novels and plays. His years…
Laurens van der Post was born on December 13, 1906 in the village of Phillipolis, in what was then the Orange River Colony. He was…
Benedetto Croce was an Italian philosopher of aesthetics and history, who cast a long shadow into the aesthetic and literary criticism of Modernism. Croce’s biography…
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to a prominent Boston family, Amy Lowell was a poet, lecturer, editor, and critic who was particularly well known for her…
Isaac Bashevis Singer was born in Leoncin, Poland, where his father was a Hasidic rabbi. He grew up between 1908–1917 in Warsaw and from 1917–1921…
The École supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi was opened in 1924 by the French government with the aim of training artists and teachers…
“For me the Aegean is not merely a part of nature, but rather a kind of signature,” Odysseus Elytis suggested in a 1972 interview with…
The term ‘Internationalism’ (internationalisme; Internationalismus) was coined in the mid-nineteenth century to denote those movements that called for involvement in events beyond national and imperial…
Known for her prolific and consistent career, Maria Naita has distinguished herself as not only a major player in Uganda’s sculpture scene, but also as…
Madiha Umar was the first Iraqi woman to receive a governmental scholarship to travel to Europe, where she officially studied education but also began art…
Nawal El Saadawi is a renowned Egyptian writer, novelist, feminist activist, political dissident, physician, and psychiatrist. The main theme of her work is the suppression…
Born Kertész Andor, André Kertész was one of the major innovators in 20th-century photography. He was self-taught, and largely produced scenes of everyday life in…
Mainie Jellett was the most important of a remarkable generation of Anglo-Irish women artists studying in Paris after World War I. She is credited with…
Beatrice and Sidney Webb were leading intellectual advocates of socialist reform in England. Beatrice Webb (née Potter) was born into a wealthy family, but her…
Anton Shammas is a Palestinian poet, novelist, academic and translator. He is best known for his 1986 novel ערבסקות/Arabeskot [Arabesques], the first high-profile novel written…
Father of Universalismo Constructivo and founder of the Asociación de Arte Constructivo and the Taller Torres García in Montevideo, Torres-García was the most important modern…
Born into a Jewish family in Munich, Lion Feuchtwanger lived in Berlin from 1925 to 1933 when Hitler’s accession to power forced him into exile,…
Alfred Döblin’s contributions to modern literature consist primarily of his montage style, epic narrative structures and critical eye toward contemporary culture. His masterpiece Berlin Alexanderplatz.…
Established in 1909, the Society of Ottoman Artists (Osmanlı Ressamlar Cemiyeti) was the first professional organization of artists in the Ottoman Empire. Initiated by the…
In Taiwan, the Zhu family is like the Brontës of England, known for their literary achievements. Zhu Tianyi, youngest of the three, is a fluent…