Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre

(21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980)

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a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, existentialism, and Marxism, and his work continues to influence fields such as Marxist philosophy, sociology, critical theory and literary studies. His major works include The Imagination (1936), Nausea (1938), Being and Nothingness (1943), Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960), and Truth and Existence (1989).

Publius Vergilius Maro

also known as Virgil or Vergil

(October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC)

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a classical Roman poet, best known for three major works—the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the Aeneid—although several minor poems are also attributed to him.

Virgil came to be regarded as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid can be considered a national epic of Rome and has been extremely popular from its publication to the present day. His work has influenced Western literature.

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a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. It was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book. Montgomery found her inspiration for the book on an old piece of paper that she had written at a young age, describing a couple that were mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of a boy, yet decided to keep her. Montgomery also drew upon her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island.

Henry Fielding

(22 April 1707 –  8 October 1754)

Mary Anne Evans

(22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880)

pen name George Eliot

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an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and well known for their realism and psychological insight.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

or Vingt mille lieues sous les mers

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a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1869. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax.

Menander

(ca. 342–291 BC)

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Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, and the son of well-to-do parents. Menander was the author of more than a hundred comedies, including “Dyskolos” (“The Grouch”). An admirer and imitator of Euripides, Menander resembles him in his keen observation of practical life, his analysis of the emotions, and his fondness for moral maxims.

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practitioners of an extreme form of mortification of their own flesh by whipping it with various instruments.

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a 1913 ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

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an opera in one act by Richard Strauss, based on the play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. It was originally famous for its Dance of the Seven Veils, but it is now better known for the more shocking final scene (often a concert-piece for dramatic sopranos), where Salome declares her love to the severed head of John the Baptist.

Albert Camus

(7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960)

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a French Algerian author, philosopher and journalist. He was a key philosopher of the 20th-century, his most famous work being the novel The Stranger (L'Étranger).
Although often cited as a proponent of existentialism, the philosophy with which Camus was associated during his own lifetime, he rejected this particular label. Specifically, his views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism.

Richard Georg Strauss

(11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949)

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a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Considered the greatest composer of the first half of the 20th century and highly influential in developing 20th-century music, he represents the extraordinary late flowering of German Romanticism.

He is known particularly for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Thus Spake Zarathustra, An Alpine Symphony, and Metamorphosen.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(28 June 1712  – 2 July 1778)

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a major Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy heavily influenced the French Revolution, as well as the American Revolution and the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.

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a French picaresque satire written in 1759 by Voltaire, which is recognised as his magnum opus. The novel is characterised by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot.

  It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world.

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a 17th-century comedy of manners in verse written by Molière. The play satirizes the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society, but it also engages a more serious tone when pointing out the flaws which all humans possess. The play differs from other farces at the time by employing dynamic characters. The play survives as Molière's best known work today.

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a memorable story dealing with a character's adventures or inner turmoil in his growth and development as a human being. Some characters come to grips with the reality of cruelty in the world--with war, violence, death, racism, and hatred--while others deal with family, friends, or community issues.

August Wilson

(April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005)

Ed Bullins

(born July 2, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

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an African-American playwright. He has won numerous awards, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and several Obies. He is one of the best known playwrights to come from the Black Arts Movement. Bullin's most ambitious playwriting undertaking was his Twentieth-Century Play Cycle, a proposed cycle of twenty plays representing the full gamut of African-American experience.

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an African American poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement. She has authored over a dozen books of poetry, as well as plays and children's books.

Zora Neale Hurston

(January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960)

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an American folklorist, anthropologist, and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Of Hurston's four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Marita Bonner

(June 16, 1899 – 1971)

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an African American writer, essayist, and playwright who is commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

Bonner contributed a variety of things to the Harlem Renaissance. Her writings addressed the struggles of people that lived outside of Harlem. Her greatest involvement was her emphasis on claiming a strong racial and gender identity. She also encouraged African Americans to use the weapons of knowledge, teaching, and writing to overcome inequalities.

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a well-known museum located in New York City. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it is one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks.

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a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

Richard Meier

(October 12, 1934-)

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an American architect, whose rationalist buildings make prominent use of the color white.

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"step of the cat". The dancer jumps sideways, and while in mid-air, bends both legs up bringing the feet up as high as possible, with knees apart. 

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as used in ballet, a horizontal bar used for warm-up of various parts of the body that will later be used in the centre and exercises for ballet techniques.

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a ballet position similar to first position, with the feet turned opposite each other in a straight line, but with 12 inches between the heels.

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a ballet position in which the feet are turned outward, one foot is in front of and parallel to the other, spread 12 inches apart, and the heels and toes point in opposite directions.

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A ballet position in which the feet are turned outward, with one foot right in front of the other and only the first joint of each big toe past the opposite heel.

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The position of the body supported on one leg, with the other leg extended behind the body with the knee straight.

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a position in which the dancer stands on one leg (known as the supporting leg) while the other leg (working leg) is lifted and well turned out with the knee bent at approximately 90-degree angle.

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a jump from one foot to the other similar to a leap, in which one leg appears to be "thrown" in the direction of the movement.

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any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes.

The lute is used in a great variety of instrumental music from the early Renaissance to the late Baroque eras. It is also an accompanying instrument, especially in vocal works, often realizing a basso continuo or playing a written-out accompaniment.

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any expressive melody usually performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment. Perhaps the most common context for arias is opera. An arietta is a short aria.

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a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice.

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an American writer who initially became known for his short stories and later became a best-selling novelist whose works include Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an uncannily accurate ear for dialogue. O'Hara was a keen observer of social status and class differences, and wrote frequently about the socially ambitious.

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a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915. The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect.

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an illustrated novel by Jack Finney. The many illustrations in the book are real, though, as explained in an endnote, not all are from the 1882 period in which the actions of the book take place.

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an epic drama musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique of the capitalist world.

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satiric musical plays that used some of the conventions of opera, but without recitative.