M·W·E·LMuseum of World English Literature

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Writers
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The Collection

Writers & Theorists

182 figures in the permanent collection

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Tradition

Period

Order

On display · 182

Homer
900 BC – 800 BC
reputed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey
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Sophocles
496 BC – 406 BC
ancient Greek playwright
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Theory
Plato
427 BC – 347 BC
4th-century BCE Greek philosopher
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Theory
Aristotle
384 BC – 322 BC
4th-century BCE Classical Greek philosopher and polymath
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Virgil
70 BC – 19 BC
Roman poet (1st century BC)
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Theory
Horace
65 BC – 8 BC
Roman lyric poet (65 BC – 8 BC)
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Ovid
43 BC – 17
Roman poet (43 BC – 17/18 AD)
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Cædmon
fl. c. 658–684
ancient English poet
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Bede
672 – 735
Anglo-Saxon monk, writer and saint (672/3–735)
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Alfred the Great
849 – 899
king of Wessex (r. 872–901)
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John Gower
1330 – 1408
English writer and poet (c.1330–1408)
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William Langland
1332 – 1386
English writer
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Geoffrey Chaucer
1343 – 1400
14th century English poet and author (1343–1400)
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Thomas Malory
1405 – 1471
English writer, author of Le Morte d'Arthur (1405–1471)
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Thomas More
1478 – 1535
English statesman, lawyer and philosopher (1478–1535)
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Thomas Wyatt
1503 – 1542
English poet and diplomat (1503-1542)
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Edmund Spenser
1552 – 1599
English poet (c. 1552 – 1599)
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Philip Sidney
1554 – 1586
English poet, courtier, diplomat (1554-1586)
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Thomas Kyd
1558 – 1594
English dramatist
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Francis Bacon
1561 – 1626
English philosopher and statesman (1561–1626)
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Christopher Marlowe
1564 – 1593
English dramatist, poet and translator (1564–1593)
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William Shakespeare
1564 – 1616
English playwright and poet (1564–1616)
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Ben Jonson
1572 – 1637
English playwright, poet, and actor (1572-1637)
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John Donne
1572 – 1631
English poet and cleric (1572-1631)
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John Webster
1578 – 1634
English dramatist (1578-1634)
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Robert Herrick
1591 – 1674
English poet and cleric (1591–1674)
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George Herbert
1593 – 1633
Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest (1593-1633)
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John Milton
1608 – 1674
English poet and civil servant (1608–1674)
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Andrew Marvell
1621 – 1678
English poet and politician (1621–1678)
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Henry Vaughan
1621 – 1695
Welsh author, physician and metaphysical poet (1621–1695)
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John Bunyan
1628 – 1688
English Christian writer and preacher (1628-1688)
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Theory
John Dryden
1631 – 1700
17th-century English poet and playwright (1631–1700)
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Aphra Behn
1640 – 1689
British playwright, poet and spy (1640–1689)
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Daniel Defoe
1660 – 1731
English trader, writer, and journalist (1660–1731)
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Jonathan Swift
1667 – 1745
Anglo-Irish satirist and essayist (1667–1745)
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William Congreve
1670 – 1729
British writer (1670-1729)
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Alexander Pope
1688 – 1744
English poet (1688–1744)
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Samuel Richardson
1689 – 1761
English writer and printer (1689–1761)
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Henry Fielding
1707 – 1754
English novelist and dramatist (1707–1754)
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Theory
Samuel Johnson
1709 – 1784
English writer and lexicographer (1709–1784)
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Laurence Sterne
1713 – 1768
Anglo-Irish novelist and Anglican cleric (1713–1768)
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Thomas Gray
1716 – 1771
English poet and classical scholar (1716–1771)
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Oliver Goldsmith
1728 – 1774
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and physician (d. 1774)
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan
1751 – 1816
Irish-British politician, playwright and writer (1751-1816)
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William Blake
1757 – 1827
English poet and artist (1757–1827)
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Robert Burns
1759 – 1796
Scottish poet and lyricist (1759–1796)
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Theory
William Wordsworth
1770 – 1850
English Romantic poet (1770–1850)
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Walter Scott
1771 – 1832
Scottish novelist, poet and playwright (1771–1832)
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Theory
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772 – 1834
English poet, literary critic and philosopher (1772–1834)
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Jane Austen
1775 – 1817
English novelist (1775–1817)
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Charles Lamb
1775 – 1834
British essayist, poet, antiquarian (1775–1834)
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Theory
William Hazlitt
1778 – 1830
English essayist and writer (1778–1830)
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Lord Byron
1788 – 1824
English Romantic poet and lyricist (1788–1824)
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792 – 1822
British Romantic poet (1792–1822)
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John Keats
1795 – 1821
English Romantic poet (1795–1821)
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Mary Shelley
1797 – 1851
English writer (1797–1851)
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 – 1882
American philosopher (1803–1882)
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Nathaniel Hawthorne
1804 – 1864
American author (1804–1864)
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning
1806 – 1861
English poet (1806–1861)
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1809 – 1892
British Poet Laureate (1809–1892)
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Edgar Allan Poe
1809 – 1849
American writer and literary critic (1809–1849)
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Henry Louis Vivian Derozio
1809 – 1831
Indian writer (1809-1831)
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William Makepeace Thackeray
1811 – 1863
British novelist (1811–1863)
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Charles Dickens
1812 – 1870
English novelist and social critic (1812–1870)
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Robert Browning
1812 – 1889
English poet and playwright (1812–1889)
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Charlotte Brontë
1816 – 1855
British novelist and poet (1816-1855)
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Henry David Thoreau
1817 – 1862
American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)
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Emily Brontë
1818 – 1848
English novelist and poet (1818–1848)
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Theory
Karl Marx
1818 – 1883
German-born philosopher (1818–1883)
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George Eliot
1819 – 1880
English novelist, essayist, poet and journalist (1819–1880)
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Herman Melville
1819 – 1891
American writer and poet (1819–1891)
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Walt Whitman
1819 – 1892
American poet, essayist and journalist (1819–1892)
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Theory
Matthew Arnold
1822 – 1888
British poet and cultural critic (1822–1888)
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1828 – 1882
English poet, illustrator, painter, and translator (1828-1882)
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Christina Rossetti
1830 – 1894
English poet (1830–1894)
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Emily Dickinson
1830 – 1886
American poet (1830-1886)
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Lewis Carroll
1832 – 1898
British author and scholar (1832–1898)
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Mark Twain
1835 – 1910
American author and humorist (1835–1910)
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Thomas Hardy
1840 – 1928
English novelist and poet (1840–1928)
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Henry James
1843 – 1916
American and British writer (1843–1916)
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Gerard Manley Hopkins
1844 – 1889
English poet (1844–1889)
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Robert Louis Stevenson
1850 – 1894
Scottish novelist and poet (1850-1894)
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Oscar Wilde
1854 – 1900
Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete (1854-1900)
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◆ Nobel
George Bernard Shaw
1856 – 1950
Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist (1856–1950)
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Toru Dutt
1856 – 1877
Bengali poet and translator (1856–1877)
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Theory
Sigmund Freud
1856 – 1939
Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)
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Joseph Conrad
1857 – 1924
Polish-British writer (1857–1924)
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Theory
Ferdinand de Saussure
1857 – 1913
Swiss linguist and philosopher (1857–1913)
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◆ Nobel
Rabindranath Tagore
1861 – 1941
Bengali poet, philosopher and polymath (1861–1941)
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◆ Nobel
Rudyard Kipling
1865 – 1936
English writer and poet (1865–1936)
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◆ Nobel
W. B. Yeats
1865 – 1939
Irish poet and playwright (1865–1939)
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Sri Aurobindo
1872 – 1950
Indian Bengali philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet and nationalist (1872–1950)
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Robert Frost
1874 – 1963
American poet (1874–1963)
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Theory
Carl Jung
1875 – 1961
Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961)
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Theory
E. M. Forster
1879 – 1970
English novelist (1879-1970)
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Sarojini Naidu
1879 – 1949
Indian poet, politician, governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from1947 to 1949
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Theory
Virginia Woolf
1882 – 1941
English modernist writer (1882–1941)
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James Joyce
1882 – 1941
Irish novelist and poet (1882–1941)
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D. H. Lawrence
1885 – 1930
English writer and poet (1885–1930)
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Ezra Pound
1885 – 1972
American poet and critic (1885–1972)
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◆ NobelTheory
T. S. Eliot
1888 – 1965
US-British poet (1888–1965)
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Katherine Mansfield
1888 – 1923
New Zealand author (1888–1923)
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◆ Nobel
Eugene O'Neill
1888 – 1953
American playwright (1888–1953)
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Jean Rhys
1890 – 1979
British novelist (1890–1979)
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Theory
Viktor Shklovsky
1893 – 1984
Soviet Jewish writer
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Theory
I. A. Richards
1893 – 1979
English literary critic and rhetorician (1893–1979)
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Theory
Mikhail Bakhtin
1895 – 1975
Russian intellectual and philosopher (1895–1975)
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Theory
F. R. Leavis
1895 – 1978
British literary critic (1895–1978)
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F. Scott Fitzgerald
1896 – 1940
American writer (1896–1940)
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◆ Nobel
William Faulkner
1897 – 1962
American writer (1897-1962)
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◆ Nobel
Ernest Hemingway
1899 – 1961
American author and journalist (1899–1961)
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Theory
Jacques Lacan
1901 – 1981
French psychoanalyst and writer (1901–1981)
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Langston Hughes
1902 – 1967
American writer and social activist (1901–1967)
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George Orwell
1903 – 1950
British writer and journalist (1903–1950)
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Graham Greene
1904 – 1991
British writer, playwright and literary critic (1904–1991)
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Mulk Raj Anand
1905 – 2004
Indian English writer (1905–2004)
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◆ Nobel
Samuel Beckett
1906 – 1989
Irish writer (1906–1989)
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R. K. Narayan
1906 – 2001
Indian writer (1906–2001)
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Theory
William Empson
1906 – 1984
English literary critic and poet (1906–1984)
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Theory
Cleanth Brooks
1906 – 1994
American literary critic and academic (1906–1994)
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W. H. Auden
1907 – 1973
British-American poet (1907–1973)
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Raja Rao
1908 – 2006
Indian-born English writer (1908–2006)
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Theory
Simone de Beauvoir
1908 – 1986
French philosopher, social theorist and activist (1908–1986)
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◆ Nobel
William Golding
1911 – 1993
British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate (1911–1993)
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Tennessee Williams
1911 – 1983
American playwright (1911–1983)
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◆ Nobel
Patrick White
1912 – 1990
English-born Australian writer
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Theory
Northrop Frye
1912 – 1991
Canadian literary critic and literary theorist (1912–1991)
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Dylan Thomas
1914 – 1953
Welsh poet and writer (1914–1953)
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Arthur Miller
1915 – 2005
American playwright and essayist (1915–2005)
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Theory
Roland Barthes
1915 – 1980
French philosopher and essayist
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◆ Nobel
Doris Lessing
1919 – 2013
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer, and short story writer (1919–2013)
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Theory
Raymond Williams
1921 – 1988
Welsh scholar, author, and Marxist literary critic (1921–1988)
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Philip Larkin
1922 – 1985
English writer, jazz critic and librarian (1922-1985)
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◆ Nobel
Nadine Gordimer
1923 – 2014
South African writer (1923–2014)
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Nissim Ezekiel
1924 – 2004
Indian poet (1924–2004)
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Theory
Frantz Fanon
1925 – 1961
French West Indian psychiatrist and philosopher (1925–1961)
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Michel Foucault
1926 – 1984
French philosopher (1926–1984)
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Theory
Wolfgang Iser
1926 – 2007
German philologist (1926–2007)
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George Lamming
1927 – 2022
Barbadian novelist, essayist and poet (1927–2022)
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Maya Angelou
1928 – 2014
American poet, author, and civil rights activist (1928–2014)
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John Osborne
1929 – 1994
English playwright (1929-1994)
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A. K. Ramanujan
1929 – 1993
Indian linguist (1929-1993)
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Ted Hughes
1930 – 1998
English poet and children's writer (1930–1998)
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◆ Nobel
Harold Pinter
1930 – 2008
British playwright (1930–2008)
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Chinua Achebe
1930 – 2013
Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic (1930-2013)
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◆ Nobel
Derek Walcott
1930 – 2017
Saint Lucian–Trinidadian poet and playwright (1930–2017)
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Theory
Jacques Derrida
1930 – 2004
French philosopher (1930–2004)
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Theory
Harold Bloom
1930 – 2019
American literary critic, scholar, and writer (1930–2019)
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◆ Nobel
Toni Morrison
1931 – 2019
African American novelist, essayist, and academic (1931–2019)
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◆ Nobel
Alice Munro
1931 – 2024
Canadian writer (1931–2024)
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Sylvia Plath
1932 – 1963
American poet and writer (1932–1963)
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◆ Nobel
V. S. Naipaul
1932 – 2018
Trinidadian-British writer (1932–2018)
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Kamala Das
1934 – 2009
Indian author and poet (1934–2009)
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◆ Nobel
Wole Soyinka
b. 1934
Nigerian writer (born 1934)
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Theory
Edward Said
1935 – 2003
Palestinian-American professor (1935–2003)
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Tom Stoppard
1937 – 2025
Czech–English playwright (1937–2025)
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Anita Desai
b. 1937
Indian novelist, University professor (born 1937)
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Girish Karnad
1938 – 2019
Indian playwright, theatre personality (1938–2019)
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Theory
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
1938 – 2025
Kenyan writer (1938–2025)
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Theory
Stanley Fish
b. 1938
American literary theorist and lawyer (born 1938)
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◆ Nobel
Seamus Heaney
1939 – 2013
Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer (1939–2013)
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Margaret Atwood
b. 1939
Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, pépiniériste and inventor (born 1939)
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Angela Carter
1940 – 1992
English novelist (1940–1992)
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◆ Nobel
J. M. Coetzee
b. 1940
South African and Australian writer and scholar (born 1940)
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Theory
Elaine Showalter
b. 1941
American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues
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Theory
Julia Kristeva
b. 1941
Bulgarian philosopher, psychoanalyst & academic
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Theory
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
b. 1942
Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic
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Theory
Terry Eagleton
b. 1943
British writer, academic and educator
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Theory
Stephen Greenblatt
b. 1943
American literary critic, theorist and scholar
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Salman Rushdie
b. 1947
Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947)
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Ian McEwan
b. 1948
British author (born 1948)
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Theory
Homi K. Bhabha
b. 1949
Indian critical theorist (born 1949)
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Vikram Seth
b. 1952
Indian novelist and poet
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◆ Nobel
Kazuo Ishiguro
b. 1954
British novelist (born 1954)
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Carol Ann Duffy
b. 1955
Scottish poet and playwright (born 1955)
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Amitav Ghosh
b. 1956
Indian writer
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Theory
Judith Butler
b. 1956
American feminist gender studies philosopher (born 1956)
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Ben Okri
b. 1959
Nigerian-born British poet and novelist (1959-)
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Arundhati Roy
b. 1961
Indian novelist, essayist, and activist
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Jhumpa Lahiri
b. 1967
American author of Indian origin (born 1967)
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Zadie Smith
b. 1975
English novelist, essayist and short story writer (born 1975)
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
b. 1977
Nigerian writer (born 1977)
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Museum of World English Literature

An interactive study museum for UGC NET · JRF · CUET PG · MA English. Walk the timeline, enter the galleries, master the canon.

Wings

Zoomable Timeline
Writers & Museums
Knowledge Graph
AI Study Guide

Provenance

Biographical facts, dates and summaries from Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Portraits from Wikimedia Commons; covers via Open Library; texts via Project Gutenberg. Full attribution.

Built for students of literature, with reverence for the canon.

Non-commercial · educational use