A literary circle or coterie, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, is a "small group of writers (and others) bound together more by friendship and habitual association than by a common literary cause or style that might unite a school or movement. The term often has pejorative connotations of exclusive cliquishness".[1]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/SomeBloomsburymembers.jpg/220px-SomeBloomsburymembers.jpg)
A literary circle differs from a writing circle, in that the latter usually includes only writers and the focus is on the process of writing. A literary circle also differs from a literary society, in that the latter need not contain any writers; members of a literary society come together to discuss or celebrate literary works or authors.
Famous or noteworthy examples include:
- Wilton Circle, UK, 16th-century group centred on Mary Sidney
- The Muiderkring, Netherlands, early 17th century
- Wuppertal poets' circle, Germany, 1850s
- Streatham Worthies, UK, late 18th century
- The Bloomsbury Group, UK, c. 1907 to 1930
- The Mutual Admiration Society, UK, 1910s
- Whitechapel Boys, UK, early 20th century
- Algonquin Roundtable, USA, 1919–1929
- Florida group, Buenos Aires, 1920s
- Stratford-on-Odéon, France, 1920s
- El Floridita literary circle, Cuba, 1920s, which included Ernest Hemingway
- The Harlem Renaissance, USA, 1920s and 1930s
- The Inklings, UK, c. 1930s and 1940s
- South Side Writers Group, USA, 1930s and 1940s
- Budh Sabha,[2] India, 1932 —
- Misty poets, China, 1970s to 1990s
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Baldick, Chris. "Coterie". The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (4 ed.). Oxford University Press, 2015. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.
- ^ Khan, Saeed (2013-08-18). "Master of metre". The Times of India. Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
Further reading
edit- Baird, Ileana. Social Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century: Clubs, Literary Salons, Textual Coteries. Academia (Downloadable PDF)
- Bowers, Will, and Hannah Leah Crummé, eds. Re-evaluating the Literary Coterie, 1580–1830: From Sidney to Blackwood's. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. DOI: tps://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54553-4
- Fulford, Tim. Romantic Poetry and Literary Coteries: The Dialect of the Tribe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137518897
- Brady, Deirdre F. Literary Coteries and the Irish Women Writers' Club (1933-1958). Liverpool University Press, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781789622461.001.0001
- Schellenberg, Betty A. Literary Coteries and the Making of Modern Print Culture 1740–1790. Cambridge University Press, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316423202.001
- Scuriatti, Laura, ed. Groups, Coteries, Circles and Guilds: Modernist Aesthetics and the Utopian Lure of Community. Peter Lang, 2019. DOI:10.3726/b11511
External links
edit- "The greatest literary groups in history". www.penguin.co.uk. Penguin Books. 2020-07-23. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
- Gerhaeusser, Laura (2020-05-29). "Great Minds Come Together - Literary Groups". centmagazine.co.uk. Cent Magazine. Retrieved 2023-01-25.