From an early age, Joyce disdained what he saw as the shabby Philistinism of his birthplace, Dublin, rejecting the Catholicism that dominated Irish culture in favor of a literary faith and a rebel's stance. Absolutely convinced of his genius, Joyce left for self-imposed exile in Europe in 1904, and b

Composed, Excessive, Expansive, Formless, Layered, Modernist literature, Moody, Playful, Postmodern fiction, Profane, Religious, Sprawling, Subtle

The nebbish persona of Woody Allen's early 1960s stand-up shtick proved to be the springboard that took this most unlikely New York neurotic into a serious career as a leading auteur of international cinema. In his first film, "What's New, Pussycat?" which he wrote and acted in, Allen presented the i

Anxiety, Contemplative, Moody, Neurotic, Parody, Perverse, Urban

For most of the twentieth century, even as Latin American writers began to achieve world renown for their cutting-edge work, Brazil found itself without a laureate. That is, until Clarice Lispector joined the fray. Born in the Ukraine, Lispector was raised in northeastern Brazil, where she was expose

Deconstructive, Event, Experimental, Feminine, Moody, Postmodern fiction, Repetition, Spare, Sublime, Women's literature

The bleakest, filthiest junkhouse in the mansion of rock 'n' roll serves as a crash pad to the memory of this band, which romanticized every deadly vice and self-destructive habit known to man. Founded in the early 1960s by Lou Reed, an educated Jewish junkie, and the classical violist John Cale, the

Agitated, Anxiety, Distorted, Fuzzy, Minimal, Moody, Noise rock/art rock, Psychedelic, Religious, Spare, Tense