Art form that arose in Europe and the U.S. in the 1960s. The term describes an art that is live but operates outside the traditional conventions of theatre or music. Early examples represented a challenge to orthodox art forms and cultural norms by creating an ephemeral art experience that could not be captured or purchased. By the 1970s performance art was used as a general term to describe a multitude of activities, including happenings, body art, actions, events, and non-matrix theatre. Prominent performance artists have included Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Dennis Oppenheim, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Meredith Monk, and Laurie Anderson.

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also called outsider art

Work of artists in sophisticated societies who lack or reject formal training. Naive artists, not to be confused with hobbyists, create with the same passion as trained artists but without formal knowledge of methods. Naive works are often extremely detailed, with a tendency toward the use of brilliant, saturated colours and a characteristic absence of perspective, which creates the illusion of figures floating in space. Well-known naive artists include Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses.

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Any of several arts of combat and self-defense that are widely practiced as sport. There are armed and unarmed varieties, most based on traditional fighting methods used in East Asia. In modern times, derivatives of armed martial arts include kendo (fencing with wooden swords) and kyudo (archery). Unarmed varieties include aikido, judo, karate, kung fu, and tae kwon do. Because of the influence of Taoism and Zen Buddhism, there is a strong emphasis in all the martial arts on the practitioner's mental and spiritual state. A hierarchy of expertise, ranging from the novice (“white belt”) to the master (“black belt”), is usually recognized. Seealso t'ai chi ch'uan; jujitsu.

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Art produced in a traditional fashion by peasants, seamen, country artisans, or tradespeople with no formal training, or by members of a social or ethnic group that has preserved its traditional culture. It is predominantly functional, typically produced by hand for use by the maker or by a small group or community. Paintings are usually incorporated as decorative features on clock faces, chests, chairs, and interior and exterior walls. Sculptural objects in wood, stone, and metal include toys, spoons, candlesticks, and religious items. Folk architecture may include public and residential buildings, such as eastern European wooden churches and U.S. frontier log cabins. Other examples of visual folk arts are woodcuts, scrimshaw, pottery, textiles, and traditional clothing.

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Any of various art forms in which the idea for a work of art is considered more important than the finished product. The theory was explored by Marcel Duchamp from circa 1910, but the term was coined in the late 1950s by Edward Kienholz. In the 1960s and '70s it became a major international movement; its leading exponents were Sol LeWitt (b. 1928) and Joseph Kosuth (b. 1945). Its adherents radically redefined art objects, materials, and techniques, and began questioning the very existence and use of art. Its claim is that the “true” work of art is not a physical object produced by the artist for exhibition or sale, but rather consists of “concepts” or “ideas.” Typical conceptual works include photographs, texts, maps, graphs, and image-text combinations that are deliberately rendered visually uninteresting or trivial in order to divert attention to the “ideas” they express. Its manifestations have been extremely diverse; a well-known example is Kosuth's One and Three Chairs (1965), which combines a real chair, a photograph of a chair, and a dictionary definition of “chair.” Conceptual art was fundamental to much of the art produced in the late 20th century.

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Historical study of the visual arts for the purpose of identifying, describing, evaluating, interpreting, and understanding art objects and artistic traditions. Art-historical research involves discovering and collecting biographical data on artists to establish attribution; determining at what stage in a culture's or artist's development an object was made; weighing the influence the object or artist had on the historical past; and documenting an object's previous whereabouts or ownership (provenance). The analysis of symbols, themes, and subject matter is often of primary concern. In the 20th and 21st centuries art historians became increasingly concerned with the social and cultural context of artists and their work.

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Maintenance and preservation of works of art, their protection from future damage, deterioration, or neglect, and the repair or renovation of works that have deteriorated or been damaged. Research in art history has relied heavily on 20th- and 21st-century technical and scientific advances in art restoration. Modern conservation practice adheres to the principle of reversibility, which dictates that treatments should not cause permanent alteration to the object.

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Works of art accumulated by an individual or institution. Such collections were made in the earliest civilizations; precious objects were stored in temples, tombs, sanctuaries, and palaces. A taste for collecting per se developed in Greece (4th–1st century BC). The great art collections of the world grew out of private collections formed by royalty, aristocracy, and the wealthy. By the 18th century, collectors were donating their holdings to the public and constructing buildings to house them (e.g., the Louvre Museum, Uffizi Gallery). Wealthy industrialists in the U.S. played a prominent role in the 19th–20th century, and an unprecedented flow of masterpieces from Europe soon filled U.S. museums.

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art brut(French; “raw art”)

Art produced by people outside the established art world, particularly crude, inexperienced, or obscene works created by the untrained or the mentally ill. The term was coined by Jean Dubuffet, who regarded such works as the purest form of expression. Seealso naive art.

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also called visual art

A visual object or experience consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination. The term art encompasses diverse media such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing, decorative arts, photography, and installation. The various visual arts exist within a continuum that ranges from purely aesthetic purposes at one end to purely utilitarian purposes at the other. This should by no means be taken as a rigid scheme, however, particularly in cultures in which everyday objects are painstakingly constructed and imbued with meaning. Particularly in the 20th century, debates arose over the definition of art. Figures such as Dada artist Marcel Duchamp implied that it is enough for an artist to deem something “art” and put it in a publicly accepted venue. Such intellectual experimentation continued throughout the 20th century in movements such as conceptual art and Minimalism. By the turn of the 21st century, a variety of new media (e.g., video art) further challenged traditional definitions of art. See aesthetics; art conservation and restoration; drawing; painting; printmaking; sculpture; photography; decorative arts.

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or nonobjective art or nonrepresentational art

Art, including painting, sculpture, and graphic art, that does not represent recognizable objects. In the late 19th century the traditional European conception of art as the imitation of nature was abandoned in favour of the imagination and the unconscious. Abstraction developed in the early 20th century with such movements as Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism. Vasily Kandinsky is credited as the first modern artist to paint purely abstract pictures, circa 1910. Piet Mondrian's De Stijl group in The Netherlands widened the spectrum circa 1915–20. Abstraction continued to flourish between the two world wars, and after the 1930s it was the most characteristic feature of Western art. After World War II, Abstract Expressionism emerged in the U.S. and had a great influence on European and American painting and sculpture. By the turn of the 21st century, artistic output was varied, with abstract art prominent alongside figurative and conceptual work.

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(born Oct. 13, 1909, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.—died Nov. 5, 1956, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. jazz pianist. Tatum was blind from birth. Influenced by Fats Waller and Earl Hines, his playing represents a synthesis of stride and swing piano traditions. He developed an unprecedented technical and harmonic control on the instrument and was capable of astonishing speed and intricate elaborations of melody. By 1937 he was recognized as the outstanding pianist in jazz. He formed a trio with guitar and bass in 1943 but frequently made solo performances that showcased his unique mastery.

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Painting, sculpture, and other visual arts produced during the reigns of the German Ottonian emperors and their first successors from the Salic house (950–1050). Though it drew on the heritage of Carolingian art, it developed a style of its own, particularly in painting and sculpture. Manuscript illuminators of the period were less concerned with naturalism than with expression through sober, dramatic gesture and a heightened use of colour. Ottonian large-scale wooden crucifixes and wooden reliquaries covered with gold leaf marked a return to sculpture in the round. Bronze casting, an antique art practiced by the Carolingians, flourished as well. Ottonian architecture was more regulated than Carolingian, with simple interior spaces and a more systematic layout. Ottonian architects provided impetus for the monumentality of Romanesque architecture.

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or Optical art

Branch of mid-20th-century geometric abstract art that deals with optical illusion. Op art painters devised complex optical spaces by manipulating repetitive forms such as parallel lines, checkerboard patterns, and concentric circles or by creating chromatic tension from the juxtaposition of complementary colours, thereby creating the illusion of movement. Principal artists of the Op movement in the late 1950s and the '60s include Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley (b. 1931), and Larry Poons (b. 1937).

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Museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. It was founded in 1937 when Andrew W. Mellon donated his collection of European paintings to the U.S. He also donated funds to construct the gallery's Neoclassical building, opened in 1941. Now known as the West Building, it is connected by plaza and underground concourse to the East Building, designed by I.M. Pei (completed 1978). The museum houses an extensive collection of U.S. and European paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, and graphic arts from the 12th to 21st centuries; especially well represented are works by Italian Renaissance, 17th-century Dutch, and 18th- and 19th-century French artists.

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Museum in New York City, the world's most comprehensive collection of U.S. and European art from the late 19th century to the present. It was founded in 1929 by a group of private collectors. The original building on 53rd St. opened in 1939; a later addition and sculpture garden were designed by Philip Johnson (1953). A condominium tower and western wing, doubling the exhibition space, were completed in 1984. Its collections of Cubist, Surrealist, and Abstract Expressionist paintings are extensive; other holdings include sculpture, graphic arts, industrial design, architecture, photography, and film. Through its permanent collections, exhibitions, and many publications, it exerts a strong influence on public taste and artistic production.

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Most comprehensive collection of art in the U.S. and one of the foremost in the world. It was incorporated in New York City in 1870, and the present building in Central Park on Fifth Avenue was opened in 1880. The Metropolitan was built with the private fortunes of businessmen; today it is owned by the city but supported mainly by private endowment. Its outstanding Egyptian, Mesopotamian, East Asian, Middle Eastern, Greek and Roman, European, pre-Columbian, and U.S. collections include—in addition to paintings, sculpture, and graphic arts—architecture, glass, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, furniture, arms and armour, and musical instruments. It also incorporates a Costume Institute and the Thomas J. Watson Library, one of the world's greatest art and archaeology reference collections. Much of the medieval collection is housed at The Cloisters in Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park; its building (1938) incorporates parts of medieval monasteries and churches.

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Ancient sculptures, paintings, and decorative crafts produced in the dynastic periods of the 3rd–1st millennia BC in the Nile Valley of Egypt and Nubia. Egyptian art served those in power as a forceful propaganda instrument that perpetuated the existing framework of society. Much of what has survived is associated with ancient tombs. The course of art in Egypt paralleled the country's political history and is divided into three periods: Old Kingdom (circa 2700–circa 2150 BC), Middle Kingdom (circa 2000–circa 1670 BC), and New Kingdom (circa 1550–circa 1070 BC). The Old Kingdom's stone tombs and temples were decorated with vigorous and brightly painted reliefs illustrating the daily life of the people. Rules for portraying the human figure were established, specifying proportions, postures, and placement of details, often linked to the subjects' social standing. An artistic decline at the end of the Old Kingdom led to a revival in the more stable political climate of the Middle Kingdom, notable for its expressive portrait sculptures of kings and its excellent relief sculptures and painting. The New Kingdom brought a magnificent flowering of the arts; great granite statues and wall reliefs glorified rulers and gods, painting became an independent art, and the decorative crafts reached new peaks, the treasure of Tutankhamen's tomb typifying the variety of luxury items created. Seealso Egyptian architecture.

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Museum in Chicago that houses European, American, Asian, African, and pre-Columbian art. It was established in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design and took its current name in 1882. In 1893 it moved to its present building, designed by the architectural firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge for the World's Columbian Exposition, on Michigan Avenue. The Art Institute, which comprises both a museum and a school, is noted for its extensive collections of 19th-century French painting (Impressionist works and the work of Claude Monet in particular) and 20th-century European and American painting. Among its best-known works are Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on La Grand Jatte—1884 (1884–86), Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930), and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks (1942).

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or Style Moderne

Movement in design, interior decoration, and architecture in the 1920s and '30s in Europe and the U.S. The name derives from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. Its products included both individually crafted luxury items and mass-produced wares, but, in either case, the intention was to create a sleek and antitraditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistication. Influenced by Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Cubist, Native American, and Egyptian sources, the distinguishing features of the style are simple, clean shapes, often with a “streamlined” look; ornament that is geometric or stylized from representational forms; and unusually varied, often expensive materials, which frequently include man-made substances (plastics, especially bakelite; vita-glass; and ferroconcrete) in addition to natural ones (jade, silver, ivory, obsidian, chrome, and rock crystal). Typical motifs included stylized animals, foliage, nude female figures, and sun rays. New York City's Rockefeller Center (especially its interiors supervised by Donald Deskey), the Chrysler Building by William Van Alen, and the Empire State Building by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon are the most monumental embodiments of Art Deco.

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College or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational, or technical curriculum. In Classical antiquity, the term designated the education proper to a freeman (Latin liber, “free”) as opposed to a slave. In the medieval Western university, the seven liberal arts were grammar, rhetoric, and logic (the trivium) and geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy (the quadrivium). In modern colleges and universities, the liberal arts include the study of literature, languages, philosophy, history, mathematics, and science.

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or Black Arts movement

Period of artistic and literary development among black Americans in the 1960s and early '70s. Based on the cultural politics of black nationalism, the movement sought to create art forms capable of expressing the varieties of black experience in the U.S. Leading theorists included Amiri Baraka, Houston Baker (b. 1943), and Henry Louis Gates. Don L. Lee (b. 1942), known as Haki R. Madhubuti after 1973, was one of its most popular writers; other notable writers included Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Ntozake Shange (b. 1948). The movement also produced such autobiographical works as The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965; with Alex Haley), Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice (1968), and Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974).

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Britain's national academy of art. It was founded in 1768 by George III. Its first president (1768–92) was Joshua Reynolds. The number of its members, who are selected by members and associates, is fixed at 40; members' names are frequently followed by the initials R.A. (“Royal Academician”). Its galleries contain works by such former members as Thomas Gainsborough and J.M.W. Turner. The academy opened a new wing, the Sackler Galleries, in 1991.

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Literary, performing, and visual arts of the Pacific islands of Oceania, including Australia as well as Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Their isolation and wide range of environmental conditions led to the development of a rich variety of artistic styles. Religion and ritual strongly influence every aspect of Oceanic life, and their association with the arts is especially close. Religious symbolism infuses not only the objects, dances, and speeches used in ritual but also the materials and tools used to create them. Oceanic literature includes both complex oral traditions and a more modern body of works written primarily in English. The traditional oral transmission of literature necessitated rhythmic cadences and stock formulas to aid memory. Favoured subjects are tales of the gods and spirits and creation myths. Musical styles are multitudinous, though all regions, with some Melanesian exceptions, emphasize vocals using instruments to produce supranormal voices. Consequently most instruments are technically crude though often elaborately decorated in keeping with their extramusical function as gifts and cult objects. Polynesian song and dance is rooted in societal structure, and chants praise chiefs or high-ranking guests while the dancers' movements narrate rather than act out the meaning. Australian and Melanesian dance has a historical function describing the activities of gods and ancestors—in the latter instance, dancers don elaborate costumes and masks. In all the islands the significant movements are made with the upper half of the body, while the feet merely keep time. The visual arts display ingenious use of environmental possibilities: a staggering range of materials are used, often in collage-style combination. Wood is the main artistic medium; secondary materials included clay, shell, and stone. Extant works include wooden masks, clubs, and religious effigies; carved stone sculptures; feather cloaks and helmets; and bark cloth stenciled with bold, dense geometric designs The most famous monuments of Oceanic art are the gargantuan stone figures of Easter Island. With the arrival of European colonists, the arts in these regions began to reflect European traditions and styles. Seealso bisj pole.

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A character is any person, persona, identity, or entity who exists in a work of art. The process of conveying information about characters in fiction is called characterisation. Characters may be entirely fictional or based on real, historical entities. Characters may be human, supernatural, mythical, divine, animal, or personifications of an abstraction.

Archetypes

A character may be based on a particular archetype, which is a common characterological pattern like those listed below. Jungian archetypes are modeled after mythology, legend, and folk tales. For example, both Puck from the William Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night's Dream and Bugs Bunny are examples of the Jungian trickster archetype because they defy established standards of behavior. When defined by literary criticism, archetypes fulfill a particular role in a story.

Though Carl Jung, identifed the first archetypes based on story patterns in 1919, authors like Joseph Campbell and James Hillman continued the work he'd begun. Other authors have reorganized the information, often blending Jungian archetypes or recognizing sub-archetypes within Jung's structure. These authors include Christopher Vogler, best known for his book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers, and Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley, whose Dramatica defines seven different archetypes defined by their "Action" and "Decision" characteristics:

• Driver Characters:
• Protagonist: "... the driver of the story: the one who forces the action." Defined by "Pursue" and "Consideration" characteristics.
• Jungian equivalent: Hero
• Antagonist: "... the character directly opposed to the Protagonist." "Prevent" & "Re-consideration".
• Jungian equivalent: Shadow and Villain
• Guardian: "... a teacher or helper who aids the Protagonist..." "Help" & "Conscience"
• Jungian equivalent: Wise Old Man or Wise Old Woman, also sometimes referred to collectively as The Mentor
• Passenger Characters
• Reason: "... makes its decisions and takes action on the basis of logic..." "Control" & "Logic"
• Emotion: "... responds with its feelings without thinking..." "Uncontrolled" & "Feeling"
• Sidekick: "... unfailing in its loyalty and support." "Support" & "Faith".
• Skeptic: "... doubts everything..." "Oppose" & "Disbelief"
• Jung's Trickster archetype often overlaps here, since its purpose is to question and rebel against the established way of doing things

A single character may fulfill more than one archetypal role. A single character may also have many traits and feelings. A complex character may blend characteristics from different archetypes, just as real people embody aspects of each archetype. According to one writer/psychologist,

Non-fictional characters

A nonfictional character (sometimes called a historical character) is a character in a narrative that was a real-life figure whether played by an actor or used as an actual historical figure in a literary work. One example in film is Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles in the film Ray. Another would be Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of Johnny Cash in the film Walk the Line.

Sometimes, the setting and events are real, but the character is fictional (such as Johnny Tremain), which included real life groups such as the Sons of Liberty, and real figures such as Paul Revere. In others, such as the best selling 1632 series there is a mix of both, fictional characters mixing it up in Central Europe with various historical figures in the era of the Thirty Years' War.

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood contains only nonfictional characters. Since it is a nonfiction document, all the characters existed in real life.

Names of characters

The names of characters are often quite important. The conventions of naming have changed over time. In many Restoration comedies, for example, characters are given emblematic names that sound nothing like real life names: "Sir Fidget", "Mr. Pinchwife" and "Mrs. Squeamish" are some typical examples (all from The Country Wife by William Wycherley). Some 18th and 19th century literature such as Les Misérables represent characters' names by the use of a single letter and a long dash (this convention is also used for other proper nouns, such as place names). This has the effect of suggesting that the author had a real person in mind but omitted the full name for propriety's sake. A similar technique was employed by Ian Fleming in his 20th century James Bond novels, where the real name for M, if spoken in dialogue, was always written "Adm. Sir M***". It is still common to echo an adjective or idea, if slightly changed, to suggest qualities of a character; Mr. Murdstone of David Copperfield suggests "murder" and unpleasantness.

A character's name will sometimes reference a real-world, literary, or mythological precursor. This can be as simple as calling a character in love Romeo, or naming a character who seemingly comes back from the dead Phoenix.

Some ways of classifying characters

The following are some ways in which readers sometimes classify characters.

Round vs. flat

Round characters are characters who are complex and realistic; they represent a depth of personality which is imitative of life. They frequently possess both good and bad traits, and they may react unexpectedly or become entangled in their own interior conflicts. These characters have been fully developed by an author, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and are detailed enough to seem real. A round character is usually a main character, and is developed over the course of the story. A flat character is its opposite, having hardly any development whatsoever.

Protagonists are normally round characters, though notable exceptions (such as Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron) exist. Antagonists are often round as well, though comedic villains may be almost farcically flat. Examples of round characters from various genres include Humbert Humbert of Nabokov's Lolita, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler of Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Vladimir Taltos of Brust's series of novels, Frodo Baggins of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs, Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Magneto of the X-Men comics and films, Syaoran of Clamp's Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Arthur Dent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, V of V for Vendetta, Professor Snape from Harry Potter and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.

A flat character is distinguished by its lack of a realistic personality. Though the description of a flat character may be detailed and rich in defining characteristics, it falls short of the complexity associated with a round character. James Patrick Kelly describes round and flat characters in his article "You and Your Characters" (Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy) as "someone who is characterized by one or two traits. "Flat" and "round" were terms first proposed by E. M. Forster in his Aspects of the Novel, and they are often misapplied by modern critics. Flat is especially corrupted when used as a synonym for cardboard; in Forster's usage, flat is not a derogatory term. Rather, it describes a character who can be summed up in a sentence. Gollum from Lord of the Rings is a wonderful character who is absolutely flat in that his character is determined by his obsession with the recovery of the ring...."

A number of stereotypical, or "stock" characters, have developed throughout the history of drama. Some of these characters include the country bumpkin, the con artist, and the city slicker. These characters are often the basis of flat characters, though elements of stock characters can be found in round characters as well. The commedia dell'arte, a form of improvisational theatre which originated in Italy, consists of performers acting as well-known stock characters in conventional situations.

Supporting characters are generally flat, as most minor roles do not require a great deal of complexity. In addition, experimental literature and postmodern fiction often intentionally make use of flat characters, even as protagonists.

In addition to people, characters may be aliens, animals, gods, an artificial intelligence or, occasionally, inanimate objects.

Dynamic vs. static

A dynamic character is the one who changes significantly during the course of the story. Changes considered to qualify a character as dynamic include changes in sight or understanding, changes in commitment, and changes in values. Changes in circumstance, even physical circumstance, do not apply unless they result in some change within the character's self.

By definition, the protagonist is nearly always a dynamic character. In coming-of-age stories in particular, the protagonist often undergoes dramatic change, transforming from innocence to experience. Examples of dynamic characters include John the Savage of Huxley's Brave New World, Jay Gatsby of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Luke Skywalker from the original Star Wars Trilogy, Elizabeth Bennet of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Harry Potter series, Denver of Morrison’s Beloved, and Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.

Antagonists, such as Salieri of Shaffer's Amadeus, are frequently dynamic as well.

In contrast, a static character does not undergo significant change. A static character is a literary character that remains basically unchanged throughout a work. Whether round or flat, their personalities remain essentially stable throughout the course of the story. This is commonly done with secondary characters in order to let them serve as thematic or plot elements.

Supporting characters and major characters other than the protagonist are generally static, though exceptions do occur.

A non-fictional character is a character that actually exists or existed in history, though their exploits in the story may differ from their historical activities.

Some works of fiction have attempted to portray a story without the use of characters (James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is one of the most famous examples). In animations and puppetry, different aspects of a given character are rendered separately using different modalities. In animation, for example, mannerisms and behavior are rendered by animators, while voices are rendered by voice actors. In machinima, voices are sometimes rendered using speech synthesis.

Some ways of reading characters

Readers vary greatly in how they understand fictional characters. The most extreme ways of reading fictional characters would be to think of them exactly as real people or to think of them as purely artistic creations that have everything to do with craft and nothing to do with real life. Most styles of reading fall somewhere in between.

Character as symbol

In some readings, certain characters are understood to represent a given quality or abstraction. Rather than simply being people, these characters stand for something larger. Many characters in Western literature have been read as Christ symbols, for example. Other characters have been read as symbolism of capitalist greed (as in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby), the futility of fulfilling the American Dream, or quixotic romanticism (Don Quixote), or even feminism (Lara Croft). Four of the principal characters in Lord of the Flies can be said to symbolize elements of civilization: Ralph represents the civilizing instinct; Jack represents the savage instinct; Piggy represents the rational side of human nature; while Simon represents spiritual.

Character as representative

Another way of reading characters symbolically is to understand each character as a representative of a certain group of people. For example, Bigger Thomas of Native Son by Richard Wright is often seen as representative of young black men in the 1930s, doomed to a life of poverty and exploitation.

Many practitioners of cultural criticism and feminist criticism focus their analysis of characters on cultural stereotypes. In particular, they consider the ways in which authors rely on and/or work against stereotypes when they create their characters. Such critics, for example, would read Native Son in relation to racist stereotypes of African American men as sexually violent (especially against white women). In reading Bigger Thomas' character, one could ask in what ways Richard Wright relied on these stereotypes to create a violent African-American male character and in what ways he fought against them by making that character the protagonist of the novel rather than an anonymous villain.

Often, readings that focus on stereotypes focus on minor characters or stock characters, such as the ubiquitous sambo characters in early cinema, since those are the characters that tend to rely most heavily on stereotypes.

Characters as historical or biographical references

Sometimes characters obviously represent important historical figures. For example, Nazi-hunter Yakov Liebermann in The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin is often compared to real life Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, and corrupted populist politician Willie Stark from All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren is often compared to Louisiana governor Huey P. Long.

Other times, authors base characters on people from their own personal lives. Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb chronicles her love affair with Lord Byron, who is thinly disguised as the title character. Nicole, a destructive, mentally ill woman in Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is often seen as a fictionalized version of Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda.

Perhaps because so many people enjoy imagining characters as real people, many critics devote their time to seeking out real people on whom literary figures were likely based. Frequently authors base stories on themselves or their loved ones. Sometimes writers create composite characters based on two or more individuals.

Character as words

Some language- or text-oriented critics emphasize that characters are nothing more than certain conventional uses of words on a page: names or even just pronouns repeated throughout a text. They refer to characters as functions of the text. Some critics go so far as to suggest that even authors do not exist outside the texts that construct them.

Character as patient: psychoanalytic readings

Psychoanalytic criticism usually treats characters as real people possessing complex psyches. Psychoanalytic critics approach literary characters as an analyst would treat a patient, searching their dreams, past, and behavior for explanations of their fictional situations.

Alternatively, some psychoanalytic critics read characters as mirrors for the audience's psychological fears and desires. Rather than representing realistic psyches then, fictional characters offer readers a way to act out psychological dramas of their own in symbolic and often hyperbolic form. The classic example of this would be Freud's reading of Oedipus (and Hamlet, for that matter) as emblematic of the Oedipus complex (a child's fantasy of killing his father to possess his mother).

This form of reading persists today in much film criticism. The feminist critic Laura Mulvey is considered a pioneer in the field. Her groundbreaking 1975 article, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", analyzed the role of the male viewer of conventional narrative cinema as fetishist, using psychoanalysis "as a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form."

Unusual uses

Postmodern fiction frequently incorporates real characters into fictional and even realistic surroundings. In film, the appearance of a real person as himself inside of a fictional story is a type of cameo. For instance, Woody Allen's Annie Hall has Allen's character call in Marshall McLuhan to resolve a disagreement. A prominent example of this approach is Being John Malkovich, in which the actor John Malkovich plays the character John Malkovich (though the real actor and the character have different middle names).

In some experimental fiction, the author acts as a character within his own text. One early example is Niebla ("Fog") by Miguel de Unamuno (1907), in which the main character visits Unamuno in his office to discuss his fate in the novel. Paul Auster also employs this device in his novel City of Glass (1985), which opens with the main character getting a phone call for Paul Auster. At first the main character explains that the caller has reached a wrong number, but eventually he decides to pretend to be Auster and see where it leads him. In Immortality by Milan Kundera, the author references himself in a storyline seemingly separate from that of his fictional characters, but at the end of the novel, Kundera meets his own characters. Other authors who have manifested themselves within the text include Kurt Vonnegut (notably in Breakfast of Champions), Dave Sim, in his comic book series Cerebus, and Stephen King in his Dark Tower series.

With the rise of the "star" system in Hollywood, many famous actors are so familiar that it can be hard to limit our reading of their character to a single film. In some sense, Bruce Lee is always Bruce Lee, Woody Allen is always Woody Allen, Tom Cruise is always Tom Cruise, John Cusack is always John Cusack and Harrison Ford is always Harrison Ford; all often portray characters that are very alike, so audiences fuse the star persona with the characters they tend to play, a principle explored in the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Last Action Hero.

Some fiction and drama make constant reference to a character who is never seen. This often becomes a sort of joke with the audience. This device is the centrepoint of one of the most unusual plays of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, in which Godot of the title never arrives.

See also

• Ethos, the ancient Greek term for character, as used in Aristotle's Poetics
• Amalgamation (fiction)
• Fiction
• Plot (narrative)
• Setting (literature)
• Theme (literature)
• Writing style
• Fiction writing
• Fictional universe
• Grand argument
• Mary Sue
• List of fictitious people (people claimed to actually exist)
• Player character, in gaming
• Historical fiction
• Roman à clef

References