General literary topics |
Definitions of terms frequently encountered in the study of English literature (6,100 words) |
Introductory
thoughts from the webmaster (1,000 words) |
The Author, the Text, and
the Reader. Where
is the meaning of a work of literature located? In the
mind of the author, the mind of the reader, or in the
text itself? Clarissa Lee Ai Ling studies some reader-response
theories, and discusses some views on how the objectivity
of the literary text is or is not distinguished from the
subjectivity of the reader's response. (3,800 words) |
John Oldcastle considers the qualities which distinguish literary writing from other kinds of writing, exploring the techniques used by literary writers, and their motives for writing, and
offering many fine examples of literary writing to illustrate his thesis. (2,300 words)
|
Main Index. Chronological by period and author's dates
Ancient literature |
A World of Words, Lost
and Found: a brief overview of women's literature in
India from the 6th century BC onwards. Sherin Koshy explores
the history of women's writing in India, revealing the
long tradition which preceded the rise of modern Indian
woman writers in English, such as Arundhati Roy and Anita
Desai. (2,400 words)
|
Classical literature |
Complexity and pleasure:
Aristotle's 'complex plot' and the pleasure element in
tragedy. Souvik
Mukherjee examines Aristotle's Poetics and other works in order to elucidate Aristotle's view of
a successful tragedy (2,100 words)
|
Augustan vs Augustan - Translating the Art of Storytelling. Thomas Bailey studies
John Dryden's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses,
Book 11, the story of Ceyx
and Alcyone, analysing
Dryden's approach to the task and assessing his success
in capturing the 'three-dimensional' quality of the
original. (6,000 words) Top
|
Anglo-Saxon literature |
Beowulf: An Epic Hero. An analysis of the character of Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon poem, showing the characteristics which make him an epic hero. By Jeni Zirk (700 words)
|
Medieval literature |
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. A study of Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, focusing on The Wife's personality, beliefs, and attitudes, and showing the connections between the prologue and the tale. By Ian Mackean. (3,300 words)
|
The Author and his
Reader: Christian Literature as Conversation. Heather-Ann Wickers
compares and contrasts Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and John Bunyan's The
Pilgrim's Progress as examples of Christian Literature. (2,800 words)
|
Renaissance literature |
The Devil's Morals. Souvik Mukherjee studies
the ethics in Machiavelli's The
Prince (1,500 words) |
Bembo's Discourse on Love. Souvik Mukherjee studies
Bembo's Discourse on Love in Book IV of The
Courtier to consider whether
it makes a fitting end to Castiglione's famous
Renaissance book. (1,200 words) Top |
The Bower of Bliss and The
Garden of Adonis. Ian
Mackean contrasts two sections of The
Faerie Queene to show how
Spenser used them to develop themes such as art versus
nature, appearances versus reality, and lust versus love.
(2,000 words) |
Structure, Theme and Convention in Sir Philip Sidney's Sonnet Sequence, Astrophil and Stella. By Donna. (2,000 words) |
The role of the investigator in
Renaissance tragedy, with special reference to
Shakespeare's Hamlet and Thomas
Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy.Tannistho
Ghosh makes convincing connections between two
Renaissance tragic heroes and the investigators of modern
crime fiction. (2,500 words) |
Form, Structure and Language. Jenia Geraghty studies William
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night,
showing how Shakespeare's choice of form, structure and
language help to shape the play's meaning. (1,700 words) |
Corruption - an Incurable Disease. Rob Moriarity uncovers the theme of
corruption and 'disease' in Shakespeare's Hamlet. 1,000 words) |
Shakespeare's treatment of
women in the tragedies Hamlet, Othello and Antony and Cleopatra. Was Shakespeare a feminist? Liz
Lewis explores three of Shakespeare's tragedies from a
feminist perspective, arguing that Ophelia, Desdemona,
and in Antony and Cleopatra -
Antony, were victims of patriarchal society, while in his
treatment of these characters Shakespeare himself
transcended the stereotypes of his time. (3,600 words) |
The Error of Desperate Measures. Ian Mugford studies Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure to explore what it can show us about how justice can be eroded, and how justice ought to be maintained. (2,600 words) Top |
Game-playing in Shakespeare's Measure for
Measure. Tannistho
Ghosh looks at Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and puts
forward the view that the plot can usefully be seen in
terms of game-playing. (2,100 words) |
The Tragic in Antony and
Cleopatra. Drawing
on views of tragedy put forward by Aristotle, and by
French dramatists such as Corneille and Racine, Isabelle
Vignier explains why Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy as
well as being one of Shakespeare's Roman plays. (3,700
words) |
Who is to Blame for Coriolanus's Banishment? Ian
Mackean examines the central theme of Shakespeare's
tragedy Coriolanus. (2,000 words) Top |
The Mixture of
Styles in Shakespeare's Last Plays. The mixture of styles evident in
Shakespeare's last plays has often made them elusive to
audiences, readers and theatre practitioners. Liz Lewis
argues that Shakespeare used the mixture of styles
successfully to contribute to the plays' themes of
renewal and regeneration. (2,200 words) |
The Role of Masquerade in Shakespeare. Ian Mugford studies the use Shakespeare makes of traditions of masquerade in plays such as Twelfth Night, King Lear, and The Taming of the Shrew, covering themes such as gender, disguise, festivities, and Elizabethan Sumptuary Laws. (3,700 words) |
The Love Poetry of John Donne. Ian Mackean explores the wide variety of attitudes towards love depicted by the Metaphysical poet John Donne in his Songs and Sonnets. (2,000 words) |
A Valediction: of Weeping and A Valediction: forbidding mourning. A study of John Donne's two poems of valediction, showing how they are both typically Metaphysical, but very different in tone. By Ian Mackean (1,650 words) Top |
Holy Sonnet (Batter my Heart) and A Hymn to God the Father. A close look at two of John Donne's religious poems, showing Metaphysical characteristics in each, but very different purposes and moods. By Ian Mackean (900 words) |
Religious
Metaphysical poetry. Ian Mackean studies the way
George Herbert (1593-1633) and Henry Vaughan (1622-95)
developed the style of religious Metaphysical poetry
established by John Donne (1572-1631).(3,000
words) |
Ben
Jonson Unmasked: A study of how Ben Jonson's plays reveal
his changing attitudes to his fellow playwrights, the
theatre as a medium, and his own role as a dramatist. Kathleen A. Prendergast delves
into Jonson's plays and uncovers a rich subtext in which
Jonson was exploring his own role as a dramatist, showing
that in the course of his career his attitudes changed in
response to changing circumstances and his own developing
maturity. The essay focuses on Poetaster,
Volpone, and Bartholomew Fair. (7,000 words) |
Renaissance 'country house' poetry as social criticism. Emma
Jones studies Renaissance 'country house' poetry, with close reference to Ben Jonson's To Penshurst, and Aemilia Lanyer's The Description of Cooke-ham. (2,600 words) Top |
The principal characters and their roles in The Duchess of Malfi: Jenia Geraghty studies John Webster's revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, and examines the role and significance of the principal characters in the play. (2,600 words)
|
Eighteenth century literature |
The fall and rise of
Rome and the spread of English. Stephen Colbourn surveys
the changing intellectual and political climate of 'The
Age of Reason', showing how it brought about a change in
the status of the English language and English Literature,
and how trends that took hold at that time have led to
English becoming the nearest language to a Universal
Tongue. (3,500 words) Top |
Augustan vs Augustan - Translating the Art of Storytelling. Thomas Bailey studies
John Dryden's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses,
Book 11, the story of Ceyx
and Alcyone, analysing
Dryden's approach to the task and assessing his success
in capturing the 'three-dimensional' quality of the
original. (6,000 words) |
Satire in the work of Swift and Gay. Catherine Cooper studies
the work of two 18th Century satirists, looking at Swift's Gulliver's Travels,
and other works, and John Gay's The
Shepherd's Week, and Fables.
(3,500 words) |
Pope's portrayal of Belinda and
her society in The Rape of the Lock. Ian Mackean studies Pope's
mock-epic poem.(2,000 words) Top |
Morality in Fielding's Novels. Catherine Cooper looks at four of Fielding's novels: Joseph
Andrews, Tom Jones, Amelia, and Shamela to consider whether the author presents a consistent
moral attitude towards themes such as marriage, chastity, and infidelity. (2,400 words) |
She
Stoops to Conquer: social
and psychological contrasts. Catherine Cooper shows
how the themes of She Stoops
to Conquer are developed
through contrasts, such as between age and youth, city
and country, and high and low social class, and finds
that behind those superficial contrasts deeper
psychological contrasts are being explored. (2,000 words)
|
Romantic literature |
Memory In Romanticism:
mnemosyne, plasticity, and emotion recollected In
tranquillity. Aritro Ganguly and Rangeet
Sengupta discuss the importance of memory to the
Romantics, showing how the issues with which poets such
as Wordsworth and Coleridge were concerned resonate with
issues relevant to the Classical era, the shift from an
oral to written culture which took place with the
invention of the printing press, Enlightenment philosophy,
contemporary debates about artificial intelligence, and
the advent of audio-visual mass communications. (3,500
words) Top |
William Wordsworth and
Lucy. Trivikrama
Kumari Jamwal studies the 'Lucy' poems by William
Wordsworth and attempts to analyze Wordsworth as a poet
in the light of his perspective outlined in his Preface
to Lyrical Ballads (1800). The essay also tries to understand the nature or
'character' of Lucy and Lucy as an instrument of
Wordsworth's ideas on the art and craft of composing
poetry. (2100 words) |
Lyrical Ballads. Wordsworth's Solitary Figures. Catherine
Cooper looks at the solitary figures in Wordsworth's Lyrical
Ballads, and considers why
Wordsworth was so interested in such characters, and what
lessons about humanity he wanted us to learn from them. (2,300
words)
|
The Prelude. A study of Book 6, entitled 'Cambridge and the Alps', of William Wordsworth's autobiographical epic poem The Prelude, Growth of a Poet's Mind. By Ian Mackean. (1,850 words) Top
|
Coleridge and Becoming. Charles Ngiewih TEKE (Ph.D) discusses the question of the transforming creative self and the aesthetics of becoming in Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' and 'Dejection: An Ode'. (8,200 words)
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John Keats and Nature, an Ecocritical Inquiry. Charles Ngiewih TEKE (Ph.D) studies the poetry and letters of John Keats examining his attitudes to Nature, showing how he regarded nature as central to the creative process and as physically and psychologically therapeutic to man. (5,300 words)
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From Eroticism To Psycho-Aesthetics And Spirituality: The Keatsian Dimension. Charles Ngiewih TEKE (Ph.D) analyses John Keats' attitude to the feminine, eroticism, and spirituality, with particular reference to 'The Eve of St. Agnes' and Endymion. (6,800 words)
|
Kerry White examines the proposition that a writer's gender limits his or her use of the concept of the sublime in Romantic poetry, showing that aspects of the sublime can be found in the works of female as well as male writers. (2,900 words)
|
The Authorial Voice and the Heroine's Point of View. A look at Jane Austen's novel Persuasion. Some general aspects of Austen's style, subject matter and limitations are covered. In relation to Persuasion, the role of the heroine Anne Eliot is considered, particularly the question of whether Jane Austen succeeded completely in keeping her authorial voice separate from the point of view of her central character. By Ian Mackean (2,400 words) Top
|
Victorian literature |
A
comparison between Hester Prynne, of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter,
and Margaret Fuller, the mid-nineteenth-century
campaigner for the rights of women. Emma Jones considers the
proposition: 'Endowed in certain respects with the
sensibility of Margaret Fuller, the great campaigner for
the rights of women, Hester Prynne is as much a woman of
mid-nineteenth-century American culture as she is of
seventeenth-century Puritan New England'. (2,900 words) |
Dickens's Narrative Technique. Ian Mackean looks at excerpts from Great Expectations,
Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield and considers the ways in which Dickens's narrative technique can be said to be 'dramatic'. (3,100 words) |
Doubles. The
representation of the doubleness of selfhood in Charlotte
Bronte's Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso
Sea. By Liz Lewis. (3,000 words) Top |
Symbolism. The use of
symbolism in the presentation of characters and plots in Jane
Eyre and Wide
Sargasso Sea. By Jenia Geraghty.(2,200 words) |
The Literary Criticism of Matthew Arnold. S. N. Radhika Lakshmi looks at the literary criticism of Matthew Arnold, the Victorian poet and critic, considering his influence on 20th century critics such as Eliot and Leavis, his limitations, and his legacy. (4,700 words) |
Spurious Additions: Lal Behari Day and the Discovery of the Genuine Folk. A study of early English translations of Bengali folktales discussing the colonial discourses of control and gaze that were involved in such compilations and translations. By Rangeet Sengupta (11,000 words) Top |
The Thomas Hardy Page. Introduction, links, and books |
Human Morality and the Laws of Nature. Ian Mackean looks at Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles to show how Hardy pits variable, changeable, human
morality against the eternal laws of Nature. (2,200 words) |
Ghost story, or Study in Libidinal Repression? Sumia S. Abdul Hafidh gives an account of Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw, showing that its psychological depth makes it far more than just a 'ghost story'. (1,750 words) |
Innovative precursor of Modernism Article about the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins showing how his innovative approach to language influenced future Modernist literature. (1,100 words) |
Edna Pontellier and
nineteenth-century female characters. Is Edna Pontellier a
prototypical feminist? Emma Jones explores the extent to
which Edna Pontellier, in Kate Chopin's The
Awakening, marks a departure
from the female characters of earlier nineteenth-century
American novels. (2,400 words) Top |
Gareth Rowlands introduces Conrad's famous novella Heart of Darkness, outlining its plot, main themes, and symbolism. (1,400
words) |
Married to the Devil: The
Secret Agent's critique of
late-Victorian gender roles. Brandon Colas analyses
Conrad's novel, arguing that at its heart is a critique
of Victorian England's attitude towards women. (5,100
words) |
Ian Mackean looks at a
novel which the critic Edward W Said called 'a rich and
absolutley fascinating, but neverthrless profoundly
embarrassing novel'. (5,500 words) Top |
Kerry White studies
Australian poet Henry Lawson's 1889 poem 'Eureka!',
suggesting that Lawson may have been trying to light the
fire of Australian nationalism. (1,400 words)
|
The Georgian Poets and The War Poets |
Stephen Colbourn gives an account of the way the dreamy romantic poetry of The Georgian Poets of the early twentieth century evolved into harsh modern realism under the impact of the First World War. (4,600 words)
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Modern, postmodern, and postcolonial literature |
Modern Indian Women Writers in English. An introduction documenting the increasing prominence of Indian women writers in the postcolonial era. By Antonia Navarro-Tejero (2,600 words) Top
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An Introduction to W B Yeats. A study of the life and work of the Irish poet W B Yeats, covering his interest in the occult, his role in the Irish Cultural Revival and Irish National Theatre, his love for Maude Gonne, and his becoming one of the first Modernist poets. By Ian Mackean (2,250 words)
|
Tragic Joy. A survey of W B Yeats's volume Last Poems (1936-1939), looking in particular at his approach of 'tragic joy' and his attitudes towards art. By Ian Mackean (1,700 words)
|
The Late Nineteenth Century Debate Concerning the Revival of Celtic Culture. Marie C. E. Burns examines the rise of the Celtic Literary Revival of the nineteenth century, and considers the attitudes of writers including Edmund Spenser, Matthew Arnold, and W B Yeats, towards Celtic culture and literature. (3,000 words)
|
The development of psychoanalysis and orientation of the
self in the context of twentieth century western
societies. Mark
Norton looks at the social conditions which gave rise to
the psychoanalytic movement, and introduces us to the
work of Carl Gustav Jung. His essay covers many topics,
such as the growth of cities, the growth of mass
movements, the rise of consumerism, and the decline of
religion, as well as the growth of the psychoanalytic
movement itself, which provide relevant background
material for the study of twentieth century western
literature. (3,700 words) Top |
Introduction. The life and work of the author of A Room With a View, Howard's End, and A Passage to India. By Stephen Colbourn and Ian Mackean. (1,300 words) |
The James Joyce Page. Introduction to James Joyce, links to other essays, web resources and bookshop |
Rebellion and Release. Ian Mackean analyses
some significant themes in Joyce's novel with particular
focus on Chapters 1, 3, and 5. (7,400 words) |
Stephen Dedalus - Rebel Without a Cause? Ben Foley studies James
Joyce's A Portrait of an
Artist as a Young Man,
showing how Stephen Dedalus is portrayed as an outsider,
and how his alienation from the traditional voices of
authority in his life contributes to his budding artistic
talent. (1,500 words) |
Flying By the Nets: Stephen
Dedalus's search for personal definition in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Will McManus studies
James Joyce's novel. (3,100 words) Top |
Viewing Mrs. Dalloway Through the Lens of 'Modern Fiction'. Ian Mugford examines Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway in the light of the views on literature which she put forward in her essay 'Modern Fiction'. (1,600 words) |
An Introduction. Jennifer Kerr guides us through Virginia Woolf's novel To the Lighthouse (1927), introducing us to the structure, plot, main characters and themes, and the autobiographical background. (3,000 words) |
The Role of Percival. Karin Riley introduces us to Virginia Woolf's 1931 novel The Waves by examining the central role of the character Percival and his influence on the lives of the other characters. (1,250 words) |
An Introduction to D H Lawrence. Introduction to Lawrence's life and work, with recommended links, links to other essays, and bookshop. (1,250 words) |
The Sisters in D. H. Lawrence's Women In Love. Nitya Bakshi illuminates
some of the themes of Lawrence's novel by examining the
contrasting characters of the sisters, Ursula and Gudrun
Brangwen. (1,200 words) |
Naturalist Drama and
Environmental Influences. Catherine Cooper studies the way
plays by three early modern authors, Henrik Ibsen's Hedda
Gabler, D. H. Lawrence's The
Daughter-in-law and The
Widowing of Mrs Holroyd, and
John Galsworthy's Strife,
show the powerful influence of the environment on the
quality of human life. (4,000 words) Top |
Introduction to Ezra Pound. Stephen Colbourn introduces the life and work of the influential American poet. (1,250 words) |
An Introduction. Stephen Colbourn introduces the life and work of the most important poet of the Modernist era. (1,600 words) |
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Brandon Colas examines the character of J. Alfred Prufrock, showing how his fear of his real self being known results in his leading a restricted and emotionally impoverished life. (1,800 words) Top |
Prufrock and The Outsider. Souvik Mukherjee
compares T. S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock and Albert
Camus' Meursault, showing that Prufrock himself was an
outsider. (1,600 words) |
Four Quartets: The sign and the
symbol. Nick
Ambler studies T. S. Eliot's Four
Quartets, (taking into
account the reader-response theory of Wolfgang Iser), and
the cyclical nature of East
Coker. (3,000 words) |
Heroism and Redemption in Middle-Earth. Rahul Mitra examines Tolkien's fictional realm, Middle-Earth, as portrayed in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarilion, and The Hobbit.
(3,800 words) |
Winged Victory. Jenna Austin introduces Victor Maslin Yeates' semi-autobiographical account of life as a Sopwith Camel pilot on the Western Front during World War I. (1,300 words) Top |
In search of a new form. Manana Gelashvili shows
how Faulkner's experimentation with the presentation of
time began in his novel Sartoris.
(2,900 words) |
Introducing Ernest Hemingway. Professor Ganesan
Balakrishnan, Ph.D. gives a biographical introduction to
Ernest Hemingway, winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for
literature, then goes on to explore some of the themes of
his novels, arguing that some critics have underestimated
the depth of meaning in his work. (2,100 words) |
Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America – A Lacanian Perspective. Mark Norton introduces Lacan's essay 'The Mirror Stage' and applies its analysis of subjectivity to the cinema. (3,000 words) |
Introduction to Steinbeck. An introduction to the life and work of John Steinbeck, with recommended links and bookshop (1,100 words) |
Placing Reality in Perspective: Guiding Lives. Ian Mugford examines three short stories by the Canadian writer Morley Callaghan: 'All the Years of Her Life', 'Last Spring They Came Over', and 'Rigmarole', and offers some insight into Callaghan's themes and style. (1,400 words) Top |
George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-four. By Bram de Bruin and Ian Mackean (1,700 words) |
Introduction. Introduction to the life and work of the author of Brideshead Revisited. By Stephen Colbourn and Ian Mackean (1,200 words) |
Stylistic Innovation. A study of Christopher Isherwood's first novel All the Conspirators (1928) exploring the stylistic innovations in his Modernist approach to fiction writing. By Ian Mackean (2,000 words) |
The
characterisation of good and evil. Sarah Jones studies the
main characters and themes in Graham Greene's 1938 novel Brighton
Rock. (2,200 words) |
An Introduction. Stephen Colbourn introduces Samuel Beckett, author of the ground-breaking play Waiting for Godot, leading figure in the Theatre of the Absurd, and winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature. (900 words) Top |
The Function of Comedy in the Plays of Samuel Beckett. A discussion of Samuel Beckett's use of comedy elements such as clown-like characters and cross-talk dialogue in his plays. Plays discussed: Waiting For Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, Endgame. By Ian Mackean (2,700 words) |
Man's Battle with Himself. Margaret Gumley offers a personal interpretation of Waiting for Godot in which she sees the contrasting characters Vladimir and Estragon as representing Man's battle with himself. (900 words)Top |
What About Our Own roots? Krishna's Journey in The English Teacher. Ian Mackean offers an interpretation of a novel by one of India's best-known writers. With an additional commentary on the novel and
excerpts from comments by Indian literary critics by S. N. Radhika Lakshmi. (4,300 words) |
Two Teachers. Deepa Patel studies The English Teacher, focussing on the contrasting characters and philosophies of Krishna and The Headmaster. (2,100 words) |
Sex, symbolism, illusion and
reality In R K Narayan's The Guide. Amitangshu
Acharya offers a reading of R K Narayan's novel The
Guide in which he interprets the story in
terms of Hindu philosophy, showing that Raju's journey is
a struggle through Maya (illusion) towards Moksha (liberation).
(2,700 words) |
R K Narayan's vision of life. Can R. K. Narayan's view of life
be understood in terms of Western concepts such as
Existentialism or Nihilism? Amitangshu Acharya studies
Narayan's novels and concludes that his view is closer to
the Oriental philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism. (1,300
words) |
The Influence of Elizabeth Bishop on Modern American Poetry Jonathan Ellis assesses the importance of Elizabeth Bishop for the poets and poetry movements of the Modern era. (2,700 words) Top |
The William Golding Page. Introduction, links to essays on this site and resources on other sites, and books. |
The Loss of Identity in Lord of the Flies. Sumia S. Abdul Hafidh looks at William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, describing the roles of the principal characters and showing how they lose their civilized identities and descend into barbarism. (1,700 words) |
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies. Amal Gedleh examines the use of symbolism in William Golding's novel, showing how symbols such as the conch shell, Piggy's glasses, the Beast and the fire contribute to the novel's themes. (1,180 words) |
Chaos Versus Civilization Tahmina Mojaddedi studies the theme of chaos versus civilization in Lord of the Flies, highlighting the novel's message that the restraining influence of society is necessary for civilization to continue, and that living by instinct alone will lead to chaos and destruction. (950 words) |
An Introduction. Hugh Croydon introduces the life and work of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tennessee Williams, author of The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending and other plays, with recommended links and books. (1,400 words) |
An Introduction. Stephen Colbourn introduces the author Lawrence Durrell, best known for his sequence of four novels The Alexandria Quartet, and gives some insight into the history of the city of Alexandria, which is a backdrop to the novels. (900 words) |
The Making of the New York Intellectuals. Sudeep
Paul examines the cultural background to the rise to
prominence of the Jewish New York writers and
intellectuals in the 1940s-1970s. (3,000 words) Top |
Survey of life and work. Ian Mackean introduces the life and work of the Welsh poet playwright and broadcaster. (1,400 words) |
An Introduction. Stephen Colbourn introduces the life and work of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. (900 words) |
Modern Literature's Depiction of Nervous Ailments. Catherine Cooper studies Saul Bellow's The
Victim and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to see what these modern authors show us about our neuroses and psychoses. (3,200 words) |
An Introduction. Stephen Colbourn introduces the life and work of Anthony Burgess, author of the controversial 1960s novel A Clockwork Orange (1,600 words) Top |
Sir Kingsley Amis and the Era of Lucky Jim. Stephen Colbourn introduces the author Sir Kingsley Amis, best known for his 1954 novel Lucky Jim, in the context of the social changes taking place in post-war Britain of the 1950s. (1,000 words) |
Nihilist Hypocrites Brandon Colas studies Flannery O'Connor's short story 'Good Country People' to show how the plot, characters, and symbolism all contribute to a powerful argument against a nihilistic philosophy of life. (1,800 words) |
Human nature and societal pressure. Stephanie Beranek studies
William Styron's holocaust novel Sophie's
Choice and concludes that it shows a fatal
collision between human nature and societal pressure. (1,200
words) Top |
Where West Meets East: The Counterentropic Fiction of Jonathan Bayliss. Stephen Farrell introduces the work of self-published author Jonathan Bayliss, whose fiction he describes as 'a treasure-trove of prose poetry, mathematical puzzles, and mythological and literary references'. (1,600 words) |
British novelists of the 1960s. A study of Alan Sillitoe, known as one of the 'Angry Young Men' of the 1960s, author of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. By Ian Mackean and Stephen Colbourn.(1,400 words) |
Introduction. Introduction to the life and work of former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, with recommended links and books. By Sarah Jones.(1,400 words) |
Winners and Losers in the Plays of Harold
Pinter. Ian
Mackean looks at psychological warfare between characters in Pinter's plays in the light of a
revealing comment made by Pinter himself. (3,800 words) |
The Ghetto Trap Brandon Colas examines the social history behind Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, showing how racial prejudice on the part of the housing industry, the Government, religious leaders, and individuals contributed to the injustices of segregated housing. (2,800 words) Top |
The 'monstrous potential of love': Moral ambiguity in Toni Morrison's Beloved and Jazz. Liz Lewis studies two challenging novels by the winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature. (3,000 words) |
The Unspoken Spoken Marie C. E. Burns analyzes Toni Morrison’s Beloved in the context of the African American experience of slavery, and slave narratives. (10,000 words) |
Two women writers challenge
society's conspiracy against women. Catherine Cooper
explores the work of two women writers, one white, one
black, one despairing, one optimistic, who challenge the
role society allocates to women. (2,700 words) |
In Search of Reality: The evolution of ideas in the early work (1960-1974) of Tom Stoppard. Ian Mackean looks at the serious side of Stoppard, exploring his early plays, particularly Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern are Dead. (10,000 words) Top |
Rewriting canonical portrayals of women. Margaret Atwood's
'Gertrude Talks Back', from the short story collection Good Bones. By Pilar Cuder Domínguez.
Universidad de Huelva. (3,400 words) |
The treatment of the female
protagonists in Margaret Atwood's Bodily Harm and The Handmaid's Tale. Justine looks at the
presentation of women and their roles in two of Margaret
Atwood's novels. (5,600 words) |
In Search of Cheryl Raintree. Sisterhood in Beatrice Mosionier’s In Search of April Raintree. By Anna Kozak. (2,300 words) |
The two worlds of the child: A study of the novels of
three West Indian writers. Tannistho Ghosh and Priyanka Basu study Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid, Crick Crack Monkey by Merle Hodge, and In the Castle of my Skin by George Lamming. (3,700 words) Top |
The Mersey Sound. An introduction to the Liverpool Poets Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten, their rise to fame giving live poetry readings in Liverpool in the 1960s, and their association with the Beat poets of America, particularly Alan Ginsberg, and the Pop Art movement. By Ian Mackean (1,800 words) |
Life,
Love, Death, and Poetry in the Work of Brian Patten. S. N. Radhika Lakshmi
introduces the poet Brian Patten, who emerged in the
sixties as one of 'The Liverpool Poets', then looks at
his treatment of the themes of life, love, and death in
his work, and rounds off her essay with a look at his
attitude to poetry itself. (3,800 words) |
Shadows on the Mind. Nick Ambler studies
urban alienation and the mental landscape of the children
in Ian McEwan's first novel, The Cement
Garden. (2,700 words) Top |
Hitting wintry
waters. Trivikrama
Kumari Jamwal offers a reading of Austrailain poet
Jennifer Maiden's 1990 volume The
Winter Baby. (4,000 words) |
And Alice Played a Video Game. Souvik Mukherjee studies
the relationship between children's fantasy adventure
stories and interactive computer games. (4,100 words) |
Souvik Mukherjee shows how
computer games, as a modern narrative form, draw on and
develop the tradition of espionage fiction. (2,400 words) |
Heather-Ann Wickers
examines the theories of native American writer Leslie
Marmon Silko and considers her view that photography can
become a modern replacement for the native American oral
tradition. (1,700 words) Top |
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Other Essays |
Filmography and Bibliography An introduction to the life and work of the Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky, with filmography and bibliography. By Ian Mackean. (4,900 words) |
An Epic for a Great Southern Land. Kerry White offers a condensed history of Australia, from ancient times to present day, in epic form. This original piece of work will make useful background reading for anyone studying Australian literature or history. (4,200 words) Top
|
Constantine’s Impact on Christianity. Ian Mugford presents an account of how the status of Christianity and the process of becoming a Christian changed as a result of Constantine's conversion to the faith in the third and early fourth centuries (2,000 words)
|
Jon Jost, the Early Films (1963-1983). An introduction to the early
films of the American independent film-maker Jon Jost,
director of Sure Fire and All
the Vermeers in New York, exploring the
development of his work during his first twenty years of
film-making. By Ian Mackean. (13,200 words) |
Who is Number One? An Introduction to Patrick McGoohan's Science Fiction TV series of the 1960s. By Francis Farrell. (1,700 words) Top |