Newest Literature Essays

A comparative study of Homer’s Odyssey and Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad reveals that texts are reflective of their context, whereby they reinforce the suited cultural values of its time, composer, and audience. Atwood reimagines the story of...

In The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood discusses a dystopian society, which reversed the advancements in the feminist movement that came in the twentieth century. Gilead, an enclosed community under the rule of a totalitarian government, contains...

Composed in a time of severe patriarchy and a society based on a strict social hierarchy, it is anticipated that medieval literature mirrors society’s judgement of a woman’s worth, in that representation of female authority is inextricably linked...

As a coming-of-age story, Persepolis highlights the many victories and hardships that come with growing up during a time of conflict. Satrapi integrates diverse characters in her novel to shed light on how different social groups endured during...

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” acts as an elegy for his best friend, Arthur Hallam, while also helping him to process his decades-long grief. While the poem’s length can cause readers to focus on certain memorable selections from it, T.S....

In periods of history characterized by male dominance, it was easy to overlook the complex role of women. Often given little explicit agency in major avenues of their lives, such as whether or who to marry, women often forewent their own desires...

Beckett’s depiction of the human body is noteworthy for a few reasons. The parts of the body he emphasizes are all linked to some sort of sensory experience, specifically sight and touch. The choice to evoke these two senses specifically, as...

While there were many intense, larger than life moments throughout Karen Tei Yamashita’s novel I Hotel, the true weight of the battle fought by Asian Americans for the I-Hotel is found in the quieter moments. “I-Migrant” may not have as many of...

If one were to ask a random stranger a question about Shakespeare, their immediate association would likely be with a scene from Hamlet—either the first line of the title character’s famous soliloquy (III.1.64) or the image of him holding Yorrick’...

“The best approach is to let the film make itself, to let it grow organically, day by day.” -Wong Kar-Wai

Wong Kar-Wai is considered to be one of the most influential Asian filmmakers in history, shaping the filmography of directors 20 years later...

In Baxter’s “The Bad Young Man,” the central themes and contrasts are about the authenticity of the couple’s love, whether it is lust or love, and about the dominance in their relationship, whether the man or the woman is dominant. Baxter uses...

Isabella Whitney was born around 1543 and expired around 1573. She flourished in her career of writing around 1567-1573. Gaspara Stampa, on the other hand, was born in 1523 and breathed her last in 1554. Both have made remarkable contributions to...

Examining the foods and traditions associated with Judaism, accounts of life during the Holocaust are not unexpected in Elizabeth Ehrlich’s Miriam’s Kitchen; however, their appearances in a chapter titled “Cake” is surprising. The cheerful...

For author Rigoberto González, the journey into the literary community has been a long one. Growing up in a large family of immigrant farmworkers, reading set González apart from the people around him; when his family, much of whom could not read...

INTRODUCTION

“Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through The Looking Glass” continue to be some of themost engaging novels for children and adults alike. Filled with multiple meanings, layers ofunderstanding, and contexts that were not child-like,...

The academy award-winning film Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg and the novel Night written by Nobel Peace prize winner Elie Wiesel both explore the ideas of abuse of power, courage in the face of adversity and survival during the...

The post-modern pastoral was born out of ecofeminism, which is a combination of ecological and feminist theories. Gretchen Legler defines the post-modern pastoral in her essay, “Ecofeminist Literary Criticism.” She writes, “[The post-modern...

What role does transcendentalism have in the world of art and artistic expression? Fixated on the reality and the truth, Fra Lippo Lippi is found in a compromising position “at an alley’s end” with “sportive ladies.” Not only does this expose the...

Yeats’s “The Second Coming” continues the age-old tradition of man’s vague plea for annihilation and subsequent rebirth. Whether in religious doctrine, political theory, or artistic movement, there seems to exist a very human desire for second...

With reference to John Keats, Sidney Colvin comments that “the spirit which animates him is essentially the spirit of delight: delight in the beauty of nature and the vividness of sensation.” Indeed, Keats’ treatment of nature- truthful to the...

Pablo Neruda’s unique style of poetry has been undoubtedly shaped by the events from his life, whether that be from his early adolescence engulfed in the nature of Chile to his political activism as an adult. Although these influences may not be...

The Oxford English Diction defines ekphrasis as “a literary device in which a painting, sculpture, or other work of visual art is described in detail” (1). While this definition suggests ekphrastic writing to concern man-made works of art...