Search

Chretien de Troyes produced a highly original corpus of works that proved to be immensely influential. (1) Apart from providing later authors with a stock of Arthurian characters, themes, motifs, [...]

Daniele Benati e degli anni che si occupa di letteratura, ha tradotto Joyce, Tony Cafferky, Flann O'Brien, ha tradotto Beckett in dialetto reggiano, ha pubblica--to un racconto in Narratori delle [...]

The fiction of Rick Moody has shown a consistent interest in the subject of adolescence from Garden State to The Black Veil. It is in adolescence that Moody dramatizes important [...]

Though Baudelaire's 'Dedicace Arsene Houssaye' provides a dubious manifesto of the prose poem genre, (1) it more importantly builds a network of repeated images and allusions from which, along with [...]

Cynthia Ozick established the prevailing critical context for interpreting her fiction when she rather controversially claimed that no fiction produced by Jews in the Diaspora has had lasting value except [...]

The names of several characters in The Secret Agent are unusually Dickensian: most notably that of the Home Secretary, as unready as his namesake 'Ethelred', and his secretary, the comic [...]

Between 1881 and 1896 William Hale White (1831-1913), creating the persona Mark Rutherford (1830-c.18807) - pseudonym is so weak a term as to be positively misleading, wrote six interlinked fictions: [...]

Askold Melnyczuk's 'What is Told' is a novel illustrating dilemmas faced by the displaced subject in its effort to renegotiate and individual and cultural presences. Melnyczuk's perspective is both individual and socio-historic and he summarizes the varied experiences of an extended family in both personal and historical context, whilst sometimes alluding to their mythology and folklore. Individual and cultural presence is displayed as ongoing and re-visionary.

The fictional world of Ivan Turgenev was 'Hellenistic' in character while that of Nathaniel Hawthorne's was 'Hebraic.' Striking similarities are evident in Turgenev's 'The Marble Faun' and Hawthorne's 'Song of Triumphant Love' when the narrative nucleus, symbolic development, ethical ambivalence and incidental detail of their works are analyzed. Both believed that evil can be overcome but cannot be removed entirely. A 'sense of sin' can be detected in the roles of the statuary or of the fauns and satyrs they used in their novels. However, an ethical difference is apparent.

The author Margaret Drabble, once a student of literature traditionalist F.R. Leavis, is generally known as a traditional fiction writer with no interest in post modern philosophy. Her 1991 work, a novel entitled 'The Gates of Ivory', investigates postmodern society as seen through the lives of three women friends in the 1980s. Drabble's use of postmodern literary techniques is discussed.

Mariama Ba's novel 'Une si Longue Lettre' portrays two themes of women's displacement in African francophone literature. Traditionally, male writers have dominated the literature creating stereotyped female characters. Mariama Ba depicts the struggle for female identity in a male-dominated social order. The major theme is the woman's challenge to such a society by consciously dissociating herself from such stereotypes. The secondary theme of displacement is the woman's displacement by a patriarchal society.

In 'Linden Hills' Gloria Naylor uses images of food to convey effacement of black identity in African-Americans' attempts to integrate into white society. Inhabitants of Linden Hills are well-educated and successful. However, the price they pay for white social integration is cultural malnourishment and loss of identity. Food images reflect the spiritual poverty of their chosen existence. For example, foods such as pork ribs, hog maws, collard greens and deep-fried catfish are rejected in favour of foods such as marinated shrimp, caviar and stuffed artichokes.

Edith Wharton's 'Mrs. Manstey's View' and 'Duration' demonstrate her theme of imprisonment and the techniques she uses to portray her captive characters. In both stories Wharton presents her imprisonment theme through tantalizing beginnings, surprise endings, extended flashbacks, penetrating monologues, vibrant dialogues, dramatic irony, biting satire and symbolic settings as well as the enclosed space. 'Mrs. Manstey's View' has Mrs. Manstey as a semi-invalid confined in her New York City boardinghouse while 'Duration' also portrays the protagonist, Martha Little, as a prisoner in her enclosed space.

The novel 'Troubles' by J.G. Farrell expresses the opposing elements of life lived in the middle of historical change through its carnivalesque form. Analysed through Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival theory, the various aspects of the novel's community are revealed in the struggle between the continuity of the past and the change of the future. The lives of the characters are framed between these contradictions, and the dualistic image of the carnival is played out with its laughter and tears, triviality and depth.

Anatolij Kim's recent novel 'Otec-les' addresses a wide range of philosophical, historical and aesthetic issues using cyclical, emblematic and mythical patterns. The novel offers unusual ways of perceiving reality and human existence through a composite of realistic episodes and mythic as well as religious beliefs. It also addresses ontological, ecological, psychological and historical concerns which reveals the unending relationship between humans and other living things. Thus, 'Otec-les' provides philosophical challenges in unique and fascinating ways.

Fyodor Dostoyvsky's novel 'Notes from the Underground' reflects Old Testament lamentations and suggests the protagonist's longing for God as well as the author's criticism of secular morality. In the context of Biblical references, the Undergound Man's disdain of monumental grandeur signifies the Biblical curse on Babylon and the forty years referred to in several contexts reflects the Biblical lamentation of wandering in the wilderness. These references in part one as well as the non-theoretical stance of part two indicate Dostoevskij's belief in religion and his condemnation of secular existentialism.

The international theme of Henry James' novel 'Lady Barberina' is analyzed in the presentation of incompatibilities between the English aristocracy of blood and the American aristocracy of wealth through comparisons of national characteristics as well as individual personalities. The contrasts can be seen in the leisure time, conservative nature and evasiveness of the English aristocrats and the purposeful, democratic and articulate nature of the Americans. Through these issues insight is derived into the nature of alien societies and the efforts of adaptation by the foreigner.

The ideological interpretation of George Gising's works by John Sloan in his recent 'George Gising: The Cultural Challenge' is too limiting since it focuses solely on the political significance of Gising's works denying the artistic influence of the author's personality and life on his literature. Sloan's interpretation is based on the relation between literature and society as shown in the writer's literary techniques. However, this omits the significance of the artist in his art, an influence which can be seen in the combination of acute personal insight and coherent literary expression of Gising's best works.

The three stories from Herodotus Book 3 are reviewed and analyzed. These stories involve migratory motifs, and so they are not treated as precious nuggets of Persian history thinly overlaid with a Greek veneer.

A study of writer Djuna Barnes is presented with emphasis on her prose style. Barnes' novels and early newspaper articles are examined for romanticism and satire.

A study of Russian writer Maxim Gorky is presented with emphasis on his controversial work, A Confession. The novel is examined for the significance of God-seeking aspects as well as God-building.

'War and Peace' by Tolstoy has come to be seen as an authentic account of the 1812 war, yet veterans of that war criticized it in a number of ways. These criticisms are examined in detail.

Criticism of James Joyce's The Dead, is examined, with a focus on feminist criticism.

In the 1976 Nobel Award speech, the Nobel Committee praised Saul Bellow for his portrayal of 'a man ... who can never relinquish his faith that the value of life [...]

New novels include Francis King's 'Dead Letters' which is competently written and not inspirational. 'The Untouchable' from John Banville is a skilful representation of a spy-traitor, which may be over-long, but Banville has mastered the psychology. Meanwhile, 'Suspicious River' from Laura Kasischke traps the reader in a tale of self-abuse and escalating cruelty. 'Straight Man' from Richard Russo is a campus novel and has some tired wit, though it appears to have canned laughter, like a TV show.