Category: Literature Review

  • A Mundane Story to a Life-changing Experience: The Act-by-act Insights of Our Town

    Do human beings take life for granted? Pondering this question, it is fair to say that as a society, we’ve been steadily moving towards convenience, towards getting through everything as fast as we possibly can. With this desire for speed, we seem to be forgetting the value of life and appreciating it. We live in…

  • Shakespeare, Welles, and Style: Auteur Techniques in Othello (1951)

    Table of contents Introduction Analysing the personalized interpretation of the source material Bibliography Introduction Othello is a 1951 Shakespearean drama produced, directed and adapted by Orson Welles who also stars as the titular lead. It is also considered one of the greatest acting performances to be showcased by the auteur. In this essay, I will…

  • An Exploration of Symbolism in The Works of J.m. Synge and W.b. Yeats: Perspectives Across Theater and Verse

    Writing from the late 1880s to the dawn of modern Ireland in the first two decades of the 20th century, Yeats and Synge penned their works during a period of national liminality; or what critic Seamus Deane refers to as “the long process of its [Ireland’s] transformation from a British colony into a modern, independent…

  • What Contemporary Women Are Capable of as Per Terry Pratchett

    Women in classical literature have been characterized as the submissives who lack the intellectual substance for lead roles. As the generations evolve into the modern culture, hints of sexist ideals latch themselves onto societal norms. Women’s bodies are not their own, but property of another man’s. Women’s thoughts are not highly regarded because men have…

  • Positivity is Key: Comparing The Rez Sisters and Les Belles Soeurs

    The plays The Rez Sisters and Les Belles Soeurs both deal with groups of women, united in sisterhood, who experience social challenges within the story. Through a comedic lens, we accompany the characters in both stories as we are given insight into their social dynamic which both prove to be hostile, competitive and jealousy-fueled. However,…

  • The Influence of Malcolm X on Ta-nehisi Coates

    The entirety of Coates’ letter writing and consciousness in Between the World and Me shows the influence of the provocative writings and speeches of Malcolm X. After all, Malcolm X became Coates’ favorite writer. The image of a young Malcolm dressed in a sharp business suit, tie hanging askew with one hand parting a window…

  • Black Body Stereotypes in Post-colonial Plays

    Black body has a relatively long history and there has always been certain approaches and meanings assigned to this particular body in dramatic writings as in the cases of The Tropical Breeze Hotel, That Old Black Magic and Pantomime, which are all post-colonial plays written in different times and places across the world going beyond…

  • Women and Femininity in Euripides’ The Bacchae

    Roughly halfway through Euripides’ The Bacchae, a messenger describes to Thebes’ bewildered king his encounter with the women who have left the city to practice their religious rites in the forest. His account cogently presents the basic opposition between nature and civilization that is inherent in the work by formalizing the interconnections between these crazed…

  • Why The Big Sleep is Considered a Low-quality Novel

    Ever since its emergence, The Big Sleep has been discussed whether a detective-novel be considered serious literature. It is hard to answer this question, mainly because it raises two other questions: is there anything like “non-serious” literature, and if this is the case, who draws the line between serious and “non-serious” literature? Apparently, answering these…

  • The Portrayal of Marlowe in The Big Sleep

    In The Big Sleep, private investigator Philip Marlowe solves the puzzle created by a multi-layered, interrelated series of heinous crimes for his client, at a fee of twenty-five dollars a day plus expenses. Marlowe strives first and foremost to protects his client’s interests and fulfill his duty even in the face of imminent danger. He…