Literary criticism

Among elusively indefinable terms vital to further understanding literature is the great white whale of literary merit. Its definition has been disputed, contemplated, and stretched to the vaguest of proportions until it no longer serves as a helpful tool in determining whether a work is, in fact, of literary merit. Its relative subjectivity comes into play when attempting to define such a term; what is meritorious to some may not be so to others. The variety of works considered exemplary does…

other characters into revealing their true natures: be it the bible’s salesman’s true intentions or revealing her mother’s condescending nature towards “salt of the earth.” As for a symbol, however, remember that O’Connor was frequently criticized by literary critics for her bawdiness and usage of regionalism for her works; effectively, Hulga was a parodic symbol of how O’Connor viewed those critics. This assumption bases itself on how most critics viewed regionalism as a relic of realist-era…

Mapping Project: Fadlan and Battutah In Franco Moretti’s, Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History, in a chapter titled, “Maps,” Moretti notes that “there is a very simple question about literary maps: what exactly do they do? What do they do that cannot be done with words?” and “Do maps add anything, to our knowledge of literature?” (Moretti, Maps, 35). In this essay, I hope to explain the significance of maps in both Ibn Battutah’s, The Travels of Ibn Battutah and Ibn…

A political allegory is when a book or a work of art, tells one story but actually is using that story as a metaphor to hide a political meaning underneath. A political allegory could be found in fiction, drama, paintings, films and music. The dictionary states that an allegory is a story, poem, or picture which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one, it is derived from the Latin and Greek word ‘Allegoria’ “meaning ‘veiled language’ or ‘figurative.’…

literature, despite an individual reader’s personal beliefs • Since culture is greatly influenced by its dominant religious system, even if a writer does not necessarily adhere to the beliefs, the key values of that religious system will affect the literary work • Despite a reader’s religious affiliation, generally a reader will recognize some Christ-like features in characters, such as being crucified, tempted, or having disciples • Christ figures do not have to exhibit every single Christ-like…

Tracing the Roots of Nontraditional Rhetoric In the first semester doctoral program in rhetoric and composition at the University of Texas at El Paso, I had an opportunity to study a course entitled “Introduction to Rhetoric and Writing Studies” in a multicultural setting in which there were students from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. Like the composition of the class, the syllabus was constituted by diverse thematic titles such as civil discourse, contemporary rhetoric, composition…

Everybody during their spare time, especially a young child who is in the process of barely discovering who he/she is, has different interests regarding the type of topics and genres they enjoy reading. I had the pleasure of interviewing, for this particular project, a family oriented, ten-year-old female named Selena Dominguez. After questioning her I discovered that, although not a fan of reading, she does enjoy reading fiction books filled with fantasy and adventure. Two books that I will be…

to bring to light and analyze paramount issues of a particular time period. Critic Harold Bloom claimed that no aspect beyond aesthetics, or influence should be considered when determining whether a work or text is great or worthy of being in the literary cannon. This essay will specifically delve into Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and how it completes preceding works in classic Greek Tragedies. In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the main character Onkonkwo, can easily be…

What does each of the three authors suggest is the appeal of “getting famous”? Atwood suggests the appeal of fame is in receiving attention and love from the audience. In Text 1, the character uses her admired voice to be “courted” by spectators. In response, she has “bouquets… thrown to it”, “money… bestowed on it”, “men [falling] on their knees before it”, and “applause [flying] around it”. Thus, Atwood’s protagonist wants fame to be celebrated. In Text 2, Smalley suggests fame is not only for…

According to George P. Landow, canonization can be assigned to a relic of great books, narratives and other classical text considered by scholars to be the most important and influential texts of the western culture. It is also a method which speaks among race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Edmudson point out in his book that “it was the belief in great writing that thirty years ago made me become a teachers”(Edmudson 1). He deduces that great writing is written in English by great white…