Textual criticism

There is currently a growing body of research in postcolonial criticism and analysis of Renaissance literature. Inspired by efforts to decolonize the canon, I am interested in studying the roots of colonialism in the Renaissance and its influence on the modern world. In my second year of undergraduate study, I was introduced to postcolonial literature and theory in an introductory course with Dr. Stanka Radović. Reading polemic texts, as well as ‘subalterns’ writing back or breaking away from…

My initial experience with being a reader began with a Dr. Seuss book when I was a very young boy, a colorful book with walking-talking cats and dogs, treehouses, and a party. I am not incredibly confident that I indeed am able of correctly recalling the details of the book that got read to me or by me when no one else would just about every day for what might have been a whole year or just a few short months of obsession, either way the memory of reading that Dr. Seuss book stuck in such a way…

In her scholarly article “Why I’m Still Writing Women’s Literary History”, Professor Devoney Looser astutely asserts that women’s literary history is a field that is alive and thriving and therefore deserves to be treated as such. Her argument centers around addressing concerns expressed by various colleagues of hers that the academic field of women’s studies is now “passe” due to taking a “separatist” approach. Looser explicitly states that her article is therefore “a credo that has its origins…

I am going to summarize and analyze the novel named ‘’The Crying a Lot’’. This novel belongs to Thomas Pynchon who is one of the best in postmodernist literature. I will explain 1960s period, short summarize of book and communication problem in the novel. Firstly I want to start with short entrance about the period when Thomas Pynchon wrote this novel. He is an American postmodern novelist. His novels contains lots of question. It was written in the 1960s. In this decade there were lots of…

In C.S. Lewis’s An Experiment in Criticism, Lewis attempts to distinguish how good and bad readers interpret books. 'Let us try to discover how far it might be plausible to define a good book as a book which is read in one way, and a bad book as a book which is read in another” (1). Although Lewis’s essay is primarily dominated by “the many and the few,” the paramount message of the book pertains to the ego; moreover, how the literary experience heals the wound without undermining individuality.…

The purpose of this paper is to examine Walter Besant’s lecture “The Art of Fiction” in light of Henry James’ published response of the same title. I will argue that James’ is correct and warranted to critique Besant’s approach, but that James’ concerns are ultimately overstated. Besant’s lecture “The Art of Fiction” aims to defend fiction and elevate the novel among the “higher” arts. Historically, critics wouldn’t dare speak of fiction in the same breath they praise the fine arts – to even…

past events. Historiographic metafiction somehow acknowledges the paradox of the past, that is to say, the past is accessible to us today only in the form of text. As Fredric Jameson reminds us, “history is not a text, but it is only accessible in textual form” (Homer, 4). Actually, historical metafiction sees history as a story, through which we…

Biblical literalism is reading the words in the Bible as if they have come directly from God’s mouth. They take the parts of the Bible they want to believe are true making them sure because it is something that they do not want to see. Biblical literalism is no analysis of the text which is nearly impossible. In the film For the Bible Tells Me So there are five families, three of which I will be discussing, each with a gay or lesbian child directly dealing with feelings and situations they would…

(1. 2. 297-299) During this scene Ariel brings up the subject of his freedom and receives a negative reaction from Prospero who believes that Ariel was not being appreciative of Prospero’s doings. By using literary criticism one can clearly point out the role of master and servant. One may also notice that Prospero threatens Ariel by insisting on trapping him in a tree for twelve years, which is ironic being that Prospero is the one who saved him from being trapped in…

In the introduction to his book Museum of Words, James Heffernan discusses and contrasts a few possible definitions for ekphrastic literature. Ekphrasis is most generally thought of as “the literary representation of visual art” (1), but after considering what multiple other scholars have said about this concept and genre of literature, Heffernan proposes his own definition “simple in form but complex in its implications: ekphrasis is the verbal representation of visual representation” (3). He…