The Yellow Bird - Tennessee Williams (1947) - The modernist short story, the figure of the writer
Text commentary - 5 pages - Literature
The modernist movement has its origins in the growing industrialization of the late nineteenth century, which profoundly transformed traditional ways of life and the individual's relationship to society. This period was marked by a questioning of artistic values and conventions, reflecting a...
Leviathan - Paul Auster (1992) - How the Dead Man is Depicted in this Extract?
Text commentary - 3 pages - Literature
«Leviathan» by Paul Auster is a roman published in 1992. In this short extract, an unknown and unnamed narrator, after reading some news about a man who blew himself up on the side of a road, is about to tell this man's story. In this text's commentary, we are going to see in a more...
Cat in the Rain - Ernest Hemingway (1925)
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
This story takes place after WW1, a lot of Italian's people have perished during this major conflict and, this monument is the sign of the great loss the nation is feeling. War is still fresh in memories and while the American couple is here in the context of vacation, Italian people come a...
A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams (1947)
Tutorials/exercises - 2 pages - Literature
The document studies the relationship between Stanley Kowalski and Stella Kowalski as well as a passage from Scene V. The latter is the following: In this extract, Blanche is waiting for Mitch to come to pick her. While doing this, a young paperboy arrives and this scene occurs. Blanche, an...
Sheet on films, novels, and poems
Book review - 10 pages - Literature
This document contains a number of fact sheets on films, novels and poems, detailing the themes, characters and symbols.
Beloved - Toni Morrison (1987)
Book review - 2 pages - Literature
The novel is about the horrors of slavery and how its trauma is bequeathed from generation to generation. Former slaves, such as Sethe, Paul D, or Baby Suggs seem unable to let go of a past when their identities were shattered at the core, they were treated as mere animals or conveniences,...
The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009)
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
The whole story is narrated in the second person by Akunna, a young Nigerian woman who has just immigrated to the United States of America. Akunna seems to be different from everyone else around her since almost everyone she engages with asks questions regarding her ethnic background, her accent...
As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner (1930) - Chapter 31
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
Faulkner has always pointed out that he wrote As I Lay Dying only in a few weeks, while he was still working on Sanctuary. A reference to the eleventh Song in Homer's Odyssey, the title right away foreshadows a Homeric epic. As part of the movement called stream of consciousness, Faulkner...
Wireless, The Voice - Agatha Christie (1925) - Questions and exercises
Tutorials/exercises - 2 pages - Literature
This document includes questions, a translation exercise and a creative writing exercise based on an extract of the short story Wireless, written by Agatha Christie.
Modernists of the 30s - Comparative essay
Tutorials/exercises - 2 pages - Literature
This document is an essay on the modernist movement, which appeared in the 1930s, and its followers (writers, poets, philosophers, etc.)
The thing around your neck, A private experience - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - 2009
Tutorials/exercises - 4 pages - Literature
In this other short story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, two women help each other to find shelter in an abandoned store, after running with no rest, in a hurry. One is clearly Muslim, the other, Chika, seems to be Christian. In an atmosphere of dictatorship and ethnic tensions, they have escaped a...
The Thing Around Your Neck, The American Embassy - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009)
Book review - 1 pages - Literature
The document is a 200-word review of the chapter "The American Embassy" of the short story "The Thing Around Your Neck" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Recitatif - Toni Morrison (1983) - Race as a social construct
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
"Recitatif" of Toni Morrison only short story follows a fairly traditional structure: the narrator relates several episodes in her life, all centered around chance encounters with a childhood friend. Yet the narrative is thoroughly informed by an experiment in omission. Indeed, the two...
Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin, J. (2017) - How can a black man, marginalized and silenced, dehumanized, can see in his struggle the struggle of mankind?
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
In the eponymous section of his most celebrated collection of essays, "Notes of a Native Son", James Baldwin, one of the most prominent African-American writers of the last century, explores questions of race through a very personal lens: he recounts his relationship with his father and his...
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley (1818)
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
The text studied is an abstract from the novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley and published in 1818. Its genre is fantastic, or horror novel. It is sometimes considered to be a gothic novel.
King Lear - Shakespeare (1606) - A tragedy from the Renaissance
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
The violent language used by King Lear in his speech, marking his anger, leads us to another characteristic: the role of art as an instrument of knowledge. Indeed, King Lear's speech evolves through the extract. In the beginning, Lear orders the storm ("Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!...
Is There a Single Right Interpretation? - Peter Lamarque (2002) - [I]t would be a mistake to give up the truth-seeking aspiration of interpretation altogether
Text commentary - 4 pages - Literature
Lamarque argues that abandoning the pursuit of truth-seeking in interpretation would be a mistake. In this reflection, I will delve into the significance of truth-seeking in interpretation, drawing on relevant documents and scholarly discourse in the field of literary studies. In his statement,...
The Depiction of Women's Struggles Against Patriarchal Power Structures in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments - Proposal
Dissertation - 6 pages - Literature
The document is an outline of a thesis about Margaret Atwood's depiction of women's struggles in her works. The project explores the depiction of women's struggles against patriarchal power structures in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and its sequel, The Testaments....
West African Anglophone Literary Productions
Course material - 21 pages - Literature
By and large, the objective of this course is to get students in the humanities to cast a meaningful glance at the landscape of the aesthetico-social and political realities which have affected the continent, ever since slavery days through colonization up to the contemporary stage, in the prism...
Hap - Thomas Hardy (1866) - Structuralist critic
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
Hap is one of Thomas Hardy's first famous poems, written in the 1860s when he was still in his twenties. Its theme is one that would reoccur throughout both Hardy's poetry and fiction: the apparent unpredictability of the world and how our fortunes (and misfortunes) are the consequences...
British and American literature up to the 18th century
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
Shakespeare's sonnets deal with themes of life such as love, the passing of time, old age and death. They are therefore universal themes that still speak to us today. Among these sonnets, I chose sonnet 73 which deals with the theme of old age because it is a theme that is not sufficiently...
The Tempest - William Shakespeare (1610) - How does Shakespeare use the supernatural to establish the status of characters in the Tempest?
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
The Tempest is a play written by William Shakespeare in which the author uses the supernatural throughout the play. For example, the storm that appears in the very first scene of the play is a manifestation of the supernatural. There are other supernatural things in the play, Shakespeare uses...
Beowulf vs Gilgamesh
Essay - 4 pages - Literature
It is reasonable that not every quest concludes in the manner in which it was initially intended; it was the lesson that two mythical heroes, Gilgamesh and Beowulf, had to learn. One of the heroes went on a quest to find eternity while the other sought to find power and wealth, but both did not...
Dialogue between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
Creative writing - 3 pages - Literature
It was a very sunny afternoon in London. I remember how full the streets were. I had some troubles walking through the thick crowd, and sometimes jostled some people. Indeed, this day, I was out because I had a very important appointment with a very important person. I was called a few days ago...
A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf (1929) ; Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley (1818) - The Quest for Education
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
While analyzing A Room of One's Own and Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus, the quest for education among the youth in England and the prejudices they had to overcome in their quest to receive an education will be explored. The characters will elaborate on various social and system hurdles...
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - The complexity of identity
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
Michael Ondaatje's thriller novel, The English Patient, tells the stories of various characters after the war that disrupted their lives changed their culture and challenged their identity. Most of the characters have endured traumatic experiences that Ondaatje makes apparent by employing...
The picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde (1890) - Do the seeds of Dorian Gray's destruction ultimately lie in Dorian's self-hatred?
Text commentary - 1 pages - Literature
From the beginning of the novel, Dorian portrays the essence of male beauty and youth. Basil is taken aback by the perfection in Dorian's appearance. Lord Henry is friends with Basil. Basil is hesitant for Lord Henry to be introduced to Dorian. Basil knows the ways of Lord Henry and is well...
The Crucible - Arthur Miller (1953) - Act-by-act summary
Book review - 8 pages - Literature
This document is a synopsis of the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in which we can first read of presentation each character, followed by an act-by-act summary. John Proctor is a serious man who keeps all of his thoughts private. He protects his position of power in the community but sees...
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (1890) - Psychological mechanisms of dissociation and projection
Text commentary - 2 pages - Literature
Throughout the novel The Picture of Dorian Grey, it becomes clear that Dorian Gray's psychological well-being becomes compromised with every negative thing that happens within his life. To make matters worse, the majority of his issues stem from actions that he has consciously taken, making him...
Jane Eyre and the struggle to reconcile societal expectations
Essay - 2 pages - Literature
In the Victorian era, the essential aspect of a woman's life revolved around her family's domestic sphere and the home she came from. Women from the Middle class were raised to be innocent and pure, sexually undemanding and tender and obedient and submissive. They were presented in this manner to...
