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Articles 1 - 30 of 65
Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Language And The Lord Of The Rings: The Expansion Of A Universe, Thomas Beutz
Language And The Lord Of The Rings: The Expansion Of A Universe, Thomas Beutz
The Criterion
Tommy Beutz’s essay, “Language and The Lord of the Rings: The Expansion of a Universe” explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s world-building through the lens of linguistics. Beutz argues that Tolkien’s creation of Middle-Earth, anchored in his invented languages, extends beyond the bounds of the text. Drawing on Tolkien’s background as a philologist, Beutz contends that the languages of Middle-Earth are not mere literary devices but rather the foundation of its entire mythology. By examining linguistic markers embedded in the primary text, Beutz reveals how Tolkien hints at a larger world outside the narrative. Through an analysis of historical accounts and characters’ …
Milton’S Exploration Of The Demonic Consciousness, Niall Mckenna
Milton’S Exploration Of The Demonic Consciousness, Niall Mckenna
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
The Search For Worth: How Relationship Conflicts Reveal The Universal Nature Of Insecurity, Grace C. Conroy
The Search For Worth: How Relationship Conflicts Reveal The Universal Nature Of Insecurity, Grace C. Conroy
The Criterion
Since the beginning of time, romantic relationships and their dynamics have taken center stage in media--whether in books, plays, or other forms of literature. In this essay, a comparison of couples' relationships in James Joyce's "The Dead" and Marina Carr's play "The Mai" reveals the core human element of insecurity, prevalent in moments of marital conflict.
The Configuration Of Society In "The Dispossessed" And "Blindness", Patrick Ryan
The Configuration Of Society In "The Dispossessed" And "Blindness", Patrick Ryan
The Criterion
In both Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and José Saramago’s Blindness, character’s are posited into scenarios where the structure of society is either foreign, dilapidated, or outright missing. This essay aims to rationalize why the authors arranged their respective worlds this way, and illuminate points of comparison and contrast between the two works. To achieve this goal, this essay specifically analyzes the types of societies seen within the two novels, and what role individual characters have in shaping them. Additionally, through a supplementary examination of related secondary sources, this essay hopes to answer fundamental questions about the portrayal …
“No Friend Like A Sister”: Christina Rossetti’S Fantastic Departure From Pre-Raphaelite Poetics And Art In “Goblin Market”, Anna M. Lee
The Criterion
Christina Rossetti’s poetics and artistic vision in her seminal poem, “Goblin Market,” have yielded a range of critical theories, from positions on sisterhood to the ambiguous position of capitalist markets. While considering the socioeconomic and cultural context behind the poem’s development and resonance among contemporary feminist movements, readers also ought to consider the actual “goblin brotherhood” — the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) — behind Rossetti’s authorial ventures. This paper argues that Rossetti’s fantastical methods draw influence from and participate in the PRB’s poetics and artistic traditions, while subverting the same conventions within a feminist paradigm. Rossetti not only envisions a homosocial …
Downfall To Friendliness?: Analyzing Common Tropes In The Boy Who Loved Too Much, Heather Paglia
Downfall To Friendliness?: Analyzing Common Tropes In The Boy Who Loved Too Much, Heather Paglia
The Criterion
One of the most commonly held misconceptions regarding the disabled population is that living with any disability automatically decreases the quality of life. It is assumed that any deviation from society’s established norm for the perfect brain and body must be a burden. Both the physical and social implications associated with disability have forged in the minds of many the idea that a disabled life could not possibly be a good life. This overarching negativity, however, is turned on its head when considering Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder more accurately described as happy syndrome. This so-called disability is not …
The Facade Of Names In Benjamin Clark’S “The Emigrant”, Brad Donegan
The Facade Of Names In Benjamin Clark’S “The Emigrant”, Brad Donegan
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Eliot’S Raid On The Ineffable, Louie Alexandris
Eliot’S Raid On The Ineffable, Louie Alexandris
The Criterion
In the poem Four Quartets, T.S Eliot employs a fragmentary form to dramatize the disjointed continuity of time. Within the poem though, the fluctuation or fragmentation of the form is also in service to the whole by showing the unending exploration of man to reach the “still point” of divine contemplation. For Eliot, the fragmentary nature of the form in Four Quartets is in service to the whole, because the continual fluctuation of musicality embodies a journey or exploration for the “still point” of the world to achieve true contemplation. In that sense, Eliot’s poem is an artistic success, …
Moving “Passed” Life For Death, Gwyneth Morrissey
Moving “Passed” Life For Death, Gwyneth Morrissey
The Criterion
The paper Moving “Passed” Life for Death explores Emily Dickinson's poem #479, "Because I could not stop for Death," focusing on the theme of movement expressed through the word "passed." It analyzes the contradictory qualities of movement and stopping and how they interplay. At the same time, it looks into how the poem's periodic stopping points highlight the natural cycle of life and death, challenging the conventional and fearful understanding of dying. Dickinson's use of "passed" ultimately alludes to the persistence of life after death, altering readers' perceptions of mortality. The essay presents an intriguing interpretation of life, death, and …
What Is The Right Feeling? Keat's Poetic Representations Of Agentive Femininity, Brendan Bonner
What Is The Right Feeling? Keat's Poetic Representations Of Agentive Femininity, Brendan Bonner
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Bawdy Works: Vulgar Humor And Bodily Autonomy In Austen's "Mansfield Park" And Fielding's "The History Of Tom Jones", Sloane Larsen
Bawdy Works: Vulgar Humor And Bodily Autonomy In Austen's "Mansfield Park" And Fielding's "The History Of Tom Jones", Sloane Larsen
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Tension In The Eye: Milton And Surveillance, Joseph Abrams
Tension In The Eye: Milton And Surveillance, Joseph Abrams
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Fated By A Fallen World, Danielle Dentremont
The (Ir)Reverent Social Roles Of Religion In The Work Of James And Wharton, Jannette Kazlauskas
The (Ir)Reverent Social Roles Of Religion In The Work Of James And Wharton, Jannette Kazlauskas
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
“A Disputant Of The Landscape:” Redefining The English Landscape In “To Autumn”, John Sager
“A Disputant Of The Landscape:” Redefining The English Landscape In “To Autumn”, John Sager
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
The Gendered Shackles Of Clarissa Dalloway And Septimus Warren Smith, Abigail Coburn
The Gendered Shackles Of Clarissa Dalloway And Septimus Warren Smith, Abigail Coburn
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Heurodis's Body: Reading "Sir Orfeo" With Three Significant Losses, Grace J. Bromage
Heurodis's Body: Reading "Sir Orfeo" With Three Significant Losses, Grace J. Bromage
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Enigmatic Nashe And The Subversion Of Romance, Louie Alexandris
Enigmatic Nashe And The Subversion Of Romance, Louie Alexandris
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Christian Humanism In Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood", Grant Ward
Christian Humanism In Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood", Grant Ward
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Ownership Is Power, Madeleine Moino
Awareness In Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush", Caroline Coffey
Awareness In Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush", Caroline Coffey
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
The Exile Enigma And The Cycle Of Haunting, Caroline Boardman
The Exile Enigma And The Cycle Of Haunting, Caroline Boardman
The Criterion
No abstract provided.
Women, Writing, And Storytelling In Medieval England And The Canterbury Tales, Sadie O'Conor
Women, Writing, And Storytelling In Medieval England And The Canterbury Tales, Sadie O'Conor
The Criterion
For a woman to succeed in an academic sphere, it is never enough for her to be clever-- she must be brilliant. “The Second Nun’s Tale” in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales explores the metaphorical brilliance (in sexual purity, intelligence, and faith) of St. Cecilia. The tale is also a mechanism for the Second Nun to advocate for her own vocation of “holy work,” for the sake of the learned religious women who preserved such writings. The themes of her tale are quite different from those espoused by the Wife of Bath, but the Wife also argues to have her voice …
Injustice In Childhood: Jane Eyre And The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, Christian Barkman
Injustice In Childhood: Jane Eyre And The Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, Christian Barkman
The Criterion
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, are autobiographical novels narrated by the fictional Jane Eyre and the real Frederick Douglass. Both stories evoke an outpouring of pity for their respective narrator: Jane, for the unmerited abuses dealt against her by family and school administrators, but most of all Douglass, who reserves the greater portion of lament on account of his dreadful persecution under the evil of slavery. The environments Jane and Douglass inhabit throughout their childhood inflict an immense burden on their physical body and psyche. This essay specially examines the …
18th Century Theater And The Legitimacy Of The Lower Classes, Nina Masin-Moyer
18th Century Theater And The Legitimacy Of The Lower Classes, Nina Masin-Moyer
The Criterion
18th century theater developed alongside the expanding role of the lower and middle classes. George Lillo’s working-class tragedy The London Merchant and John Gay’s comedic satire The Beggar’s Opera exemplify how both drama and comedy can bring awareness and legitimacy to the struggles of working-class people. The London Merchant uses cultural references and religious language to elevate the struggles of its titular merchant’s apprentice whereas The Beggar’s Opera uses language of honor and nobility to draw parallels between the criminal underground and high society, both in service of using the medium of theater to acknowledge the middle and lower classes’ …
Gawain, Women, And The Hunts: How The Body Influences Human-Animal Relationships In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Meghan Gavis
Gawain, Women, And The Hunts: How The Body Influences Human-Animal Relationships In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight, Meghan Gavis
The Criterion
In the narrative poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, women and animals appear, on the surface, to function in a quintessential medieval sense — as physical objects to bolster Sir Gawain’s chivalric image. However, the dynamics between women, animals, and Gawain in this text challenge the human hierarchy presented by other medieval standards. By reading the ritualized hunts as devolving in honorable attention to the animal body and mapping their language onto the Lady’s temptations in Gawain’s bedroom, a feminine reclamation of the body appears. Though Gawain undercuts the Lady and Morgan by reducing them to physical presences, …
The Author Of A Fictional Slave Advertisement, Nathaniel Jablonski
The Author Of A Fictional Slave Advertisement, Nathaniel Jablonski
The Criterion
Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel, The Underground Railroad, describes the adventures of Cora, a runaway slave from a Georgian plantation. Although a historical entity, Whitehead’s railroad deviates from history’s figurative railroad to a physical one. While Whitehead’s interpretation of the underground railroad is divergent from historical fact, he still grounds his work with the inclusion of all but one authentic runaway slave advertisement. My focus within this essay is centered on Whitehead's final advertisement, which is for Cora. In examining the poster and the unique characteristics of Ridgeway (the slave-catcher), Homer (Ridgeway’s companion), Cora, and Terrance Randall (owner of the Georgia …