Newest Literature Essays

'Poesy, therefore, is an art of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in the word mimesis, that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting or figuring forth - to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture - with this end: to teach and delight'.

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'I have considered our whole life is like a Play: wherein every man, forgetfull of himselfe, is in travail with expression of another. Nay, wee so insiste in imitating others, as wee cannot (when it is necessary) returne to ourselves' (Jonson,...

On the surface, the thirteenth-century poem "The Romance of the Rose" exists as an allegory of courtly love set in a dream vision narrative. While the first part, composed by Guillaume de Lorris, differs slightly in tone and style from the rest of...

Webster's decision to cast strong female characters as the protagonists in his two most popular plays could have been considered highly controversial and unexpected by the audiences of his time. This unintended effect immediately seems to prompt a...

"I was a kind of bastard of the West... I might search in them in vain for any reflection of myself... At the time I saw that I had no other heritage which I could possibly hope to use... I would have to appropriate those white centuries, I would...

Paul's concern over certain issues in 1 Corinthians gives the reader insight into the condition of the early Christian Church. Without a binding, supreme authority, the missionaries spreading the Gospel often expressed widely varied...

"Yes, if you understood me, Mama, you'd see I was trying to explain it, in blues, without words, the explanation somewhere behind the words. To explain what will always be there" (Gayl Jones, Corregidora, p 66).

In Gayl Jones' novel Corregidora,...

Typically one of the subtler parts of a novel, setting usually serves as a frame that supports the plot and characters. In Ethan Frome, however, Edith Wharton reinvents the use of setting as an integral element of the story. She weaves the...

Edmund Burke and Karl Marx would have been mortified at each other's conception of acceptable progress and the movement of history. Such repugnance, in fact, was indeed expressed by Marx, reflecting the two polar views of his and Burke's...

If a novel is indeed grounded in a vision of the world, how do authors who find themselves essentially "groundless", caught in a web of shifting homes, cultural allegiances, and ethnic identities find their unique vision? Paule Marshall and Caryl...

As a young writer in a time of brewing class tensions, Marx studied the historical and present relationship between the classes and wrote several works, including "The German Ideology" (1845-46) and "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848). In...

In Doctor Faustus, good and evil are presented as two polarized ideas: God and Heaven on one side, and Lucifer and Hell on the other. Contrasting representations of this division also appear, such as the old man and the Good Angel opposed to...

There are hundreds of differences between the 1878 edition of Daisy Miller and its 1909 / New York edition. While many of the changes are slight modifications to the placement of words or changes of some terms to an American English spelling, some...

Frankenstein revolves around the conflict between two characters, Victor Frankenstein and the creature. At first glance, the discordant enemies appear to be nothing alike since they are adversaries from the first time they see each other. Many...

"The Negro's universal mimicry is not so much a thing in itself as an evidence of something that permeates his entire self. And that thing is drama." (Hurston, 830) In her own words, Hurston captures the gritty picture she paints in the highly...

The Romantic Movement of poetry focused on the return to the individual as much as the political revolutions of the time. In doing so, there is also a return to the natural world in poetry that had been superseded by a more predominant abstract...

In an era when primal instincts are constantly checked by the civilities of modern life, it is easy for the American mind to fall prey to the strong delusion that civilization has no end. From the west coast to the east, laws are made and laws are...

"The Poisonwood Bible," by Barbara Kingsolver, is a scathing critique of the destructive nature of pride and ambition, its narrative spanning over thirty years to reveal the tragic shortcomings of evangelist Nathan Price and the Western colonial...

Odysseus and Aristotle, as expressed in the Iliad (Homer) and The Politics, respectively, hold irreconcilable views regarding government; Aristotle would have doubtlessly condemned the former's beating of Thersites. To Aristotle, this act embodies...

Many authors employ the device of the simile, but Homer fully adopts the concept, immersing many provoking, multi-layered similes into even the most ordinary of battle scenes in the Iliad. This technique both breaks up the ponderous pace of...

Sigmund Freud's essay, "Civilization and its Discontents", and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's book, Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism, both make bold and thought-provoking statements about their respective societies and contemporary civilization....

"He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool" (Wyatt). As this quote by Albert Camus suggests, he was not a very optimistic writer. His gloomy look on life itself can be seen all too clearly in "The...

A tool consistently employed by the Greeks was that of imagery, and within the genre of tragedy and the epic they have demonstrated their mastery of the device. Imagery within tragedy adds a necessary and otherwise unattainable sub-story to the...

The character of Nausikaa is somewhat of an anomaly within The Odyssey. Among women, she is a wholly developed character. Though such depth initially engages Odysseus, it becomes the force that propels him to his ultimate homecoming.

A remarkable...