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Harmony and Balance between the Orient and the Occident in the Woman Warrior
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 3, May 2014
Pages:
60-64
Received:
28 March 2014
Accepted:
16 April 2014
Published:
30 April 2014
Abstract: Maxine Hong Kingston is one of the most famous female Chinese American writers in 20th century. Her famous novel The Woman Warrior confirmed her status in American literature. The novel describes the heroine’s life as a Chinese American and depicts the psychological course and conflict when confronting the pressure from both gender and culture. This book indicates Kingston’s pursuit of the harmony and balance in a variety of aspects. This paper mainly focuses on the harmony and balance between East and West. The first part deals with the theme of mother and daughter’s relation, in which the mother represents the traditional Chinese culture while the daughter struggles among the conflicts of eastern and western culture. Secondly, the novel conveys the ethnic women’s appeal by talking about the texts of the novel. The author also reveals the Chinese Americans’ pursuit of self-identity. Kingston was writing with an intense aspiration of speaking for the Chinese. The third part is the theme of silence and articulation in which Kingston tries to reconstruct their identity by breaking up the silence and articulating their appeal. Kingston also put forward a dream of globalization and unity in her novel.
Abstract: Maxine Hong Kingston is one of the most famous female Chinese American writers in 20th century. Her famous novel The Woman Warrior confirmed her status in American literature. The novel describes the heroine’s life as a Chinese American and depicts the psychological course and conflict when confronting the pressure from both gender and culture. Thi...
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Daniel Defoe and Luis Buñuel's Robinson Crusoe: Individuality in Film and Fiction
Bassmah Bassam Khaled AlTaher
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 3, May 2014
Pages:
65-68
Received:
29 March 2014
Accepted:
30 April 2014
Published:
10 May 2014
Abstract: Individuality is an important aspect in human nature. Therefore, finding a path that could be called his own is the soul-searching journey Robinson Crusoe undertakes in his various voyages. In this paper, the theme of individuality is explored in the eighteenth century novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and compared to its film adaptation by Luis Buñuel in 1954. Crusoe as a character and actor is analyzed and his actions set the scene of how man would do anything to escape routine and daily life habits. However, individuality has a price, and various consequences awaken Crusoe’s remorse. Such consequences are dealt with skillfully in both novel and film. Nevertheless, this paper aims at portraying a wider picture of how an adapted character can behave the same way he has in the novel; free and liberated.
Abstract: Individuality is an important aspect in human nature. Therefore, finding a path that could be called his own is the soul-searching journey Robinson Crusoe undertakes in his various voyages. In this paper, the theme of individuality is explored in the eighteenth century novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and compared to its film adaptation by Lu...
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A Lengthened Epitaph Reverberating the Elegiac Tone in Tony Harrison’s Poems about His Parents
Sulekha Sundaresan,
K. Sumathi
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 3, May 2014
Pages:
69-75
Received:
3 March 2014
Accepted:
8 May 2014
Published:
20 May 2014
Abstract: Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV."2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority of poems, explore the gulf between his own class background and his education and the powerlessness of the inarticulate. Tony Harrison belongs to those individuals who reject any existing language and literary standards and create their unique approaches to the portrayal of reality and people. His literary prowess resulted in a breakdown in the relationship he shared with his father due to his father’s lack of understanding of his literary creations. It was during this period that the mother held their relationship together, but when she passed away the bond ended and Harrison and his father became estranged. This alienation not only forms the background of his personal life but also the primary source for his literary achievements. An elegy not only refers to poems that mourn the death of someone, but poems echoing estrangement and alienation also fall under the genre of elegy. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead and those grieving, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen to some extent in Tony Harrison’s poems, especially in the chosen ones, Bookends, Long Distance and Background Material, thus rendering them to be elegiac in tone.
Abstract: Tony Harrison is Britain's principal film and theatre poet and has famously said "Poetry is all I write, whether for books, or readings, or for the National Theatre, or for the opera house and concert hall, or even for TV."2 He was born in Leeds in 1937, won a scholarship to Leeds grammar and read Classics at Leeds University. Harrison's majority o...
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The Matriarch of Bath – Chaucer’s Feminist Insights
Issue:
Volume 2, Issue 3, May 2014
Pages:
76-83
Received:
5 April 2014
Accepted:
4 May 2014
Published:
20 May 2014
Abstract: This paper critically analyzes Geoffrey Chaucer’s character Allison of his tale “The Wife of Bath” within the Canterbury Tales. The argument is made that Chaucer intentionally used this character to present his personal feminist ideals to his audience, thereby acting as an advocate for women under the guise of literary author. Evidence will be presented both from the text by analyzing her characterization, imagery, and dialog while the weight of this thesis will rest upon The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer evidence presented by scholars, particularly from the “Chaucer Review” scholarly journal, as well as research conducted on the life and times of women during the medieval era.
Abstract: This paper critically analyzes Geoffrey Chaucer’s character Allison of his tale “The Wife of Bath” within the Canterbury Tales. The argument is made that Chaucer intentionally used this character to present his personal feminist ideals to his audience, thereby acting as an advocate for women under the guise of literary author. Evidence will be pres...
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