ARTICLES ARCHIVE
No, Capital Punishment Is Not Ethical: Failure of Retribution and Deterrence – A Study of the U.S. Penal Law
Written by Georgiana Andra Liciu for Prof. Isabelle Johnston Introduction: Capital punishment is one of the most—if not the most— controversial penal law practice in the U.S. today. The whole country is divided in its opinion about the death penalty; 31 states still use capital punishment, while in 13 states, this practice has been outlawed (“States”). This topic is socially relevant because an execution is an irreversible punishment. I am interested in this topic because I believe that justice is…
“Some Books Should Not Be Opened”: The Primal Self and Family Decay in The Shining
Written by Sarah Levi for Prof. Kristopher Woofter Throughout The Shining, Stephen King foreshadows the destruction of the Torrance family by hinting that Jack will eventually fall victim to mental instability. Besides portraying his character as a dangerous man who struggles with alcoholism and a short temper, King makes Jack face challenging situations, inciting him to lose his cool and wreak havoc on his family. The Shining can be viewed as a story about a man’s inner demons taking control…
The Sherwood Effect
Written by Linda Xin Zhi Zhang for Prof. Chad Lowe In Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, we follow a troubled young con artist sinking, not without consequences, into the decadence of the wealthy. Set in the 1950’s, the novel richly portrays many ideas arising from the psychologist Sigmund Freud, such as the unconscious, masculinity crises, and toxic masculinity. These elements are especially present in the relationship between Marge Sherwood and Tom Ripley, and help us understand why her presence…
Teatro Grottesco: A Predestined Spectacle of Insignificance
Written by Anaïs Charbonneau-Poitras for Prof. Kristopher Woofter The title of Thomas Ligotti’s collection of short stories, Teatro Grottesco, can be translated from the Italian to mean ‘Grotesque Theater.’ The Italian definition relates to the Grotesque distortion of the American Gothic theme—that fate is predestined and controlled by some higher power. This theme is a pivotal influence in the short stories contained in the collection as the characters’ fates are predestined in their absence of free will and self-identity. Ligotti develops…
Southern Forms of Grotesque: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
Written by Anaïs Charbonneau-Poitras for Prof. Pauline Morel The grotesque is defined as the degradation and distortion from conventions of normality which often entices a paradoxical attraction of the repulsive. The southern writers William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor both present the Grotesque genre in shocking manners in their respective short stories “A Rose for Emily” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. In contrasting and comparing the grotesque in both stories, the grotesque in Faulkner’s becomes perverse and in O’Connor’s…
The Faerie Lais of Marie de France
Written by Marco di Francesco for Prof. Charlotte Hussey Marie de France was a medieval poet of the 12th century, whose works were very well known in the Royal Court of King Henry II of England. Living in an era where the majority of the population was illiterate, Marie was of the very few women privileged enough to be educated by the scholars and clerics, who mainly prioritized teaching men. As a result, her works generally had feminist themes and…
Portrait of the Art as an Old Lie
Written by Adrian Kahali for Prof. Shalon Noble If any single statement can be made about art, there can and will be another to refute it. Art, in all its subjectivity and diversity, is one of the most powerful tools made available to us (and by us); it can provoke thought, incite discussion, inspire war, take lives, and create love through those who wield it, and its possibilities are limited only by human potential. There is no telling why art…