ARTICLES ARCHIVE
Oscar Wilde’s Homosexuality and Fight Against the Status Quo
Written by Dimana Radoeva for Prof. Shalon Noble Writers who incorporate parts of their real life into their literary work publish their personal feelings and thoughts in texts that will inevitably end up in the hands of hundreds, maybe millions of strangers. In cases like Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, the intensely personal letter he wrote was meant for one specific person, Lord Alfred Douglas, and not for a mass audience. More specifically, Wilde’s writings about his relationship with another man,…
Blowing Minds, One Dick at a Time
Written by Rebecca Martel for Prof. Marie Thérèse Blanc On the surface, Jack Kerouac, member of the 1950s Beat Generation and author of the sexually sexist novel On The Road (the uncensored version of which was published in 2008), and Robert Mapplethorpe, the influential photographer of the 1970s and 1980s, who contributed to late Modernist and early Postmodernist art, don’t seem to share much in common. However, they both managed to expand the minds of their respective generations through their formal…
The profession of the governess in 19th-century England as it pertains to Jane Eyre
Written by Julia Harris for Prof. Rita Much The governess of 19th-century England, as personified by Jane Eyre, was a feminist prototype at a time when women were still enslaved by their roles within a patriarchal society. The governess lived on the fringes of society, not fully belonging to her class, giving her a unique, yet awkward position from which to observe and question the roles of the women within it. Her position as an independent observer and thinker allowed…
The House of Stars
Written by Dahlia Piccirelli for Prof. Kris Woofter In the novel The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, the protagonist Eleanor Vance experiences quite a transformation. At the beginning of the story, she is a timid and submissive young woman who has never been loved or accepted by anyone, including her family. When she arrives at Hill House she tries to form bonds and relationships with her housemates; however, she finds it easier to connect with the dark and…
Breton Fairy Lore: From Homosociality to Homoeroticism
Written by Gajanan Vellupilai for Prof. Charlotte Hussey Gareth Knight’s Faery Loves and Faery Lais recounts a collection of Breton lais, some anonymous and some written by famed medieval writer Marie De France. In short, a lai is a short poem written anytime in the early 12th century. The term Breton in this genre of literature is quite nuanced. Breton in general refers to inhabitants of France without a particular focalization in time. However, the context of this term that…
Petal
Written by Sophia Magliocca for Prof. Andrea Strudensky “Does she love me, does she love me not please let me know” he said this game of chance most lovers play it was much pressure to sublime a single petal and much persistence to uphold such a pitied wish and yet he didn’t ponder, not a single second for what passionate soul had enough love left in their pocket to pretend to even care “Does she love me, does…
Destabilizing Gender & Splicing Queer Space
Written by Gajanan Velupillai for Prof. Irene Ogrizek Alice Munro’s acute sense of human interactions and relations is often perceived as being driven by a feminist ideology. Through reading her short stories, the reader instinctively casts Munro as being a writer on the woman’s side. Although most of her stories are indeed centered on their emotional and spiritual growth and development, Munro’s concerns are not limited to female subordination; she is not demanding equity assuming only the woman is being…