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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…