Cardiff University (CF)

Throughout her novel (The Handmaid’s Tale) Margaret Atwood expresses various forms of rebellion through different characters and situations. The Handmaid’s Tale in its own context is not considered a novel when referring to rebellion, but the expression of a satirical dystopia which is mainly expressed through the beliefs and actions of different characters. It is therefore often compared to George Orwell’s nineteen eighty-four with the expression of freedom from and freedom to.

Toni Morrison’s fiction is preoccupied with the persistence of the past. Indeed, in Beloved (1987) and Jazz (1992) the past continually resurfaces in the present. In Beloved, for example, Sethe is haunted by her past in the form of her departed daughter. Whereas in Jazz, the past is tragically repeated in the lives of Joe and Violet Trace. In both texts, Morrison’s characters must confront their past in order to move on. Accordingly, their experiences demonstrate Morrison’s ‘concern to b...

Magical realism, as ‘a mode suited to exploring- and transgressing- boundaries’ , is useful for feminist objectives. The genre challenges dominant ways of seeing the world and can therefore be used to contest androcentric worldviews. In The House of the Spirits (1985), for example, the use of the supernatural empowers the women of the Trueba household. In Nights at the Circus (1984) the magically realist body of Fevvers is a symbolic representation of the New Woman. In both texts, however, t...

Many modern dramas feature an unconventional couple. From Kane’s coupling of Hippolytus and Phaedra, to Parks’s pairing of Booth and Lincoln, playwrights use the unconventional couple as a device to explore the different thematic interests of their plays. In The Homecoming (1965), for example, Pinter dramatises the unconventional relationships formed between Max, his sons, and Teddy’s wife. Suddenly Last Summer (1958), however, centres on the potentially incestuous couplings of Mrs Venable...

Steinbeck and Hemingway both explore how masculinity can affect, and be affected by emotions. In The Grapes of Wrath (1939), for example, Steinbeck considers how masculinity can be strengthened by a man’s refusal to break down. Conversely, in The Sun Also Rises (1926), Hemingway explores how emotional breakdown can occur as a consequence of emasculation. Whereas Steinbeck upholds traditional masculine values and a demonstration of keeping ones emotions in check, Hemingway envisages a renewed s...

Postmodern American fiction responds to the economic and social changes that occurred in America, and the globalised world, post-World War Two. This altered world required innovative modes of representation that could reflect the new cultural sensibility of the authors. Auster and DeLillo, for example, are part of this postmodern movement of formal innovation. The hallmarks of literary postmodernism frame The New York Trilogy (1986) and Cosmopolis (2003). Indeed, by evaluating the concept of the...

In early crime narratives a tension exists between the intended disciplinary function and the entertainment value demanded by their status as commodities. The Ordinary Accounts and the criminal broadsides, for example, acted as an indirect form of state-controlled surveillance. This ideological policing, however, is balanced against the commercial obligation to appeal to a wide readership. Indeed, the sensational nature of early crime narratives arguably undermines their disciplinary purpose of ...

An analysis of the way in which progress in relation to WWI and WWII is presented in the novels, Waterland (Graham Swift) and Austerlitz (W.G. Sebald). The notion of human progress is challenged by WWI and WWII and the impact it has on the lives of the characters in the novels. The wars resemble a descent into animalistic primitivism and the collapse of the progress of the enlightenment.

Exploration of Nature Vs Nurture in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Focussing on Caliban and his relationship with the island and with Prospero.

Caribbean texts are preoccupied by the relationship between place, belonging, and identity. The formation of a distinct national identity has been undermined by the historical processes that shaped the Caribbean. Consequently, Caribbean literature explores the ramifications of colonialism on the people’s sense of belonging.