Literary
Essays

¶ … True Story of Ah Q" and "Diary of a Madman"

Junot Diaz: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Lizzie Borden took an axe And gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, She gave her Father forty- one At one point or another, every schoolchild typically hears this small rhyme scheme, whether to accompany a hot-scotch match or as a joke towards the macabre. The Lizzie Borden case, however, was one of America's most famous trials – like the Salem Witch Trials, The Scopes ‘Monkey' Trial, and even O.J. Simpson. All of these become iconic, yet reflect somewhat of a mirror of society and American culture of the time. Looking at these trials, we can dissect some of the social mores and cultural trends of the time, learning much about society and the very real assumptions underlying the bias and dominant cultural schemes of the time. Of course, we have the trial transcripts – quite usually far less intriguing than the books, articles, and now movies about the subject. However, we also have the unconscious testimony – what is not said or what is said in certain ways that reflect the issues that are really in context (e.g. budding adolescents in a Puritanical society in Salem, etc.).

This paper discusses the Wasteland as an exemplary text of the Modernist Period and the French Lieutenant's Woman as an exemplary test of the Post-Modernist period. It posits that Modernism and Post-Modernism cannot be understood by reference to common features alone, but also as responses to their respective social, cultural, and political contexts. It concludes that both works became exemplary partly because they were so unlike any literature before them. Although unconventional, each was familiar enough to be contextualized in the course of literary history, meaning they unique in a way that could be articulated with the terminology available to literary critics of their time.

Theatrical performance, beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing through the twentieth and into our current era, has been at the forefront of social and political change. This has been arguably true of the art…

There is a great deal of debate about the demarcation points or the areas of transition between romanticism, modernism and postmodernism. On the one hand, many see the modernist movement in art and literature as being,…

Liberalism introduced a very appealing idealistic perspective of the world, wishing for universal freedom and equality. Historical events, such as the French revolution or the industrial revolution seemed to change the…

¶ … accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, China's laws regarding intellectual property rights were largely weak and ineffective, even though there were some laws on the books that were designed to protect…

Enlightenment represents a stage in Western philosophy and culture which spanned the eighteenth century, and advocated Reason as the primary source of authority. As a movement, the beginning of the Enlightenment can be…

The objective of this work is to review the history, ideology and practice application of 'Attachment Theory' and will do so through a review of the literature in this area of study.