In Part 16 of the Pearl poem, the Dreamer asks the Pearl-Maiden to show him the way to Jerusalem, but the Pearl-Maiden tells him the difference between the worldly and heavenly Jerusalems. This section is about the spots of man which keep him trapped in the worldly Jerusalem away from the heavenly one, and the... Continue Reading →
Abstract This essay is a comparison of the concept of retribution in two plays: Hanoch Levin’s “Murder and Ariel Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden”. It explores the injustices suffered by two characters: a Palestinian father who has his son murdered by Israeli soldiers and a Chilean woman who is kidnapped and tortured during the military... Continue Reading →
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been portrayed in many pieces of art from both perspectives of the conflict. In 2015, the Palestinian playwright Dalia Taha wrote a play from the Palestinian perspective called “Fireworks”. It follows the harsh lives of two Palestinian families in an apartment block who deal with the gravity of their situation by... Continue Reading →
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the Squire is one of the characters who gets to tell a tale. His tale is an interlaced romance, a common form in the Middle Ages which was very long. The exotic and fantastical setting of the Squire’s Tale reflects his ambition, talents and imagination, and while he does... Continue Reading →
One of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer’s most famous poems is Troilus and Criseyde, a retelling of the classic love tragedy poem. It is set amid the background of the Trojan War, but in a 14th century environment. In it, the Trojan prince Troilus falls in love with the Trojan noblewoman Criseyde. Criseyde is a... Continue Reading →
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who pushed back against the narratives of progress and the rationalistic ordering of society in nineteenth century Europe, seeing these along with the societal traditions as hypocritical and repressive. In “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense”, Nietzsche strongly critiques the idea of rationality and classification in a... Continue Reading →
The French structuralist writer Roland Barthes wrote a short essay called “The Death of the Author” in 1967. In it, he argues that writing is the destruction of every voice, and that while this has not been recognized before, writers are now starting to take this into account and critics should focus on the reader... Continue Reading →
Plato’s Republic is a Socratic dialogue on justice, how the perfect city-state should be ordered, and how the virtuous man should behave. In “Book X”, Glaucon and Socrates explore the nature of poetry. They argue that Poetry must be excluded from a well-ordered state, as it is an imitative art form, thrice removed from the... Continue Reading →
“Squatter” is a short story by Indo-Canadian writer Rohinton Mistry about a man named Sarosh who immigrates to Canada from India but leaves a decade later after failing to use the toilet properly in his new country. “Simple Recipes” is another short story by the Chinese-Malaysian Canadian writer Madeleine Thien about a Chinese Canadian family... Continue Reading →
Anne of Green Gables is a 1908 novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery which explores the coming of age of a girl named Anne Shirley in the town of Avonlea. While Anne’s imaginary adventures make the book resonate with children, it is Marilla’s struggles that adults identify with. In the beginning of the novel Marilla... Continue Reading →
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