Since its publication in 1847, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has always caused its critics trouble, for while it is obviously a powerful novel, its ‘meaning’ is hardly easy to grasp. This was doubly true to its contemporary critics who saw only “glimpses or secondary meanings” and “refrained from assigning any” moral to the work (Douglas…
On androids and replicants: the question of humanity
“I think, therefore I am” has been at the heart of our understanding of ourselves (in the West) for a while now. It follows the premise that humans are rational creatures, in fact the only species capable of reason. This cold scientific ability that brought so much pride to 18th and 19th century positivists and…
The Author according to Barthes and McEwan
The Author, like any other prominent figure in society, has been subject of fluctuating viewpoints over time. Few, however, have been pronounced dead. Barthes in his 1968 famous essay “Death of the Author” extravagantly declares the death of the Author and the birth of the reader. It is the purpose of this work to look…
Coleridge’s demonic poems
Many interpretations have been given to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetry, especially to his so called ‘demonic’ or ‘daemonic’ poems. Notorious for their ambiguous themes and morals, these have received critical readings varying from the social-historical to psychological and have had critics arguing over the significance of some or such symbol, be it the Albatross of…
The figure of the mistress
In this post I discuss the representation of the figure of the mistress through a close examination, comparison and contrasting the poetry of William Shakespeare and John Donne, paying special attention to two specific poems, Sonnet 138 and “The Apparition”, respectively. The figure of the mistress, a character which is present in much of Elizabethan…
Ishiguro’s unreliable narrator
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is a story settled in a 1950’s England whose main character is Stevens, a butler in a traditional English country house. At the time in which the narrative is set, the house’s owner is an American gentleman called Mr Farraday. Stevens, however, has served the house, Darlington…
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