'The story I am telling is all imagination. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind.'(John Fowles). Discuss the way in which any two texts studied on the course problematise the process of storytelling and/or the role of the author.

'The story I am telling is all imagination. These characters I create never existed outside my own mind.'(John Fowles). Discuss the way in which any two texts studied on the course problematise the process of storytelling and/or the role of the author. According to Nelson Vieira, John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman: 'falls under the rubric of what is commonly known today as metafiction. Metafictional writers thus operate and function with a freedom of exposing illusion for what it is- a device used to mask narrative as a construct and a figment of one's imagination.'1 John Fowles has no qualms about admitting that literature is, in fact just an illusion. This is most noticeable in his telling the reader that 'The story I am telling is all imagination. The characters I create never existed outside my own mind'2. It seems then, that John Fowles, in destroying the reader's illusion, and also destroys the 'suspension of disbelief necessary in following a story told by an omniscient narrator'3 Fowles' destruction of this suspension of disbelief in reminding us of the fictitious nature of all characters and events taking place creates a gulf between himself, or his story, and the reader. To be drawn into the world of fiction, we must feel that it is true, and that we are a part of a real world, and not merely some illusion or magic trick. It is also impossible for the

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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In Crime and Punishment, both Sonya and Dunya are the embodiments of Christian virtue, which they demonstrate in their self-sacrifice, abasement, and suffering.

Chelsea Greenlee Dostoevsky 6 April 2011 Women as Images of Christian Virtue and Sacrifice During the 19th century, author and philosopher Fyodor Dostoyevsky used his novels as a means to explore human psychology and perception in the troubled political, social, and spiritual context of Imperial Russian society. While in prison serving a sentence for his membership in the liberal intellectual group the Petrashevsky Circle, Dostoevsky underwent a powerful conversion experience, which greatly strengthened his Christian Orthodox faith and encouraged him to extol the virtues of humility, submission, and suffering. The incredible impact of Dostoevsky's conversion experience and the subsequent strengthening of his faith are evident throughout his novels, in which characters, most often women, fully embody these Christian values. As is characteristic of his writings, Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment communicates his admiration of Christ-like virtues and his great respect for "proud women," using remarkable but tortured female characters, such as Pulcheria, Katerina, Sonya, and Dunya, to illustrate spiritual and social truths. This is especially true of the novel's two most prominent female characters, Dunya and Sonya. In Crime and Punishment, both Sonya and Dunya are the embodiments of Christian virtue, which they demonstrate in their self-sacrifice, abasement, and

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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In what ways, and to what extent, does Mrs Dalloway illustrate Woolfs intention to use her novel to criticise the social system, and to show it at work, at its most intense ? (Woolf, A Writers Diary, 1923)

Mrs Dalloway. In what ways, and to what extent, does Mrs Dalloway illustrate Woolf's intention to use her novel to "criticise the social system, and to show it at work, at its most intense" ? (Woolf, A Writer's Diary, 1923) This essay will be investigating to what extent Woolf used her novel Mrs Dalloway to criticise the social system. To do this I will be taking into account the year the novel was written, and examining the social situations which the reader could have perceived to be critical. Also, it will be important to acknowledge that some of the socially critical situations Woolf uses had not been encountered before, and to reason that perhaps Woolf wrote Mrs Dalloway to try and draw public attentions to the reaction to events that the general public, politicians and all the social classes had no idea how to deal with. At the same time the essay will use these points to connect the novel and Woolf to its modernist roots. Woolf began writing what would become Mrs Dalloway in the summer of 1922 shortly after World War 1 had ended. Public suffering from the war was still inflicting its massive after effects, and Woolf wanted to write an expression of what she felt was happening. On my initial forays into researching Virginia Woolf my opinion was very closed, I felt she was very insular. Commenting on the outside world from the safety of her own well educated and

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Lord Jim, Modernism and Colonialism

EN 4880B Modernism & Empire Mid-Term Essay Shivaranjani Subramaniam U051096U Lord Jim, appearing just at the turn of century, can be easily glossed over, due to the novel's maritime backdrop, as belonging to travel literature that was popular in fin de siècle England. However upon delving deeper, the novel's modernism manifested through aspects like the different viewpoints and as such a fragmented story, its self-reflexivity and the poetic nature of the prose, rescues the novel from such a quick and unjust gloss (Klages 165). For the novel does not glorify the journeys that the West undertook in the late nineteenth century in the name of exploration or the Empire- it rather, through its modernist aesthetics, undermines them. Keeping in mind how late nineteenth century literature on the empire "was effectively a literary and visual form of pro-imperial propaganda", Lord Jim makes a clean break from that genre precisely because Conrad juxtaposes colonialism and modernism (Levine 121). Considering what the abovementioned modernist aesthetics comment upon colonialism and how colonialism itself is complicated in the text, this paper will show how Lord Jim avoids being labeled as pro-imperial propagandistic literature. Modernism actually does not just comment upon colonialism- it approaches the latter in a whole new way. The binarism or Manicheanism that normally holds

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai; Themes and Characters

Fasting, Feasting Anita Dessai Themes Family Life Although the novel has action in two separate countries and has many characters, there is the central theme of family life that unites them all. In India, the immediate family has great importance; but the extended family also has an impact on the characters' lives. This is evidenced by the coming together of family members for securing bridegrooms and making wedding arrangements for Uma and Aruna. There is also huge family support and involvement related to times of sorrow, such as the coming together after the death of Anamika. The rituals for both these happy and sad occasions are marked with tradition and purpose. These elements seem to be sorely lacking in the Patton household in America. It is understood that the time period of Arun's stay with the Pattons encompasses only three months and does not represent a comprehensive look at the Patton family. Yet the limited window leads the reader to believe that the Pattons are devoid of any strong family ties, both within their immediate family unit and in their extended family. Arun is the character who envisions the similarities between the two families toward the end of the novel. Ironically, it is the youngest person among all the characters, Arun, who can see the differences in how his mother and Mrs. Patton direct their families. More poignantly, it is Arun who sees

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Feminist Consciousness in Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain".

Fang Liang Professor Ding Yanren Academic Writing for English Majors 2 December 2012 Feminist Consciousness in Cat in the Rain Cat in the Rain is one of Hemingway’s most famous short stories, depicting an American couple spends their holiday in an Italian hotel. The American wife in the story sees a cat crouched under a table in the rain and wants to bring it to her room. When she goes to search for the cat, however, it is gone. So she returns to the hotel room and has a conversation with her husband about finding out the cat and then about changing her whole life. Her husband, however, seems to be terribly annoyed by her and not interested at all. Eventually, the cat is delivered to her room by a maid at the request of the hotelkeeper. These images altogether make it easy to consider the story as an episode of marriage crisis. However, I want to argue that Hemingway conveyed in the story has much to do with the feminist consciousness. We can feel depression and isolation of the American wife from the very beginning of the story. She is in a hotel of a foreign country where they are the only Americans, having to speak an unfamiliar language, with nobody else known but her husband who turns out to be indifferent to her. Her depression mainly comes from him who neglects her needs and feelings. Thus, she is eager to be rescued and to get rid of this depressing situation.

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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A Face Without a Heart - An Essay on A Picture of Dorian Gray

Randy Fox Professor Medd ENGL2109A Monday, October 1st, 2012 A Face Without A Heart The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel written by Oscar Wilde, discusses the superficiality of men and the consequences of negative influence. The titular character Dorian Gray, a young and beautiful man, falls victim to self gratification and Lord Henry’s influence. He loses his sense of virtue and falls into a spiral of sin, all the while maintaining his status in society due to his seemingly everlasting youth and beauty. In Chapter Ten, when Dorian comes to terms with his evil portrait, and in connection, his sin, and falls under the influence of the yellow book, his downward spiral truly begins. The constantly degenerating portrait and the “poisonous” yellow book are constant motifs in the novel that symbolize Dorian Gray’s downfall, and both enter with full force in this chapter. The actions that Dorian commits during this chapter both foreshadow and set the basis for his downward spiral throughout the remainder of the novel. Lord Henry holds art and culture in the highest regard and tells Dorian it can only be attained “by being cultured [or]...by being corrupt” (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 238).It is quite clear that Dorian is impressionable and is influenced by Lord Henry and he begins to take culture and art in very high regard. Dorian begins to date

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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An Examination of Figurative and Literal Debris in J.G. Ballards "Concrete Island"

An Examination of Figurative and Literal Debris in Concrete Island J.G. Ballard’s Concrete Island tells the story of a wealthy architect, Robert Maitland, who is forced to survive on a manmade island in the middle of a motorway intersection following a car crash. As Groes points out in his paper, Ballard’s Concrete Island examines the social and cultural trends in postwar London through an extreme situation experienced by the main character Robert Maitland (2011). It is argued that Ballard’s writing depicts how changes in urban spaces are reshaping social relationships (Groes, 2011). Notably, debris forms as a result of the people and places that have been leftover from rapid societal transformations. Ballard’s Concrete Island examines the importance of literal debris (the wasteland) and figurative debris (outsiders of society) in Maitland’s experiences on the island. Despite being an architect who contributes to architectural changes, Maitland struggles to survive on the island until his encounter with Jane and Proctor. These two characters are the figurative debris in this novel. To demonstrate, Proctor is described as an “aged defective” (Ballard, Concrete, 86), while Jane is said to resemble the “prototypal drop-out” (Ballard, Concrete, 82). In particular, the presence of Jane and Proctor prevents Maitland from dying and his interactions with them allow

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Assess the extent to which Great Expectations is a realist novel

Assess the extent to which Great Expectations is a realist novel The primary aim of the realist novel is to represent real life at the time in which it is written. The author aims to create for their reader a believable world and uses a number of techniques in order to do this. In order to assess the extent to which Great Expectations can be viewed as a realist novel this paper will aim to, firstly, look at the techniques used by Dickens which contribute to creating an illusion of reality and then draw to the forefront examples of inherent features of a realist novel and examine Dickens’ use of these features in the novel. Finally it will go on to address characteristics of other genres in Great Expectations and examine how the novel may fall outside our idea of realist. One of the first key ways in which Dickens creates an illusion of reality is through his use of narrative technique. In order to tell the story he employs a first person narrative in the form of Pip. The use of such narration draws in the reader immediately which helps the reader to quickly identify with the narrator and therefore believe in him. ‘So, I called myself Pip and came to be called Pip’[1] almost suggests that the narrator is personally introducing himself to the reader and the informal ‘so’ sets a tone with which the reader can feel comfortable. Furthermore, Dickens uses a dual

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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Two different Jamesian heroines: Daisy Miller and Catherine Sloper

Literatura Nordamericana Moderna Teacher: Aránzazu Usandizaga Student: Rebeca Esparza Lavado THE BUILDING OF TWO DIFFERENT JAMESIAN HEROINES: DAISY MILLER AND CATHERINE SLOPER The American writer Henry James wrote a great number of stories in which the role of the main character was a woman. He was very interested in the femenine world and this is the reason why he tried to explore what defines feminity in termes of genre. I have chosen two short stories about this author: Daisy Miller (1878) and Washington Square (1880). Their main characters are both heroines and they also have a lot of points in common but I have analysed the different techniques that James used to design the female characters of Daisy Miller and Catherine Sloper respectively because the different procedures meant inevitably different literary results. In a first attempt to analyse Daisy and Catherine we realise that they can be defined by opposite adjectives: Daisy is spirited, independent, well meaning, young, beautiful, flirtatious but also ignorant, shallow and provincial; on the other hand, Catherine is bad-looking, shy, plain and painfully. Consequently we could consider them highly distinct but, in fact, they are the one and the other women who have to face their reality by fighting against oppresive forces: Daisy against social conventions and Catherine against her tyrannical father.

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Linguistics, Classics and related subjects
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