![Image of the feedback sheet returned to Chris Larham, critiquing the journal [65%, 2007] submitted as part of the 'Writing Selves: Understanding Autobiography' module.](https://i0.wp.com/sharedsapience.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/writing-selves-understanding-autobiography-journal-feedback-sheet.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The texts which I will be discussing in this journal are Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘Confessions’, Primo Levi’s ‘If This is a Man’, J. G. Ballard’s ‘Empire of the Sun’, Lorna Sage’s ‘Bad Blood’, and Albert Camus’ ‘The First Man’.[…]
In this close analysis of Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Valentine’, I intend to demonstrate that Duffy forces her gift of an onion onto the object of her affection – an honest, yet threatening, gesture. I will do this by working my way analytically through the poem, before highlighting the way in which the onion is used to symbolize Duffy’s beliefs about relationships. Through probing her lexical choices, I shall highlight the menacing subtext to her poem.[…]
In this essay I will compare and contrast Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ in order to consider whether or not there are distinct characteristics in women’s writing. Through a close analysis of each text I will offer an interpretation of both stories that highlights the common underlying concerns of the two authors; concerns embedded in the text which might not be evident from a superficial, literal reading of the stories. With reference to Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’, I also hope to illustrate the use of emotionally-rich language that is characteristic in women’s writing.[…]
In this essay I aim to demonstrate that F. Scott Fitzgerald uses Nick Carraway- the first-person narrator in his novel- and a variety of narrative techniques to put forward a plethora of social comments to a literate audience. Through close analysis of Carraway and his narration of the events that unfolded before him, it should become clear that Fitzgerald used the novel to articulate his firm ideas about American society in the 1920s – beliefs that include a critique of notions such as: materialism; class distinctions; the revolutionizing of the old guard’s methods; American society excess; and, most importantly, the concept of the various ways in which ‘reality’ is produced.
This essay will ultimately contest Anthony Giddens’ statement that our sense of self, our identity, is not derived from our ‘subjectivity’ – “determined by one’s own mind or consciousness” – but instead comes about through ‘inter-subjectivity’, our relationships “between, among” others. In order to discuss Giddens’ aforementioned quote, I will make reference to the concept of the ‘mirror stage’ formulated by Jacques Lacan, a concept which stipulates that our “sense of self, then, comes from something external.” Following Lacan’s lead, I will provide examples from Sarah Waters’ ‘Affinity’ and Helen Simpson’s ‘Hey yeah right get’ a life that appear to provide support for the notion that it is our relationships among others which provides the basis for our sense of self. Closely examining Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ‘Confessions’ and Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘Beyond Good and Evil’, I will then proceed to deconstruct Giddens’ statement, showing how ‘inter-subjectivity’ cannot be the guarantor of one’s sense of self. The final step of this deconstruction will be to demonstrate that ‘subjectivity’ and ‘inter-subjectivity’ are not even categorically distinct concepts, and I shall highlight the inextricable interplay between the two terms, inherent in their definition, with an example from Jim Crace’s ‘Being Dead’.
In this essay I will examine the extent to which women are shackled by patriarchy in William Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ and ‘The Merchant of Venice’. I will firstly apply Vladimir Propp’s tool of narrative analysis to ‘Twelfth Night’ in order to provide Structuralist evidence for the Feminist critique of this play propounded by Lisa Jardine. I will then extend Jardine’s contentions to ‘The Merchant of Venice’, using Propp’s narratological principles to highlight the various ways in which women are constrained by patriarchy in this play. The insights which arise from this methodology will be fully explored in the conclusion to this essay.[…]
In this essay I will undertake a close textual analysis of Chapter XXXIX in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. I aim to illustrate the plethora of literary techniques that Chopin employs in this closing chapter. With a view to offering a personal response to this material, I will then link The Awakening to the Pre-Raphaelite movement in art and literature. Finally, I shall compare The Awakening’s Edna to Hamlet’s Ophelia using Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic tool for literary interpretation.
In this critique of Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”, I aim to demonstrate that Mel McGinnis cathartically releases his views on love onto an educated threesome (his wife, Terri, his friend, Nick, and Nick’s wife, Laura). Mel has been deeply considering the nature of love; by the end of the critique I hope to illustrate how Mel totally dominates the conversation to get his ideas across by closely analysing the following constructs in relation to each individual: rapport; kinesics; gaze behaviour; tonality and linguistic register; and by placing each character within one of the five Satir Categories.[…]
In this essay I will discuss the representation of women’s experience within the patriarchal scheme of things, with reference to Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’, Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’, and Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’. I aim to highlight the theme of female subjugation within a male-dominated world that is common to all three authors, and examine the reasons proposed by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf to explain such a prejudiced constitution of society. Finally, I shall demonstrate that Susan Glaspell’s literary genius produced a play that puts forward a strong statement on the necessity of female solidarity if women are to survive in a sex-biased society.[…]