Literature

Literature is also a form of time travel that helps put today in context. All those apocalyptic lamentations about how "things used to be so much better" are controverted in literature of the last...

As was mentioned in the previous post, the central themes throughout the short story examine justice, responsibility, discernment, and friendship. Both characters, Jumman Shaikh and Algu Chowdhry,...

Bhisham Sahni’s 1974 novel Tamas (The Darkness) can be considered a Partition novel as it is recounts the immediate and later aftereffects of the 1947 Partition and the creation of India and...

A novel is a book-length fictional prose narrative that contains six primary elements: character, plot, point of view, setting, style, and theme. Let's look at these six through a sample novel,...

"Olden days" is a fairly relative phrase. Some younger students might consider olden days any time before Instagram existed. They can't fathom a world that existed before cell phones and texting,...

The main theme of Coolie is the exploitation of the poor by the rich in early twentieth century India and the human suffering that this brings about. In his descriptions of Munoo’s experiences...

Dictionary.com defines myth this way: A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation,...

The basic elements of prose are: character, setting, plot, point of view, and mood. Character refers to: biographical information; personality traits; social roles, and psychological factors such...

Literature is one way for us to hear the voices of the past and work with the present. It is a way for the present to connect to the possible future. Story telling is one way for humans to reach...

The poem “Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco is an unrepentant celebration of individuality. Asserting himself against other people, whom he contemptuously likens to well-fed, well-watered flowers,...

In Munshi Premchand's short story "The Child", Gangu, though a servant, is from the Brahmin caste and is generally regarded as a virtuous and a decent man, superior to other servants in habits as...

Medieval literature extends over a wide geographic area and a long span of time, so it is difficult to identify characteristics that apply to all or even most literature of the Middle Ages. That...

In examining the terms "traditional" and "modern," literary scholars will differ on the defining time periods or characteristics which qualify those classifications. The following are provided as a...

The simplest and most obvious point is that "humble" is an adjective or a verb, whereas "humility" is a noun. More significantly, however, "humble" is often used refer to social status, in phrases...

In his poem "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum," Stephen Spender directs our focus toward the situation facing slum children. He employs strong visual representations or imagery of the...

A literary convention is: A customary feature of a literary work, such as the use of a chorus in Greek tragedy, the inclusion of an explicit moral in a fable, or the use of a particular rhyme...

Mahesh Dattani’s play Tara starts with a card game. A brother, Chandan, and sister, Tara, are playing cards, and Tara is winning. While things are going well for her in the card game, her life is...

Drama is a broad category and includes plays as a macro category or can be a portion of a work in a sub heading. Whether discussed in the macro or micro realms, drama has some definite...

The main difference between the different forms of literature is the purpose and the way words are arranged. The main difference between prose and poetry is how the words are used. In prose we...

The Chosen One is a common trope in speculative fiction, though the roots of it as a concept are ancient in nature. The term refers to a character who is "chosen" by God, the gods, or fate itself...

If we look at identity as representing a person's self conception, I think that the theme of identity in Tara relates to how the individual's notion of self collides with the external, social...

Two primary themes are interwoven through Rajmohan's Wife by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay. The first is the changing roles of women in nineteenth-century India (as well as its consequences for the...

Prose refers to written or spoken language that is not in poetic form, whether in rhythm, rhyme, or structure. Drama is a performing art in which actors use dialogue and actions to tell a story or...

Gynocriticism is a late-twentieth century feminist reframing of literary criticism. It began in the 1970s, and its aims include focusing on literature as understood wholly from a woman's...

One the most general level, most literature portrays people engaging in social interactions. Thus literature gives an image of society in words just as your bathroom mirror gives a reflected visual...

Figures of speech enhance the author's creation. This is true of any genre and any form of writing. The effective use of figures of speech brings to life what would have been mere words, phrases...

“The Holy Panchayat,” by Panch Parmeshwar, refers to the court in an Indian village. At different times, two friends each serve on the panchayat and are required to judge a matter that concerns the...

It sounds like what you may be referring to is, as the other instructor has pointed out, a frame story. Such stories start at the ending and then flash back in time to demonstrate how this pivotal...

Boiled down to its most basic definition, style refers to the way in which an author uses language in order to create the mood and meaning of a text. This could include his or her word choice,...

Certainly, one theme of the story is that we must be wary of strangers. Little Red Riding Hood meets the wolf in the forest, "but as she did not know what a bad sort of animal she was, she did not...

Novels were a new literary form in the eighteenth century, and in many ways, they were a reaction against earlier tales called romances that featured grand adventures, noble characters, and...

This ancient Navajo proverb has begun to circulate recently as an inspirational quote. It is often used on online memes and printed on tote bags and so on. It can be interpreted in several ways,...

Originating in the early 20th century in Britain, Georgian Poetry is a school of poetry inspired by nature and originally presented in a series of five works published by Harold Edward Monro....

One of the critical issues that Karnad addresses in Tulghlaq is the striking gap between political aspirations and its reality. Karnad understands this about the historical conditions that...

The main difference between Victorian and Modernist literature is the shift towards questioning the omniscient narrator. There was a shift from an objective (all knowing) to a subjective...

William Wordsworth's poem "The Solitary Reaper" describes a girl, alone, off in the distance ("Yon solitary Highland Lass") who is working in a field and singing. The phrases from the poem that...

Haldane begins his essay by saying that he has to accept the universe as it is. He cannot require the impossible. He then sets out a few of the things which he personally wants out of life:...

One of the most important skills in summarizing any piece of text is to read actively. This means taking notes as you read. You should not attempt to write your summary after reading the text only...

In his essay, "On Saying 'Please,'" A.G. Gardiner discusses legal regulations versus social norms. Although no one is legally mandated to be courteous and well-mannered, it is generally expected of...

A primary difference between academic and non-academic texts involves audience, which also speaks to purpose. An academic, nonfiction text will be based on research methods that can be replicated....

The primary similarities between a novel and a drama are that they both have plots, complete with rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution; they both have conflicts, characters, and...

The basic characteristics of African English Literature are: 1) Written in both African and European languages. The predominant African languages used are Amharic, Zulu, Hausa, and Swahili. 2)...

In Fritz Karinthy’s play Refund, a former student, Wasserkopf, asks for his money back, because the tuition that he paid did not improve his prospects in life. Wasserkopf’s education did not make...

Este cuento, "Los Bomberos" de Mario Benedetti, depende mucho de la ironía. El cuento se trata de un hombre llamado Olegario, quien tiene un don de premonición. Olegario ha ganado bastante fama y...

Early on, especially after the United States broke away from England, it began to self-consciously develop a literature different from the European tradition, one that emphasized American values to...

In the science fiction short story "The Wretched and the Beautiful" by E. Lily Yu, an alien spaceship lands on a popular tourist beach. Inside are strangely shaped alien refugees (the wretched) who...

The relationship between history and literature is complex and multifaceted. First, literature often presents historical people, places, and events in story form. Think, for instance, of the...

Literary Criticism and Literary Theory are phrases that have been used interchangeably. But there is a technical difference between the two. Literary Criticism refers to the evaluation of a work....

Vijay Tendulkar's play is a social satire on middle-class society. A wandering theatre group surfaces in a quiet village and decides to set up a mock trial. Things take a sinister turn when the...

A biography is the true story of a person's life. An autobiography is the true story of a person's life when it is written by that person. The author writes about him- or herself in an...