Imagining of Literature

“Whatever is referred to, must exist.” John Searle’s Speech Acts Whenever we engage in argument of the whatness of what is postmodern, it is almost impossible to drop Jameson’s theories out of the discussion. Fredric Jameson is highly recognizable name in contemporary literary and philosophical studies. He qualified for a doctoral degree from Yale University, where he studied under Erich Auerbach. The literary and philosophical critic, whose mimetic approach towards the representation of reality in modern western literature is highly praised theoretical work, proved to be a lasting influence on Jameson’s thought. In his early works Jameson has been concerned, along with other Marxist cultural critics such as Terry Eagleton, to articulate Marxism’s relevance in respect to the current philosophical and literary trends. His book - “Marxism and form” published in 1971 turned out to be a pioneering book from which dialectical criticism emerges as a radical alternative to the kind of hu...

Some say Robert Frost is one of the most significant poets in modern American literature. Some critics push him in the margins of American literature. In a sense, Frost stands at the crossroads of nineteenth-century American poetry and modernism. He is either modernist but never innovator or his poetry is traditional but in original way. One of the most popular of his poems and usually anthologized is called “Fire and Ice”. The poem was originally published in December 1920 in Harper’s Magazine. And then added into Pulitzer prize winner poetry book New Hampshire. Simple as a theme, mirror like in verse and thought to be inspired by Dante’s Inferno, this poem may as well be read as subjective piece of art inspired by popular theory at that time that regards the end of the world. The main focus is in the emotional aspect of the poem, which makes “Fire and Ice” all time classic and highly preferable piece to read. In the very beginning of the poem a conflict is stated, a conflict ...

Ever since “Homo Ludens” we are comfortable to think humans as accustomed to playing. Playing is one of the most complicated activities. And the play is a tradition with long historical roots in shaping the mankind thinking. Nowadays we naturally link plays with theatre and the physical activity called playing with sports. The idea that there is infusion between sport and theatre or the acting/playing co-relation is not new at all and it descents directly from ancient times when amphitheatres held both plays and athletic events. One of the most influential (at least for me) and one of the most popular point of view regarding the theme is in one of Roland Barthes’ essays in Mythologies - the opening one and one of the most significance,  called “The world of wrestling”( Actually the essay first  appeared in Esprit). In a very punctuating, very exact manner the French structuralist managed to outline the similarities between acting and playing. One of the important conclusions...

Constance Mundy, Mrs. Talbot is the first women ever to be taken picture of. Amandine Aurore Dupin, Baronness Dudevant is the real name of the French writer George Sand, who had relationship with the composer Shopen. Auto da fe - the famous act of burning of literature and art pieces in translation reads: act of faith. The name of Ernest Hemingway’s novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a quotation from an essay of the English poet John Donne. Robert Burns, the Bard of Scotland, was initiated into Masonic Lodge at the age of 22. Mary Wollstonecraft, radical advocate of women’s rights is the mother of Mary Shelley. The young Mary, whose mother died after her birth, learned to read from the epitaph of Wollstonecraft’s grave. It is tradition in England that the queen’s or king’s face is engraved at coins, in Scotland, however, the face on the coins belongs to Sir Walter Scott. Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, the youngest son of Charles Dickens, named after famous Victorian writ...

The next lines are so not going to be about the teenage sweethearts/ wet dreams vampires like Edward Cullen - the Heathcliff wanna be/ afraid of his shadow/ 100-year-old virgin with an extremely bad taste (accept Debussy) creation of a desperate housewife or erotically exaggerated to match the commercial taste undead like Bill Compton or Erik the Northman. I am talking about the classics of literature mythology that resurrect the initial fear of dead and unnatural, the taboo of incest and flesh-consuming allusions. Such vampires are Dracula - both the famous Stoker masterpiece and Kostova’s teasing character, the diabolically featured picture of Baron in the face of Pollidori’s lord Ruthven - “The vampyre. A tale” and the amazing Lestat  - Rice’s most naturalistic vampire. Villains don’t sleep. And the next one is too busy looking at eternity to lose time sleeping. Dracula. The name was simply able to sent chills to the early Stoker’s readers. He is ultimately bloodthirsty - he...

It won’t be me if I start this list with no female name on it. So without further ado here she is, the devil in a skirt, the most seductive and yet the most vicious god creature – Kate from “East of Eden”. Let’s put aside the infernal features Steinbeck is particularly searching. Kate is the perfect villain because she feels no remorse, no love and in a matter of fact no real hatred. She is amputated from everything that can be called human weakness – she does not feel regret does not fully realize what bonds are – blood relations or other – she knows not their real meaning, she is not even keen on her own children. But she does have an Achilles’ heel, however, and that is the fact that she is self-centered, egocentric person with maniac obsessions. It is not a surprise that one of the most popular teen books/tv series “Vampire diaries” is equipped with a similar villain Katherina – the evil Bulgarian vampire, who is in many ways literally like Steinbeck’s character. Book villain №...

A story suddenly ends and its tail leaves traceable marks of another tale… This one refers to a girl grown up in captivity. The years of her life passed enduring pain and torture. She was kept in a bird cage. The cage was so small for her human body that she suffered even more. She was forbidden to get out and to stretch her limbs. Her legs were cramped closer and closer to her heart. Each year her limbs were shrinking more than the previous one until she transformed into disfigured edgy shape of a human being. The girl counted on her eyes to prove to her she was living and as her body was growing smaller the bigger her eyes became. When her cage was placed outside she watched the velvet night sky and kept imagining that every single shining star is a fulfilled dream or a link between her and the other captives of Fortuna. She hoped that the clear rain drops are the tears someone has shed for her. When she happened to see a beautiful flower she spread deformed hand to reach it o...

The book regarded as a window towards other worlds is a commonly used and long-time repeated cliché in all literary and cultural contexts. But it was Richley Crapo’s words that the most distinctive feature separating humanity from animals is the ability to create symbols, to change meanings again and again. And Robert Harrison continues: “language is the ultimate place of human habitation… logos is that which opens the human abode on the earth”. Just with its publishing in July 1890 Wilde’s book provoked diametrically different reactions. On one hand was the uncensored portrait of the hypocrisy of Victorian aristocracy that gave rise to the negative evaluations the novel received. On the other hand is the time evaluation that proves that “The picture…” is manifesto of Wilde as an author. Apology of the Beauty, the author as a messiah, the miracle of creation, the unique esthetic way of writing – all of this earned “The picture…” a place at the pantheon of the Canon. A book heading is ...

If you search Google for Yasmina Khadra, Wikipedia will inform you that the name is a pseudonym of the writer Mohammed Moulessehoul. He used the enchanting female name (which translated from Arabic means “green jasmine”) to avoid the military censorship. Speaking of his book, the author explains that its main purpose was to show one undisguised version of the East to the West. The book shows both the differences and the similarities without jumping to conclusions. The book’s goal is indeed to reveal that people are the same everywhere – good or evil, capable of love and respect or bound to hatred and out-of-date traditions. Of course, there are problems between East and West, the separation in words issue itself. Problems widely discussed, passionately argued about and profoundly researched. Everything seems to have been said. It was just the previous year when Sarkozy politically involved in the case of an afghan woman that was under sentence of death by public lynch. It is too easy...