World literature

The novel is a literary work whose roots can be traced to the eighteenth century. It came as a break from the traditional prose fiction of the Greeks and the French. Earlier novelists such as Defoe, Richardson and Fielding whose contribution to writing is seen as one that came accidental and also one that was influenced by their surrounding. Although these novelists considered themselves pioneers of this new art form, they did not provide a working definition of the novel, one that would sufficiently describe this new genre and separate it from the old genres. Realism which was associated with the French school of realist seemed to be the only distinguishing feature of the novel from the previous literature writings. This however seemed to suggest that all the old writing before the novel were unreal and fictitious which might not be the case. This definition of the novel was therefore rather shallow and needed justification if it was to be used as the defining characteristic. ...

Throughout the ages Shakespeare ‟ s Hamlet has remained a piece of work that is being analysed from different point of view by different critics. Some find interest in the way Shakespeare has handled the character, Hamlet. While some other questions the authority of the text including the character. It is only because of the versatility of the text so much analysis has been possible. Some like Nietzsche looked at the character from existential point of view while Freud from psychoanalytical point of view. Looking at different point of view continues like a contagious disease from hand to hand. However, in the early 20th century the premier of new critic T.S. Eliot proposed a different idea altogether saying about the failure of the play as whole with a special eye to the character of Hamlet. This paper is an attempt to look at the take of Eliot from a critical point of view. Eliot was one of the premiers of new criticism who was of the view that a text is to be judged from the te...

The Masque in The Tempest has been useful to Shakespeare in many ways. It may have initially been meant only to represent the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda, but it has ended up adding many different aspects to the play. It is a section of The Tempest which well rounds out the play as a whole.             In Shakespeare’s time masques were written for performance before a king’s or nobles’s court; thus, they were given the name Court Masques. They provide an allegorical setting to celebrate feast days, harvests, betrothals and marriages. Although there is no evidence, it is believed that the masque in The Tempest was written especially for a performance of the play at the marriage celebration of King James’ daughter. Within the play itself, the masque is written in celebration of the betrothal and future marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda, and it provides an allegorical setting for the wedding.     ...

A revenge tragedy is a tragedy, as its name implies, in which the tragedy is brought about by the pursuit and accomplishment of revenge. It is blood asking for blood. The revenge tragedy was very popular during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, and it owed its popularity largely to the influence of Seneca, the ancient Roman dramatist. A typical Jacobean Revenge Tragedy contains the following conventions: - the play should be set into five acts as laid down by Seneca in his original rules of tragedy. There should obviously be a desire for revenge hence the term "revenge tragedy." The avenger is moved by a sense of sacred duty, and not out of any passion, greed or hatred for some personal injury. There should be murders within a Jacobean revenge tragedy. The narrative should involve complex plotting. The story should centre on characters of noble birth. There should be Italianate or Southern European settings. The narrative should incorporate ghosts, skulls and madness. L...

In Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he defines the concept of the repetition- compulsion principle. Camden expands on this concept in Compromise Formations: Current Directions in Psychoanalytic Criticism. “The repetition-compulsion principle has rich clinical implications, includingthe need to repeat traumatic experiences for the purpose of mastery. Repetitions may be creative or destructive, depending upon whether they result in working through or acting out conflicts” (166). In Hamlet this repetition-compulsion is first achieved through the murder of Polonius, then consequently, through the murder of Laertes. It is ironic that Hamlet replicates the traumatic experience of losing a father for Ophelia and Laertes. Also, it is ironic that the only way that Hamlet can kill Claudius is by confronting his own Shadow which takes the physical form and nature of Laertes who is also avenging his father’s murder in a violent battle with Hamlet. One of the most complex facets in Hamlet i...

The  pastoral elegy  is a poem about both death and idyllic rural life. Often, the pastoral elegy features shepherds. The genre is actually a subgroup of  pastoral poetry , as the elegy takes the pastoral elements and relates them to expressing grief at a loss. This form of poetry has several key features, including the invocation of the Muse, expression of the shepherd's, or poet's, grief, praise of the deceased, a tirade against death, a detailing of the effects of this specific death upon nature, and eventually, the poet's simultaneous acceptance of death's inevitability and hope for immortality. Additional features sometimes found within pastoral elegies include a procession of mourners, satirical digressions about different topics stemming from the death, and symbolism through flowers, refrains, and rhetorical questions.[1] The pastoral elegy is typically incredibly moving and in its most classic form, it concerns itself with simple, country figures. In ordinary ...

A  Pastoral Elegy is a song of grief in which the poet in the guise of a Shepherd mourns the death of some dear and near ones who are also presented as a Shepherd. As it is already stated, pastoral elegists mourn a subject by representing the mourner and the subject as shepherds in a pastoral setting. Representing all these conventions, Adonais is a Pastoral Elegy. It has been criticized on the ground that the expression of grief in it is not sincere, for one who sincerely mourns expresses his grief directly and does not run after metaphors or figurative expression (the dreams and fancies of Adonais as his mourners, to bring in the mountain shepherds, and to personify the power of nature may be good poetry but it is urbanely artificial) But as a matter of fact, Adonais is not an expression of personal sorrow. Shelley never claimed it to be so. It is a lament on the loss of a valuable life as ‘Lycidas’. Also, Keats and Shelley had never been intimate friend, and Shelley did not th...

Distance between two people does not separate them but their silence does. It is better to be slapped by a truth than kissed by a lie. Don’t be a beggar of love be a donor of love. Beauty is truth, truth beauty I.e., beautiful people are not always good but good people are always beautiful. It is very difficult to find a person who’ll love your soul not your body.