What is the difference between story and plot? What is the difference between plot summary and plot interpretation? How do you analyze the relationship between the main plot and a subplot? What are the purposes of literary elements and literary techniques? What are the writer’s literary devices and reader’s literary devices? How do you recognize and appreciate ways in which writer use language, structure and style to achieve his intended effects on the reader? How do you shift from mere appreciation of a literary text to critical literary appreciation? How do you engage in literary analysis & what is the purpose? What is the difference between topic and theme and how do you arrive at the theme? How do you compare the theme and the moral message? How do you develop an interpretation of a work of literature (drama, poetry and prose) and what is the purpose? How do you present critical appreciations or your individual responses to literary texts composed in different forms and in different periods and cultures? How do you know your individual response is valid? What are the differences between Critical Literary Appreciation, Literary Criticism, and Literary Theory? Why should there be a Literary theory at all?
Ancient Literary Criticism by Casper C. de Jonge Throughout Antiquity, Greeks and Romans interpreted, analyzed, and evaluated the texts of poets and prose writers. They formulated ideas about the nature of poetry, its effects, and its function in society. They also developed theories on the effective composition of prose texts, and they commented on the style of orators, historians, and philosophers. […]
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Literary Criticism: Aristotle onwards by bunpeiris I bumped into a pile of second-hand books causing one of the books to be swept off the pile. It was a dusty, discoloured & dog-eared book titled “Classical criticism“. I wasn’t interested in literary criticism at all then. I was too young to digest the serious stuff; furthermore I felt falling short of the […]
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Rise of English 1: Liberal Humanism Written by bunpeiris Rise of English 1: Liberal Humanism is the first article of a series of articles titled “Rise of English“. It has dual purposes: to enlighten the readers of the value of English language in the global stage; to bring in the Literature in English closer to your sense of humanity. A Pan […]
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Antigone by Sophocles bunpeiris Like Hamlet, Joan of Arc, Galileo and Sir Thomas More, Antigone inspires us with her courage, fortitude and impenetrable strength of conscience. She stands against the monolith and brings her society to a reckoning it sorely needs. What’s Antigone Antigone [c. 429 B.C], the most celebrated drama in Greek literature & one of the most consistently popular plays […]
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Odyssey Odyssey: No task is a bridge too far Odyssey [1190 BC] by Homer the immortal Greek poet, one of the twin sequels to the great epic poem of Iliad [the other being Aeneid by Virgil], a magnificent diamond of heavenly radiance that dazzles forever in the cosmicscape of Western Literature, wouldn’t be constrained by a very ordinary human-invented concept called regular […]
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Thomas Hardy by J. B. Bullen*1 [gleanings:literary biographies,universality-of-themes-in-fiction] The tragedies of Thomas Hardy‘s novels are indeed dark, but that darkness is a foil to the rightness and optimism of life. As Thomas Hardy recognised, pleasure, joy and satisfaction are emotions understood only in terms of their opposite, and much of the energy in his writing comes from the stress between […]
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Literary Periods & Movements Tracing the evolution of literature through time scholars often group works from a certain timeframe together and label it as a period or movement. The movements or periods listed here where not mutually exclusive in their timeframes, they overlap, liberally. In some cases a single author can even be claimed by more than one movement. Classifing […]
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B.A. in English from University of London B. A. in English from University of London External Programmes Are you a voracious reader of works of literature? Do you have a “Sense of English Language” coupled with a “Bent on Literarture”? Would you love to become a teacher of literature? Would you love to engage your learners in discussions instead of one man […]
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