Literary Ocean

Ode to the West Wind: Activities of the West Wind by P.B. Shelley

P.B.Shelley’s celebrated ode titled Ode to the West Wind is an invocation to the spirit of the wild and uncontrollable west wind. He extols this spirit of the west wind in its two-fold capacity as a destroyer and preserver. The poet celebrates here the uncontrollable power of the west wind. He describes its activities on the…

17 hours ago0Comments BySupriya Maity

Essay

Readerly and Writerly Text: Roland Barthes’ Theory Explained

The terms ‘readerly/writerly’ text are devised by Roland Barthes (1915-80), the French critic, to make a distinction between two basic kinds of text: the lisible (‘readerly’) and the scriptible (‘writerly’). He expounds on this in his book S/Z (1970). By a ‘readerly’ text he means a book (a novel, say) to which a reader’s response is more or…

2 days ago0Comments BySupriya Maity

Author

Leo Strauss (1899–1973): Biography, Political Philosophy and Works

Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was a German-born Jewish-American political philosopher. He is often referred to as the “father” of neoconservative philosophy. In 1921, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg under the guidance of Ernst Cassirer. He also took classes at Freiburg, where he was taught by Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl. He was involved…

3 days ago0Comments BySupriya Maity

Author

Jeremy Collier: Biography, Works and A Short View (1698)

Jeremy Collier(1650-1726) was an English theatre critic, clergyman, and theologian. He was born in Cambridgeshire. He was educated at Caius College, University of Cambridge, receiving a BA (1673) and MA (1676). He was a supporter of James II. He refused, as a nonjuror, to swear the oath to William III and Mary II and was…

4 days ago0Comments BySupriya Maity

Short Stories

“He took out his handkerchief and passed it inside his collar. For the life of him he could not remember.” Explain it from “The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield

He took out his handkerchief and passed it inside his collar. For the life of him he could not remember. This passage forms the concluding sentence of Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Fly. This comment is made in connection with the mental state of the boss after the death of the fly. The author particularly signifies…

5 days ago0Comments BySupriya Maity

Literary Terms

Inoperative Community by Jean-Luc Nancy: Definition and Theory

The French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy proposed the theory of ‘inoperative community’, or ‘communauté désoeuvrée’, which rejects the idea that community can be created through work. By inoperative (‘désoeuvrée’), Nancy does not mean dysfunctional or failing, but rather a spontaneous or ‘unworked’ inclination to come together that has no object or purpose other than itself. The…

September 10, 20260Comments BySupriya Maity

Literary Terms

Paragone: Definition, Features and Examples in Literature

Paragone is an Italian word that means ‘comparison’. It is a contention between the arts, usually spoken by representative practitioners, to determine supremacy. The most typical paragone pits poetry and painting against each other, with the ultimate conclusion that each has an indisputable excellence and supremacy which informs the excellence and supremacy of the other (hence…

September 9, 20260Comments BySupriya Maity

Plays

Symbolic Significance of Python in Tughlaq by Girish Karnad

The Python symbol in scene eight of Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq indicates Tughlaq’s utter barbarity and inhumanity. The young sentry has seen a strange and frightening secret passage in Daulatabad fort. The old sentry says—”Yes it’s a long passage, a big passage, coiled like an enormous hollow python inside the belly of the fort.” They shall be far…

September 8, 20260Comments BySupriya Maity

Literary Terms

Lyric Poetry: Definition, Characteristics and Examples

Definition The lyric is the commonest kind of poetry of self-expression. Man has always liked to pour out his intensely felt feelings and emotions, and hence the lyric is among the earliest forms of poetry to be written in the literary history of any people. When moved by some intense emotion, love, hatred, joy, sorrow,…

September 7, 20260Comments BySupriya Maity

Plays

The Castle of Perseverance: Short Summary

The Castle of Perseverance is a 15th-century morality play of 3649 lines. The play describes the whole ontology of man, opening before his birth and ending after his death and his judgment before the throne of God. The protagonist is Humanum Genus, or Man. Mankind’s traditional three enemies, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil,…

September 6, 20260Comments BySupriya Maity