It is a series of street protests that began in many universities in Paris but rapidly spread to incorporate a broad cross-section of French society. Some historians estimate that as many as 10 million people participated in the mass strikes over several weeks. Known by a variety of different epithets such as ‘the events of…
Ronald David Laing (1927–1989) was a British psychiatrist and a leading figure in the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s and 70s. He was born in Glasgow. Laing studied medicine at the University of Glasgow and served as a psychiatrist in the Royal Army Medical Corps, despite struggling with poor health. Following his military service, he…
Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) was a German sociologist and systems theorist. Luhmann is renowned for his attempt to develop a sociological model capable of accounting for every aspect of contemporary society. His work is enormously influential, particularly in Germany, where it rivals Jurgen Habermas’ dominance of the social sciences.
Luhmann was born in Luneberg in northern Germany.…
A dystopian novel is a subgenre of speculative fiction that portrays an oppressive and dehumanising society in the near or distant future. These novels often explore themes of totalitarianism, social control, technology, and the potential consequences of human actions. They contrast sharply with the ideals of a utopian society, highlighting the negative aspects of human…
“The Idiot Boy ” is a poem by William Wordsworth, first published in Lyrical Ballads (1798). This poem is mainly about the idiot son of a poor countrywoman, Betty Foy. Betty’s friend and neighbor, Susan Galen, seems to be gravely ill and thus is in great need of a doctor. Betty’s husband, however, is not at…
Yarrow Unvisited, along with Yarrow Visited, is one of the most popular and successful poems of William Wordsworth. It is, of course, not given a very high place among Wordsworthian great poems by a good many critics. Nevertheless, Yarrow Unvisited is a fine and delightful poem. It brings out many of the characteristic marks of Wordsworth as…
‘Lucy poems’ refer to a group of five poems by William Wordsworth, most of which were written in Germany in the exceptionally cold winter of 1798-9. This group includes ‘She dwelt among the untrodden ways’, ‘Strange fits of passion have I known’, ‘A slumber did my spirit seal’, ‘Three years she grew in sun and…
Parnassus Plays is the name given to a group of three satiric comedies produced between 1598 and 1602 by students of St John’s College, Cambridge. It consists of The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, The Return from Parnassus, and The Return from Parnassus Or the Scourage of Simony. The second and third plays are sometimes referred to as Part One and Part…
Poem in October
It was my thirtieth year to heaven
Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood
And the mussel pooled and the heron
Priested shore
The morning beckon
With water praying and call of seagull and rook
And the knock of sailing boats on the net webbed wall
Myself to set foot
That second
In the still sleeping town and set forth.
My…
D.G. Rossetti's poem The Blessed Damozel depicts the intense yearning of two young lovers for each other. They were separated by death. The lady was dead and taken to heaven. But the man lived on the earth below. From heaven, the lady, however, pined for her earthly lover. The young lady stood, leaning on the…