Literary Genre essays

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Discovering Personal Legend in The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

3 Pages 1225 Words
Originally published in 1988, The Alchemist was written by the world renown and best-selling author Paulo Coelho. Being an allegorical novel, the author writes a story about a young shepherd from Andalusia who is on a journey to the pyramids in Egypt. His goal is to acquire the treasure that he keeps having recurring dreams about. Throughout his journey, he...

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29: Critical Analysis

8 Pages 3629 Words
Introduction This paper deals with the “Sonnet XXIX”, one of the 154 Sonnets the well-known English poet, playwright and actor William Shakespeare has written. The aim of my paper is to examine in how far this particular Shakespearean Sonnet fits into the pattern of a ‘typical’ Shakespearean Sonnet. “Shakespeare's sonnets are synonymous with courtly romance, but in fact many are...

Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' and Rankine's Citizen: Comparative Analysis

4 Pages 1960 Words
The political representation in genre in both Keats' 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' and Rankine's Citizen collection are vastly different, with Rankine's poetry aiming to convey specific political messages to her readership on cultural issues such as sexism and racism. Keats' ode - and, indeed, the majority of his own poetry - is based on the Romantic poetic movement which...
Ode
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Critical Analysis of Billy Collins “Sonnet”

3 Pages 1590 Words
I'm not a big fan of poetry. I can enjoy reading poetry of Latvian writers from time to time and, but I’ve never been in to poetry. Of course, I have not read much poetry. But I got interested in Billy Collins poetry and in his style of writing. That’s why I chose to analyze exactly this poem. Moreover, I...
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Critical Analysis of Chaucer’s Legends of Good Women

4 Pages 1812 Words
Many of the criticisms of Chaucer’s Legends of Good Women stem from his style of writing – he presents himself as a reader and wonders if he should trust the authority of the text over his own experience. In the Prologue, The God of Love is presented as a literary critic who judges Chaucer’s previous work, condemns it, and assigns...

Re-reading Legend of Nandan: Millennial Perspective

6 Pages 2696 Words
Nandan is a legendary hero in Tamil literature, whose story is first mentioned in by one of the Saivite saints, Sundarar in the 8th century. His story has been sung by many poets down the ages. The slender skeletal story of Nandan is expanded and enhanced by Sekkizhar. According to the myth Nandan belongs to the lower caste of the...
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The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles: Critical Analysis of Odes

2 Pages 732 Words
With Power Comes Responsibility In the greek mythology play, The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles entails the story of Antigone, a daughter who rebels against Creon and his rules of the city in order to bring justice and glory to her brother. But through this journey, King Creon’s character develops from a cold hearted figure of authority, to a humbled and...

Historical Annotation Paper: The Legend of Robin Hood

2 Pages 1140 Words
The legend of Robin Hood has been around for centuries. This story of an outlaw hero, a generous criminal, the “Prince of Thieves,” is a popular story that has been told in many different ways throughout generations. This legend does not tell the story of a common criminal. The courageous, selfless Robin Hood steals from the rich and gives to...
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The Black Phone Analysis

6 Pages 2761 Words
“The Black Phone” by Joe Hill is a short horror story that was released in 2005 in the United Kingdom and was later released in the United States in October of 2007. Through the use of southern gothic, fantastic horror, and surreal horror, Joe Hill’s short story “The Black Phone,” warns young and fearless teens to be mindful that situations...
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Comparing Sonnets: Wyatt, Wroth, Sidney, Shakespeare

4 Pages 1646 Words
Love does not have a standard definition, love is not just a word, but so much more. The definition of love is defined by an audience’s familiarities with it, through experience, love is a changing entity. This essay will discuss what Arthur Marrotti meant by “love is not love” in Elizabethan sonnets (1982) in through the techniques used in Thomas...

Comparing Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" and Keats' "Ode on Grecian Urn"

5 Pages 2307 Words
The conflict between life and art mimics that of a double-edged sword. Art is made to imitate life, simultaneously enhancing it while being elevated by it. In contrast, art inspires life, and life is ameliorated through the performance of art. The binary contrasts of life and art are broadly explored within the literature of the nineteenth century - particularly in...
Ode
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The Notion of “Negative Capability” in J Keats’s Odes

2 Pages 716 Words
John Keats’s writing style is consistent of vivid, life-like imagery embodying many literal devices. But, what stands out is his theory of negative capability which plays a vital role in his odes. The crucial part of negative capability is not about being doubtful, hesitant, or about making confusing arguments. It is about encouraging compassion, understanding, and most importantly thinking outside...
Ode
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Comparative Analysis of Pope's The Rape of the Lock and Keats' Odes

4 Pages 1910 Words
Alexander Pope’s ‘The Rape Of the Lock’ and Keats’ poems ‘Ode To Psyche, Ode on Melancholy, Ode On A Grecian Urn. I will be looking into how the subject and theme of beauty is represented within each text and presented in each piece of text. Although each poet discusses beauty they both show two different perceptions and views of beauty,...

Informative Essay about an Utopia

5 Pages 2155 Words
Introduction Raphael Hythloday’s description of Utopia depicts a society whose people’s behaviors and natures cannot be considered abnormal. Most, if not all the actions can be regarded as within the realms of physical possibility. Yet, the real world remains distinct from Utopia with the latter being regarded as a perfect form of the former. This, however, raises the question as...

The Waste Land As a Poem of Breakdowns: Analytical Essay

5 Pages 2121 Words
The Waste Land is a poem of breakdowns, psychological breakdowns of marriages and relationships, breakdowns of poetry and language and evidently the entire world. The carnage of the first World War had laid waste to Europe and made a mockery of civilisation thus starting the evolution of modernism and new forms of expression. After the war, it was T.S Eliot...

Difference Between Myth and Legend

1 Page 617 Words
Everyone loves a good story, be it fiction or not. It is understandable when a storyteller has to employ some form of real-life experiences or imaginations to form an interesting tale, but there are others that are not based on experiences and imaginations. Such tales are the basis of the cultural and religious beliefs of a group of people. In...
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Ego Defense in Michonne in The Walking Dead Game

2 Pages 895 Words
Literature is a term to describe mainly written works and sometimes spoken or voiced materials. It was derived from the Latin word litaritura/litteratura which means “writing formed with letters”. Literature mostly refers to creative literary works, for example, poetry, drama, novel, short story, and songs. As our cultures and societies developed, there was a massive development in the forms of...

The History of Gothic Literature

3 Pages 1445 Words
The Gothic fiction, however, enjoyed its heyday from 1762 to 1820 and influenced and inspired the sensational writers of the late nineteenth century. Certain merits of the Gothic fiction have been recognised by the Freudian psychologists. Herbert Read in his book Surrealism remarks: “It is possible that Monk Lewis, Maturin and Mrs. Radcliffe should relatively to Scott, Dickens and Hardy...

History of Fantasy and Subgenres and Types of Fantasy in Literature

1 Page 462 Words
For many readers, literary fiction provides desperately needed escapism so they can endure the difficulties of everyday life. Even when conjured characters inhabit a recognizable world and speak to the human condition, fictional stories can pull readers out of their own heads. This effect is even more pronounced in the fantasy genre. Untethered from scientific and societal laws, and limited...
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“The Bean Trees” by Barbara Kingsolver Analysis

4 Pages 1757 Words
Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees is one of the most popular and urgent literary works nowadays. It touches upon burning issues of the modern society such as the conflict between ethical and legal, racism, adoption laws, homelessness, multiculturalism, kidnapping, depression suicide, the conflict of nature and nurture etc. We are going to analyze the importance of nature and nurture for...
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Narratives on the Evolution of Democracy

1 Page 573 Words
Democracy in the United States has been in a constant state of change. To this day, Democracy is still evolving to fit the times. New laws passed, old laws challenged or abolished, and ideas constantly being shared. Currently we get most of our current information about these changes from news media, but in the 19th century there were many writers...

Origin, Definition and History of The Witches and Witchcraft

4 Pages 1861 Words
A witch, in the most simple form, is a woman believed to have magic or supernatural abilities and that these powers are used for evil or nefarious purposes. Many people accused of being a witch were thought to be associated with or worshipping Satan himself. In addition to worshipping Satan as a holy figure, which was extremely against Christian belief,...

Courtly Love and Chivalry in the Later Middle Ages

12 Pages 5633 Words
My subject is courtly love, that strange doctrine of chivalric courtship that fixed the vocabulary and defined the experience of lovers in our culture from the latter Middle Ages until almost our own day. Some of its traces still survive -- or at least they do in the old Andy Hardy movies. if you are old enough to have seen...

Epitome of a Perfect Society

2 Pages 788 Words
Utopia is a satire that was written by Sir Thomas More. Utopia consisted of two parts: A book one and a book two. Book one was about a journey taken by Thomas More where he is traveling through cities and meets up with an old friend named Peter Giles, whom then introduces Thomas More to Raphael Hythloday. The three men...

Utopias and Dystopias in Literature

3 Pages 1294 Words
Utopia and dystopia are genres of hypothetical fiction that dive deep into social and political structures. Utopian literature visualizes a perfect society where everything is butterflies and rainbows. Sounds too good to be true? It is. In literature, utopias hardly ever last long but, instead, they turn into complete dystopias. And come on, dystopias are way more entertaining. Dystopian societies...

Epic of Sundiata': Supernatural in a Book

2 Pages 1091 Words
Upon first inspection, The Epic of Sundiata seems to be a fantastical tale of witches, super human strength, and a man who cannot be deterred from his destiny. While the epic may not contain the classical makings of reliable historical evidence, it is essential to delve deeper into the story so as to explore the many facets of medieval Malian...

Themes of Tragedy, Rebelliousness, Free Will in 'Antigone'

3 Pages 1139 Words
Despite Greek philosophy not having an accurate meaning of “free will”, it can be either considered good or bad. The act of having “free will” generally comes from what you think is the right thing to do. It is a will that allows us to choose what we feel is right based on how we interpret different ideas and the...

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