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Views From Sixteen: The Books That Impacted Me The Most Between Sixteen and Eighteen
This is a list of some of the books that have had the biggest impact on my thinking or were earth-shattering for me in some way. Coincidentally, these are all books I read at sixteen or seventeen while studying for my A-Levels (not my A-Level texts themselves) so maybe there’s just something about the books Continue reading
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Review: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Granta Books, 2023)
Lemoine said in a cool, clear voice ‘Do you have something you want to say?’ He could only be addressing Shelley. There was another lull. Mira stood in the dark astonished, mouth open, waiting for Shelley’s reply. ‘I’m guess I’m just a little worried that we might be doing this for different reasons,’ Shelley said Continue reading
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Review: The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press, 2022)
Lucrezia can see that they are nearing Santa Maria Novella; there isn’t much time. These are the last moments of her girlhood – with every passing second, her time with her family is ebbing away. Very soon, she will be married. The feasting, the dancing and the gaming have already taken place – the celebrations Continue reading
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Review: Vanya by Simon Stephens (2023)
I went to see a National Theatre Live screening of Simon Stephens’ Vanya a few days ago because Stephens’ production of the Chekhov classic was marketed as a “one-man adaptation which explores the complexities of human emotion”, which, as a description, was good enough for me. (What is drama if not an exploration of the Continue reading
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When Biblical Modesty isn’t Biblical: A Critique of the Evangelical Understanding of the Issue of Women’s Modesty
In the opening chapter of his treatise on modesty titled On the Apparel of Women, Tertullian (c. 160AD – 125) famously described women as “the devil’s gateway” and if you were to look through my journal entries about my own body between twenty-one and twenty-three, written during my first eighteen months in church as a Continue reading
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Review: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (first published by Roberts Brothers, 1868)
‘Is Beth the rosy one, who stays home a good deal, and sometimes goes out with a little basket?’ asked Laurie, with interest.‘Yes, that’s Beth; she’s my girl, and a regular good one she is, too.’‘The pretty one is Meg, and the curly-haired one Amy, I believe?’‘How did you find that out?Laurie coloured up, but Continue reading
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Hierarchy in Renaissance Drama: Epicoene and The Changeling
Ben Jonson’s Epicoene is a decidedly socially conservative play written and set in Renaissance London. As well as criticising lifelong singleness by ridiculing the life of his protagonist Morose, a misanthrope who attempts to marry only for the purpose of disinheriting his nephew, Jonson also advocates for male headship in romantic relationships through his censorious Continue reading
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Translation as Metamorphosis in Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower’s Versions of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
The primary meaning of the verb translate is ‘To convert or render (a word, a work, an author, a language, etc.) into another language’. Thus, a translation is often understood as a (usually completed) work resembling that from which it is translated, often with the only difference between source and translation being the language. However, Continue reading
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On Studying English Literature
Sometimes I wonder what people think English Literature as a discipline is. Not that I really need to wonder — people are usually very liberal in their communication of what they think it is you do, will go on to do, and the kind of person you are for having chosen to dedicate a handful Continue reading
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Art, Literature, and Christian Anti-Intellectualism
Outside of the snobbery of what constitutes a ‘real’ academic discipline, some Christians are skeptical about the arts (the literary and performing arts in particular) believing them to be secularised spaces that represent only the proliferation of anti-biblical worldviews. They therefore scoff at the futility of mind of those who choose to study them, or, Continue reading