Literature Essays (Examples)

Literature as Educational Philosophy

classroom, regardless of the age of the learner, we realize that there are multiple learning styles and responses to divergent stimuli. The modern pedagogical environment is faced with a number of challenges that are directly related to learning. In fact, as an educational pendulum swings, we find any number of methods that are thought to be new and innovative; yet it is sometimes the tried and true methods that are more efficacious. For instance, peer-to-peer learning improves cognitive and higher level questioning, humor bolsters biological reactions to learning, and changing the learning environment improves cognition and attention span (Harlin, 2008).

Howard Gardner, for one, has written extensively about the idea of multiple intelligences in learning. this theory holds that traditionally defined intelligence does not really describe the actual innate intelligence of the person. For instance, a child may learn mathematical forumulas quite easily, but that does not mean they are more intelligent that someone who can create stories and has an active immagination. The theory is controversial, and has yet to be completely verified. Yet, it makes logical sense that differing styles of retention and excellence should be used as at least a partial measure of (Gardner, 2006; Critiques of…… [Read More]

Literature of Latin America and the Caribbean

OCTAVIO PAZ "TRANSPLANTED LANGUAGES"

Octavio Paz's 1990 Nobel Lecture accentuated the issue of transplanted languages and the literature that emerged in a transplanted culture. Latin-American and Caribbean literature is good example of the use of transplanted languages since the influence of European and American cultures is quite pronounced. When people migrate from one place to another or are forced to endure foreign rule, the impact on the language is usually the most marked. Words and concepts are borrowed from other languages and cultures, incorporated in native languages and from this fusion, emerges a language which lacks the beauty and grandeur of the original but is well-understood and even widely accepted by the natives influenced by transplantation. This is what Octavio Paz was referring to when he spoke of transplanted languages and its use in Latin American literature.

Languages are born and grow from the native soil, nourished by a common history. The European languages were rooted out from their native soil and their own tradition, and then planted in an unknown and unnamed world: they took root in the new lands and, as they grew within the societies of America, they were transformed. They are the same plant yet also…… [Read More]

Literature and Codes of Behavior in the Middle Ages

courtly love your purchase.

COURTLY LOVE AND MIDDLE AGES LITERATURE

In this paper, we shall study the tradition of Courtly love in the Middle Ages as reflected by literary works produced in that period. The paper will first focus on what the exact nature of Courtly Love, then proceed to briefly discuss its development and finally take into account the literary works of Middle Ages that contained elements of this tradition.

Courtly love refers to romance in chivalric tradition that emerged during the first Millennium and endured throughout the medieval period. Andreas Capellanus, in his book, The Art of Courtly Love, defines courtly loved as ". . . A certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love's precepts in the other's embrace." This love had some distinct features as it usually involved a pure, intense feeling of devotion for some unattainable beloved. Women played the dominant role in courtly love equation as men were supposed to remain steadfastly devoted to the woman regardless of her own…… [Read More]

Literature and Sexuality

Abbe Prevost's tale of Manon Lescaut performs several different functions at once. It is in part a cautionary story. It is in part a push to create a fully modern sensibility in French literature. It is in part an exploration of the trope of Romanticism. And in all of these things it is partly a story about the New World, for to Prevost, as to other Europeans of his time, the New World was a place in which new rules could be written for human behavior. The New World was a metaphor for new ways of looking at what it meant to be human - and not usually complementary ways. This paper examines some of the ways that Prevost used the New World in metaphorical and symbolic ways in Manon Lescaut.

Although Prevost was in fact a very productive writer during his lifetime, he is now remembered almost entirely for the 1731 work Manon Lescaut - the full title of which is the "Story of the Chevalier of Grieux and of Manon Lescaut" ("Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut").

The work was first published as the final chapter of a seven-volume serial novel titled "Memories and Adventures…… [Read More]

Literature Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston

Zora Hurston

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

Zora Hurston's 'Their Eyes were watching God' occupies an important place in African-American literature on account of that fact that it is not part of the protest literature that emerged during Harlem Renaissance. The novel revolves around a powerful belief: a person's failure is caused more by his thinking than his sex or color. In other words, Hurston argues that when man refuses to strive for the satisfaction of his inner desires, he blames external forces for his failure. Such a person finds a convenient excuse in the shape of sex or color when he fails to live his life the way he wanted. Hurston firmly maintains that black race suffered immensely even after emancipation because it refused to let go of its past and the fact that they had been subjugated for a long time.

Throughout the novel, we find Hurston keenly observing the strained relationship between Nanny and Janie to accentuate the generational differences. Her primary purpose was to highlight the reasons behind the problems faced by the black race and unlike other writers; she did not blame color or race for this. For this reason, she was attacked vehemently by…… [Read More]

Literature Russian

Leo Tolstoy

During Leo Tolstoy's lifetime (1828-1910), Russia and Europe went through a number of political and intellectual changes. Writing evolved from Romanticism to Realism during the period. As the term "realism" implies the realistic novelists like Tolstoy focused on observation and attention to detail. In Russia the czars retained absolute power by preventing the political and social changes that the Western European countries were experiencing. Intellectuals including Tolstoy led the effort toward reform. The reform efforts met with considerable resistance until the twentieth century. For the writers, retention of power by the czars meant repression of writing. This repression had a severe impact on the realistic writers like Tolstoy who presented a true picture of political and social conditions. Nicholas I, who ruled until 1855, was particularly repressive. In spite of his conservatism, Russian literature experienced a tremendous upsurge during his reign and that of this son, Alexander II. In addition to Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky contributed significantly to a literary "golden age" in Russia. In his later years, his religious conversion played an all-encompassing role.

In the early years of Tolstoy's writing, czar Nicholas I ruled Russia. He maintained a tight grip on power. He tolerated…… [Read More]

Literature Beowulf

Beowulf: A Classic Medieval Archetypal Leader

Beowulf is one of the earliest epic poems. It tells a classic tale of a great hero. The style of the epic reflects a much earlier writing style found in the Viking sagas. Yet the story is that of a Danish King. Literature and art are the keys to understanding society. Art is not random, but rather is a product of the society in which it lives. Beowulf is a hero in the society that produced him. It is not known it Beowulf is an exaggeration of a real king, or if he is simply a composite of the values that the society held dear. We learn much about Beowulf through this epic. Through the following research we will examine this idea more carefully. Through examination of other medieval works, a composite will be created of medieval society expected of their leaders. It will support the thesis that Beowulf is a composite of the desirable traits that a medieval leader should possess.

In the last four lines of the poem we learn of four virtues that the men use to describe Beowulf. They call him, "Mild in his mien, Most gentle of men, Kindest…… [Read More]

Literature Frankenstein

Gothic novel era is widely accepted as the years from 1764 to 1834. The Gothic genre has remained "an elusive minor literary upheaval that has had eminence influenced on most genres today" (Summer 164). The Gothic novel includes magic and mystery; horrors abound, while ghosts, castles, and charnel houses take part in adding to the mood of terror. The true Gothic novel creates an "atmosphere of brooding and unknown terror" (Holman). In addition, Gothic fiction is usually characterized by "a chronic sense of apprehension" (Tracy 1981). "Although all Gothic fiction is tragedy, its key component is the edifice [or building].... Gothic fiction usually takes place in an ancient castle or abbey whose owner discovers his noble line is doomed, usually because some past misdemeanor has caused the family to be cursed" (Ashley 147).

Walter Scott said Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, is a different kind of Gothic novel, or a "philosophical gothic" adding that "the laws of nature are represented as altered... To show the probable effect which the supposed miracles would produce on those who witnessed them" (Walter 613-20). In addition, "all these monstrous concepts are the consequences of the wild and irregular theories of the age" (Edinburgh Magazine). Although the…… [Read More]

Literature and Society

American Cultural Values: Whitman and Otsuka

America has been criticized and praised as having one of the most individualistic systems of cultural values in the world, rather than any cohesive system of national ethics. This is partly the result of America's status as a nation of immigrants. However, merely because America is an individualistic nation, and made up of many peoples and ways of life does not mean that the American government and populace has not acted in a racially exclusive and oppressive manner, at times, such as the case of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The poet Walt Whitman embodies the individualistic, idealized system of American values in his verse, although he oversaw the tragic consequences of American racism in his own lifetime, in the form of the civil war. When but when Whitman the poet wrote that he sang of himself, he not only celebrated his own individual identity, shorn of any specific references to his lineage or to the religious tradition he comes from, but he celebrated the individualism and plurality of America. Whitman expressed himself in long, winding stretches of free verse that seemed to speak against anything that is of the formulaic…… [Read More]

Literature Wuthering Heights and Effie Briest

judge books by covers.

But it is something entirely different to job a story by its form, for the way in which an author chooses to frame a story is as important to our understanding of it as the content of the story itself - something that is becomes clear to us when we examine books that tell very different stories shaped by very different forms. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights could not have conveyed either the passion or the essential, existential solitude of the characters had it not been written as an amalgam of first-person narratives wrapped in a Romantic form. Likewise, Theodor Fontane's highly realistic Effi Briest would also have been a very different novel had it been written - for example - as a Romantic work. This paper examines the ways in which form and content affect each other in these two works to the extent that they become essentially indistinguishable from each other.

Wuthering Heights is an essential Romantic work, and we cannot understand the skill with which Bronte married form to content within it if we do not ourselves read it within the broader context of the Romantic novel, a form concerned not solely (and often…… [Read More]

Literature Australia

British and Australian characters based on stereotypes. Discuss how the characters are different.

Review the book and relevant literature on the book and the author.

Nevil Shute's characters epitomize the British and Australian stereotypes but are also characters of depth with moral values.

Town Like Alice, (Alice) written in 1950 is often categorized as one of Nevil Shute's "anti-war" novels and is part of a set of novels that was not produced sequentially.

During the 1950s, Shute's writing took a drastic turn and was an affirmation in support of the democratic spirit of the "plain and simple" people, a description that fit many of his characters. Shute had strong ideas about how society should be organized and maintains a credo that is evident in his writing

Town Like Alice is the story of two people who meet during WWII. Jean Paget, who is an Englishwoman and Joe Harmon, an Australian POW. Shute wrote about what he called his "plain and simple" folks; people who recognize their possibilities and seize opportunities but also know and accept the realities of life. They compromise a progressive society where each person rises to the occasion and becomes the best they can be while accepting…… [Read More]

Literature House of Mirth

House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton. Specifically, it will look at the theme of success in the novel, and how a success-oriented society can destroy the weak and untrained.

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH"

Lily Bart begins her tumble into poverty from the very beginning of the book, because she does not conform to society, and she cannot become a success in the world of business, because she does not even understand what success is. From the very start of the novel, success is a strong and prevalent theme, and it is clear Lily is not going to be a success, when she does not even understand the concept. "Later he [Selden] inquires: 'Is there any final test of genius but success?' Lily replies: 'Success?' She hesitated. 'Why, to get as much as one can out of life I suppose. It's a relative quality after all. Isn't that your idea of it?'" (Underwood 365).

The only success Lily understands is the success society puts on a well-dressed woman. "The clothes are the background, the frame, if you like: they don't make success, but they are a part of it. Who wants a dingy woman? We are expected to be pretty and…… [Read More]

Literature Aspects of Shakespearean Comedy Taming of the Shrew

Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare. Specifically, it will show how the play demonstrates the comedic aspect of thematic concern with love and beauty. In Shakespearean Comedy, a shallow, often narcissistic type of love at the start is not only grounded too heavily in "beauty" of the conventional sort, but also leads to a mistaken notion of what beauty really is.

LOVE AND BEAUTY IN "TAMING OF THE SHREW"

Taming of the Shrew" is a classic Shakespearean comedy in every sense. It is not only funny and amusing for the audience; it contains themes they can connect with, basic themes such as love and beauty. Early in the play, Katherine appears anything but beautiful, for she is sharp-tongued and disagreeable, arguing with anyone who might show the slightest interest in her, including the newly arrived Petruchio.

Petruchio: Come, come, you wasp, i' faith you are too angry. Katherine: If I be waspish, best beware my sting. Petruchio: My remedy is then to pluck it out. Katherine: Ay, if the fool could find where it lies. Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail. Katherine: In his tongue. Petruchio: Whose tongue? Katherine: Yours, if…… [Read More]

Literature Theory and Gothic Fiction

Gothic Literature

Art, as defined by Plato in his paradigmatic work The Republic, serves both as a definition qua definition - a way of telling us what art should be in and of itself - and as an exemplar of other aspects of society. Plato was fundamentally concerned with the relationship between the world and art (including all media of art) because he argued passionately that the true purpose of literature was a mimetic one. Art should, in other worlds, imitate life in all things and as closely as possible. (Aristotle, one of Plato's students, would extend this idea of Plato's even farther.) This paper examines how Plato's understanding of the form and function of art can help us to situate the epistemological stance of Gothic Victorian literature - a set of literary endeavors that was also deeply committed to the mimetic, although not precisely in the way that Plato outlined.

We should begin by laying out, albeit in abbreviated form, Plato's understanding of artistic mimesis. For Plato, deviations from mimesis in artworks were to be considered to be flaws in the work of art. This to us might seem to be a very limited definition of the range of…… [Read More]

Literature Dry Needling

Dry Needling

Cover letter

Department of Science

Attachment:

Over time, dry needling has turned out to be a well-liked therapy method in manual physical rehabilitation (Dommerholt et al., 2006). Physiotherapists as well as other healthcare service providers in numerous nations utilize dry needling within the clinical therapy of individuals with myofascial discomfort and trigger points. Within the U.S.A., roughly 20 states and also the District of Columbia have authorized dry needling by physiotherapists, that is an impressive improve ever since 2004, when only 4 states authorized dry needling (Dommerholt, 2004). During 2009, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Manual Physiotherapists implemented a position proclamation that dry needling is actually in the capacity of manual physical rehabilitation. The benefits of dry needling happen to be significantly reported (Dommerholt and Gerwin, 2010) and consist of an instant decrease in local, known, as well as prevalent discomfort (Hsieh et al., 2007), recovery of variety of movement as well as muscle activation designs (Lucas et al., 2004) along with a normalization of the instant chemical environment associated with active myofascial trigger factors (Shah et al., 2003). Dry needling may decrease peripheral as well as central sensitization (Affaitati et al., 2011). Famous answers of myofascial discomfort…… [Read More]

Literature and Culture of the English Renaissance

Chastity in Renaissance Literature and Political Power

Chastity was a concept that was promoted throughout Renaissance society by the church and those in political power. Chastity was promoted not only as a virtue and measure of the worthiness of a woman at the time of her marriage, it was also utilized as a means to repress women and their ability to gain their own power in society. However, in some ways, it served as a route to power for women as well. Although chastity was promoted for both men and women by the church, in reality it was not applied equally. Men were expected to have extramarital affairs, while women were expected to may remain faithful throughout her marriage and to place all of her efforts on raising children in taking care of the home. This research will explore the ideal of chastity and political power among both the genders in Renaissance society as embodied and the character Britomart in Spenser's "Fairie Queen."

An Exploration of the symbolism of Britomart

Britomart does not appear in any significant role until Volume III. The focus of volume III begins with the tale of Britomart and her actions. However, when one examines Britomart…… [Read More]

Literature on the Social and Psychological Use of Storytelling

Storytelling Review of Literature

For hundreds of years, stories have been used to teach children about morality and ethics. Indeed, many of the same myths, legends and fairy tales have been handed down from generation to generation, remaining largely intact.

However, these myths also contain hidden meanings that illuminate the cultural or historical aspects of their origin.

The first part of this paper studies the literature examining hidden meanings, cultural norms and morals that are embedded in myths and fairy tales.

The second part of the paper looks at how these meanings and cultural norms get imbued and reproduced in the minds of their audience - primarily children.

Aside from serving as a vehicle for reproducing cultural norms, this paper looks at the psychological and social uses of storytelling. In the third part, this paper looks at how psychologists like Bruno Bettelheim maintain that storytelling can serve a therapeutic value for the individual. Finally, the paper studies literature concerning how myths also serve an ideological purpose and, through critical appropriation, how these stories could also have a subversive value.

Cultural Meanings

Theoretical Studies

Since this paper examines the transmission of cultural norms through stories, it becomes necessary to define what…… [Read More]

Literature Search

Managing Diversity

Diversity Management -- Literature Search

The following articles provide an overview of diversity in the workplace, specifically within teams and managerial groups. With respect to team effectiveness, these articles address how various conceptualizations of diversity can impact team effectiveness. Overall, many of the articles point to mixed results, with some studies finding positive effects on team effectiveness and others finding negative outcomes. Other articles therefore discuss the best ways of managing diversity so that the best possible outcomes can be achieved while minimizing the potential negative outcomes of diversity in management teams. With respect to team leadership, one article discusses how diversity within upper management can lead to positive outcomes in some respects, but also lead to the development of social subgroups that can lead to division within the upper management teams which can inhibit a company's ability to move into new geographic areas.

Bunderson, J.S. & Sutcliffe, K.M. (2002). Comparing alternative conceptualizations of functional diversity in management teams: process and performance effects. The Academy of Management Journal, 45(5), pp. 875-893.

This article examined two different conceptualizations of diversity and their consequent links to process and performance effects on management teams. Specifically, the article examined functional diversity in…… [Read More]

Literature Australia Literature

Australian Literature: An Anthology of Writing From the Land Down Under, by Phyllis Edelson. Specifically, it will contain an analysis of pages 1-52, "What is the Australian's view of the Bush?"

AUSTRALIA'S VIEW OF THE BUSH

Australian's love the bush. They hate it; they suffer when they live there. It is dangerous, deadly, and always dramatic, but they love the bush. The bush makes them tough, especially the women. They have to make due while their husbands are gone, and so they learn how to fight bush fires, have their babies on their own, and battle deadly diseases miles from their nearest neighbor. "She put on an old pair of her husband's trousers and beat out the flames with a green bough, till great drops of sooty perspiration stood out on her forehead and ran in streaks down her blackened arms" (Lawson and Edelson 7).

Of course, the stories in this section clearly recognize the bush is a dangerous and deadly place, and some women cannot conform to its harsh borders, and come to hate it as much as most people love it. "She had begun to hate the wind, and the distance, and the road, because her importance tended…… [Read More]

Literature Theory

Plato, Marx, And Critical Thought

David Richter's book is absolutely indispensable, as it is one of the few anthologies willing to acknowledge the existence of and include well-chosen examples from the long history of critical thought and how it helps us understand what we read, why we read, and what we value.

The greatest strength of Richter's work is that it simply starts at the beginning of classical literature and moves forward until about the mid-19th century, charting a course through what is aptly termed "the critical tradition." This movement provides a broad context in which one can more usefully engage contemporary thinkers. Present-day debates over representation, for example, and the dangers thereof, weigh a great deal more when one is familiar with the long history that underpins this debate, from Aristotle to Horace, Plato to Marx

The critical tradition in Richter is shaped in such a way to choose the contemporary essays well. They're selected and organized in such a way as to give a sense of a debate taking shape. This not only helps the readings speak to each other more directly, but it also forces the reader to keep in mind that the critical tradition is never…… [Read More]

Literature of North America

North American Literature of the 20th Century: A Literature of Alienation

North American literature of the twentieth century began as a predominantly white male-dominated literature, on the heels of 19th century romantic literary expression, such as within the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane, and others. Similarly, in the early decades of the 20th century, American literature was dominated by the likes of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Dreiser, and other white male authors, whose works (understandably) reflected their own experiences and world views. In the latter half of the 20th century, however, subsequent to World War II, more diverse voices began to appear within North American literature. By the time authors like Maxine Hong Kingston; Toni Morrison; James Baldwin and others came on the scene, diverse literary viewpoints were beginning to be seen as integral to the American literary cannon. In my opinion, many North American writers of the 20th century were predominantly interested in the theme of alienation, which is often inherent in the cultural stereotypes written about by authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin. In this essay, I will explore how works by these three…… [Read More]

Literature as Psychology

Psychology and Literature

Both psychology and literature explore how people interact with each other. Both psychology and literature explore how prior events affect what follows. Both psychology and literature look at how a person grows, develops and changes over time. However, psychology looks at how events affect what people do and how they act in very precise ways, while literature fictionalizes and supposes what an imaginary person might do. Psychology looks at growth and development based on real cases studied scientifically while literature uses imagination go suppose what people might do as they develop. Psychology looks at how people react in given situations in a scientific way, while literature looks at it in terms of how the events drive a story forward.

Examples of how social-psychological issues are portrayed in literature can be seen, for instance, in the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, such as in "The Cask of Amontillado," where the protagonist wreaks vengeance on a friend for imagined slights. It might be considered…… [Read More]

Literature More Specifically Mythology

Greek Hero Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey and the Northern Hero Beowulf in the saga BeoWulf, discussing how either can be heroes and arguing in some ways that it is more than deeds that marks a hero, but also the way in which they behave and relate to others. Bibliography cites 2 sources.

Beowulf and Odysseus: the Most Unlikely of Heroes

From two different cultures come two of the most famous stories ever to be told, one comes from the enlightened eras of classical Greece and concerns that most turbulent time faced by one of Greece's many heroes Odysseus, the story is "The Odyssey" the story of a man's struggle to return home after the battle of Troy, as he fights the will of the many Olympian Gods, witches, and sirens to seek the beloved embrace of his wife and the love of his son.

Yet over a thousand years later another epic again told in the traditional style of the bard was born, this time from the North the story of the Anglo-Saxon hero Beowulf and his fight to save the people of Thane from the evil Bog Monster Grendel and his Mother the hag, further more the saga of…… [Read More]

Literature Drama

records court transcripts from "The Trials of Oscar Wilde," when the opposing council at the trial asks the defendant, Oscar Wilde, if he kissed one of the boys whom Wilde was supposed to have engaged in homosexual practices, Wilde appears unfazed. When asked if he kissed the boy, Wilde, with customary wit, responded that he did not, because "he was a very ugly boy." This kind of exchange forces the reader to ask the question not so much why Wilde was found guilty of gross indecency, but why Wilde ever believed he could be found innocent of the love that "dare not speak its name." (Longman Anthology 2125)

Throughout both of his trials, Wilde adopts a kind of insouciant, provocative pose that seems, to the modern eyes, to be a 'typical' portrait of a flamboyant male homosexual. Because Oscar Wilde's artistic medium has become synonymous with such a posture it is difficult to re-read history with open eyes. However, the answer as to why Wilde thought he could 'get away with it,' would seem to be found, not so much in the actual, textual evidence of either the trials or Wilde's later works during and after his imprisonment. Rather it…… [Read More]

Literature Claude Monet

art is the lifeblood of a culture and the most entertaining form of expression, paintings are the key to the discipline of art. With the advancement of paintings, their techniques and the shifting trend all combines to determine the direction of a nation's culture. Like all other fields, history has witnessed revolutionary amendments in the field of art specifically in terms of paintings and various approaches. Claude Monet, the French Impressionist painter (1840-1926) is the pioneer of the revolutionary movement impressionism in the field of art as far as paintings are concerned. This research paper introduces this renowned painter of the 19th century and discusses his life history as well as one of his works in detail.

Literature: Claude Monet

Introduction

Claude Monet was certainly an innate artist who, with the help of his brilliant painting skills later brought a revolution in the related field.

Overview of Claude Monet

Since childhood he displayed the geniuses of an artist when he produced some of his marvelous caricatures and supplied to an art store at the age of sixteen (Monet French). This is where he met Boudin who saw in him the germs of an emerging artist and convinced Monet to step…… [Read More]

Literature and History

tomorrow / Bright before us / Like a flame. (Alain Locke, "Enter the New Negro," 1925)

From the 1920's Alain Leroy Locke has been known as a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Through his writings, his actions and his education, Locke worked to educate not only White America, but also the Negro, about the beauty of the Negro heritage. He emphasized the idea that no single culture is more important than another. Yet it was also important to give sufficient attention to one's own culture and its beauty. This was Locke's philosophy of cultural pluralism.

The White heritage has enjoyed prominence for a large part of American history. During the colonization period, the Whites have emphasized their own superiority while at the same time ensuring that people of other ethnic heritages knew in no uncertain terms their own inferiority. This gave rise to a nearly monocultural America, where all other cultures were oppressed to the point of annihilation. Locke with many of his contemporaries worked to reestablish cultural pluralism through literature, politics and art. Particularly Locke used culture as a weapon to fight against the annihilation of the Black culture. His aim was to educate Americans, bringing home to…… [Read More]

Literature Poetry

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) wrote his 1913 poem "We Wear the Mask" in open defiance of the commonly accepted fallacy of his day that African-Americans were happy in the subservient roles they were forced to assume in the face of white racism. Dunbar, through the use of irony, through inverting the positive connotations of smiling, and through the religious rhetorical tropes of exclamation and crying out to God, conveys the cognitive dissonance between the false face African-Americans were forced to portray to earn a living in white society.

The title of Dunbar's and first lines of the poem may at first suggest a mask that an actor or a performer wears. "We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our checks and shades our eyes." (Lines 1-2) However, the next lines of the poem suggest that the nature of the mask that is worn is far more complex. The poem strikes a contrast between the exposed face and the bleeding hearts within the smiling individuals. Note how Dunbar does not speak only for himself in the poem, but for his entire race of people. He states authoritatively that he is revealing to whites what not only what…… [Read More]

Literature Shakespeare

Measure for Measure," and "As You Like it," by Shakespeare. Specifically, it will explain how Shakespeare developed the three themes of love, the stages of human life, and the city vs. The country in these two plays.

THEMES IN TWO PLAYS

Love is a common theme in many of Shakespeare's plays, and these two are no exception. "As You Like It" is a romantic comedy filled with love and romance, and Shakespeare seems to be saying that love is not always courtly and refined, that it can be bawdy, and bring happiness to everyone involved. In fact, at the play's end, Rosalind has shown that love is really a source of absolute happiness, because she has successfully arranged four happy marriages and made sure the government will be more just. In fact, she says at the end of the play, "My way is to conjure you and I begin with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of the play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women... that between you and the women the play may please" (Shakespeare, V, iv).…… [Read More]

Value of Literature Must Apply

With the link to the Bible, the story "…resonates with the richness of distant antecedents" and it no longer is "locked in the middle of the twentieth century"; hence, it never grows old, Foster concludes (56).

C.S. Lewis on the Importance of Reading Good Literature

C.S. Lewis, noted novelist, literary critic, lay theologian and essayist, advocates reading literature in his book an Experiment in Criticism. He is disappointed in fact when individuals only read important novels once. Reading a novel the second time for many on his list of incomplete readers is "…like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday's paper" (Lewis, 2012, p. 2). Those bright alert people who read great works will read the same book "…ten, twenty or thirty times" during their lifetime and discover more with each reading, Lewis writes. The person who is a "devotee of culture" is worth "much more than the status seeker," Lewis continues on page 8.

That person, to Lewis, is reading "to improve himself, to develop his potentialities, to become a more complete man" (8). Younger people ("unhappy youth) apply what they read and learn from literature to an understanding of the "scruples, the rigorism… the distrust of…… [Read More]

Multicultural Literature

Multicultural Literature

what is multicultural literature? What are the characteristics of quality multicultural literature?

Within the latter part of the twentieth century, a pattern referred to as multiculturalism acquired popularity in American education (Almerico et al., 2006). Gay (1994) within an intensive research of the very commonly used meanings of multicultural literature recognized 13 particular explanations involving the idea and mentioned that a number of factors had been typical out of all definitions for the reason that all of them concur that the content material of multicultural literature ought to include:

Cultural pluralism, ethnic identities, unequal division of resources as well as

Opportunities along with other socio and political issues arising from extended track records of oppression

Multicultural education like a school of thought, a strategy for education transformation, along with a collection of particular subject material within just educational courses. (p. 3)

In her own book, Affirming Diversity, Nieto (2000) mentioned:

Multicultural literature & #8230; not only challenges but also rejects racial discrimination along with other types of discrimination in educational institutions as well as society and allows and supports pluralism (cultural, racial, linguistic, faith based, financial, as well as gender, as well as others) that pupils, their residential…… [Read More]

Children's Literature to Explore Social

Because schools matter so greatly in shaping the destiny of each child, they have always been the focus of intense, often unfriendly, attention. Criticisms of the system have always been abundant, and the targets of dissatisfaction have remained virtually the same over generations (13).

By properly utilizing children's literature to identify and then to address social issues, more equity can be engendered within a social system in which those from "privileged backgrounds" are favored.

An analysis of present and previous literature on the methodology of most prudently employing children's literature to address social issues readily indicates that the most successful, thought-provoking manner for doing so lies in utilizing an approach of cultural literacy. This principle denotes an active exploration on the process of both children and their teacher to bring their viewpoints to the literary works they are engaged in, in order to "construct meaning" (Responding to Literature, 419). Critical literacy revolves around constantly questioning literature, such as determining who the author is, what his or her reason for writing the text may have been, why certain events took place and what their significance is, etc. This process of questioning literature is referred to as interrogating texts (Responding to Literature,…… [Read More]

Turkish Literature Compare Shahnameh With

The folkloric tradition was so popular because people were able to relate to it. Although Ferdowsi wrote his text with the intention that people of all backgrounds would be able to celebrate the history of the land, the folkloric tradition derived its appeal from the fact that everyone could relate with the characters in a very real, first-hand way. Most of the stories simply had stock characters, similar to the Commedia Del Arte theatrical tradition in Italy. These characters were archetypes rather than actual historical figures. Although the everyday events depicted in these stories were fictional and made up by the person who happened to be telling the story, the stories were used as a form of entertainment that would offer some form of momentary escape from the cares of their everyday lives. This context represents a major difference from the Shehmaneh, which generally attempts to represent history and actual events rather than escaping from real life.

Another major difference between the Shehmaneh and the Turkish folkloric literary tradition is that the folktales did not have any Persian language in them. This had the major difference of making the folktales less tied to the region. Another difference is that where…… [Read More]

American Ethnic Literature Analyzing the Nature of

American Ethnic Literature

Analyzing the Nature of American Ethnic Literature

America has a distinct history: like ancient Rome, its inhabitants have come from all over and few of them can truly say to be natives of the place. This fact alone makes American Literature a compelling label: what makes American Literature American? This paper will attempt to answer the question by showing how many ethnicities have converged in one nation allowing various writers with different ethnic, social, political, economical, and social perspectives to define and/or illustrate a time and place.

As Morris Dickstein states, "When America was merely a remote province of world culture, its educated elites were Anglophile, Francophile, or broadly cosmopolitan. Education was grounded in classical learning, a respect for the ancients over the moderns, and a deeply ingrained respect for old Europe's artistic heritage" (p. 155). This type of background made American letters similar to European. What happened, however, was that America as a country began to experience and undergo certain problems and changes that were unique to America. Hawthorne in New England described the Puritan experience. Melville described the whaling experience under the eye of the Calvinist god. But as America grew, other ethnicities began to…… [Read More]

American Ethnic Literature There Are'so Many

American Ethnic Literature

There are so many different voices within the context of the United States. This country is one which is built on cultural differences. Yet, for generations the only voices expressed in literature or from the white majority. Contemporary American ethnic literature is important in that it reflects the multifaceted nature of life in the United States. It is not pressured by the white majority anymore, but is rather influenced by the extremely varying experiences of vastly different individuals, as seen in the works of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," and Cathy Song's poem "Lost Sister." American ethnic literature speaks for minority voices, which have long been excluded in earlier generations of American society.

American ethnic literature has developed enormously over the last few centuries, and especially within the context of just the last few decades. In today's literary world, it now shows the different experiences of the people as they are living them. No longer are minority authors trying to win over a white audience. Rather, they are able to express their minority voices in the incredible diversity that they are seen within the context of this country. Here, the…… [Read More]

Human Resources Literature Review in an Article

Human Resources Literature Review

In an article titled "Management Derailment: Personality Assessment and Mitigation," which was published in the American Psychological Association Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology in 2010, the research team of Joyce Hogan, Robert Hogan and Robert B. Kaiser conduct a thorough literature review on the subject of management derailment. By examining over 100 scholarly articles and case studies, the reviewers sought to determine why a curious phenomenon within the study of human resource practices has consistently emerged. As the authors of the literature review observe in their Introduction, although "the economic literature clearly shows that good management enhances organizational performance and that some managers are better than others & #8230; there is little consensus in the psychological literature regarding the characteristics of good managers & #8230; (while) the research on bad managers converges rather well" (Hogan, Hogan & Kaiser, 2010). The thrust of the authors' research focus is therefore directed at determining why, despite more than a century of scientific inquiry on the subject of management, the abundance of accepted research on the subject of human resources has failed to identify the characteristics and traits which define competent leadership in a managerial setting. As such, the…… [Read More]

Gender in Poetry Literature Lesson Duration

Gender in Poetry / Literature Lesson

Lesson Duration

mins

Rational: This is an introduction to the gender issues which were so prevalent in the Victorian era, and a backdrop to show why they still exist today and the harm they can inflict.

Syllabus Outcome: This part of the lesson helps meet outcome 1, or the ability to interpret meanings and themes within texts. By using abstract thinking processes, the students will make connections between the texts presented and show how they are, or are not related. According to the research, "A student responds to and composes increasingly sophisticated and sustained texts for understanding, interpretation, critical analysis and pleasure" (Board of Studies for NSW 2003 p 32).

Syllabus Content: This will help meet outcome 4, where "a student selects and uses languages forms and features, and structures of texts according to different purposes, audiences and contexts, and describes and explains their effects on meaning" (Board of Studies for NSW 2003 p 35).

Resources / Equipment: "Yellow Wallpaper" and the Reading Guide

Prior Knowledge: Understanding about gender roles and stereotypes.

Learning Outcome:

1. Understanding Gender stereotypes and how they are exposed through Literature.

2. Be able to engage and interpret texts.

3.…… [Read More]

American Literature and the Great Depression When

American Literature and the Great Depression

When one considers how the Great Depression affected American Literature, John Steinbeck tends to stick out, if only because his fiction generally discusses the same themes and anxieties that has come to define the Great Depression in the public consciousness. Indeed, Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath, a realist novel which follows the Joad family as they travel west after they losing their farm to the Dust Bowl, is frequently considered the quintessential encapsulation of the thematic and stylistic effects the Great Depression had on American Literature. Somewhat less considered, though no less crucial to understanding the effects of the Great Depression on American Literature, is the influence the Great Depression had on the careers of black writers, and particularly those who were a part of the Federal Writer's Project, the New Deal program support writers during the Depression. By considering Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath alongside Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men and Richard Wright's Native Son, one is able to better appreciate how the legacy of the Great Depression in American Literature is not solely one of darkness, despair, and the death of the American Dream, as seen in Steinbeck's work, but also, through…… [Read More]

Traditional Japanese Literature Interests How Element Aspect

traditional Japanese literature interests ? How element/aspect important? How, hypothetically, justify weight? Here topic I picked: relationship nature natural world Traditional Japanese literature.

The relationship between nature and the natural world in Traditional Japanese literature

Nature has often been considered to represent one of the most important sources of inspiration for national cultural heritage throughout the world. It is present in some of the world's most impressive past civilizations as well as part of the most modern cultures nowadays. From the perspective of the Japanese culture, nature has been the constant source of inspiration in many areas, from ceramics to crafting, to literature.

Japanese literature is from this point-of-view one of the most important cultural expressions in terms of dealing with nature as a source of inspiration. This can largely be resulted from a clear affection for nature from a religious as well as historical point-of-view. At the same time though, this relationship is essential because it is part of the identity and the essence of Japanese literature.

The relationship between nature and the natural world in traditional Japanese literature can be explained through the deep meanings that words used throughout the Japanese literary creation provides to words and natural…… [Read More]

American Literature Discussion Topics 1 Discuss Sarah

American Literature discussion topics: 1. Discuss Sarah Orne Jewett Charles Chesnutt contributed local color fiction nineteenth century stories respective regions (Jewett writing New England Chesnutt South).

Sarah Orne Jewett and Charles Chesnutt played essential roles in promoting concepts and thinking in general in the regions of New England, and, respectively, the American South. The fact that these people's writings provide suggestive sketches of village life in the U.S. makes it possible for readers to gain a complex understanding of conditions in the country in the late nineteenth century. Their texts demonstrate that there is much more to the American background during the period than meets the eye. Both Jewett and Chesnutt adopted regionalism as one of the principal ideas in their texts and virtually created texts that have become an active part of American traditionalism.

Jewett's "The Country of the Pointed Firs" focuses on presenting readers with a metropolitan traveler's perspective of a rural community that has little to nothing to do with the progress experienced by the rest of the country. Even though some might be inclined to associate this traveler with a pilgrim that simply wanted to settle in a comfortable location, Jewett's traveler is actually more similar…… [Read More]

Didacticism in English Literature From

Thisclearly implies that this sort of perception was more of a weakness than an advantage.

Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes"

In this poem, the author demonstrates to the audience the reality of struggle in life. The author, just like, he mentions in the poem's title demonstrates how human wishes are, in many cases egoistic and useless. According to Meyers (p 1), Johnson had his reflection long years of human struggle, unavoidable fates, and theerroneous hopes. The author demonstrates some of the common situations that ordinary human being experience under the authority of certain political powers, which seem to have a hand in the sealing of their destinies. The author, in exploring this demonstrates how cruel, humiliating, and unwarranted such treatments are. The actions that the persona witnesses in the society make life to him more of a tragedy than anything else does. He in fact states that the weight of pain that the society presents to human being surpasses by far, the happiness and pleasure that they may experience as expressed in the line, "Toil, Envy, Want, the Garret and the Jail." (Cunningham 14).

The lessons that this poem extends to the audience is the reality of the…… [Read More]

Children's Literature

Children's Literature

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This adage takes on various meanings according to context -- in the early twenty-first century, it will most likely be used to imply too much seriousness about schoolwork. But in the consideration of children's literature in the nineteenth century, we face the prospect of a society where child labor was actually a fact of life. We are familiar with the stereotypes that still linger on in the collective imagination, of young boys forced to work as chimney-sweeps or girls forced to labor in textile factories. But the simple fact is that between the present day and the emergence of children's literature as a category of its own, largely during the nineteenth century, there has been a widespread reform in labor practices and social mores which has altered the meaning of what "work" might mean for young Jack, or indeed Jill. An examination of how the concept of "work" is constructed within Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women can give us some sense of how work and play were complicated by issues of economics, including gender and slavery.

One of the most famous…… [Read More]

Extant Literature Has Been Dedicated

Some of the spatial plots that were obtained are shown below.

Figure 2: Diagrams showing the Mean vortex (a and b) of the azimuthal velocity profiles at different positions along the tunnel length.

Phillips and Graham (1984) carried out a study on how to measure Reynolds-stress in a turbulent trailing vortex. The work described into detail how the measurement of turbulent trailing vortex in a condition of zero pressure is carried out. The measurements included the mean velocities as well as all components of the all important Reynolds-stress tensor. These measurements were made via linearized hot wires at different chordlengths (45,78 as well as 109) downstream of the aircraft wing.Axisymmetric wakes and jets were then added in a coaxial fashion to the vortex while holding the total calculation costant.Their effects were then studied. The study reveled that just as indicated in the work of Mason & Marchman and Poppleton, the act of increasing the force of the flow effectively increase the rate of radial dispersion of vorticity. This is noted to be concurrent and consistent with higher levels Reynolds shear stress and turbulence intensities. This the flow of excess axial momentum being effectively zero, a condition which approximated a turbulent…… [Read More]

Daughters in Literature Requires a Thorough Analysis

Daughters in literature requires a thorough analysis of gender roles and norms. The concept of daughter is directly linked to gender roles, as being a daughter entails specific social and familial responsibilities. Daughters' rights, roles, and responsibilities vis-a-vis their male siblings can therefore become a gendered lens, which is used to read literature. This is true even when the daughters in question are not protagonists. For example, Sonya in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is not a protagonist but her supportive role has a tremendous impact on main character Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. Likewise, no one of King Lear's three daughters is the play's protagonist but they nevertheless propel the plot of the play and are central to its outcome. Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse barely features any of the Ramsay daughters, and yet there are ample textual references to the role of daughters in families and correspondingly, the role of women in society. There are female protagonists in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, though, highlighting the primacy of gender roles and norms. Literature provides the contextual variables that expose and clarify prevailing gender roles. An exploration of the symbolic interactions that take place within social structures highlights the prevalence of…… [Read More]

Importance of African-American Literature

African-American Literature

The Implications of African-American Literature

Social

Economic

Environmental

Cultural

How African-American Literature Has Changed -- Across the Genres

Slave Narratives and Biographies

Novels

African-American Literature and Its Impact on Society

Literature is very important. Many people love to read, and still others love to write. Together, they make a winning combination. Literature is often studied, but one aspect of it has been getting very little attention. African-American literature has often times been ignored, or been only selectively visible. Whether or not African-American literature is influential on society, and whether or not it can be considered important and viable are questions and concerns that need to be answered.

The intent and purpose of this paper is to answer those questions, and others. However, in order to do that, there are several issues that will have to be discussed. Naturally, the importance of African-American literature will be discussed, but one must delve further into the topic in order to come to a true understanding of how influential and important this particular literature is.

In order to do that, one must also look at the implications of African-American literature. There are five areas where it has an impact. Social, economic, environmental,…… [Read More]

Children's Literature to Dispel the

16).

In comparing a number of literary elements in one story, Smith and Wiese (2006) contend that at times, when attempting to transform an old story into a modern multicultural version, cultural meanings of the original story may be lost. In turn, the literature does not subject the reader to another culture. For instance, in the story about the fisherman, that Smith and Wiese access, the plot remains similar plot, however, significant changes transform the reported intent to make the story multicultural. Changes included the fisherman's daughter's stated name, being changed from one common to her culture to Maha. Instead of God, as written in the original version, the reference notes "Allah." Other changes Smith and Wiese point out include:

& #8230;The admonition to retrieve the fish or "be sorry" instead of the threatened curse, the reference to the golden shoe as a sandal instead of a clog;

the proposed groom is the merchant's son instead of the prince;

the wedding is set for "Friday;"

the purge and its results are deleted from the story. Smith and Wiese (2006)

Multicultural Books

Peterson and Swartz (2008) note the following books currently considered to be books that help fulfill the cause of…… [Read More]

Integrating Literature Into the Math

It enlivens what many people see as the isolating abstractness of mathematics

Lipsey and Pasternack).

A study of the literature on this issue brings clearly to the fore the realization of the importance of the integration and intersection between various subjects that were in the past seen to be separate and even in opposition to one another. There are an increasing number of cogent and well researched books and articles which suggest ways and means of linking mathematics and literature to the benefit and advantage of both subjects.… [Read More]

American Literature The More Broadly

Further, I believe the best American (and other) literature, has always done that, and does that now, within any age.

However, I also do not feel that American literature should do anything different from other national literatures (except to spring, which it would and does naturally) from the distinct environment in which it was or is written). It should definitely not be confined, either, to focusing only on American topics (another category difficult to actually limit or define). If American literature anthologies or collections are any guide to what the term "American literature" may actually mean, John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," composed as sermon to be read at sea to the author's fundamentalist flock of Puritan Dissenters sailing toward an unknown New World; and the 20th century Russian emigre Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pnin (about a Russian emigre professor and writer in America), qualify equally well (and is included, along with Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," in various American literature anthologies and collections of "American literature" I have perused at various times. Therefore, American literature should not be (and has not been) written only by American writers (however, emigre writers like Nabokov writing in America do tend to…… [Read More]

Deinstitutionalization Importance of a Historical Literature Review

Evaluating theoretical framework also assists in determining whether the structure directs the research study. This process entails identification of constructs or concepts, assessment of definitions, relationships, variables, hypothesis, methodology and findings.

Discussion Question Two: Will there always be a theoretical framework that aligns with your chosen topic of study? Why or why not?

Theoretical framework entails the collection of combined concepts that are not essentially well established (Aparasu, 2011). Theoretical framework determines the things a researcher measures and the statistical link to look for. Through theoretical framework, researchers engage preconceived ideas. For instance, some people deem that human beings are untrustworthy and lazy. Such basic beliefs regarding human temperament influences how a researcher views things when conducting a research. In this regard, not understanding the actual framework is an enormous concern. Theoretical framework directs the researcher to what he/she views in his/her environment, and what he/she does not notice in his/her environment. Researchers do notice aspects that fail to fit their framework. Getting around this issue is not easy, but researcher can minimize the problem through making implicit theoretical frameworks explicit (Aparasu, 2011). When implicit theoretical framework is made explicit, the researcher can consider other theoretical frameworks and view the…… [Read More]

African-American Literature the African-American Literary

The Black Arts Era is characterized by powerful voices such as that of Ishmael Reed or Amiri Baraka. In his poem Black Art, Amiri Baraka potently draws attention to the need for a self-conscious black poetry which would accentuate intentionally all the features specific to the African-American culture. The harsh tone of the poem at the beginning and the almost raging, ferocious rhythm indicate the desire to awaken the spirit of the black to their individuality: "Poems are bull***** unless they are / teeth or trees or lemons piled / on a step...Poem scream poison gas on beasts in green berets / Clean out the world for virtue and love, / Let there be no love poems written / until love can exist freely and / cleanly."(Gates and McKay, 935) the poem starts in a harsh and even violent tone, to end in a soft voice speaking about love. The effect builds thus to indicate the need for a specifically black literature that will speak to the black people in their own language: "We want a black poem. And a / Black World / Let the world be a Black Poem / and Let All Black People Speak This Poem…… [Read More]

Educational Research The Literature Review

After this has been done, the researcher comes to the actual writing of the literature review, which should be relatively easy if the researcher has done the researcher properly.

Identification of Sources

Identifying sources that are high-quality and appropriate can be very difficult for the inexperienced researcher, but there are ways to help individuals determine whether a source is a good one or not. Generally, 'standard' (.com) websites have questionable reliability unless they belong to a specific and recognized source such as CNN news or Time magazine, for example. Websites that end in.gov or.org are better choices for legitimate information. There are also sites such as Questia or Highbeam where books, magazines, journal articles, and newspapers can be read online. Sources in the library are usually legitimate but researchers must be careful that books and journals are not fictionalized accounts of periods of history or other issues. Paying attention to where the sources come from is the key to ensuring that the sources used are appropriate (Cooper, 1984).

Evaluation of Reliability of Sources

Ensuring that the sources are reliable can also be a troubling issue, but reliability can be more easily determined by the answering of some simple questions. Many…… [Read More]