As I think of the second half of Eugenides’ saga, the image two images seem to beg further investigation: Calliope at the library, finding out who she is (at least as far as a dictionary definition can limit) and Cal in Bob Presto’s peepshow, head above water and body visible to all, who pay a […]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/08/opinion/08collins.html?src=me&ref=opinion An opinion by Gail Collins on the anniversary of the pill. She considers what has changed since then, especially in regards to formal sex ed. And, bonus for our discussions, she mentions Sanger and Comstock.
In a novel of epic proportions such as Middlesex, images play a very important role. The narrator spends much time dwelling on the significance of certain images, whether comparing the burning city of Smyrna to his own childhood memories of a fireside charring of scrapped wrapping paper, or speeding time in explaining the functioning of […]
Finding Angels in a World of Loss The angelic prophecy has been revealed, and it has been rejected—by its own would-be prophet, Prior Walter. The prophecy is to just stop: to stop moving and migrating and changing, and if that happens, maybe God will return. Prior finds this prophecy a farce at best, dangerous at […]
Nel and Sula Nel Greene (nee Wright) and Sula Peace seem as if they could not be more different than they are. Nel is cool under pressure, rational, and, like her mother, Helene, retreats into rigid structures of tradition and custom when unsure of what to do. Sula is the direct opposite: she is hot […]
Dolly’s Return In my reading of Lolita thus far (I’m not quite done with the second part yet) two scenes seem to present themselves as extremely important and interesting, and both involve Lolita reverting to Dolly in resistance. As we have discussed, it seems HH needs to invent a totally new person, fully separate from […]
Humbert Humbert and Class From the outset of Nabokov’s Lolita, it is apparent that issues of culture and class will be of considerable importance to the unfolding of the narrative. Humbert Humbert is born of parents of different ethnic backgrounds and grows up in the life of a privileged child in Western Europe. His early […]
Victorian Discourse in Volumes In the Puritan world, the hand of God or the temptation of the devil were to be found anywhere and everywhere. For the Victorians, the readings for this week seem to point less to an obsession with sin than to an obsession with words and language.
The Never-Ending Confession The Scarlet Letter, a novel so imbued with the themes of sin, guilt, and confession, has an interesting confessional: the scaffold. Hester is taken to the scaffold early in the narrative and a confession is demanded of her, but she refuses that with silence. Her silence is in itself a powerful act, […]
Who Is Persecuted or Prosecuted for Deviance from Sexual Norms? In reading the documents on the role of sex and sexual structures in colonial New England, and the first part of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, what seems most striking is the role that accusations of sexual deviance and the persecution or prosecution of such played […]
