[{"content":"The warm welcome of the grave faces,\nAs if they are alive, as if they are dead.\nNo! this realm of the drags, not on heavens,\nNot on earth, for the hearts are sad,\nAnd cracked, cracked in two, cracked more,\nThey shouldered the burden of a heavy lore.\nDarkness crept upon the fertile field; silence dominated the domain.\nEven Selene hesitated to give her glow over the marble, erect stones,\nWith one woefully reads, \u0026ldquo;inside is absent of light; dark and insane!\nNot darker than out, with the cracker gone, called wise and Schatz.\u0026rdquo;\nShe was the sky athwart the ocean, her soul was brave,\nShe was freer than the oceans, her soul flew as a dove,\nAcross the oceans, she was a fair Columbus with sins of Seven,\nO, my lovely spirit, how you have fallen from Heaven,\nHow you have struck the earth, my lovely spirit.\nAs she flew over the field in darkness, I cried from within,\n\u0026ldquo;Caelum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt\u0026rdquo;\nHer wings flapped; my grief grew suppressed\nI would shake the earth, if she reendowed.\nOh, my lovely spirit, how you have fallen from heaven,\nYou were far from the alleged sins of seven.\nThe folk of the grave faces, nor dead, neither alive,\nLooked upon thy glory as you, by nature, flew,\nI cried from within, \u0026ldquo;Beware thy glory, my lovely spirit\u0026rdquo;\nNone of the folk seemed to take a notice of this lit\nMourning. THE fair Carmilla, nymph, in thy orisons,\nBe all my sins remember\u0026rsquo;d.\nIn the graveyard, morning shone all over again,\nThe grave faces were lost into the cracks of soil,\nLife grew anew, you grew anew, you were life.\nUnder the soil, I saw no light nor life, oh my disdain,\nI was nor dead, neither alive, you had killed me,\nYou had given me a life, oh, my lovely spirit.\nIt was cold as death, hot as love, warm as you,\nIt was so to those who feel, under the soil,\nHe felt nothing, he felt everything\nFor she was the Universe.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/poetry/carmilla/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe warm welcome of the grave faces,\u003cbr\u003e\nAs if they are alive, as if they are dead.\u003cbr\u003e\nNo! this realm of the drags, not on heavens,\u003cbr\u003e\nNot on earth, for the hearts are sad,\u003cbr\u003e\nAnd cracked, cracked in two, cracked more,\u003cbr\u003e\nThey shouldered the burden of a heavy lore.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDarkness crept upon the fertile field; silence dominated the domain.\u003cbr\u003e\nEven Selene hesitated to give her glow over the marble, erect stones,\u003cbr\u003e\nWith one woefully reads, \u0026ldquo;inside is absent of light; dark and insane!\u003cbr\u003e\nNot darker than out, with the cracker gone, called wise and Schatz.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Carmilla"},{"content":"Sinuous strings Present, aureate gets it,\nWhen those agleam rays humbly hit.\nA curve, be it an arch, laid for sure,\nUnder a fertile field, without exposure\nTo what comes under.\nVision-lover, the gleam magnet,\nItself a treasure, to a thought pregnant.\nWheat field burst into sight, sole border.\nGreeting the holy cliff, which is under.\nOh, those caves, that fresh airflow.\nLand where lubricate wine.\nLand where macarize mine.\nA total sculpture, holy mountain,\nBorne back from Present, in the action.\nA land feigning Atlas, a land of marks,\nMacarized with cries of Schatz.\nBe followed by the elevation,\nPluralize, if lust a distinction.\nThey possess what it takes,\nTrigger the blood, simply flows.\nFive-sided pressure, enough it is not.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/poetry/adrasan-shore/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSinuous strings Present, aureate gets it,\u003cbr\u003e\nWhen those agleam rays humbly hit.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA curve, be it an arch, laid for sure,\u003cbr\u003e\nUnder a fertile field, without exposure\u003cbr\u003e\nTo what comes under.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVision-lover, the gleam magnet,\u003cbr\u003e\nItself a treasure, to a thought pregnant.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWheat field burst into sight, sole border.\u003cbr\u003e\nGreeting the holy cliff, which is under.\u003cbr\u003e\nOh, those caves, that fresh airflow.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLand where lubricate wine.\u003cbr\u003e\nLand where macarize mine.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Glimpse from the Adrasan Shore"},{"content":"Literary theory and criticism have developed over the course of more than 3000 years, starting with Aristotle and even Plato and Socrates, and it took many forms based on the time period or conditions within which the theory arose. Literary theory is basically seeking an answer to why we read and produce literature and what makes a work of literature good while literary criticism is the appliance of the theory in practice to evaluate or understand a work of literature. There have been many ways to read a text throughout the history but as for Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, I will use certain methods to do a close reading into the selected 20 lines from the text. These are Platonian reading, Aristotelian reading, Horacian reading, Russian Formalism, and lastly Psychoanalytic or Freudian reading.\nArthur Miller was an American playwright who was born in 1915 and met his demise in 2005 so he was in a way a contemporary writer who mainly dominated the 20th century. He was extremely well known during his peak in 40s and 50s and won many awards including the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Also, he was married to Marilyn Monroe, and he was claimed to have been a member of the Communist Party with a fake name. Given that he observed the destruction of the world wars and these tumult years in the history of the United States, it is safe to state that he can be best criticized through a historical-biographical criticism. However, this is not that much possible just for these selected 20 lines.\nMoreover, his play “Death of a Salesman” is considered as a play of illusion and distorted reality which criticizes the capitalist system and social norms. Briefly, the play features Willy, a salesman who is married to a woman named Linda and is the father of one boy and his smaller brother called Biff and Happy respectively. He criticizes his son Biff for not making any money like his peers. Also, the play melodramatizes the accounts concerning job affairs and infidelity in relationships and marriages. Therefore, in a way, the play can be considered as a general criticism of the modern world and societies.\nIn a general close reading, character Linda seems to be a mediator between Willy and the sons as she tries to balance the tempers and make everyone happy but in reality, there is not such a way most of the times. This illusion she is lured in is because of the capitalist society and the unrealistic expectancies of the society from the individuals. When Willy says “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand?”, He is understating and disdaining a farm life, basically a farmer because he was programmed into thinking that the city life and business life is superior to the countryside life and farming. This is probably because of the effects industrialization and capitalism made on the individuals followed by the population shifts from villages to cities. Since then, people started to underestimate the farm life and it is apparent in the lines of Willy.\nSimilarly, he continues saying he was all right with his jumping from job the job when he was young but he’s now older and he still does not make any money. This suggest that Biff was raised in the first place with an expectancy to look after his family or at least to himself. This is among the traditional American values defined earlier which is called “Rugged Individualism”. However, he ignores the fact that not every individual is the same and not everyone has the same expectancies from life. It is not healthful to spend one’s life with a job that he/she does not favor but elder generations are more traditional in terms of jobs, and they say a job is a job. Then Linda says, “He’s finding Himself, Willy.” This implies her motherly parental side who is there for her child no matter what condition he is in. In a way, she embraces her children as they are, not as they are after they are filtered through the society’s interpretation.\nWith a Platonian reading, what can be briefly said about these lines is that they are morally acceptable and have philosophic value because they simply inquire the success. Willy wants his son the be successful and making money, however, his mother wants him to give him some time so that he can find himself and find a job that suits him well rather than just following the social suppressions and ending up something he is not glad and fruitful, both for himself and both for society. This is way these lines would be accepted in a Plato’s Republic.\nAs for Aristotle, these lines, hence the whole play, would not be acceptable as it does not carry the three unities, namely unity of action, time and place and it is not so successful to achieve a final catharsis along with not featuring a well-established tragic hero. However, these were the standards for Classical Greek tragedies, and they cannot be used to evaluate these lines.\nAs for Horace, this text would not be perfect, but he would accept it in line with his ideas that dictate the need for short but wise deductive features within literature. He does not accept fully didactic plays or poems because they are not textbooks for learning. So, these lines would be favored by him in the sense that Linda fixates a solution to the problem of his son’s not finding himself. It is a wise statement that needs to be employed by everyone in the society to be successful as a whole.\nFrom a Russian Formalist perspective, the author should defamiliarize the reader and literariness is the most significant factor above all because it is an intrinsic school of criticism which only takes the text into account. Therefore, as we dissect the text, some peculiarities start to appear. In sixth line, Linda says “But dear, how can he make any money?” This is a rhetorical question Linda uses to avoid the actual question Willy asks. Withing this rhetorical question, however, lies her understatement and maybe disdain for her son. Eighth line also supports this because she says if her son finds himself, both the Willy and he will be happy, but she does not say if he finds himself, he will be successful and making money because she also does not believe in him.\nPsychoanalytically, in the first line, it’s Willy’s ego speaking. It tries to make sense of his failure as a family and as an individual in order not to succumb to his id. However, from the third line on, his id starts to take control pouring out his subconsciously comparisons between his son and others. His superego quickly takes the control of his mental state and he inquiries if Biff said something after he left or he apologized because it is the reasonable thing to ask with the superego in control. But, in the ninth line he again loses his temper, and his repressed emotions and ideas start to pour our as his id takes control again when he says “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!”\nWorks Cited\nMiller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Bloomsbury, 2017. Liu, Fuhua. “On Literary Criticism and Literary Critics.” Lecture Notes on Language and Literature, vol. 3, no. 1, 2020. Miller, Michael J. “Psychoanalysis and Its Teaching.” Reading Lacan’s Écrits, 2019. ","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/close-reading-of-arthur-millers-death-of-a-salesman-theoretical-perspectives/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eLiterary theory and criticism have developed over the course of more than 3000 years, starting with Aristotle and even Plato and Socrates, and it took many forms based on the time period or conditions within which the theory arose. Literary theory is basically seeking an answer to why we read and produce literature and what makes a work of literature good while literary criticism is the appliance of the theory in practice to evaluate or understand a work of literature. There have been many ways to read a text throughout the history but as for Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, I will use certain methods to do a close reading into the selected 20 lines from the text. These are Platonian reading, Aristotelian reading, Horacian reading, Russian Formalism, and lastly Psychoanalytic or Freudian reading.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Close Reading of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman: Theoretical Perspectives"},{"content":"Kübilay Han - Samuel Taylor Coleridge Yahut bir görü, düş içinden bir kesit. Aziz Alp nehrinin, insanoğlunun ölçüsünü\nAşan oymakları arasından,\nGüngörmez nehre aktığı yolda,\nXanadu’da, verdi inşa hükmünü Kubilay Han\nGörkemli safa kümbetinin.\nSurlar ve burçlarla çevrelenmiş\nYirmibeş dekarlık mümbit toprak;\nVe ışıltılı, büklüm büklüm oluklarıyla,\nİçlerinde buhur kokulu ağaçlar olan bahçeler,\nVe nebetat’ın gün düşen yüzünü sarıp sarmalayan,\nDoruklar kadar kadim koruluklar vardı orada.\nAma yahu! Sedir koruluğuna yamaç, çayırlı tepeye\nBoynunu büken o engin ve hulyalı gedik!\nZalim bir mahal! İfrit muhipine ağıtlar çığıran\nBir kadınca musallata uğramış küçülen bir\nMehtabın altında, daimi mukaddes ve mest!\nVe bu gedikten, hengamesi bitmez bir köpürtü,\nTıpkı bu dünya derin derin soluklanırmışçasına,\nİhtişamlı bir gayzer, bir anlık fışkırır.\nAra ara gelen bu tez kükremeler arasında\nYerden seken dolu taneleri gibi, yahut bir harmancının\nDöveni altında ezilen buğdaylar gibi uçuşan kallavi kayalar!\nVe bu raks eden taşlar arasından, birden ve ebedi,\nKükrer bir anlığına kutsal nehir.\nOrmanların ve yayvan çayırların arasından\nKarmaş dolaş, uzunca akar lâhut nehir\nVe varır insanoğlunun ölçüsünü aşan oymaklara\nVe batar bir keşmekeşle, ruhsuz okyanusa\nVe bunca keşmekeş arasında Kubilay Han\nUzaklardan işitti atalarının savaş celp eden sesini\nDalgaların ortasında süzüldü\nSafa kümbetinin gölgesi;\nOrada duyuldu gayzerden ve oymaklardan\nGelen seslerin ilintili nizamı.\nNadide bir hünerin kerameti olmalı bu,\nBuz dolu oymaklarıyla güneşlik bir safa kümbeti!\nZamanında, bir düş gördüm;\nSantur çalgısıyla genç bir kız,\nHabeşistanlı genç bir kız,\nSanturuyla, Abora dağını anlatan\nBir şarkı eşliğinde, bir müzik çaldı.\nO ahengini ve şarkısını\nİçimde ihya edebilsem,\nOnca yoğun bir haz, alır götürürdü beni.\nO sesli ve uzun müziği duysam yine,\nO kümbeti inşa ederdim semâya,\nO güneşli kümbet! O buzdan oymaklar!\nŞarkıyı duyan tüm ahali görürdü onları,\nVe tuttururdu bir terane, Bakın! Bakın!\nIşıldayan gözlerine, havada süzülen saçlarına bakın!\nÇevreleyin etrafını üç defa,\nKapatın gözlerinizi hürmet ve huşuyla!\nZira beslendi o cennetın çam balından,\nVe içti cennetin sütünden!\nA Reflection on My Process of Translation and Romantic Poetry First of all, I choose Kubla Khan as my poetry translation assignment because among the countless poems of Romantic Era, this particular poem has something quite different than the others. It has all the qualities of Romantic Period and has a strong imagery of nature but the difference is it is pretty exotic in that it reflects a completely different cultural and historical magnificence than the established European or Western culture. This exotic taste is thanks to the subject-matter of this poem that separates it from contemporary poems by a continent and more than 500 years. Kubla Khan, a misspelling of Kublai Khan who ruled the Mongol Empire and founded Yuan Dynasty as the father of Temür Khan.\nAnother interesting factor about this poem is it is a fragment of a dream that Coleridge was able to remember. It is said that he was reading a travelogue about Xanadu and Kublai Khan and was using opium when he fell asleep to have this vision. This also adds up to its exoticness. The poem is interpreted by scholars as an allegory of poetry itself or human creativity. In the poem, many direct opposites are juxtaposed such as sunny pleasure dome and icy caves or bright gardens and geysers. So, one of the interpretations say that the pleasure dome with its gardens symbolize the conscious mind while the lifeless ocean symbolizes the subconscious minds. In dialectics, the trio of thesis, antithesis and synthesis is a method of persuasion, namely rhetoric and drawing conclusions previously used by ancient philosophers but coined by the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte. This method is visible in the poem through the mentioned opposites coming together, which, according to Aristotle, helps the audience to understand the point the writer is trying to make.\nThere are various interpretations like this but from a romantic approach, its imagery concerning nature is highly prominent. An outstanding example is that the poem begins like it is going to talk about a magnificent palace built for Kubla Khan but it barely talks about it. Instead, its focus is always on the river Alph and its course and on the garden of the dome at first. The river, thusly nature is always addressed as holy and sacred, reflecting the point of view Romantic poets had during the period. Also, a chasm in the river is addressed as romantic, reflecting the attitude of the poetic personae to the nature and the river itself particularly. There are caves, cedar forests, fountains, dales and caverns everywhere scattered in the poem as should be expected from a romantic poem.\nPersonification is another powerful characteristic of Romantic poetry in that it gives life to the holy nature. For example, the poem describes the bouncing fragments of rocks out of geyser as dancing, thusly romanticizing the way the reader perceives them which would otherwise be discerned as tumultuous and chaotic. A sublimity is prominent throughout the poetry that takes the reader beyond the ordinary world to a bizarre place where everything seems both so familiar and also so unusual at the same time. This is the aim of sublimity that was taken up by Kant and Wordsworth along with other Romantic poets and Philosophers and which has its roots in Longinus’s On The Sublime.\nAnother important reason why I chose this poem is the imaginative side of it. Every poem from the Romantic era possesses imagination but this is different in that it is not an “imagined” imagination but a natural imagination because the writer took the inspiration for this poem in his dream and this phenomenon generally creates mesmerizing results. For example, Howard Philips Lovecraft also had dreams in which he saw indescribably terrible creatures before he pioneered horror fiction, creating the most powerful and imaginative mythos of his age. So, Kubla Khan is a masterpiece in terms of reflecting the imaginative side of the Romantic Era. Moreover, it also makes me wonder and come up with new ideas about the possible outcomes if he could remember the whole vision he had. When he woke up, he directly started to write this poem but at some point, he was visited by someone on a business account and kept busy for 1 hour. When he went back to his poem, he could no longer remember the rest of the dream he had.\nAdditionally, the poem is full of supernatural elements and metaphors. For example, Kubla Khan hears ancestral voices coming out of the sunless sea where the river Alph poured. The voices prophesy a war coming forth. This is of course a metaphor and a personal interpretation of Kubla Khan that adds more and more subjectivity to the poem. Or, at the end of the last stanza, poetic persona is said to have eaten honey-dew and drunk the milk of Paradise. Honey dew is the food mentioned in the Hebrew Bible that was given to Israeli people by God when they were desperate smack dab in the middle of a dessert. Thus, it is a holy food of gods along with the milk of Paradise. Dulce et decorum est to use these supernatural foods in a romantic poem.\nAs for the writer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he was a unique literary figure in terms of many aspects. First of all, he is regarded to have “been rebuked and mocked for the ambitious projects he pro- posed, launched, but left undone: an eight- to ten-volume history of literature. an epic poem on the origin of evil, and so on. He had extraordinary literary gifts. but was an undisciplined author who failed to make full use of his exceptional talents-as he himself knew well. Coleridge wrote in his copy of his book The Statesman\u0026rsquo;s Manual (I81~) that while he had produced a number of significant works, he stood in the world\u0026rsquo;s eyes as \u0026ldquo;the wild eccentric Genius· that has published ·nothing but fragments \u0026amp; splendid Tirades.” (Leitch, 668-669) He was called an undisciplined author because he defied responsibility and wrote as he like unlike the traditions. He wrote fragments which were sometimes criticised by public as not being complete but he went onto his own way. His friendship with William Wordsworth, whom Coleridge addressed as “a very dear friend of mine, who is in my opinion the best poet of the age.” (Leitch, 669) contributed heavily on Coleridge’s poetry in line with the Romantic movement.\nOne of the greatest figures of the movement, William Wordsworth, had a deep friendship with Coleridge, they had a collaborative work with the name of “Lyrical Ballads” that has become the manifestation of Romantic Movement. In the preface of the work, he, with the help of Coleridge, explained the characteristics of romantic poetry and explained why he wrote the poems the way he did along with explaining the subject-matter choosing process. In a part, with which I will finish my essay soon, he talks about the low and rustic life as a subject matter of Romantic poetry. In Kubla Khan, the depictions are highly rustic but at first sight, the stately pleasure dome and the Khanate may not seem “low”. However, the poetic personae, at the end of the poem, explains that if he could remember a piece of poetry, he could also build a pleasure dome in the sky, implying that he envies the palace but he is also among common people, thusly resembling “low”. And here is the quotation from the essay;\nLow and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.(Wordsworth, 1)\nWorks Cited\nColeridge, Samuel Taylor. “Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” Poetry Foundation. Leitch, Vincent B. “Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 1st ed., Norton, New York, USA, 2001, pp. 668–669. Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.” Poetry Foundation. Preminger, Alex; Brogan, T.V.F.(1993). Antithesis. Princeton University Press. Wordsworth, William. “Preface To Lyrical Ballads.” University of Pennsylvania, 2001. Wikipedia contributors. \u0026ldquo;Kublai Khan.\u0026rdquo; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. ","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/poetry/kubla-khan-by-samuel-taylor-coleridge-a-translation-into-turkish-and-a-reflection/","summary":"\u003ch3 id=\"kübilay-han---samuel-taylor-coleridge\"\u003eKübilay Han - Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003ch4 id=\"yahut-bir-görü-düş-içinden-bir-kesit\"\u003eYahut bir görü, düş içinden bir kesit.\u003c/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAziz Alp nehrinin, insanoğlunun ölçüsünü\u003cbr\u003e\nAşan oymakları arasından,\u003cbr\u003e\nGüngörmez nehre aktığı yolda,\u003cbr\u003e\nXanadu’da, verdi inşa hükmünü Kubilay Han\u003cbr\u003e\nGörkemli safa kümbetinin.\u003cbr\u003e\nSurlar ve burçlarla çevrelenmiş\u003cbr\u003e\nYirmibeş dekarlık mümbit toprak;\u003cbr\u003e\nVe ışıltılı, büklüm büklüm oluklarıyla,\u003cbr\u003e\nİçlerinde buhur kokulu ağaçlar olan bahçeler,\u003cbr\u003e\nVe nebetat’ın gün düşen yüzünü sarıp sarmalayan,\u003cbr\u003e\nDoruklar kadar kadim koruluklar vardı orada.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAma yahu! Sedir koruluğuna yamaç, çayırlı tepeye\u003cbr\u003e\nBoynunu büken o engin ve hulyalı gedik!\u003cbr\u003e\nZalim bir mahal! İfrit muhipine ağıtlar çığıran\u003cbr\u003e\nBir kadınca musallata uğramış küçülen bir\u003cbr\u003e\nMehtabın altında, daimi mukaddes ve mest!\u003cbr\u003e\nVe bu gedikten, hengamesi bitmez bir köpürtü,\u003cbr\u003e\nTıpkı bu dünya derin derin soluklanırmışçasına,\u003cbr\u003e\nİhtişamlı bir gayzer, bir anlık fışkırır.\u003cbr\u003e\nAra ara gelen bu tez kükremeler arasında\u003cbr\u003e\nYerden seken dolu taneleri gibi, yahut bir harmancının\u003cbr\u003e\nDöveni altında ezilen buğdaylar gibi uçuşan kallavi kayalar!\u003cbr\u003e\nVe bu raks eden taşlar arasından, birden ve ebedi,\u003cbr\u003e\nKükrer bir anlığına kutsal nehir.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Translation into Turkish and A Reflection"},{"content":"Arthur Miller is one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century who was born in 1915 and was awarded a Pulitzer Price. His legacy will without doubt live forever defying aging and time because they deal with the social realities and the nature of people that all of humanity possessed here and there. His inclination to communism rendered him as a critic of the capitalism that climbed towards its peak in the 20th century, and he wittingly criticized capitalism and the inner nature of people with successful allegories.\nOne of his greatest achievements, “The Crucible” is a perfect example where he allegorically criticizes the inherent evil nature of humanity and the superstitious practices held by people hundreds of years ago. This play is held in the past, 1600s, however, it completely speaks to today as well because those superstitious beliefs and false accusations did not just completely disappear, they just transformed into something else and even embedded into the allegedly modern and civilized systems and laws humanity today implements and enforces.\nThe play begins with Abigail’s informing her uncle Parris about the presence of Susanna from a doctor called Dr. Griggs. As the reader has no context about witchcraft, it is possible to think that Betty is sick in a medical sense and there is nothing suspicious or supernatural up to this point. However, Parris replies with “Oh? The Doctor. Let her come, let her come. He says oh! And he rises, repeats his words. All of these suggest that he is excited about Susanna’s arrival in an intriguing way. When read with context, it can be assumed that these lines suggest he is expecting a confirmation from the doctor about the absence of the witchcraft, but it is not correct because without context, it is not apparent.\nThen, it is revealed that the doctor could not find any treatment or cure for Betty’s sickness and the doctor suspects unnatural causes for the sickness, and this is where the reader is introduced to witchcraft. Parris strictly denies the unnatural causes and looks for excuses. This denial phenomenon may have caused from 2 reasons. First, it is a natural response for human beings to rationalize and deny something that they cannot understand or that seems unnatural at the first glance, and this is studied under the fantasy genre. Nonetheless, the lines suggest the other reason, which is the reputation of Parris and the disgrace along with punishments that arise from witchcraft in the society of that period.\nFrom this close reading, it is apparent that in those times, people sometimes had to lie about what they do even if it may cost the lives of others. This witchcraft allegory is a good example for the extrajudicial executions happened back in 17th century. The reader can deduct many more meanings behind this particular text that can be applied into today’s law systems and societies. Another example for a similar theme would be Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in the sense of superstitions and their horrible outcomes along with the darkness in man’s heart.\nReferences\n“Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Witchcraft and Mob Hysteria in America.” Mobs, 2012, pp. 363–382. Van Engen, Abram C. “The Salem Witch Trials.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, 2016. ","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/the-crucible-allegory-witchcraft-and-mob-hysteria/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eArthur Miller is one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century who was born in 1915 and was awarded a Pulitzer Price. His legacy will without doubt live forever defying aging and time because they deal with the social realities and the nature of people that all of humanity possessed here and there. His inclination to communism rendered him as a critic of the capitalism that climbed towards its peak in the 20th century, and he wittingly criticized capitalism and the inner nature of people with successful allegories.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Crucible: Allegory, Witchcraft, and Mob Hysteria"},{"content":"There are many candidates for the first English novel starting from Le Morte d’Arthur from 15th century to Gulliver’s Travels from the 18th century, however, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is widely accepted as the first English novel and thusly, in- 18th century occurred the rise of the novel in English. Among these candidates appears a common theme of travel and this theme has been kept using for a long while later than the first novels. Actually, travel accounts and writings were already common in other genres so it is not a surprise that it was applied to this newly emerging genre.\nThe early novels featured such a lengthy titles in their cover page explaining what the book is about, giving some interesting information to attract the reader’s at- tention to this new genre, and to convince the reader the events in the book are real. As an example, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was published with this title “The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: who lived eight and twenty years, all alone in an un-inhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river of Oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, where-on all the men perished but himself. With an account how he was at last as strangely deliver\u0026rsquo;d by pyrates. Written by himself.”\nAnother contributing factor for the use of travel theme in early English novel is the Levant Company. It was a company doing trades between Mediterranean and Britain. For example, in J. Theodore Bent’s “Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant.”, there are many clues as to why travel theme became such a prevalent theme in the ear- ly English novel. There were heavy trades between Levant and British Isles and these trades were mostly carried on through sea.\nConclusively, early English novel heavily relied on travel theme because that was what people were interested back then, both the authors and the readers. The geo- graphical discoveries, crusades, and pilgrimages all contributed to this interest. Before the arise of the novel, the theme was already common in other genres as well. Chaucer’s frame story “Canterbury Tales” is a story of pilgrim travel.\nReferences\nAdams, Percy G. Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel. University Press of Kentucky, 2014. Bent, J. Theodore, et al. Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant. Ashgate, 2010. ","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/the-rise-of-the-english-novel-and-the-theme-of-travel/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThere are many candidates for the first English novel starting from Le Morte d’Arthur from 15th century to Gulliver’s Travels from the 18th century, however, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is widely accepted as the first English novel and thusly, in- 18th century occurred the rise of the novel in English. Among these candidates appears a common theme of travel and this theme has been kept using for a long while later than the first novels. Actually, travel accounts and writings were already common in other genres so it is not a surprise that it was applied to this newly emerging genre.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Rise of the English Novel and the Theme of Travel"},{"content":"** Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Translation into Turkish by Emrecan Koç**\nKübilay Han-Samuel Taylor Coleridge\n**\nYahut bir görü, düş içinden bir kesit.\n**\nAziz Alp nehrinin, insanoğlunun ölçüsünü\nAşan oymakları arasından,\nGüngörmez nehre aktığı yolda,\nXanadu’da, verdi inşa hükmünü Kubilay Han\nGörkemli safa kümbetinin.\nSurlar ve burçlarla çevrelenmiş\nYirmibeş dekarlık mümbit toprak;\nVe ışıltılı, büklüm büklüm oluklarıyla,\nİçlerinde buhur kokulu ağaçlar olan bahçeler,\nVe nebetat’ın gün düşen yüzünü sarıp sarmalayan,\nDoruklar kadar kadim koruluklar vardı orada.\nAma yahu! Sedir koruluğuna yamaç, çayırlı tepeye\nBoynunu büken o engin ve hulyalı gedik!\nZalim bir mahal! İfrit muhipine ağıtlar çığıran\nBir kadınca musallata uğramış küçülen bir\nMehtabın altında, daimi mukaddes ve mest!\nVe bu gedikten, hengamesi bitmez bir köpürtü,\nTıpkı bu dünya derin derin soluklanırmışçasına,\nİhtişamlı bir gayzer, bir anlık fışkırır.\nAra ara gelen bu tez kükremeler arasında\nYerden seken dolu taneleri gibi, yahut bir harmancının\nDöveni altında ezilen buğdaylar gibi uçuşan kallavi kayalar!\nVe bu raks eden taşlar arasından, birden ve ebedi,\nKükrer bir anlığına kutsal nehir.\nOrmanların ve yayvan çayırların arasından\nKarmaş dolaş, uzunca akar lâhut nehir\nVe varır insanoğlunun ölçüsünü aşan oymaklara\nVe batar bir keşmekeşle, ruhsuz okyanusa\nVe bunca keşmekeş arasında Kubilay Han\nUzaklardan işitti atalarının savaş celp eden sesini\nDalgaların ortasında süzüldü\nSafa kümbetinin gölgesi;\nOrada duyuldu gayzerden ve oymaklardan\nGelen seslerin ilintili nizamı.\nNadide bir hünerin kerameti olmalı bu,\nBuz dolu oymaklarıyla güneşlik bir safa kümbeti!\nZamanında, bir düş gördüm;\nSantur çalgısıyla genç bir kız,\nHabeşistanlı genç bir kız,\nSanturuyla, Abora dağını anlatan\nBir şarkı eşliğinde, bir müzik çaldı.\nO ahengini ve şarkısını\nİçimde ihya edebilsem,\nOnca yoğun bir haz, alır götürürdü beni.\nO sesli ve uzun müziği duysam yine,\nO kümbeti inşa ederdim semâya,\nO güneşli kümbet! O buzdan oymaklar!\nŞarkıyı duyan tüm ahali görürdü onları,\nVe tuttururdu bir terane, Bakın! Bakın!\nIşıldayan gözlerine, havada süzülen saçlarına bakın!\nÇevreleyin etrafını üç defa,\nKapatın gözlerinizi hürmet ve huşuyla!\nZira beslendi o cennetin çam balından,\nVe içti cennetin sütünden!\n** **** A Reflection on My Process of Translation and Romantic Poetry**\nFirst of all, I choose *Kubla Khan *as my poetry translation assignment because among the countless poems of Romantic Era, this particular poem has something quite different than the others. It has all the qualities of Romantic Period and has a strong imagery of nature but the difference is it is pretty exotic in that it reflects a completely different cultural and historical magnificence than the established European or Western culture. This exotic taste is thanks to the subject-matter of this poem that separates it from contemporary poems by a continent and more than 500 years. Kubla Khan, a misspelling of Kublai Khan who ruled the Mongol Empire and founded Yuan Dynasty as the father of Temür Khan. Another interesting factor about this poem is it is a fragment of a dream that Coleridge was able to remember. It is said that he was reading a travelogue about Xanadu and Kublai Khan and was using opium when he fell asleep to have this vision. This also adds up to its exoticness. The poem is interpreted by scholars as an allegory of poetry itself or human creativity. In the poem, many direct opposites are juxtaposed such as sunny pleasure dome and icy caves or bright gardens and geysers. So, one of the interpretations say that the pleasure dome with its gardens symbolize the conscious mind while the *lifeless ocean *symbolizes the subconscious minds. In dialectics, the trio of thesis, antithesis and synthesis is a method of persuasion, namely rhetoric and drawing conclusions previously used by ancient philosophers but coined by the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte. This method is visible in the poem through the mentioned opposites coming together, which, according to Aristotle, helps the audience to understand the point the writer is trying to make.\nThere are various interpretations like this but from a romantic approach, its imagery concerning nature is highly prominent. An outstanding example is that the poem begins like it is going to talk about a magnificent palace built for Kubla Khan but it barely talks about it. Instead, its focus is always on the river *Alph *and its course and on the garden of the dome at first. The river, thusly nature is always addressed as holy and sacred, reflecting the point of view Romantic poets had during the period. Also, a chasm in the river is addressed as romantic, reflecting the attitude of the poetic personae to the nature and the river itself particularly. There are caves, cedar forests, fountains, dales and caverns everywhere scattered in the poem as should be expected from a romantic poem. Personification is another powerful characteristic of Romantic poetry in that it gives life to the holy nature. For example, the poem describes the bouncing fragments of rocks out of geyser as dancing, thusly romanticizing the way the reader perceives them which would otherwise be discerned as tumultuous and chaotic. A sublimity is prominent throughout the poetry that takes the reader beyond the ordinary world to a bizarre place where everything seems both so familiar and also so unusual at the same time. This is the aim of sublimity that was taken up by Kant and Wordsworth along with other Romantic poets and Philosophers and which has its roots in Longinus’s *On The Sublime. ***\nAnother important reason why I chose this poem is the imaginative side of it. Every poem from the Romantic era possesses imagination but this is different in that it is not an “imagined” imagination but a natural imagination because the writer took the inspiration for this poem in his dream and this phenomenon generally creates mesmerizing results. For example, Howard Philips Lovecraft also had dreams in which he saw indescribably terrible creatures before he pioneered horror fiction, creating the most powerful and imaginative mythos of his age. So, Kubla Khan is a masterpiece in terms of reflecting the imaginative side of the Romantic Era. Moreover, it also makes me wonder and come up with new ideas about the possible outcomes if he could remember the whole vision he had. When he woke up, he directly started to write this poem but at some point, he was visited by someone on a business account and kept busy for 1 hour. When he went back to his poem, he could no longer remember the rest of the dream he had.\nAdditionally, the poem is full of supernatural elements and metaphors. For example, Kubla Khan hears ancestral voices coming out of the sunless sea where the river Alph poured. The voices prophesy a war coming forth. This is of course a metaphor and a personal interpretation of Kubla Khan that adds more and more subjectivity to the poem. Or, at the end of the last stanza, poetic persona is said to have eaten honey-dew and drunk the milk of Paradise. Honey dew is the food mentioned in the Hebrew Bible that was given to Israeli people by God when they were desperate smack dab in the middle of a dessert. Thus, it is a holy food of gods along with the milk of Paradise. *Dulce et decorum est *to use these supernatural foods in a romantic poem.\nAs for the writer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he was a unique literary figure in terms of many aspects. First of all, he is regarded to have “been rebuked and mocked for the ambitious projects he pro- posed, launched, but left undone: an eight- to ten-volume history of literature. an epic poem on the origin of evil, and so on. He had extraordinary literary gifts. but was an undisciplined author who failed to make full use of his exceptional talents-as he himself knew well. Coleridge wrote in his copy of his book *The Statesman\u0026rsquo;s Manual *(I81~) that while he had produced a number of significant works, he stood in the world\u0026rsquo;s eyes as \u0026ldquo;the wild eccentric Genius· that has published ·nothing but fragments \u0026amp; splendid Tirades.” (Leitch, 668-669) He was called an undisciplined author because he defied responsibility and wrote as he like unlike the traditions. He wrote fragments which were sometimes criticised by public as not being complete but he went onto his own way. His friendship with William Wordsworth, whom Coleridge addressed as “a very dear friend of mine, who is in my opinion the best poet of the age.” (Leitch, 669) contributed heavily on Coleridge’s poetry in line with the Romantic movement.\nOne of the greatest figures of the movement, William Wordsworth, had a deep friendship with Coleridge, they had a collaborative work with the name of “Lyrical Ballads” that has become the manifestation of Romantic Movement. In the preface of the work, he, with the help of Coleridge, explained the characteristics of romantic poetry and explained why he wrote the poems the way he did along with explaining the subject-matter choosing process. In a part, with which I will finish my essay soon, he talks about the low and rustic life as a subject matter of Romantic poetry. In Kubla Khan, the depictions are highly rustic but at first sight, the stately pleasure dome and the Khanate may not seem “low”. However, the poetic personae, at the end of the poem, explains that if he could remember a piece of poetry, he could also build a pleasure dome in the sky, implying that he envies the palace but he is also among common people, thusly resembling “low”. And here is the quotation from the essay;\nLow and rustic life was generally chosen, because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language; because in that condition of life our elementary feelings co-exist in a state of greater simplicity, and, consequently, may be more accurately contemplated, and more forcibly communicated; because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings; and, from the necessary character of rural occupations, are more easily comprehended, and are more durable; and lastly, because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature.(Wordsworth, 1)\nWorks Cited\nColeridge, Samuel Taylor. “Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43991/kubla-khan. Leitch, Vincent B. “Samuel Taylor Coleridge.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 1st ed., Norton, New York, USA, 2001, pp. 668–669. Owen, Wilfred. “Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est. *Preminger, Alex; Brogan, T.V.F.(1993). Antithesis. Princeton University Press. ***\nWordsworth, William. “Preface To Lyrical Ballads.” Preface to Lyrical Ballads, University of Pennsylvania, 2001, https://web.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring2001/040/preface1802.html. Wikipedia contributors. \u0026ldquo;Kublai Khan.\u0026rdquo; Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Jan. 2022. Web. 13 Jan. 2022.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/kubla-khan-by-samuel-taylor-coleridge-a-translation-into-turkish-by-emrecan-ko%C3%A7/","summary":"\u003cp\u003e** Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Translation into Turkish by Emrecan Koç**\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKübilay Han-Samuel Taylor Coleridge\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e**\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eYahut bir görü, düş içinden bir kesit.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e**\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAziz Alp nehrinin, insanoğlunun ölçüsünü\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAşan oymakları arasından,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Güngörmez nehre aktığı yolda,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eXanadu’da, verdi inşa hükmünü Kubilay Han\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGörkemli safa  kümbetinin.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSurlar ve burçlarla çevrelenmiş\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYirmibeş dekarlık mümbit toprak;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVe ışıltılı, büklüm büklüm oluklarıyla,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eİçlerinde buhur kokulu ağaçlar olan bahçeler,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVe nebetat’ın gün düşen yüzünü sarıp sarmalayan,\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Translation into Turkish by Emrecan Koç"},{"content":"The Epic of Gilgamesh Through a Comparative Perspective\nI have chosen Gilgamesh as my Eastern Hero as it fascinates me in the way it is the oldest epic of humanity, allowing me to have a glance of the culture and thought of people who lived thousands of years ago. We have the story thanks to the surviving tablets of the text in fragments;however, we unfortunately have some missing fragments of the story. According to the story, the glorious Gilgamesh is the king of a walled city called Uruk. He is a godlike figure and a glorious, handsome, wise warrior.\nThough his glory, Gilgamesh treats his citizens extremely badly, like a dictator. He rapes every girl he likes regardless of their origins or nobilities. Because of this dictatorship, gods decide to punish him by sending Enkidu, a half-man, half-beast creature, as magnificent as Gilgamesh, who will keep him at bay. At first, Enkidu lives among the animals as he is one of them a hunter sees him and uses the prostitute Shamhat to tame him by seducing. They have sexual intercourse for 7 days straight, after which Enkidu is taken to Uruk to challenge Gilgamesh. They fight for a while but Enkidu is overthrown by Gilgamesh and they become best friends. These two powerful beings go on an adventure to a cedarn forest, forbidden to mortals and guarded by a terrorizing creature called Humbaba, to steal some trees from there. They kill Humbaba and steal the cedar trees, bringing them back to Uruk as gates.\nThen, the goddess Ishtar falls in love with Gilgamesh but upon his rejection, Anu sends the Bull of Heaven to punish Gilgamesh. Together with Enkidu, they kill the creature. After that, the gods make a decision about killing one of the two and Enkidu is chosen. After his death, Gilgamesh is completely sad and grieving. In the meantime, he also contemplates about his own death that will come one day. He decides to find Utnapishtim, the only man who survived the flood and was granted eternal life by the gods. He stumbles upon mountain and various challenges before arriving to a place which is guarded by scorpion monsters. Gilgamesh persuades them to let him and his journey continues through a dark tunnel under the mountains. There he arrives a village before he goes to the eternal life. When he finally meets with Utnapishtim, he is told about the stories of the flood but he is also rejected to be given the formula of the eternal life. While Gilgamesh was preparing to sail back to Uruk empty handed, the wife of Utnapishtim persuades him to give Gilgamesh a plant of eternal youth. On his way back to Uruk, however, a snake steals the plant and gains the eternal youth. Gilgamesh wanted to share it his elders in Uruk so he did not consume it immediately, which lead him lose it. Then, he understood that the city he created will preserve his name, which is the closest a human being can reach to eternal youth. As is known, a Western Hero Archetype defines a hero who is self-sufficient, standalone and fights with the unlawful by himself with courage, utilizing his surroundings and various tools with ease. In other words, the western hero is a Jack of all trades.\nMy hero, namely Gilgamesh, is different from Western hero archetype because in West, a hero is generally a standalone figure who above all else, desire power. In that perspective, Gilgamesh is different because he does not consume the plant of eternal youth immediately as he wants to share it with the elders of his city Uruk. Also, unlike the Western hero archetype, Gilgamesh does not fight alone and he has a fellow traveler named Enkidu.\nI do relate my hero because of my cultural origins as in my culture, sharing is everything. I also prioritize friendship and fellowship more than anything else. Additionally, my hero loves to go beyond his borders to discover more and challenges himself with his fellow when they go to the cedar tree. I relate this adventurous nature of my hero, which I think is caused by my origins.\nThis story of Gilgamesh teaches us to be happy with what we have instead of going beyond of what we have, which is a futile labor. If we can gain newer perspectives to see what we have, we can be fulfilled with what we have and carpe diem.\nReferences\nGeorge, Andrew. \u0026ldquo;The Epic of Gilgamesh. A New Translation.\u0026rdquo; (1999).\nTigay, Jeffrey H. The evolution of the Gilgamesh epic. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2002.\nKramer, Samuel Noah. \u0026ldquo;The death of Gilgamesh.\u0026rdquo; Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 94.1 (1944): 2-12.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/today-i-am-choosing-an-eastern-hero-for-myself-to-examine/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe Epic of Gilgamesh Through a Comparative Perspective\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have chosen Gilgamesh as my Eastern Hero as it fascinates me in the way it is the oldest epic of humanity, allowing me to have a glance of the culture and thought of people who lived thousands of years ago. We have the story thanks to the surviving tablets of the text in fragments;however, we unfortunately have some missing fragments of the story. According to the story, the glorious Gilgamesh is the king of a walled city called Uruk. He is a godlike figure and a glorious, handsome, wise warrior.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Today, I am choosing an Eastern Hero for myself to examine"},{"content":"The 18th century of Britain had suffered from various issues. Most of these issues were results of the growth in population. The wealth wasn’t divided equally either, leading society to be divided into classes, which would be a fundamental issue for the next centuries.One of the most important issues of the period was crime, which took a highlighted role in the newly growing literature form: novel.\nThe Industrial Revolution changed the life of each single person forever. While some have lost their jobs to their rivals, machines, some grow richer thanks to the same machines. Now some works could be done much faster and professionally. The Industrial Revolution would also create a mass production culture and eventually lead to consumerism in the upcoming centuries.\nPrinting press, scientific journals, coffee houses and popular periodicals were a great help for novel to become so popular. People would gather in coffee houses, read journals and books, and get to have literary discussions with some of the important literary figures. While the society grew financial gaps, the ones between the literary and illiteracy shortened.\nThe British Empire was growing quickly and drastically with the reign of King George III. The colonies in India, America and South Africa were supporting the Empire drastically. The privileged people of the Britain had a showy, rich lifestyle while the poor suffered from many issues concerning hygiene, security, and health. There was a drastic gap between different parts of the society. The poor people thus had to consult fewer noble means of accessing food and goods. The crime rates were quickly rising. Alcohol was a favoured beverage that would be consumed excessively. The growing population forced multiple people to sleep in a single bed. Life qualities were dropping for the poor parts of the society.People did not have much security in general. Everyone was at all times at risk of facing threatening situations such as a robbery, murder, thievery, or rape. Prostitution was also a common way of crime practice, resulting from the need of money for essential goods and food.\nAs a solution for the idle, poor, sick and homeless people, workhouses were introduced in 1722. The aim was to give these people both a work and a home in return. If we look at the workhouses through a utilitarian perspective, we see that these places have done good for the society: The crime rates were lower and there were few people sleeping and stinking on the streets. However, the workhouses did not go as planned: the residents of these workhouses found no relief nor a hygienic and healthy living condition. The system was corrupted, allowing the authorized people to be as unjust as they would wish. Later in the early 19th century, we see Charles Dickens portraying these issues perfectly. He focuses on both workhouses and crimes in Britain heavily. One of his most favoured novels, Oliver Twist, follows its child protagonist who by a misfortune leads a life of misery, encounters a group of thieves in London streets.\nAn important figure of these period is Jonathan Wild, who ran a criminal empire. He was involved with a wide range of crime activities during his lifetime. He was a gang leader who stole, blackmailed, loundered, and manipulated.\n“There was nothing a man would not steal.” States the London Chronicle about the period, “William Pinkethman was indicted for stealing ten gallons of beer, ten gallons of ale, and three iron hoops. One stole in the same breath a camblet cloak, a Bermuda hat, forty-three guineas, a pair of stays, a thin flank of beef, and sixty-three yards of printed lawn. And of course there were such jolly things to steal-grogram and cambrick\u0026rsquo;d head clothes and Padusov Petticoats.” (24)\nThese crimes have affected the society severely and eventually found their places in the newly raising literary genre: novels. At first, novels had no such name, they were only referred as “non-fiction books”. This new type of literature became popular quickly and lead masses to follow this tradition. The common people who are literate likes to read novels as most of them demonstrated their likenesses. Reading about people like themselves gave them joy.\nThe earliest novels were moralistic and didactic. They aimed to give moral lessons to the reader. The characters were now had more dimensions than ever before. The reader was able to weight the positive and negative sides of characters and have a better moral understanding in mind.\nRealism was an important issue, leading the novels to carry the qualifications of verisimilitude. Realism was crucial so that the reader can get better moral messages from the novels. Crime was depicted in a realist manner so that the society could be better informed and warned about it. People were found of crime biographies as well as they offered a realistic approach towards this issue.\nDaniel Defoe was one of the leading authors of novels. He wrote many of the first novels of English literature. One of the themes he stressed on was crime in Britain. He successfully and unequally expressed crimes in Britain society and all the possible underlying issues. In his works “The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard”, “A Narrative of all the Robberies, Escapes \u0026amp;c. of John Sheppard”, and “The Trues and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild”, he examined this issue thoroughly.\nMall Flanders by Daniel Defoe is another important literary work that successfully epics the era and the crime rates and culture. The story revolves around its unfortunate protagonist, Mall Flanders who ultimately by force or by choice founds herself as a criminal. She steals from wealthy people and takes her chances with prostitution. The novel gives important moral lessons to the reader. These events were not much different than what the reader of the period was going through, which is one of the reasons behind the popularity of the novel.\nPamela by Samuel Richardson is also an important novel of the same period, depicting the similar crime themes. The story also has many important lessons to give about chastityand honesty.\nWhen we take a closer look to the period and all the literary works produced within, we can come up with the conclusion that the social events and situations had a massive impact in the scenarios people most favoured reading, one of the leading themes of which being crime in Britain, which collected many liking from all parts of the society for its realistic views and common characters.\nReferences\nEmsley, Clive. Crime and Verein in England, 1750–1900. Routledge, 2018.\nRosewall, Kim. \u0026ldquo;Moll Flanders Plot Summary.\u0026rdquo; LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 12 Feb 2020. Web. 7 Aug 2021.\nSherwin, Oscar. “Crime and Punishment in England of the Eighteenth Century.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 5, no. 2, [American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc., Wiley], 1946, pp. 169–99, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3483581.\nSmith, Lacey Baldwin, et al. \u0026ldquo;United Kingdom\u0026rdquo;. Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Jan. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom. Accessed 13 January 2022.\nWard, Richard M. Print culture, crime and justice in 18th-century London. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/the-18th-century-novel-and-crime-as-a-subject/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe 18th century of Britain had suffered from various issues. Most of these issues were results of the growth in population. The wealth wasn’t divided equally either, leading society to be divided into classes, which would be a fundamental issue for the next centuries.One of the most important issues of the period was crime, which took a highlighted role in the newly growing literature form: novel.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Industrial Revolution changed the life of each single person forever. While some have lost their jobs to their rivals, machines, some grow richer thanks to the same machines. Now some works could be done much faster and professionally. The Industrial Revolution would also create a mass production culture and eventually lead to consumerism in the upcoming centuries.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The 18th Century Novel and Crime as a Subject"},{"content":"The Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Ellan Poe was first published in 1846 in a women’s magazine called “Godey’s Lady’s Book. The author, both a writer and a literary critic and theoretician is considered to be the master, and sometimes father of horror. He is also known to be the father of the short story genre and he published an article in the same year as this short story, which is called The Philosophy of Composition that glorifies the Short Story genre. (Sova,45)\nThe Cask of Amontillado is a revenge story set in an unknown part of Italy, where the majority of events occur in a vault or a wine cellar. The unreliable protagonist, Montressor, who was injured a thousand times at the hands of the other character, who will be murdered at the end of the story, Fortunato. Montressor basically lures him into tasting some wines at his cellar wherein he schemes to murder him to take his revenge that throughout the story he tries to justify.\n​The story is about a vengeance, of which the reason is not clearly given but somehow implied and embedded within the text. As for my opinion, I hold that Poe wrote this story to convey the notion that no revenge is fulfilling unless the victim acknowledges his/her punisher and regrets his/her wrongdoings. There are various occasions and quotes in the text that support this notion. First of all, this can be clearly seen in Montressor’s own words as follows.\n“I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.” (Poe, 5)\nIn this quote, he basically makes two points, the avenge must be taken with impunity and the avenger should make himself felt in the heart of the avenged to fulfill the aims of a vengeance.\nAnother evidence for the point lies behind the choices and actions of Montressor to murder Fortunato as Baraban suggests. (6) He wants to take his revenge with impunity, and he also has an important, aristocratic name so it could be quite wise for him to do his victim in without showing himself. However, he chooses to murder Fortunato with his own hands, totally visible to his victim so that he would know who the punisher is. This way, Montressor could be fulfilled in his purpose to clear out the insult Fortunato has inflicted allegedly on Montressor’s name or aristocratic background. Also, towards the end of the story when Montressor takes a break from his walling to listen to Fortunato and then answers him with “Fortunato!” he wants to make sure that his avenged is well aware that it is Montressor who is murdering him. The story has a lot more to give but this theme is the most prominent for this dark and creepy story.\nReferences\nBaraban, Elena V. “The Motive for Murder in ‘The Cask of Amontillado’ by Edgar Allan Poe.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, vol. 58, no. 2, 2004, pp. 47–62., https://doi.org/10.2307/1566552. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. 2016. Rocks, James E. “Conflict and Motive in ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’” Poe Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 1972, pp. 50–51., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-6095.1972.tb00198.x. Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z, Checkmark Books, New York, 2001, p. 45.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/on-the-relation-between-poes-the-cask-of-amontillado-and-vengeance-as-a-subject-matter/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe Cask of Amontillado, written by Edgar Ellan Poe was first published in 1846 in a women’s magazine called “Godey’s Lady’s Book. The author, both a writer and a literary critic and theoretician is considered to be the master, and sometimes father of horror. He is also known to be the father of the short story genre and he published an article in the same year as this short story, which is called The Philosophy of Composition that glorifies the Short Story genre. (Sova,45)\u003c/p\u003e","title":"On the Relation between Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado and Vengeance as a Subject Matter"},{"content":"The novel in the 18th century was fledgeling and there was not an established style, however, most of the novels of the period featured satiric and realistic styles, realistic novels being the most prominent. I will examine early English novels in my article to show the prominence of realistic novels over satiric novels by exemplifying from the novels and comparing them to the period in which they were written. First of all, when I use the term realistic novel, I mean the novels that feature everyday characters with ordinary names in their casual routines and original plots unlike traditional ones as Watt’s Formal Realism suggests and most importantly, real settings with geographical and minute details, basing on real events that have happened or may happen in real life. By the term satirical novel, I mean the novels that aim to highlight the shortcomings of society or the political system through ridiculing, mimicking, mocking the acknowledged norms of society in order to change the corruption and establish a decorum.\n​So as to understand why these two styles, namely satire and realism were dominant in the early English novel, first we need to examine the historical background of the period. In 18thcentury, the importance given to reading was different than before. Thanks to Industrial Revolution, people, especially women gained much more spare time to stay at home to read books as an entertainment activity. Also, the appearance and growth of the middle class contributed to the affordability of books, thusly spreading this activity throughout the nation. People started to live off writing as a business. With the increase in literacy rates, more and more people could read. Given that the reading class were mostly middle class, they wanted to read realistic books because they favoured the idea of being in the middle of the novel, they were the characters from those novels. The writers of the period tried to write from the viewpoint of those who read them. The cover pages of the early books show this phenomenon as they try to encourage the reader o believe that it is a real account of events.\n​However, most of the people still could not afford purchasing novels, they needed to save money or cut off from their basic needs to be able to afford books. The income of the people was low, the book prices were high. Literacy rates increased but still they were extremely low as a result of the absence of an authentic public education system. The political turmoil was also to be seen in the upper parts of society. Corruption was inescapable in this low-paid society. So, writers like Jonathan Swift produced satires that show these shortcomings of the society. Therefore, all these reasons led to the prominence of these two styles in the 18th century English novel. People of the age and the government, nonetheless, could not easily identify satires but still they had some effect on the society. They wanted to see characters and events as real as their lives so that they can take part in the novels. As a result, realist novels dominated the 18th century despite the prevalence of satires as well.\n​Now, I will examine some early novels to see these styles in practice.\nFirst writer to be examined is Daniel Defoe. He is considered as the father of the English novel with his novel Robinson Crusoe. He is also known to be a journalist who wrote his commentaries about the middle-class concerns as well as his period. Even from this perspective, one can see that he is interested in the middle class who wants to read realistic novels. His novels featured characters of casual magnitude. Standard middle-class characters allowed the reader to manifest themselves in those characters. The subject-matters are those of his target audience, the hard work for survival, or in Mall Flanders, the institution of prostitute, stealing and sexual relations of relatives. Moreover, his Robinson Crusoe has its base story in the real account of a sailor who shipwrecked to an island for 4 years. Also, the point of view is another factor to its realism because it uses the first-person narrative which makes it way easier for commoners to identify themselves with the character.\nAnother realist figure is Samuel Richardson and his novel Pamela. He was a pioneer in psychological approach towards his characters, particularly females and also, he is thought to have invented epistolary style in novels as can be understood by his novel Pamela. He became a novelist at later ages through educating people about correspondence and he taught a maid girl how to keep herself of high virtue. After a while, he was influenced both by this correspondence idea and the theme of virtue. When he decided to write Pamela in an epistolary style, he based this novel on a real occurrence of a maid girl who stood out against her master’s licentious attempts towards her. In the novel, Pamela correspondences with her father and mother about how to get rid of the assaults of her master trying to entice her. Hence this novel features a real-life incident of sexual and moral assaults, it was easily identified by society thanks to representing a prevalent and realistic moral issue of the damsels who work for the rich as housemaids. Through the novel, they had the chance to learn new ways of resisting their house lords. Also, the novel divided readers into two categories, Pamelists and Anti-Pamelists which show the success and acceptance of realism by the audience. Pamelists were those who thought she just tried to keep her chaste before marriage because she was a girl of chastity. Yet, Anti-Pamelist people though the uses her virtue as a euphemism under which she tries to marry nobleman with the aim of going up in rank in terms of her social class. The next figure is Henry Fielding who is regarded as the first novelist to use burlesque style in novels. Fielding, unlike the abovementioned novelists, came from the upper, aristocratclass and therefore had a different understanding of morality. For him, chastity was not the uppermost concern of being virtuous and society had more significant moral concerns. This was among the causes that led him to be able to shift from realistic to satirical. The period favoured realist novels but his novels had another, satirical aspect that was also a need for society. According to his definition about his novels, they were comic epic poems in prose. During the period, Alexander Pope produced one of the most influential mock epics of the age. In his The Rape of The Lock, he implemented mock epic to demonstrate and satirize how trivial the concerns of society were. Henry Fielding was also influenced by Pope and he turned out to be a novelist whose satirical side was also salient. In his novel An Apology for the Life of Mrs Shamela Andrews, he mocked Samuel Richardson and his Pamela. As a matter of fact, even the title of the novel, Shamela, mocks Pamela with the pun of fusing two words, Shame and Pamela. The last literary figure of the age the be examined is Jonathan Swift. He was considered as the greatest satirist of the 18th century. His ultimate goal was to correct society via parodies, satires and ironies regardless of the target class. The witty and satiric contemporaries of Swift even found an organization to attack the vices of society through literature with the name of Scriblerus Club. Yet sadly, as stated above, the target readers of his could not wholly understand his satires and ironies and he was unjustly accused of being shameful. His novel, Gulliver’s Travels, was considered as a children’s book for some time but it, indeed, showed in an allegorical and satirical way the corruption and the hypocrisy of politicians and scholars.\nHenceforth, I maintain the opinion that both satire and realism was highly prominent among the novels of 18th century. They were both useful in that realism helped people identify and manifest themselves through the protagonists of the novels thusly encouraged to read more, giving way to increased literacy rates and encouraged novelists. Satire had also its share among the society because it showed the hypocrisy of the political system and the vices of society, not only in a literal manner but also showed how they should be. However, as stated before, relist novels were much more dominant in the century in terms of both volume and quantity as it is the most fundamental and basic level of literature for a society who can hardly read and who cand hardly spare time to read unlike satire, which is a more sophisticated device at the hands of a master but which was not as suitable for the 18th century English people as the realism is.\nReferences\nAn Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews. The University of Adelaide Library, 2012. Defoe, Daniel, et al. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford University Press, 2007. Grimm, Joseph Andrew. “Satire in the Novels of Henry Fielding.” Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, \u0026amp; Professional Papers.na, 1950. Kjelland, Jim. “The 18th Century Novel: Defifining and Redefifining Realism.” The Delta, vol. 3, no. 1, ser. 6, 2008. 6. Mario, Rosario. “The 18th Century Novel:De Foe-Swift-Richardson-Fielding-Sterne.” Spazio Personale Di Mario Aperto a Tutti 24 Ore Su, 16 Jan. 2014.\nRichardson, Samuel. Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded. 2nd ed., Mint Editions, 2021. Swift, Jonathan, and David Womersley. Gulliver\u0026rsquo;s Travels. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2012. Szwec, Jonathan J. \u0026ldquo;Satire in 18th Century British Society: Alexander Pope\u0026rsquo;s The Rape of the Lock and Jonathan Swift\u0026rsquo;s A Modest Proposal.\u0026rdquo; Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 3.06 (2011).\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/is-the-18th-century-novel-primarily-realist-or-satirical/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe novel in the 18th century was fledgeling and there was not an established style, however, most of the novels of the period featured satiric and realistic styles, realistic novels being the most prominent. I will examine early English novels in my article to show the prominence of realistic novels over satiric novels by exemplifying from the novels and comparing them to the period in which they were written. First of all, when I use the term realistic novel, I mean the novels that feature everyday characters with ordinary names in their casual routines and original plots unlike traditional ones as Watt’s Formal Realism suggests and most importantly, real settings with geographical and minute details, basing on real events that have happened or may happen in real life. By the term satirical novel, I mean the novels that aim to highlight the shortcomings of society or the political system through ridiculing, mimicking, mocking the acknowledged norms of society in order to change the corruption and establish a decorum.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Is the 18th Century Novel Primarily Realist or Satirical?"},{"content":"There are many candidates for the first English novel starting from Le Morte d’Arthur from 15th century to Gulliver’s Travels from the 18th century, however, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is widely accepted as the first English novel and thusly, in- 18th century occurred the rise of the novel in English. Among these candidates appears a common theme of travel and this theme has been kept using for a long while later than the first novels. Actually, travel accounts and writings were already common in other genres so it is not a surprise that it was applied to this newly emerging genre. There are countless reasons behind its usage back then such as the advancements in science which led to the geographical discoveries and the discovery of the New World along with the renaissance movement throughout Europe which not only led scientific and literary innovations but also led politic and philosophic breakthroughs, through which people relocated heavens on earth and started to value themselves as individu- als who are able to think for themselves. All those changes led the common theme of travel writing because people constantly wanted to discover more and go beyond what has already been gone. Their enthusiasm led countless voyages towards the unknown and they always kept track on what they saw in the forms of travel reports. The first novels heavily relied on travel writing and even the first valid English novel “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe was completely about a travel theme where the English colo- nialism was satirized and where the believability of the novel, which was back then an expected feature of a novel, could easily be implemented on the travel theme.\nThe early novels featured such a lengthy titles in their cover page explaining what the book is about, giving some interesting information to attract the reader’s at- tention to this new genre, and to convince the reader the events in the book are real. As an example, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was published with this title “The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: who lived eight and twenty years, all alone in an un-inhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river of Oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, where-on all the men perished but himself. With an account how he was at last as strangely deliver\u0026rsquo;d by pyrates. Written by himself.”\nAnother contributing factor for the use of travel theme in early English novel is the Levant Company. It was a company doing trades between Mediterranean and Britain. For example, in J. Theodore Bent’s “Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant.”, there are many clues as to why travel theme became such a prevalent theme in the ear- ly English novel. There were heavy trades between Levant and British Isles and these trades were mostly carried on through sea. These voyages always included a captain’s report which later started to be counted as travelogues. “The Diary of Master Thomas Dallam” is written in a vernacular and incorrect English that shows travel theme was prevalent even among commoners. So, it was was to produce travel writings for the sake of the audience who were already wondering beyond their borders.\n“As far back as the ninth and tenth centuries of our era, the emperors of the East granted to the Warings or Varangians from Scandinavia capitulations or rights of exterri- toriality, which gave them permission to own wharves, carry on trade, and govern themselves in the Eastern capital: these rights established numerous “imperia in impe- rio” during the succeeding centuries in Constantinople.”(Bent, 13)\nThe quote says there were numerous “states within states” and from a sociocul- tural respect, people were exposed to different cultures and states which made them wonder what it is like to be in the other parts of the world, through trade, vacations, ex- peditions or war. For trade, they went on numerous voyages, for vacations, they packed up and went to see what there was beyond their borders through “Grand Tours”. Thus, people started to talk about the happenings of those who had the change to go on a voyage. The story of “Robinson Crusoe” was greatly affected by a real life event of a shipwrecked man.\nConclusively, early English novel heavily relied on travel theme because that was what people were interested back then, both the authors and the readers. The geo- graphical discoveries, crusades, and pilgrimages all contributed to this interest. Before the arise of the novel, the theme was already common in other genres as well. Chaucer’s frame story “Canterbury Tales” is a story of pilgrim travel. The newly- emerged genre of Novel easily adapted this already accepted and proven theme as re- alistic as possible. Verisimilitude was also an important factor for early novels because it made the reader believe the story was real. For travel theme cannot easily be questioned as for its authenticity, it was perfect for novels. So, almost all of the early English novels implemented the theme as a core basis into themselves, that again shows how heavily the early English novel was dependent on travel writing and travel theme.\nReferences\nAdams, Percy G. Travel Literature and the Evolution of the Novel. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.\nBent, J. Theodore, et al. Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant. Ashgate, 2010.\nDefoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Oxford World’s Classics ed., Oxford University Press,\nEpstein, Mortimer. The early history of the Levant Company. Routledge, 2015. Korte, Barbara. \u0026ldquo;Western Travel Writing, 1750–1950.\u0026rdquo; The Routledge Companion to\nTravel Writing. Routledge, 2015. 193-204.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/the-dependance-of-early-english-novel-on-travel-theme/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThere are many candidates for the first English novel starting from Le Morte d’Arthur from 15th century to Gulliver’s Travels from the 18th century, however, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is widely accepted as the first English novel and thusly, in- 18th century occurred the rise of the novel in English. Among these candidates appears a common theme of travel and this theme has been kept using for a long while later than the first novels. Actually, travel accounts and writings were already common in other genres so it is not a surprise that it was applied to this newly emerging genre. There are countless reasons behind its usage back then such as the advancements in science which led to the geographical discoveries and the discovery of the New World along with the renaissance movement throughout Europe which not only led scientific and literary innovations but also led politic and philosophic breakthroughs, through which people relocated heavens on earth and started to value themselves as individu- als who are able to think for themselves. All those changes led the common theme of travel writing because people constantly wanted to discover more and go beyond what has already been gone. Their enthusiasm led countless voyages towards the unknown and they always kept track on what they saw in the forms of travel reports. The first novels heavily relied on travel writing and even the first valid English novel “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe was completely about a travel theme where the English colo- nialism was satirized and where the believability of the novel, which was back then an expected feature of a novel, could easily be implemented on the travel theme.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"The Dependance of Early English Novel on Travel Theme"},{"content":"The juxtaposition of Mexico and United States in the painting fascinated me at first glance for its representative quality. I loved the painting because of the little details such as the roots of the vegetation and the label of Ford. In general, the painting can be divided vertically, Kahlo herself representing the dividend. On the left side, the sun and moon are in the firmament in their clouds, whose interaction causes a lightning and also the left side features a ruined temple below which are some flowers, all representing Mexico. As for the right side, there is a cloud coming from a factory of Ford, along with some mechanical devices painted below. The cloud contains the flag of the United States with its stars against the moon and the sun on the left side. All of those represent the industrialization of the United States, which is presented as a negative feature.\nAlong the borderline between Mexico and the United States by Frida Kahlo\n​The painting is a self-reflection of Kahlo herself who adores her country Mexico with its authentic nature and never-ending cycle of life and death, which where symbolized by the Aztec temple, the skull, and the idols on the left side of the painting. On the contrary, the left side has so much to do with her place of residence, Detroit, which is the center of Automobile Industry in the United States which should have affected her deeply in a negative manner. “The painting, besides capturing Kahlo\u0026rsquo;s iconic features, reflects some of her deepest concerns during that time pertaining to her political stance, cultural identity, and well-being, specifically her pregnancy.” (Ma, 1)\n​The painting features a well-established balance between surrealism and indigenouspainting. First of all, the sun and the moon with their faces are represented in a surrealist way which defy the nature. Also, the usage of mythological, religious, or antic figures are known the be common in her surrealist paintings. For example, according to the Journal of Surrealism and the Americas, Kahlo’s What the Water Gave was exemplary of her surrealism. In this work traditional and ancient iconography, mythology and symbolism, eroticism, and botany, are all mapped out onto the legs of a female (Kahlo, as signified by her wounded right foot), who is submerged in bath water. (Mahon, 1) The vegetation and flowers, the sculptures and idols and the representation of nature are all examples of indigenous art.\n​Another topic to mention is the effect of her husband on her as a famous artist. It is even evident in the fact she was first exhibited as Mrs. Diego Riviera that she was under the shadow of her husband. In the painting, there are some clues about this fact as well. The borderline which separates Mexico and United States is has an inscription stating, “Carmen Rivera painted her portrait in 1932.” She chose her Christian name Carmen but still used the last name of her husband, which is where the irony lies.\n​I can safely state that this painting is valuable and important for various reasons. Firstly, from an artistic perspective, it contains many elements of surrealist and indigenous painting, which contribute the art itself. Also, from a feminist reading, the fact that she uses herself as her subject shows the discrimination that women had no chance to use models whereas male painters could use both male and female models back in the 19th century France. From a political reading, we could interpret this painting an indicator of our time given the situation between Mexica and the United States. Lastly, a Marxist reading would also yield interesting outcomes as for the fraternity of nations and the industrialization. Shortly, in every kind of interpretation, this painting produces valuable outcomes that can be used to improve societies in general and ourselves in particular.\nReferences\nKahlo, Frida. Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States. 1932, Philadelphia Museum of Art, United States. LATHERS, MARIE. “The Social Construction and Deconstruction of the Female Model in 19th-Century France.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 29, no. 2, University of Manitoba, 1996, pp. 23–52.\nMa, Leyuan. \u0026ldquo;Frida Kahlo\u0026rsquo;s Self-Identity: An Analysis of Self-Portrait on the Borderline​\nbetween Mexico and the United States.\u0026rdquo; Int\u0026rsquo;l J. Soc. Sci. Stud. 8 (2020): 10.\nMahon, Alyce. \u0026ldquo;The Lost Secret: Frida Kahlo and the Surrealist Imaginary.\u0026rdquo; (2011).\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/along-the-borderline-between-mexico-and-the-united-states-by-frida-kahlo/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe juxtaposition of Mexico and United States in the painting fascinated me at first glance for its representative quality. I loved the painting because of the little details such as the roots of the vegetation and the label of Ford. In general, the painting can be divided vertically, Kahlo herself representing the dividend. On the left side, the sun and moon are in the firmament in their clouds, whose interaction causes a lightning and also the left side features a ruined temple below which are some flowers, all representing Mexico. As for the right side, there is a cloud coming from a factory of Ford, along with some mechanical devices painted below. The cloud contains the flag of the United States with its stars against the moon and the sun on the left side. All of those represent the industrialization of the United States, which is presented as a negative feature.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Along the borderline between Mexico and the United States by Frida Kahlo"},{"content":"Sinuous strings Present, aureate gets it,\nWhen those agleam rays humbly hit.\nA curve, be it an arch, Laid for sure,\nUnder a fertile field, without exposure\nTo what comes under.\nVision-lover, THE gleam magnet,\nItself a treasure, to a thoft, pregnant.\nWheat field, burst into sight, sole border.\nGreeting the holy cliff, which is under.\nOh, those caves, that fresh airflow!\nLand where, lubricate wine,\nLand where, macarize mine.\nA total sculpture, holy mountain\nBorne back from Present, in the action.\nA land feigning Atlas, a land of marks\nMacarized with cries of Schatz.\nBe follow’d by the elevation,\nPluralize, if lust a distinction.\nThey posess what it takes,\nTrigger the blood, simply flows.\nFive-sided pressure, enough it is not.\nTakes a whole lot, never satisfied.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/a-glimpse-from-the-adrasan-shore-%23mypoetry/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSinuous strings Present, aureate gets it,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen those agleam rays humbly hit.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA curve, be it an arch, Laid for sure,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnder a fertile field, without exposure\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo what comes under.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVision-lover, THE gleam magnet,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eItself a treasure, to a thoft, pregnant.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWheat field, burst into sight, sole border.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGreeting the holy cliff, which is under.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOh, those caves, that fresh airflow!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLand where, lubricate wine,\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLand where, macarize mine.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A glimpse from the Adrasan shore #mypoetry"},{"content":"Reference excerpt is at the bottom of the page.\nLiterary theory and criticism have developed over the course of more than 3000 years, starting with Aristotle and even Plato and Socrates, and it took many forms based on the time period or conditions within which the theory arose. Literary theory is basically seeking an answer to why we read and produce literature and what makes a work of literature good while literary criticism is the appliance of the theory in practice to evaluate or understand a work of literature. There have been many ways to read a text throughout the history but as for Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, I will use certain methods to do a close reading into the selected 20 lines from the text. These are Platonian reading, Aristotelian reading, Horacian reading, Russian Formalism, and lastly Psychoanalytic or Freudian reading.\n​Arthur Miller was an American playwright who was born in 1915 and met his demise in 2005 so he was in a way a contemporary writer who mainly dominated the 20th century. He was extremely well known during his peak in 40s and 50s and won many awards including the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Also, he was married to Marilyn Monroe, and he was claimed to have been a member of the Communist Party with a fake name. Given that he observed the destruction of the world wars and these tumult years in the history of the United States, it is safe to state that he can be best criticized through a historical-biographical criticism. However, this is not that much possible just for these selected 20 lines.\n​Moreover, his play “Death of a Salesman” is considered as a play of illusion and distorted reality which criticizes the capitalist system and social norms. Briefly, the play features Willy, a salesman who is married to a woman named Linda and is the father of one boy and his smaller brother called Biff and Happy respectively. He criticizes his son Biff for not making any money like his peers. Also, the play melodramatizes the accounts concerning job affairs and infidelity in relationships and marriages. Therefore, in a way, the play can be considered as a general criticism of the modern world and societies. The selected lines are from the beginning of the play which can be read in multiple ways. They are as follows;\nIn a general close reading, character Linda seems to be a mediator between Willy and the sons as she tries to balance the tempers and make everyone happy but in reality, there is not such a way most of the times. This illusion she is lured in is because of the capitalist society and the unrealistic expectancies of the society from the individuals. When Willy says “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand?”, He is understating and disdaining a farm life, basically a farmer because he was programmed into thinking that the city life and business life is superior to the countryside life and farming. This is probably because of the effects industrialization and capitalism made on the individuals followed by the population shifts from villages to cities. Since then, people started to underestimate the farm life and it is apparent in the lines of Willy. Similarly, he continues saying he was all right with his jumping from job the job when he was young but he’s now older and he still does not make any money. This suggest that Biff was raised in the first place with an expectancy to look after his family or at least to himself. This is among the traditional American values defined earlier which is called “Rugged Individualism”. However, he ignores the fact that not every individual is the same and not everyone has the same expectancies from life. It is not healthful to spend one’s life with a job that he/she does not favor but elder generations are more traditional in terms of jobs, and they say a job is a job. Then Linda says, “He’s finding Himself, Willy.” This implies her motherly parental side who is there for her child no matter what condition he is in. In a way, she embraces her children as they are, not as they are after they are filtered through the society’s interpretation.\nHowever, Willy replies with a harsher comment, “Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace!” In this moment, the reader realizes the heavy burden on his shoulders put by society like a poltergeist always standing there and judging him with the success of his own son. He is apparently ashamed of his son as the word disgrace suggests. The sad part of the problem is he is not to blame, son is not to blame, but the society is to blame. He is expected to avoid what society or others think but he lives on that society, and it is not as easy as in practice to avoid what other thinks if those others are what you are also a part of. Clearly, Linda is terrified by what Willy calls her son and she is tongue-tied, just producing a “Shh” sound with an exclamation mark to emphasize how terrified she is. After this point, Willy continues to list out the issues concerning Biff and Linda is not able to give proper answers because she cannot fully face her husband but cannot also let him utter such disdaining words towards her son. Therefore, she is stuck and indecisive if these lines are carefully examined.\nWith a Platonian reading, what can be briefly said about these lines is that they are morally acceptable and have philosophic value because they simply inquire the success. Willy wants his son the be successful and making money, however, his mother wants him to give him some time so that he can find himself and find a job that suits him well rather than just following the social suppressions and ending up something he is not glad and fruitful, both for himself and both for society. This is way these lines would be accepted in a Plato’s Republic. As for Aristotle, these lines, hence the whole play, would not be acceptable as it does not carry the three unities, namely unity of action, time and place and it is not so successful to achieve a final catharsis along with not featuring a well-established tragic hero. However, these were the standards for Classical Greek tragedies, and they cannot be used to evaluate these lines. As for Horace, this text would not be perfect, but he would accept it in line with his ideas that dictate the need for short but wise deductive features within literature. He does not accept fully didactic plays or poems because they are not textbooks for learning. So, these lines would be favored by him in the sense that Linda fixates a solution to the problem of his son’s not finding himself. It is a wise statement that needs to be employed by everyone in the society to be successful as a whole.\nFrom a Russian Formalist perspective, the author should defamiliarize the reader and literariness is the most significant factor above all because it is an intrinsic school of criticism which only takes the text into account. Therefore, as we dissect the text, some peculiarities start to appear. In sixth line, Linda says “But dear, how can he make any money?” This is a rhetorical question Linda uses to avoid the actual question Willy asks. Withing this rhetorical question, however, lies her understatement and maybe disdain for her son. Eighth line also supports this because she says if her son finds himself, both the Willy and he will be happy, but she does not say if he finds himself, he will be successful and making money because she also does not believe in him. ​Psychoanalytically, in the first line, it’s Willy’s ego speaking. It tries to make sense of his failure as a family and as an individual in order not to succumb to his id. However, from the third line on, his id starts to take control pouring out his subconsciously comparisons between his son and others. His superego quickly takes the control of his mental state and he inquiries if Biff said something after he left or he apologized because it is the reasonable thing to ask with the superego in control. But, in the ninth line he again loses his temper, and his repressed emotions and ideas start to pour our as his id takes control again when he says “How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week!”\n​In short, this text has multiple layers and can be read in multiple ways if one reads between the lines and out of the box. Therefore, close reading allows the reader to dissect the text in various contexts to make sense of it. Thanks to these interpretations, literature is always afresh even it was produced thousands of years ago just like the Epic of Gilgamesh.\nWorks Cited\nDeh, Tabitha Harriet. “TO CALL IT TRAGEDY OR NOT TO CALL IT TRAGEDY: THE CULTURAL POLITICS INVOLVED.” European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 28 Jan. 2018, pp. 1–8., https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1161798. Foley, Helene P. “The Masque of Dionysus.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), vol. 110, 1980, pp. 107–133., https://doi.org/10.2307/284213. Kengor, Paul. “Arthur Miller - Communist - the American Spectator: USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator: USA News and Politics.” The American Spectator | USA News and Politics, Spectator, 11 Feb. 2019. Liu, Fuhua. “On Literary Criticism and Literary Critics.” Lecture Notes on Language and Literature, vol. 3, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1–4., https://doi.org/10.23977/langl.2020.31001. Liveley, Genevieve. “Russian Formalism.” Narratology, 2019, pp. 109–134., https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199687701.003.0006. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Bloomsbury, 2017. Miller, Michael J. “Psychoanalysis and Its Teaching.” Reading Lacan’s Écrits: From ‘The Freudian Thing’ to ‘Remarks on Daniel Lagache,’ 2019, pp. 67–103., https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429294310-3. Sokolova, A. V. “Theater in England: From Elizabethan to Restoration Theater.” The European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021, pp. 8–14., https://doi.org/10.29013/ejhss-21-6-8-14. Excerpts\n1-Willy: Figure it out. Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it. 2-Linda: Well, dear, life is a casting off. It’s always that way. 3-Willy: No, no, some people—some people accomplish something. Did Biff say anything after I went this morning? 4-Linda: You shouldn’t have criticized him, Willy, especially after he just got off thetrain. You mustn’t lose your temper with him.\n5-Willy: When the hell did I lose my temper? I simply asked him if he was making any money. Is that a criticism?\n6-Linda: But, dear, how could he make any money? 7-Willy [worried and angered]: There’s such an undercurrent in him. He became a moody man. Did he apologize when I left this morning? 8-Linda: He was crestfallen, Willy. You know how he admires you. I think if he finds himself, then you’ll both be happier and not fight any more. 9-Willy: How can he find himself on a farm? Is that a life? A farmhand? In the beginning, when he was young, I thought, well, a young man, it’s good for him to tramp around, take a lot of different jobs. But it’s more than ten years now and he has yet to make thirty-five dollars a week! 10-Linda: He’s finding himself, Willy. 11-Willy: Not finding yourself at the age of thirty-four is a disgrace! 12-Linda: Shh!\n13-Willy: The trouble is he’s lazy, goddammit!\n14-Linda: Willy, please!\n15-Willy: Biff is a lazy bum!\n16-Linda: They’re sleeping. Get something to eat. Go on down.\n17-Willy: Why did he come home? I would like to know what brought him home.\n18-Linda: I don’t know. I think he’s still lost, Willy. I think he’s very lost. 19-Willy: Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such—personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff—he’s not lazy. 20-Linda: Never.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/another-close-reading-to-arthur-millers-pulizter-winning-death-of-a-salesman/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eReference excerpt is at the bottom of the page.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLiterary theory and criticism have developed over the course of more than 3000 years, starting with Aristotle and even Plato and Socrates, and it took many forms based on the time period or conditions within which the theory arose. Literary theory is basically seeking an answer to why we read and produce literature and what makes a work of literature good while literary criticism is the appliance of the theory in practice to evaluate or understand a work of literature. There have been many ways to read a text throughout the history but as for Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”, I will use certain methods to do a close reading into the selected 20 lines from the text. These are Platonian reading, Aristotelian reading, Horacian reading, Russian Formalism, and lastly Psychoanalytic or Freudian reading.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Another Close Reading to Arthur Miller’s Pulizter Winning “Death of a Salesman"},{"content":"Reference excerpt is at the bottom of the page.\nJacques Derrida has changed the way people think about a text. He not only created a new understanding for the text, but also changed the way people interpret languages. With his deconstruction, the language became a subjective medium within which signifiers and symbols and signs dominated the vague meaning, as far as semiotics concerned. After deconstruction, the literary criticism and theory changed completely for a while, especially in the United Kingdom and United States as Derrida was counted among the 5 master theorists in the world along with Marx, Freud, Hegel and Kant. Therefore, I will try to hold a deconstructive approach throughout this paper to analyze the excerpt from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.\nArthur Miller was born in 1915 and deceased in 2005. Throughout this relatively long life, he has witnessed the destructive effects of the great depression, two world wars and the cold war along with the rise of Capitalism. He has been an active defender of the less fortunate and the lower-class working people, which is evident in his works. He did not trust the authorities as well as the human societies and their institutionalizing power. In his Death of a Salesman, he strongly criticized the abovementioned institutionalizing power of the societies, the corruption of people under the effects of Capitalism and the manifestation of all of these in individual’s inner souls and lives.\nIn the excerpt, Willy is talking about the profit he made, and Linda asks how much he has made. This is typical to lower and lower middle classes to talk about the exact amount of money made in that month in order to have a balanced and meticulously calculated finance. If they do not act careful with their money, these classes are doomed to be hungry that month. When it is considered that this play is also a criticism of Capitalism and that Arthur Miller was a communist, this dialogue has no eccentric presence here. Linda’s words “Well, it makes seventy dollars and some pennies. That’s very good.” Are noteworthy in that she is even including the pennies in her calculation and that signifies the economic situation of lower classes in a capitalist world. What is more interesting is her appreciation of this little amount of money. Another point that stands out from this conversation lies behind the Willy’s words. He says “…Otherwise I woulda broke records.” This is what keeps the lower classes preoccupied, this is what has become the demise of many nations in the past, this is what’s left in Pandora’s box when she hustled close it, this is hope. This is the hope of the lower classes that bound them to their fate.\nMoreover, after the sixth line, Willy asks to Linda “What do we owe?” First thing to mention in this question is quite interesting. Linda is the one who keeps trach of their debts. Even today, after the effective feminist theories, this would be surprising to encounter if a woman is not in the business life as well. From a feminist reading, therefore, this text would be appreciated for this along with many other features. However, from a Marxist perspective, this question is not so heartwarming. One moment, they are talking about and being glad about how much money they made, another moment, they have to consider their debts even without being completely happy with their money. This is remarkable because this family is not leading their lives other than pleasing other. Capitalism made the rich richer and made the poor poorer. They make some money and calculate it with pennies, but it is sad to see that that little amount of money is not even theirs and they will have to pay many things with it, just to make new debts. This is indeed a manifestation of the Marshall Plan, which is incarnated within the American economic system. The Marshall Plan basically the give-away of some goods by USA to less developed countries after the war to make them dependent on those goods by creating artificial needs. In the play, they talk about their brand-new refrigerator whose fan belt broke just to cause them to spend more money on it. Also, when they stated that it is brand new to the service man, he just said that is the way the refrigerator is. This refrigerator signifies the constant money flow from the poor to the rich. It is a symbol of Capitalism. Additionally, the symbolizing feature of the refrigerator is also apparent in the adjective used to describe it. Brand new. They probably had another machine which was older and not functioning perfect. However, it is safe to state from the implications and the surtext that they could go by with their older refrigerator. They could, not the society. So, they had to buy a brand-new refrigerator to please the other people, deceiving themselves that they are happy with it when they are drowning in debts. It only caused them to spend more and more money on it. Here, the refrigerator is just a symbol, but this concept can be applied to any gadget, good or asset they have to purchase just to please the expectancies of the society. What supports this notion is Linda’s words “They got the biggest ads of any of them!” and Willy’s reply “I know, it’s a fine machine. What else?” From this point, they are still distributing their money to the other gadgets, now the washing machine which will cost nine-sixty dollars and the vacuum cleaner. Then the roof. When they should be talking about some investments, some holidays, some real needs, they can only talk about how they should share the money to mollify their debts until the next month in the most optimal way. For a short period of time, they are glad that their roof was fixed well, and it does not leak but then they remember the debt of that fixation as well and this chain reaction never ceases to progress. Linda says Willy owes Frank some money for the carburetor of the car, but he replies with a denial and grumble. He says he will not pay that man, but it is a rhetoric statement he uses to deceive his mind so that he will not drown among those debts. The last line from my excerpt is Linda’s reconfirmation of the debt Willy owes to Frank because she also knows that he will pay it one way or another. Then she concludes by saying that their total debt that is due to the fifteenth of the month is a hundred and twenty dollars although the money Willy made was only seventy dollars and some pennies. Hence, they are stuck in an ocean of debts with no solution to mollify them. This may seem an interesting or strange situation at first glance but when the everyday situation of billions of lower-class people is considered, this is what Capitalism has begot. Those lower-class workers are in this situation over the course of their whole life and the Willy character is a signifier for all of them. He is the embodiment of lower - lower middle class average person with a family while Linda’s function is somehow more complicated as a mediator between the society and the family. Clearly, these lines may be interpreted falsely as a usual dialogue between a husband and a wife when the close reading practice is not implemented. However, they have more meanings than they appear as deconstruction suggests. This play is a manifesto of working-class people and should not be overlooked but should be read in a Marxist and deconstructive perspective to get the most out of it. If it is read closely and between the lines, this play has a correcting power for societies in my opinion.\nWorks Cited\nBerger, Arthur Asa. “Marxist Analysis of Material Culture.” Reading Matter, 2017, pp. 63–72., https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315128054-6. Felperin, Howard. “Deconstruction Reconstructed.” Beyond Deconstruction, 1986, pp. 104–146., https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198128960.003.0004. Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman: Play in Two Acts. Dramatists Play Service, 1980. Sardar, Ziauddin, and Van Borin Loon. “And Science (De)Constructed.” Introducing Cultural Studies: A Graphic Guide, Icon Books, London, 2015, pp. 98–99. 20 lines\n1-Willy: Well, I didn’t figure it yet, but . . .\n2-Linda: How much did you do?\n3-Willy: Well, I—I did—about a hundred and eighty gross in Providence. Well, no—it came to—roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip. 4-Linda [without hesitation]: Two hundred gross. That’s . . . [She figures.] 5-Willy: The trouble was that three of the stores were half closed for inventory in Boston. Otherwise I woulda broke records. 6-Linda: Well, it makes seventy dollars and some pennies. That’s very good. 7-Willy: What do we owe? 8-Linda: Well, on the first there’s sixteen dollars on the refrigerator— 9-Willy: Why sixteen?\n10-Linda: Well, the fan belt broke, so it was a dollar eighty. 11-Willy: But it’s brand new.\n12-Linda: Well, the man said that’s the way it is. Till they work themselves in, y’know. [They move through the wall-line into the kitchen.]\n13-Willy: I hope we didn’t get stuck on that machine. 14-Linda: They got the biggest ads of any of them!\n15-Willy: I know, it’s a fine machine. What else?\n16-Linda: Well, there’s nine-sixty for the washing machine. And for the vacuum cleaner there’s three and a half due on the fifteenth. Then the roof, you got twenty-one dollars remaining. 17-Willy: It don’t leak, does it? 18-Linda: No, they did a wonderful job. Then you owe Frank for the carburetor. 19-Willy: I’m not going to pay that man! That god- dam Chevrolet, they ought to prohibit the manufacture of that car! 20-Linda: Well, you owe him three and a half. And odds and ends, comes to around a hundred and twenty dollars by the fifteenth.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/a-close-reading-of-arthur-millers-manifesto-death-of-a-salesman/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eReference excerpt is at the bottom of the page.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJacques Derrida has changed the way people think about a text. He not only created a new understanding for the text, but also changed the way people interpret languages. With his deconstruction, the language became a subjective medium within which signifiers and symbols and signs dominated the vague meaning, as far as semiotics concerned. After deconstruction, the literary criticism and theory changed completely for a while, especially in the United Kingdom and United States as Derrida was counted among the 5 master theorists in the world along with Marx, Freud, Hegel and Kant. Therefore, I will try to hold a deconstructive approach throughout this paper to analyze the excerpt from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Close Reading of Arthur Miller’s Manifesto: Death of a Salesman"},{"content":"The reference excerpt is at the bottom of the page.\nClose Reading allows for a deeper understanding and a deeper pleasure when reading a work of literature. It is generally related to critical media literacy in terms of their pursue for the real meaning that lies behind the apparent lines. In Critical Media Literacy, one should compare multiple sources to validate the reliability of a news along with other techniques. Similarly, in order to do a successful close reading, one should be able to compare the lines and read between the lines, considering the text as a whole and dissecting it. In this way, the hidden messages can be unearthed. The internal logic in a text must be fulfilled to satisfy the reader experience. Therefore, I will be dissecting and analyzing a small section -20 lines- of the play but it will account for the text as a whole. Also, I chose the opening part of the play as it is suggestive enough of what to expect from the play in later parts.\n​Arthur Miller is one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century who was born in 1915 and was awarded a Pulitzer Price. His legacy will without doubt live forever defying aging and time because they deal with the social realities and the nature of people that all of humanity possessed here and there. His inclination to communism rendered him as a critic of the capitalism that climbed towards its peak in the 20th century, and he wittingly criticized capitalism and the inner nature of people with successful allegories.\n​One of his greatest achievements, “The Crucible” is a perfect example where he allegorically criticizes the inherent evil nature of humanity and the superstitious practices held by people hundreds of years ago. This play is held in the past, 1600s, however, it completely speaks to today as well because those superstitious beliefs and false accusations did not just completely disappear, they just transformed into something else and even embedded into the allegedly modern and civilized systems and laws humanity today implements and enforces. In the play, set in Salem, Massachusetts in the 17th century, Parris catches some girls, including his son and niece, dancing in a forest. When the play starts, this has already happened, and he is ducking beside a bed in which his daughter Betty lies sick. People suspect that it is about witchcraft and so much intrigue starts as the play progresses. It comes to such a point that whomsoever Abigail names in the court, they are executed for involvement in witchcraft and dealing with Satan.\n​These are based on the real accidents that happened in the town of Salem in 1962 and 1963. It is called Salem Witch Trails and more than two hundred people were named to involve in witchcraft and some of which were executed. These events also progressed as in the play, in the court hearings, someone names others to have involved in witchcraft and those named are executed.\n​The play begins with Abigail’s informing her uncle Parris about the presence of Susanna from a doctor called Dr. Griggs. As the reader has no context about witchcraft, it is possible to think that Betty is sick in a medical sense and there is nothing suspicious or supernatural up to this point. However, Parris replies with “Oh? The Doctor. Let her come, let her come. He says oh! And he rises, repeats his words. All of these suggest that he is excited about Susanna’sarrival in an intriguing way. When read with context, it can be assumed that these lines suggest he is expecting a confirmation from the doctor about the absence of the witchcraft, but it is not correct because without context, it is not apparent. Being excited about the word from a doctor is completely normal. Therefore, there still is nothing unusual in the course of the play. Then, it is revealed that the doctor could not find any treatment or cure for Betty’s sickness and the doctor suspects unnatural causes for the sickness, and this is where the reader is introduced to witchcraft. Parris strictly denies the unnatural causes and looks for excuses. This denial phenomenon may have caused from 2 reasons. First, it is a natural response for human beings to rationalize and deny something that they cannot understand or that seems unnatural at the first glance, and this is studied under the fantasy genre. Nonetheless, the lines suggest the other reason, which is the reputation of Parris and the disgrace along with punishments that arise from witchcraft in the society of that period. Those were the times of honor and people were nothing without their names. Even in this play, there is a part in the play where a character named Proctor accepts to be executed rather than losing his name, which is the only thing he has at that point of the play towards the ending.\n​\n​Afterwards, Abigail says that all the rumor about this sickness is witchcraft and informs her uncle that there are lots of people downstairs at their door waiting for an explanation and confrontation from Parris. This is ironic that Abigail suggests him to go down and talk to them when she herself is to be responsible for the events, but the reader does not know about it other than she was dancing in the middle of a forest with a bunch of girls. This is enough to suspect there really is something unnatural going on. He rhetorically satirizes her proposal asking what he should tell the people, should he say that he discovered the girls dancing in a forest? Betty tries to seem confident and innocent saying that they were just dancing and there was no involvement in witchcraft, but things get to become like a criminal psychology from this point on. The follow-up question of Parris also defends this idea as he does not believe her confession and interrogates her again asking what they were really doing in the forest. She quickly comes up with another lie saying that she faded out because of the sudden appearance of Paris. However, in this point, reader has the knowledge that even a doctor is spending a considerable amount of time to find a cure for Betty’s condition, but he is not able to, therefore, reader can know that it is not just a simple fading out.\n​From this point on, Parris just ignores her answer and awaits a genuine confession of the real account of the events happened in the forest as he says he has enemies in town, and they will eventually learn the truth. He wants her to tell him beforehand that she communicated with Satan and some spirits doing witchcraft. Before this confession, he will not face the out standers. He emphasizes many times that he has enemies in town, but Abigail does not seem to have much of a care about them to an extent that she confesses this wicked deed she has been involved as she very well knows that the town will not accept her as a witch, and she will be executed.\n​From this close reading, it is apparent that in those times, people sometimes had to lie about what they do even if it may cost the lives of others. This witchcraft allegory is a good example for the extrajudicial executions happened back in 17th century. The reader can deduct many more meanings behind this particular text that can be applied into today’s law systems and societies. Another example for a similar theme would be Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” in the sense of superstitions and their horrible outcomes along with the darkness in man’s heart.\nReferences\n“Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: Witchcraft and Mob Hysteria in America.” Mobs, 2012, pp. 363–382., https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004216822_018. Langston, David. The Crucible, Arthur Miller. Longman, 2013. Van Engen, Abram C. “The Salem Witch Trials.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.139. Text\nABIGAIL: Uncle? Susanna Wallcott‘s here from Dr. Griggs. PARRIS: Oh? The Doctor. (Rising.) Let her come, let her come. ABIGAIL: Come in Susanna.\n(Susanna Walcott, a little younger than Abigail, enters.) PARRIS: What does the doctor say, child? SUSANNA: Dr. Griggs he bid me come and tell you, Reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books. PARRIS: Then he must search on. SUSANNA: Aye, sir, he have been searchin‘ his books since he left you, sir, but he bid me tell you, that you might look to unnatural things for the cause of it. PARRIS: No-no. There be no unnatural causes here. Tell him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mister Hale will surely confirm that. Let him look to medicine, and put out all thought of unnatural causes here. There be none. SUSANNA: Aye, sir. He bid me tell you. PARRIS: Go directly home and speak nothin‘ of unnatural causes. SUSANNA: Aye, sir, I pray for her. (Goes out.) ABIGAIL: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you‘d best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor‘s packed with people, sir.\u0026ndash;I‘ll sit with her. PARRIS: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?! ABIGAIL: Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it. But they‘re speakin‘ of witchcraft; Betty‘s not witched. PARRIS: Abigail, I cannot go before the congregation when I know you have not been open with me. What did you do with her in the forest? ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there‘s the whole of it. PARRIS: Child. Sit you down. Now look you, child-if you trafficked with spirits in the forest, I must know it, for surely my enemies will, and they‘ll ruin me with it\u0026hellip; Abigail, do you understand that I have many enemies? ABIGAIL: I know it, Uncle. PARRIS: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit. Do you understand that? ABIGAIL: I think so, sir.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/a-close-reading-of-arthur-millers-crucible/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eThe reference excerpt is at the bottom of the page.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClose Reading allows for a deeper understanding and a deeper pleasure when reading a work of literature. It is generally related to critical media literacy in terms of their pursue for the real meaning that lies behind the apparent lines. In Critical Media Literacy, one should compare multiple sources to validate the reliability of a news along with other techniques. Similarly, in order to do a successful close reading, one should be able to compare the lines and read between the lines, considering the text as a whole and dissecting it. In this way, the hidden messages can be unearthed. The internal logic in a text must be fulfilled to satisfy the reader experience. Therefore, I will be dissecting and analyzing a small section -20 lines- of the play but it will account for the text as a whole. Also, I chose the opening part of the play as it is suggestive enough of what to expect from the play in later parts.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Close Reading of Arthur Miller’s Crucible"},{"content":"Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” is a piano suite composed under the effect of musical impressionism. As one of the basic elements of music, the rhythm used in the suite is irregular and does not repeat itself. Instead, it flows smoothly but also unexpectedly which defies the conventional ways of listening to music. Secondly, the harmony in the suite accounts for the unexpectedness created by the irregular and ever-increasing rhythm of the suite. So, along with other musical features such as timbres and textures, the song uses these two elements to give an overall impression of a moonlight scene.\nAs for the mood of the song, it is relaxing at the first listening. However, with a more attentive ear, it feels thrilling after some point because of the increasing rhythm. But it is a kind of thrill that you can find relax in it. This oxymoronic “thrillingly relax” mood is achieved through the conflict of an irregular rhythm and a smoothly flowing harmony. Also, it makes the line between reality and fantasy for the listener as it takes them to a “perfect setting of a moonlight depicted through music”. With this regard, the mood of the song can also be interpreted as somehow transcendental. Furthermore, this song can be regarded as both Apollonian and Dionysian for various reasons. First of all, it is, in a way, experimental and uses notes to create a scene of moonlight. This is a logical and even scientific approach towards the art of music. Secondly and moreover, the song is too sentimental, and the song take the person to an aethereal world. This supernatural effect and the quality of being sentimental can also render the song as a Dionysian piece of suite with all of its irrationality. Also, this song belongs to a school known as musical impressionism. Impressionism in arts can broadly be defined as a school which seeks an overall impression of the paintings. Namely, the artist uses some techniques such as blurring the background or manipulating the light so that the viewers do not pick one aspect of the painting to adore but gets an overall impression of the painting. In this sense, Clair de Lune fits the definition in that it is harmonic despite the irregularities and this harmony forces listeners to have an overall impression of the song rather than focusing to a part of it.\n​However, the fact that this song can be classified as an impressionist work as in the arts does not mean that the classifications in art and music correspond to each other in every occasion. Different disciplines have their own distinct qualities and techniques and even if they fit the general framework of a school of art, their detailed principles will not fit into the categorization. For example, impressionist paintings make use of the colors to create their impressionist effect and in musical impressionism, the timbres of music are associated with the colors in impressionism in arts. However, this method tries to bypass this classification problem, timbres cannot account for the real colors in art. Therefore, I hold the opinion that academicians are inclined to classify in every discipline with the same frameworks, which is not a promising act at all.\nReferences\nBrynside, R. (1980). Musical impressionism: The early history of the term. The Musical Quarterly, LXVI(4), ​\n522–537. https://doi.org/10.1093/mq/lxvi.4.522 Matthys, N. (2020). Impressionism: A Comparison of the Stylistic Characteristics of the Movement in\n​Music and the Visual Arts (Doctoral dissertation).\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/claude-debussys-clair-de-lune-and-musical-impressionism/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eClaude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” is a piano suite composed under the effect of musical impressionism. As one of the basic elements of music, the rhythm used in the suite is irregular and does not repeat itself. Instead, it flows smoothly but also unexpectedly which defies the conventional ways of listening to music. Secondly, the harmony in the suite accounts for the unexpectedness created by the irregular and ever-increasing rhythm of the suite. So, along with other musical features such as timbres and textures, the song uses these two elements to give an overall impression of a moonlight scene.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” and Musical Impressionism"},{"content":"Classical Greek tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy are separated by roughly 2000 years, and they still share some common characteristics despite the huge differences between them with the improvements in drama. The reason they are quite different has some significant bases such as the purpose of the theatre, the structure of the theatre itself, and the time periods in which the plays are performed. First of all, Greek tragedy started out as rituals made for the sake of Dionysus. “From the earliest times Greeks worshipped Dionysus in a theatrical form -through masks, costumes, miracle plays, music and dance.” (Foley 1) As a result, the tragedies were highly religious with their choruses singing songs to praise gods. Quite the opposite, the Elizabethan tragedies were free from the effects of religions and thanks to which, their sole purpose was to entertain people and make a profit out of this sector.\nSecondly, the structures in which the Greek tragedies performed were huge amphitheaters that could seat up to 20.000 people. These two myriad numbers of people could, of course, not see or hear the actors in detail and to minimize this inability, the actors wore stilts, huge masks and vibrantly colored costumes. The whispers and complex dialogues could not be implemented easily and there was also the unity of action, time, and place. This unity limited the play with one main plot and action that happens in just one place within 24 hours, or within a daytime. As for the Elizabethan tragedies, they were performed in closed buildings with an open ceiling, there still was no artificial illuminating. However, these playhouses were much smaller compared to those of Greeks and there was a class distinction inside the buildings. The poor used to stand afoot under any kind of weather conditions including rain or heavy sunlight in a place called pit and they were called groundlings while the upper and middle class were seated under roofs. Also, the small capacity of these theaters allowed the playwrights to write more complex tragedies because they now could employ whispers and detailed gestures that could easily be heard and seen by the close audience.\nTherefore, although both of these bear the name of tragedy, they were quite different from one another because so much changed during those 2000 years that separate them. These changes include religious changes, scientific advancements, the changes in ideologies, the changes in politics and more, all of which lie within the center of drama because these factors make up societies. Lastly, the aim of the tragedy shifted from achieving a catharsis to even satirizing politics and governments, though the latter has its own specific form called “satirical drama”.\nReferences\nBarkas, Nikos. “The Contribution of the Stage Design to the Acoustics of Ancient Greek Theatres.” Acoustics, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 337–353., https://doi.org/10.3390/acoustics1010018. Deh, Tabitha Harriet. “TO CALL IT TRAGEDY OR NOT TO CALL IT TRAGEDY: THE CULTURAL POLITICS INVOLVED.” European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 28 Jan. 2018, pp. 1–8., https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1161798. Foley, Helene P. “The Masque of Dionysus.” Transactions of the American Philological Association (1974-), vol. 110, 1980, pp. 107–133., https://doi.org/10.2307/284213. Sokolova, A. V. “Theater in England: From Elizabethan to Restoration Theater.” The European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021, pp. 8–14., https://doi.org/10.29013/ejhss-21-6-8-14.\n","permalink":"https://literaconite.com/review/a-comparison-between-classical-greek-tragedy-and-elizabethan-tragedy/","summary":"\u003cp\u003eClassical Greek tragedy and Elizabethan tragedy are separated by roughly 2000 years, and they still share some common characteristics despite the huge differences between them with the improvements in drama. The reason they are quite different has some significant bases such as the purpose of the theatre, the structure of the theatre itself, and the time periods in which the plays are performed. \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst of all, Greek tragedy started out as rituals made for the sake of Dionysus. “From the earliest times Greeks worshipped Dionysus in a theatrical form -through masks, costumes, miracle plays, music and dance.” (Foley 1) As a result, the tragedies were highly religious with their choruses singing songs to praise gods. Quite the opposite, the Elizabethan tragedies were free from the effects of religions and thanks to which, their sole purpose was to entertain people and make a profit out of this sector.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"A Comparison between Classical Greek Tragedy and Elizabethan Tragedy"}]