Literature – Page 6 of 6

To Kill a Mockingbird: Necessary Discomfort

5Dec

By Bethany GoodingNo Comments

To Kill a Mockingbird: Necessary Discomfort

Set during the 1930s Great Depression in Alabama, the classic American novel tells the story of a white lawyer, Atticus Finch, who helps to defend a black man who has been falsely accused of raping a white woman. The racial theme has made To Kill a Mockingbird one of the most banned classics in America. The recent banning of the book from a public school in Mississippi is simply one in a long line of challenges the book has faced since being published in 1960. The book has been banned for various reasons including the use of language in the book such as ‘nigger’ and ‘whore’, for containing adult themes such as sexual intercourse and rape and for ‘conflicting with the values of the community’. However, the most recent reasoning for the banning of the novel certainly deserved the backlash...

1Nov

By Helena KeebleNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Murder He Wrote

The Norwich Crime Writing Festival brought together a wide range of authors, from Martina Cole, to Arne Dahl. One of the key speakers, bestselling author Anthony Horowitz, discussed his new book The Word is Murder. The event was full of wonderful insights into this new book and his writing career. Horowitz initially became famous for his award winning spy series, Alex Rider, and his productions of Midsomer Murders and Foyles War. Horowitz has written some remarkable literature in a wide variety of genres. However, at The Norwich Crime Writing Festival, he admitted that since he’s “sixty-two now, it’s time to quiet down” from writing multiple genres and stick to crime writing. The Word is Murder evolved from the idea to write a book which explores the process of writing, originally ca...

Medea: a monster, a mother, or a murderer?

13Jun

By Victoria BastableNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV, Literature, Theatre & Performance

Medea: a monster, a mother, or a murderer?

‘A bride of hate to me and death / Tigress, not woman’ (Euripides, Medea) Medea: a monster, a mother, or a murderer? Victoria Bastable reviews her week with By Jove Theatre company and how their ‘Season of Violent Women’ has made her question the dehumanisation of violent women in culture from Ancient Greece to the 21st century. I Googled ‘violent women in art’ and the results were dominated by articles titled ‘Violence Against Women in Art’. To me, this demonstrates how in art we often attempt to distance women from being portrayed as the perpetrators of violence, perhaps because of cultural expectations of the ‘ideal woman’ as either the nurturing mother or passive victim. But what about the violent women who do appear in art and literature? By Jove Theatre Company have been a...

6Mar

By Georgia BeithNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Film & TV, Literature

Historical Fact or Fiction?

Georgia Beith discusses whether historical fiction should be more accurate. A piece of historical fiction, whether that be in the form of a book or a period drama, is one of life’s ultimate guilty pleasures. And as a student, especially a history student like myself, it’s not the most respectable thing in the world to admit that you like them. They’re riddled with anachronisms and inaccuracies that make a lot of people look down on them but that doesn’t diminish their entertainment factor. Perhaps as someone who studies the past it should bother me that Anne Boleyn probably didn’t consider sleeping with her brother in order to produce a child, or that Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ wasn’t likely to be heard at medieval jousting tournaments. But it doesn’t, though there are a number of p...

20Dec

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Diary of an Ordinary Woman Reviewed

Background reading for your course can equal enjoyment, writes Beth Carr. In the midst of a reading-heavy degree it can be a struggle to find time and energy to delve into books for leisure, but making an effort to do so can be captivating and refreshing. This is exactly how I felt reading Diary of an Ordinary Woman, a book retrieved from my bookshelf after years of sitting there, since my mum passed it on to me as something I might enjoy. She was certainly not wrong and this is a book I would thoroughly recommend to anyone. Charting one woman's life through the twentieth century, Margaret Forster's novel reproduces extracts from the diaries of Millicent King, dating from 1913 to 1990. At first it was an ideal choice to relate to my course on twentieth century women but my interest s...

Book Review: Isaac Asimov, Foundation Series

6May

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Book Review: Isaac Asimov, Foundation Series

So its revision season. You haven’t got time to read for pleasure and even if you did, do you want to get into a new book? And which one?! This was my line of reasoning, but then the revision comes and you realise you should take a break, and how better than to just sit down and throw yourself into some fictional world. Preferably one in which exams and essays don’t exist. Asimov’s Foundation series fills the niche. Primarily three books, the series extends to whatever point you can read to. All of Asimov’s books are linked in one way or another, and yet each is a stand-alone novel – perfect if you might have to abandon reading to some essay deadline. So the setting – the Milky Way galaxy, a mere 20,000 years in the future. Earth is just a legend and instead humanity has melded all of the ...

26Feb

By Tanya KlyasovaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Top three books of the month

With so many books being published each month, it is difficult to find the right ones. To help you, here`s my top three books to go straight to your reading list: The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins A debut psychological thriller, which will grab you from the first page! Rachel takes the same train every morning and on her way observes the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them and gives them names.Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. The Secret Wisdom of the Earth, by Christopher Scotton Another debut novel, emotional and inspiring! After witnessing the death of his younger brother, 14-year-old Kevi...

28Jan

By Tanya KlyasovaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Five books you should read in 2015

Fantasy novels, YA literature, adventure stories, horrors, unexpected comebacks and exciting debuts- make sure you are prepared with a new shelf for 2015! Here are five books you should not miss: 1. J.K.Rowling's - Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination Potterheads- rejoice- our queen still has a lot to tell us! In April 14 her Harvard Commencement Speech from 2009 is coming out as an illustrated book. In it, Rowling discusses the power of imagination and the benefit of failure in her usual fun and inspirational way… and she definitely knows a thing or two about failing and imagination! Moreover- all the proceeds of the book will go to charity- 90% to the Lumos charity and 10% as financial aid for Harvard`s students! Getting advice from Rowling ...

7Mar

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Who are we to rewrite Jane Austen?

Six contemporary authors have been selected by the Austen Project to ‘update' or ‘reimagine' Jane Austen's timeless stories in the modern world. The Austen Project launched the first of Austen's six famous novels, Sense and Sensibility, reimagined by the contemporary romantic writer Joanna Trollope, in October 2013. Everybody is talking about it – and everybody is asking questions. Should we reimagine Jane Austen for a 21st Century reader? Why are we rewriting Jane Austen? And indeed the most controversial question: who are we to rewrite Jane Austen? Literary critic Ellen Moers declares that, ‘all of Jane Austen's opening paragraphs, and the best of her first sentences, have money in them.' Austen opens Sense and Sensibility by establishing the Dashwood family estate and relationships in ...

7Mar

By Laura DenhamNo Comments

Creative Writing, Culture & Literature, Literature

Creative Writing at Royal Holloway

This month Royal Holloway's career service offers a chance to meet three distinguished graduates and students in the writing industry. Charlotte Cole met up with them to learn about their achievements… THE AUTHOR Currently studying at Royal Holloway, Georgia Mannering published her first book Roses in November, and already has her next release of The Spotty Dotty Daffodil this spring. She speaks with The Orbital about how she achieved it all. You've just written a picture book, The Spotty Dotty Daffodil, what were your influences for this? Spotty Dotty is about social acceptance and self-confidence. I actually wrote it when I was nine (although the story was very different back then and *cough* very bad). Then I revisited it when I was teamed with Bethany Straker, a brilliant illus...