Probably, a contemporary consumer of comics would be disappointed if we proposed to him the reading of what was the seed of comics in the 18th century.
Han Kang explores memory and silence in literature through her work. “We Do Not Part” and the historical account of the Jeju Massacre.
In my personal opinion, one of the best parts of living in a multicultural city that welcomes with open arms immigrants from all over the world is the chance one gets at experiencing an incredibly broad variety of different cultures, as almost every immigrant tends to take some parts of their homeland—be it something tangible, like traditional celebrations or national foods, or something more elusive and obscure, like ways of thinking and unspoken culture codes—into their new home.
The primary function of the capitalist system is not to encourage critical thinking or promote self-reflection among individuals, but rather to enforce obedience through dogmatic ideologies such as religion and nationalism. In this context, the working class—often referred to as the proletariat—becomes "dependent on the system" almost as if it were a result of Stockholm Syndrome. The proletariat, conditioned to obey the dominant forces, falls under the control of a system that exploits their labor. However, when the proletariat begins to think critically and gain clarity, they will realize that they do not need the bourgeoisie, and in fact, the bourgeoisie is dependent on them. The system seeks to prevent this realization, as it aims to protect the bourgeoisie, which can be seen as parasitic in its dependence on the labor of the working class.
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| In 1910, Leo Tolstoy stood on the stairs leading to the balcony, holding a letter in his left hand, Russia |
When you write an entry in your diary, what do you usually write about? Do you expound on the secret thoughts and feelings that have filled the landscape of your mind during the day? Or do you just note matter-of-factly, “Slept badly. Finished the project at work. Meeting Monica for dinner”? When thinking about the world’s great writers, one would probably expect their diaries to be more of the former—highly poetic, intricate, and deep. However, that is not always the case. One notable example would be Leo Tolstoy, who kept a diary that resembled more a highly detailed logbook of his mundane endeavors than a complex literary product of a genius mind. But why would someone like Tolstoy—a wizard with words, one of the most acclaimed writers of all time—keep such a plain, non-literary diary?
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Dreams, arguably, are one of the biggest mysteries of humankind. For centuries people have been fascinated by our extraordinary ability to experience things, at times almost corporeally, in a state of sleep. This mystery has produced hundreds of possible explanations of why we dream, what our dreams mean, and how they come to be—from beliefs and superstitions of ancient Egyptians to the latest discoveries of neuroscience. In the modern world, many might be inclined to think that the innovative scientific conclusions are the ultimate truth; however, as far as history is concerned, it is very likely that a couple of centuries from now our current science-based convictions regarding the nature of dreams will be seen as ideas just as far-fetched and archaic as those of the ancient Romans seem to us.
Eliza Phelp was born in 1748 to a prosperous Plymouth wine merchant. As his only daughter, she received an adequate education and married Mr Parsons, a turpentine distiller and moved to Stonehouse. During the American Revolutionary War, he lost two of his ships which were seized by the colonists. The family moved to London where their house and goods were destroyed by fire. Mr Parsons subsequently suffered a stroke and died 3 years later, leaving a wife and eight children. Like fellow author Charlotte Smith, she began to write as a way of supporting her family. Eliza Parsons published the Castle of Wolfenbach in 1793.
Ann Radcliffe wrote A Sicilian Romance in 1790 the second of her early gothic novels. The main protagonist is Julia although her brother Ferdinand also features prominently in the book, an aspect that will be discarded in later female-centred gothic novels. Julia wishes to marry Count de Vereza but her father insists on her marrying the odious Duke de Luovo. When she tries to elope with the Count, Mazzini kills him and Julia consents to joining a convent rather than marrying. These were the only two options for a woman whose desire conflicted with those in power. Hoeveler suggests a convent is an attractive option being an all-female space, apart from men, who are seen as inherently violent. This may be true of her earlier works, but not of later books such as The Italian, where the convent can be administered by a malevolent abbess.
Never skipping
We’re nearly through the first month of 2021. And even if most of us want to completely forget about the year gone by, that doesn’t mean we have to stop reflecting on its events. In a bit of positive news, or more like someone doing something wonderfully creative, we meet Charlie Goodall. Over the course of last year, the artist and designer – originally from Hemel Hempstead and currently based in south London – made a mask a day under the project title of The Moving Face.
Horace Walpole was the son of Robert Walpole and sought to escape the politics which he said had destroyed his father. He published the Castle of Otranto, A Gothic Story in 1764 claiming it was a translation of a text found in the library of a catholic family and printed in Naples in 1529. It was initially published anonymously but after a successful reception, Walpole added a second preface where he acknowledged authorship. The idea of presenting the author as an editor was a common device as it gave the impression of authenticity. It also protected the author from a critical reception of the work. Originality was seen as part of individualism, which Kilgour argues creates anxiety about influence and in turn a rivalry between past and present. Identifying yourself with other authors was seen as a way of counteracting competition and individualism. By including the word gothic, he was creating a new type of romance, a genre for others to follow. The term gothic, in the decades after the glorious revolution, was a category within the debates about the economy, politics and social change. It was regarded as a distant non-specific period of ignorance and superstition from which a civilised nation had arisen and a constitutional purity and political virtue from which the nation was alienation.
For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.
(Utopia, Tomas More)
Wollstonecraft wrote ‘The Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ in 1792, two years after Burke’s ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ and three years after the Revolution itself in 1789. It was also before the Reign of Terror in 1793 and her views were no doubt shaped by the optimism which drove the revolution.
Endling follows three unforgettable characters in Ukraine: teenage sisters Nastia and Solomiya, who work at a romance-tour agency, and Yeva, a scientist traveling the countryside in a beat-up RV to save endangered snails—especially Lefty, the last known left-coiling snail. The sisters’ plan to kidnap a dozen Western bachelors to lure back their missing activist mother quickly unravels when the Russian invasion erupts. What begins as a comedic story turns into a powerful metafictional exploration of loss, survival, and the cost of cultural extinction.
