Oxford Dictionary describes myth as ‘A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events’; or ‘A widely held but false belief or idea’. In contrast, Roland Barthes in his book ‘Mythologies’ analyze myth semiologically and describes it as…
Author: Serra Akcay
Feminism, Stereotypes and Misogyny: Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
Throughout history, women stereotypes have gone into various changes. Basically, domestic women turned into femme fatale. These changes were supported by the Civil Rights Movement and Feminism. Women started to be regarded as individuals and gained rights; therefore, strength. As an anti-feminist, Ken Kesey responded to these changes in the society through his writing. In…
Intertexuality in “Jane Eyre” and “Wide Sargasso Sea”
Postmodernism is a late 20th-century style and concept which takes a step further from modernism. In the postmodern understanding, the meanings of truth and reality cannot be fixed. The fundamental elements for postmodernism are the diversity, plurality and difference. It is like an anti-thesis that neutralize any other theory. It challenges standard norms and conventions…
Literature and the Unconscious: The Unconscious in Julio Cortazar’s story ‘Axolotl’
Understanding the human mind has always been important in literature especially after the wave of Formalism. The meaning became more important and layers of meaning in texts were discovered. Texts were started to be studied not only for their structure but also for context. Literary criticism is aided by psychology in this way. Freud’s theory…
“Is this the real life or just a fantasy?” on Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’; Marc Redfield’s Virtual Trauma: The Idiom of 9/11
The catastrophic event and its real and virtual traumatic effect overwhelms one’s ability to survive. It is not expected, people are unprepared for it and desperate to prevent it. Everytime the scenes are replayed, anxiety and fear grows and make one feel numb. In my opinion, media, photography and cinema manipulate one’s feelings and truths,…
Panopticon and Social Media: Are you inside the tower or the cell?
I do not know how often you use or engage in social media but I have a question for you:
Do you feel like you are being watched?
I do; and, it is very frightening that in a way this is not only a feeling but reality.
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