GIFs would not have the presence or function they do without popular culture and the spread of that culture through the internet. Part of the reason that GIFs can potently describe someone’s reaction or feeling in a conversation is that are pulled from movies and TV shows that viewers are familiar with. It is not… Read More GIFs and Internalizing Popular Culture

Growing up I loved to draw. I spent hours drawing things in front of me just as I perceived them. When I got to high school and my art teacher put Picasso’s drawing of Igor Stravinsky in front of the class upside down and told us to draw it, everything in me resisted. In my… Read More Perspective in Pieces

Duffy’s book, The World’s Wife, offers us the opportunity to look at narratives, myths, and historical persons and events through the eyes of the otherwise overlooked. In reading The World’s Wife, one has the opportunity to contemplate the women behind the narratives we tell, whether they are real or accurate. Much of the world’s histories… Read More Looking Through Another Lens

In her poem, Whoever She Was, Duffy describes a woman whose identity has been swallowed up in her duties as a wife, mother, and home-maker. The poem is filled with imagery that communicates to the reader how the subject’s children view her and what they expect of her. They see me always as a flickering figure… Read More Whoever She Was, She Used to be Mine

In his book Marxism and Literature, Raymond Williams introduces the idea of a “structure of feeling.” This term is part of a cultural theory, referring to social experiences that combine to create a tangible feeling or culture. This theory applies to close reading of texts, and in the case of Moretti’s research, novels, as well… Read More Applying a Structure of Feeling to Quantitative Analysis

“She parted the curtains; she looked. Oh, but how surprising! –in the room opposite the old lady stared straight at her!” (Source) An obvious theme throughout Mrs. Dalloway is that of death and time. The clocks ringing the hour throughout the book are reminders that time is passing, but when the Bradshaws bring news of… Read More The Old Lady Staring Back

When I express my love for jazz music and my desire to spend all my time in a jazz club to others, few understand why. To most, jazz is just another musical genre, and not one that is very popular these days. For me, it is much more than choosing music that is aesthetically appealing.… Read More Building a New Humanities