M Ali's English Literature Notes

The post-colonial readers attempt to give a revisionist reading to the literary pieces written during the colonial period. Shakespeare's The Tempest, easily falls into this category because it reflects a "colonial ethos" and it premiered two years after England’s first colonization of Virginia in 1609. Richard P Wheeler ( 2001: 320) comments, Many recent readings have rigorously emphasized the importance of the play’s relation to the colonialist enterprise. (p.320)  The play, in the form of travel literature of its time, gives the accounts of a tempest off the Bermudas that separated and nearly wrecked a fleet of colonial ships sailing from Plymouth to Virginia. “The English colonial project seems to be on Shakespeare’s mind throughout The Tempest, as almost every character, from the lord Gonzalo to the drunk Stephano, ponders how he would rule the island on which the play is set if he were its king.” ( wikipedia ) We can now have a glace at the definitio

Shakespeare’s treatment of woman characters in Hamlet   is one of the most debatable issues in the study of Shakespeare. Because, critics like Shapiro ( 1991: 98) goes so far as to claim that Shakespeare was 'the noblest feminist of them all' (p.98) But it is historically incorrect to regard him as a feminist: actually he 'wrote for a male entertainment'. In Hamlet, he shows not only the contemporary patriarchal attitude to women but also the vile characteristics of women. Shakespeare technically reaches Hamlet to such a deplorable psychological state that we are somehow prepared to accept the generalization of vile nature of women. Ophelia, it would seem, wholly at the mercy of the male figures within her life, is certainly a victim figure. He is used by the King, his father, his brother and even by Hamlet, her lover. Courtni Crump Wright ( 1993:41)) rightly   comments, Ophelia in many ways is a pawn in this play. (p.41) Ophelia’s brother Leartes

I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you. This is the starting of "Song of Myself", a poem by Walt Whitman included in his work Leaves of Grass . In this poem Whitman seems to put himself in the center, but the "self" of the poem's speaker - the "I" of the poem - should not be limited to or confused with the person of the historical Walt Whitman. This is an expansive persona exploding the conventional boundaries of the self.           A clear understanding of the opening lines is very important to know the nature of self in Song of Myself. The first and second lines might give us a notion of egotism and megalomania. As John Updike (1978:33) notes that the "I" and "myself" are the "superb subjects" of the poem, the "exultant egotism which only an American could have voiced." But when we come to the third line,

There is an obvious debate if Camus is an existentialist and his The Stranger or The Outsider promotes existentialism, because Camus himself disclaimed the label of being an existentialist. Yet we will not be discouraged to evaluate existentialism in The Outsider : very few "existentialist" philosophers were willing to accept the label of "existentialist," starting with "The Father of Existentialism," Søren Kierkegaard . There are two classes of existentialism: the atheistic or secular existentialism and Christian existentialism. Since Camus is an Atheist, he must fall into the category the atheistic existentialism which is seen as a revolt, rebellion, or dissatisfaction against the suffering in human’s life. Sartre, the pioneer of atheistic existentialism, states his famous proposition, "existence precedes essence", ( Quoted in Ahmed, 113) This statement has deep implication to some basic themes of Atheistic Existentialism: Atheis