Contrary to popular belief, T. S. Eliot did not come up with the phrase ‘objective correlative’. However, he did co-opt that expression to describe one of his most famous and influential theories of literature, specifically in relation to Shakespeare’s work. What did Eliot mean by ‘objective correlative’? In short, the phrase ‘objective correlative’ means a
Literature
July 21, 2021, 1:19pm The pandemic has prompted, among other things, a slew of relocations. Some of those relocations (ie. to your mom’s house) have proved, or will prove, temporary; others, encouraged by new work-from-home policies, may become permanent. Or maybe you’re one of those people who looked around at the flailing world last year
Although it is often conflated in the popular imagination with the much-loved musical it inspired, George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play Pygmalion is somewhat different from the romantic comedy My Fair Lady. Let’s take a closer look at Shaw’s play and some of its prominent themes. Before we offer an analysis of Pygmalion, though, let’s briefly
July 20, 2021, 2:31pm Dumani Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela and a writer himself, is auctioning two of his own books as NFTs to raise money for My Minimalist, his mental heath care web app. I Dream of Kemet and Young and On The Run from Apartheid will be listed on the NFT trade platform
Oscar Wilde’s short story ‘Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime’ appeared in the same year that Sherlock Holmes made his debut appearance in print, and curiously, both stories feature a man with an uncanny ability to read the details of people’s lives from very small details. But unlike Conan Doyle’s consulting detective, Mr Podgers the cheiromancer in
July 20, 2021, 1:48pm Shine the chainmail and sharpen the broadswords because the trailer for Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel—a broody historical epic of betrayal and vengeance based on Eric Jager’s 2004 nonfiction book The Last Duel: A True Story of Trial by Combat in Medieval France and starring Adam Driver, Matt Damon, Killing Eve’s
Although it is not his most famous soliloquy from the play, Hamlet’s ‘’Tis now the very witching time of night’ speech, which brings Act 3 Scene 2 to a close, is notable for the imagery Hamlet uses as he prepares to go and speak to his mother, Gertrude. Indeed, as the very phrase ‘witching time
July 19, 2021, 2:21pm Some book news for the royal watchers out there: Prince Harry is publishing a memoir with Penguin Random House in late 2022. According to the press release, the book will be “the definitive account of the experiences, adventures, losses, and life lessons that have helped shape him.” The Prince himself had
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot is a poem full of famous lines. Its opening words, ‘April is the cruellest month’, are among the most famous opening lines in all of poetry, while later on in the poem references to being shown fear ‘in a handful of dust’ and ‘a heap of broken images’
July 19, 2021, 12:47pm Since January 20th of this year, there’s been no shortage of artists and critics voicing their (mostly glowing) opinions about inaugural poet and rising star Amanda Gorman. Finally joining the conversation is enduring satirist Ishmael Reed, best known for his 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo and his 2019 play The Haunting of
The story of Moses parting the waters of the Red Sea so he and the Israelites could flee Egypt and travel to the Promised Land is one of the most famous stories from the Old Testament. What this episode means, however, remains less clear. Should this be analysed as a divine miracle alone, or does
July 16, 2021, 12:09pm We’ve known since March that FX has given a pilot order to Kindred, a series adaptation of Octavia Butler’s 1979 novel of the same name. Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins—Pulitzer Prize finalist, MacArthur fellow, and consulting producer on HBO’s Watchmen—wrote the pilot, and is set to executive produce alongside Courtney Lee-Mitchell (The Reluctant
In the world of classical Greek epic poetry, two poems are universally renowned: The Iliad and The Odyssey. Both, of course, are attributed to Homer. But there is another classical epic poem, written a few centuries later, which has been largely forgotten – although the story it tells is one of the most celebrated tales
July 16, 2021, 12:16pm Sunjeev Sahota’s China Room, Matt Bell’s Appleseed, Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North, Kristen Radtke’s Seek You, and The Letters of Shirley Jackson all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.” Fiction 1. China Room by Sunjeev Sahota(Viking) 7
‘The Sect of the Phoenix’ is one of the shortest stories by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, published originally in 1952. In some respects, ‘The Sect of the Phoenix’ is a sort of extended riddle, although unlike traditional riddles, its definitive solution is never revealed. However, there is a proposed solution which fits the
July 16, 2021, 12:37pm “I was surrounded by phonies…They were coming in the goddam window.” 70 years ago today, The Catcher in the Rye first hit bookshelves across the US, and people still have some pretty strong opinions about J. D. Salinger’s groundbreaking debut. Die-hard fans and rabid haters are legion. Indeed, of all the
‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.’ These words, along with ‘to everything there is a season’, are among the most famous in the Book of Ecclesiastes, part of the Old Testament. The Bible is full of well-known quotations which are often cited in a way that floats quite free
TODAY: In 2001, Katharine Graham, who presided over The Washington Post as it reported on the Watergate scandal, dies at 84. What Borges’ science fiction got right about the importance of forgetting, according to child psychiatry. | Lit Hub Science Searching for Moby-Dick (and the elusive truths of America’s pastime): Rick White goes deep on Bill James, Herman Melville,