Reading literature through the looking glass of theory.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy tells the story of a guy called—you guessed it—Tristram Shandy. It's written in the first person and presented as a kind of autobiography, even tho...
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka had quite a wild imagination. And a lot of distrust of early twentieth-century society. How else could someone dream up a story about a guy who wakes up one morning to find himself turn...
"Portrait in Georgia" by Jean Toomer
Let's take another stab at "defamiliarization." This time let's take a gander at a poem called "Portrait in Georgia" and at a human body that stays, well, human (you know, as opposed to bug).Jean T...
"Bat's Ultrasound" by Les Murray
Les Murray is an Australian poet who grew up dirt-poor on a farm pretty much in the middle of nowhere (at least, "nowhere" according to humans). As a kid he spent a lot of time just wandering aroun...
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Shakespeare's Hamlet is one of the most famous plays in the history of literature. We all know the story, even if we haven't read the play. The same may not be true about Rosencrantz and Gu...