Hi guys! I just want to share with you guys some of the historical context for Dream of Ding Village. Author Yan Lianke is a Chinese writer and HIV/AIDS activist who is known for his satirical writings which in turn have gotten many of his works banned in China. The novel we are reading is […]
Read More →Author: wh796
To Progress or Not to Progress
The second part of Angels in America is entitled Perestroika for a reason. The first part mainly introduced the AIDS epidemic in America in the 80s, and thus generated a lot of debate about identity, sickness and imagination. This section focuses on progress, what is progress and different definitions of it. Following the characters in […]
Read More →I Ran to Oran and Found a Plague!
Albert Camus’ The Plague has been an influential literary force, raising questions of the ideas of absurdity and the futility of religion. While doing research of the novel, I stumbled upon this British TV show called Hornblower that ran from 1998-2003. This show is about a fictional character called Horatio Hornblower, who was a […]
Read More →Ignorance is Bliss….Or is it?
What a journey! We have traveled to so many places such as Ancient Greece and Pre-Industrial London where we have seen how plague affects human society. In Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, we see a recurring theme of truth that has emerged in other books we have read, especially in Oedipus. Similar to the Greek tragedy, the […]
Read More →Frenchmen, Haitian Slaves and War! Oh My!
With our talk about racism in our Mervyn discussion today I thought it would be important to establish some context in that time period. Here you can find a history of the Haitian Revolution. I find it very interesting that America did become somewhat involved in the revolution. American leaders rushed to help the white […]
Read More →