Essays in Criticism articles

Recent articles from Essays in Criticism

The Genius of Shakespeare.
October 1, 1998... The Genius of Shakespeare. By JONATHAN BATE. Picador, 1997; 20 [pounds sterling]. Shakespeare's genius, Jonathan Bate argues in his new book, lies in the `aspectual', or dialogic, quality of his work: in the ability of that work to engage the sympathies of everyone, more particularly...

Disseminated Consciousness in Sons and Lovers.(novel by D.H. Lawrence)
October 1, 1998... ONE OF THE LARGE understated questions in Sons and Lovers is the extent to which individuals are not in control of their own destiny, circumstances, and even their moment-to-moment experiences. Lawrence formulates the idea early in the opening chapter: `Sometimes life takes hold of one,...

Kipling and the Limits of Healing.(World War I)
October 1, 1998... FOR ARMISTICE DAY in 1923, Kipling wrote a poem called `London Stone'. When you come to London Town, (Grieving -- grieving!) Bring your flowers and lay them down At the place of grieving. When you come to London Town, (Grieving -- grieving!) Bow your...

Critical opinions (2): John Fuller's lines of flight.(novelist and poet)
October 1, 1998... JOHN FULLER'S NOVEL, Flying to Nowhere, shortlisted for the 1983 Booker Prize, concludes with an Abbot (who has been undertaking secret vivisections to locate the soul) pausing in the corridor outside his library, reluctant to enter, for fear of what he might find released within: ...

Critical opinions (1): Larkin and the difficult subject.(death)
October 1, 1998... DAVID LODGE HAS insisted that the `difficult subject' of death in Larkin's verse `is, we can all agree, a "nonverbal" reality, because, as Wittgenstein said, it is not an experience in life'.(1) One can only imagine Larkin enjoying one of his best philistine chortles over this...