#English dissertation examples

[hauntedexpertcrusade]

Trending English Literature Dissertation Topics for 2024

For centuries, English literature has been a repository for most academic findings. It has been interpreted as satisfying the cravings of human beings for culture and history. As a literature student, it would be your task to ensure that the dissertation topic you choose reflects your interests while contributing to improving the entire field. The topic shows your passion and worth of your research. 

In 2024, advancements in English Literature dissertation topics, such as technology, climate change, and diverse perspectives, will lead to a trend toward modernization. Now, this trend has become more exciting than ever.

This blog will introduce some trendy dissertation topics for English Literature in 2024. The varied themes of discussion will inspire you to research.

Contemporary Themes in English Literature

Contemporary literature in the English language speaks to the present world, addressing social and psychological problems. It harbors themes relevant to readers and researchers and provides space to explore them. 

Exploration of Identity and Diversity

More recently, literature has raised fresh voices to incorporate new realities of identity. It has become a key to breaking sound barriers to telling stories of race, gender, and sexuality. Thistle has been considerably unmentioned in all stereotypes, and it has redefined norms to create room for marginalized communities. Topics such as "Race and Resistance in Modern Fiction" or "Gender Fluidity in Contemporary Literature" may evoke ideas for dissertations.

Literature and Mental Health

Mental health is emerging in literature as a developed ground for articulation. It sheds light upon struggles like anxiety, depression, and trauma that exist in the lives of many. Moreover, it helps humanize those issues, giving readers shape and space to understand and sympathize. You may want to take such topics as "Depictions of Trauma in Postmodern Fiction" or "Mental Illness as a Literary Device in 21st Century Novels." They will show how literature might inflate and influence society's perspective on mental health.

Reimagining Classic Literature

Though classic literature remains a veritable goldmine for research, modern approaches alter how we view these great works. New lenses uncover additional meanings and relations between these texts and the current world. 

Feminist Readings of Classics

Reexamining classical literature through a feminist point of view opens countless doors. Observing how eminent female characters are portrayed counsels on the roles they were confined to within their time. Such works as Jane Eyre or The Scarlet Letter might illuminate independence, oppression, or rebellion study themes. English dissertation examples might be "The Subversion of Patriarchal Norms in Victorian Literature" or "Reclaiming Female Voices in 19th-Century Fiction." 

Post-Colonial Readings

Classical texts often embodied the colonial mindset of the period. Aspects of post-colonialism study might challenge those narratives and consider how they perpetuated imperial ideologies. It also connects the canonical texts and broader historical and cultural contexts. Topics like "Colonialism in Shakespeare's The Tempest" or "Postcolonial Readings of Rudyard Kipling's Works" indicate how colonization leaves a footprint in literature and society.

Literature and Technology

The path to training technology has changed how stories are narrated and consumed. Modern literature reflects these changes, combining traditional storytelling with digital innovations and futuristic ideas worth considering for your thesis.

 Digital Storytelling 

Digital storytelling changed the structure of storytelling by creating new opportunities for reader engagement. The interactive spaces, hypertext literature, and digital fiction allow readers to travel through stories nonlinearly, putting them into the act. You should investigate how platforms such as Wattpad and apps like Episode create participatory storytelling experiences. You could propose exciting topics like "The Role of Hypertext in Shaping Modern Narratives" or "Digital Fiction as a New Literary Genre" for your research. It brings alive the narrative in innovative, dynamic ways: this field.

Literature in the Age of AI

With the increase of artificial intelligence, creative possibilities are breaking ground in the literary world. AI texts question our notions of authorship and creativity, while future worlds highlight the human-machine relationship. You may take up topics such as "AI-Generated Poetry and Its Impact on Literary Studies" or "The Depiction of AI in Contemporary Fiction." This intersection studies how technology influences creation and content in literature.

Climate Change and Environmental Narratives

Literature has become a powerful means of dealing with many global issues, like climate change. Its polished storytelling invokes all the people's emotional attachments. Writers and the great setting could be used to study various areas of human and natural life and the related catastrophes experienced by humankind regarding the environment.

Increasingly, environmental issues are at the core of contemporary literature. Writers speak of the impacts of climate change, easily intermingling the presence of fiction and science in real life to educate the mind. Novels like The Overstory, penned by Richard Powers, speak so well about the interwoven relationship between man and nature. Modern works could consider environmental justice, human responsibility, or ecological destruction. Those have educational purposes and provoke people to go out and take action. Hence, the inclusion of these narratives into research becomes valuable.

Eco-criticism is another lens through which to interpret how literature reflects environmental challenges and possible solutions. For instance, examples of English literature dissertations include "The Role of Nature as a Character in Postmodern Fiction" and "Climate Change and Apocalypse in Dystopian Novels." These would allow you to delve into how a storyteller employs modes of narrativity to criticize environmental policies and promote sustainability through their writing. These, therefore, mix literary analysis with pressing real-world issues.

Cross-Cultural Studies in Literature

Cross-cultural studies reveal the impact of diverse cultures on English literature, which is an excellent mix of themes, perspectives, and styles. Such a study would help one understand how the voices of the world come together to give meaning and shape to literary traditions. 

English literature has been enriched with bountiful global influences. Accordingly, these writers draw upon their experiences, adding depth and complexity to traditional themes and making them universal. For example, Salman Rushdie and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's writing is infused with cultural identity. Their works reflect the use of English and local ways of writing. Researching this could unveil how different global viewpoints challenge the boundaries of English literature. 

Diasporic literature becomes literature dwelling on the lives of culturally hybrid humans and predominantly covers aspects like identity, belonging, displacement, self-definition, etc. As authors such as Jhumpa Lahiri and Hanif Kureishi depict, they take the subject into their pages. One could address titles such as “The Representation of Identity in Diasporic Fiction”-or “Cultural Hybridity in Postcolonial Literature.” These topics enable you to examine how literature could become an equitable portal over-drives between cultures and makes sense of the complexities of being in two worlds.

English Literature and Pop Culture

Pop culture has changed how we connect with literature and its relevance to contemporary audiences. From film adaptations to graphic novels, these trends provide exciting avenues for research.

The Role of Literature in Contemporary Media

Many literary works find new life through films and television series, bringing classical or contemporary stories to the public. An adaptation, such as Pride and Prejudice or The Great Gatsby, turns the stories toward today's audience, mixing conventional themes with pop culture trends. Dissertation topics in English Literature, such as "Evolution of Literary Adaptations in the 21st Century" or "Pop Culture Influence on Reception of Classical Text," can fall into this category. It is an active interaction between literature and media.

Graphic Novels with English Literature

Graphic novels combine art and thinking with storytelling, closing the gap from past literature to forms of expressive phrases today. Thesis topics  from graphic novels are "The Changing Role of Graphic Novels in Defining Literary Genres" or "Visual Storytelling as a Medium for Social Commentary." This field displays how literature continues to change yet still clings to its past.

Gender and Sexuality in English Literature

Thematic concerns associated with LGBTQ+ have entirely evolved in English literature. These transformed from being hidden narratives to being celebrated themes. Initial writings have employed either concealment of, or dissimulating queer identities, whereas modern literature openly indulges in and highlights its diverse experiences. Fresh perspectives have also emerged, though, offering and challenging traditional norms as authors reflect a broad spectrum of identities based on gender and sexual orientation. 

Some suggested dissertation topics include "Contemporary Fiction and the Representation of Queer Identities" as well as "The Role of LGBTQ+ Literature in Shaping Social Change." Such areas enable you to examine how literature reflects and shapes the current debate around gender and sexuality.

Regional and Marginalized Literature

In recent years, regional or marginalized voices have garnered significant interest in literature. Such writers offer fresh perspectives, laying bare cultural, social, and political discourses. They also present the lived experience against the grain of most dominant environments. These voices speak further into a view of the world, much more than what a dominant narrative can offer. 

You could consider topics for research like "The Rise of Indigenous Literature in the 21st Century" or "Marginalized Voices in Postcolonial Literature." Understanding these areas can help you realize how and why it is essential to give space to these voices and be enriched by the myriad of stories and experiences that fill English literature.

Wrap Up

Topics for English literature dissertations in 2024 mirror the shifting trends in literature and society, from identity to mental health and climate change and from feminist readings of classics to postcolonial lenses. The scope is enormous. In choosing your dissertation topic, one should center on areas that speak to you but also flourish and add to the field. It should conform to current literary sensibilities but lend itself to answering uniquely. For assistance, consider hiring professional academic writers' services to clear your ideas and guarantee your successful research pilgrimage.

FAQs

What are some of the hot topics in English literature trends during 2024?

Some hot issues in 2024 are coming to terms with identity and diversity, mental health, and feminist or post-colonial readings of classics. Digital storytelling, climate change narratives, and cross-cultural studies in literature constitute other themes.

How would one opt for an appropriate dissertation topic in English literature?

Choose a topic that appeals to your interests and engages with broader contemporary discourse. Focus on mental technology or diversity alongside a classic text for a unique entry point.

Where is climate change featured in English lit dissertations?

Climate change is generally addressed in terms of ecocriticism and the dystopian idiom. Dissertation topics in current narratives can include research on environmental justice, impersonality as ecological destruction, and humanity's social impact on climate change.

[mpchev]

Dissertation on Fanfiction Bookbinding — Looking for participants! [EDIT: Thank you so much, participants found!!!]

[Edit continued: I'm still sorting through emails and setting up meetings, will reply to everyone very soon, I can't even begin to thank everyone enough for the visibility that's been given to this 💜 I'll keep the updates coming as I work on the dissertation (and learn how to bookbind), in case anyone would like to follow along. For any questions about the research or comments/suggestions/resources about ficbinding, my asks are wide open. Thank you thank you thank you!!!]

Hi! My name is Marie Chevrier, I’m currently doing my postgraduate dissertation on fanfiction bookbinding, and I’m looking for people to talk to about it!

If you’ve ever taken a fanfic from somewhere online and turned it into a physical copy, either for yourself or as a gift, I’d love to know more. From printer paper stapled together to typesetting and painted edges, nothing is too simple or too complex — I’m interested in the whole process, what motivates readers or authors to bring the story to a different format, and how it’s one more way to interact with stories actively and creatively. This will be the final project of my MLitt in Folklore and Ethnology with the Elphinstone Institute (University of Aberdeen, Scotland).

What to Expect

To participate, you must be 18 or older and speak English. I’ll give you more details and answer any questions you might have via email, and will then set up individual video calls with participants (if you happen to be in North-East Scotland, we could also meet at an agreed public location). I’ll tell you more about the dissertation and explain how what you share will be used, which depends entirely on what you agree to, including if you would prefer your contribution to be credited or anonymised. I will ask you about your experience with fanfiction bookbinding and if you have some examples to show me, I would love to see them! Meetings will last approximately 45–90 minutes and take place in June 2024. You have the right to withdraw your participation at any time.

Contact Information

If you’d like to participate or have any questions, please send me an email at m.chevrier.23@abdn.ac.uk

To know more about the Elphinstone Institute, please visit https://www.abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/

To know more about me, here's an intro post for you.

If for any reason you don’t wish to participate but still have comments/suggestions/resources/musings you’d like to send my way, please do!

[domistique]

I honestly don't know what an AI ffs looks like. You don't have to call anyone out but can you tell us why you think smthing is made by AI?

Domistique's Subjective Guide to Identifying AI Fic in the F1 RPF Fandom

Summaries "In the high-octane world of Formula One," "In the high-stakes world of Formula One," "In the [insert descriptor] world of Formula One,"

My biggest "tell" for AI in summaries. It reads like a blurb for a published original novel. Summaries ending with a question framed with two 'options' also ring alarm bells for me now which SUCKS but the same structure is popping up so frequently alongside other indicators of AI that it's the natural conclusion :(.

Look at the establishing paragraphs.

I'm not a writer so I don't know the terminology, but the paragraphs which set the scene and describe the environment the characters are in. Do they always list elements of the setting in a uniform way which seems too formal for a fic? AI doesn't understand 'show, don't tell'. In my experience it tends to exposition the FUCK out of scenes. Fanfiction is built on the assumption that the reader KNOWS about this stuff already. I've seen this countless times across many fics from different authors which proves to Me it's not just someone's style. Establishing paragraphs starting with a descriptive statement, followed by multiple Example clauses listing sensory aspects of the environment. Usually ending with a picture perfect smartass line, often introducing a character or narrative element (tension, fear, attraction, etc) and creating intrigue. ALL THINGS WHICH ARE NORMAL AND GOOD TECHNIQUES IN FICS! but it's the way they KEEP popping up consistently keeping to the exact. same. paragraph structure.

An author posting multiple new 10,000+ word fics every week for many weeks.

If I suspect a fic is written with AI I usually check the account which posted it to see if they are producing an output which human beings are literally not capable of. If someone says they're working full time in the legal field they are not also writing a dissertation of rpf every three days :(.

Sentences with the same rhythm over and over and over again.

Like. "The wind had eased, the moon reflecting like silver in the lake. The soft hum of the car grounded them, sitting there together on the peaceful shore." I just made that up and you can tell because it sucks BUT it is based on a pattern I keep seeing in fic which I suspect to be AI. ONLY when the other indicators are present. Take this one with a grain of salt because it is mainly vibes-based.

This is mostly only applicable when a fic is written in English :(. I think the ability to tell when something is subtly off with a piece of writing is probably linked to the length of time the reader has been immersed in reading in the language, exposure, etc.

I recommend paying attention to your favourite authors' style, quirks, tendencies; the things which are constant across their works and feel comforting and familiar because you know you're in good hands. Then apply that to AI, which in my opinion has a particular style which it ALWAYS follows when prompted to write fanfic. It knows how to create a plot and make it compelling, even emotional, but it doesn't know how to deviate from the formula (yet). It has improved SO much since the first AI fics started popping up. But I really think it will never be completely indistinguishable from the work of a human because humans are loving and caring and silly and take risks and spend their free time writing stories for us to enjoy for no personal gain. No matter the quality of the writing!!! We as readers owe it to them to read critically and attentively and honour their efforts by rewarding them, not a machine.

(biggest disclaimer ever: i am not an expert this is all based on my observations and i may be wrong. if you don't like someone's sentences don't assume they used AI. it's a sense that had to be honed over time and i will be distraught if some poor writer gets harassed because of this so help me god. just. pay attention to patterns. i have many many examples which i am not including in this post because i don't feel comfortable when i can't be 100% sure they are the product of AI. i can dm them if you want!!)

[sophieinwonderland]

Hello! We are in college (English definition of college ftr, so 16-18 years old) currently, and soon need to start our EPQ, Extended Project Qualification

We really want to do it on plurality, both disordered and non-disordered. However, we're doing the dissertation, meaning we kind of need to make a point. "To what extent ___", for example

Unfortunately we have no idea what point we could make or what we could argue for. Do you have any suggestions? We kind of thought we could do an analysis of some kind, possibly on syscourse and the views on either side but we really don't know.

No worries if you can't help :] just thought we'd ask

~ 🌟🪽

Speaking as a tulpa, the consciousness of childhood "imagined companions" is of particular interest to me. Studies show imagined companions able to act on their own outside of the conscious control of their hosts. You can find some of these studies in my studies and research page.

I'd love to see a conversation started on the nature of these. If these imagined companions can seemingly think and act on their own, and use the same mechanisms to think as any other person, then what makes them any more or less real than their host? And if they have thoughts of their own, what are the moral implications of a society encouraging kids to abandon them?

I'd love to see this sort of exploration of childhood plurality. Especially as it pertains to protogenic systems, who report being plural as long as they can remember.

Alternatively, maybe you want to go with a more political angle, exploring discrimination and pluralphobia. What rights do plurals need and deserve? How are they harmed by negative media presentations? What discrimination do systems face for being more-than-one?

If you go for this angle, I'd highly advise looking into the work done by the Hearing Voices Network and their ideology!

[revclver-jesus]

How do you feel when people say that Takaya is just using Jin and Chidori?

{{ You mean like that one hot take that drove me up the wall? lmao I am going to give you the full blown dissertation here i go-- let's call this essay

The Most Commonly Misunderstood Thing About Takaya's Character: or Why Team Strega Is Not Literally A Cult lol

When people say that Takaya is just 'using" Jin and Chidori, what they're implying in most contexts is that Takaya is incapable of forming attachments and his motivations are fairly shallow-- essentially Takaya is not a complex villain and should be dismissed as purely selfishly motivated and malicious. He's a "simple" villain.

Now I realize....... that I might be biased as that girly that's written him on a dedicated blog for multiple years now, but purely objectively speaking, removing all my own headcanons, using only the information provided to use in canon? It's just thoroughly false, tbh!

First I'll go into why he isn't purely selfishly motivated and then I'll explain his relationship with Strega because I can prove the motivation with just Reload as an example, let alone the novel. Takaya, in Reload especially but even in the original game, I would argue has a full blown character arc off screen. At the start of the game he does appear to be more selfish, he has no real motivation and is just living out the last of his life doing underhanded assassin work-- nothing's really challenging him. But as the story progresses, Takaya begins to express a meaningful ideology-- he develops a greater concern for the world around him and expresses a full blown motivation. He says, in protest to the choices of the protagonist in one of his social events, and I quote: " Choosing to turn a blind eye towards your own power, to the grief of the fallen, to the unchosen and the unloved." Its clear he is not talking about himself here, as he mentions grief for the fallen. Takaya is expressing that he feels grief for something-- he is sorry about something that has happened to someone else, and it bothers him enough to nearly scream about it.

I think, often times, people dismiss what Takaya says as insincere almost automatically without any indication that he doesn't mean the words he's saying besides perhaps being vain and dishonest in other scenes, but these social event scenes are clearly meant to be interpreted as him being unusually earnest. By the end, Takaya is not just trying to keep his own power, but, as he says " this is not just my will but the will of all people. " which all culminates into Takaya's final character arc moment, where, in his final boss, he says the line " I will throw away my pride! " before using an evoker instead of trying to summon without help, implying that he is finally sacrificing his ego to better fight for what he believes in. If he was fighting for a positive cause, this would be a heroic moment, but it is still concrete evidence that his motivation is no longer meant to be seen as purely selfish. He is now fighting for " the will of all people ". He cares about the " the fallen, the unchosen and the unloved."

So what about Jin and Chidori? To put it simply, Takaya is not some puppet master that breaks them down emotionally and treats them like tools. They're his friends, and he happens to have a leader's personality, so they follow him, much like the protagonist he is designed to mirror. Its a lot easier to guess how he feels about them when you don't assume the worst and look at all his canon interactions with them. And even easier to tell if you can manage to read any english translated pages of their strega-focused novel ( which we can assume is fairly canon since Reload references it with the child turned into a large shadow ).

In the novel, as far as I've seen ( its only partially translated ), team Strega is extremely informal and lighthearted around each other. There is no sign that they fear Takaya, as they are willing to tease each other and disagree. The opening scenes of the book quickly establish a sort of family-like dynamic, with Takaya having an older brother-like role. He teases Chidori ( in a bit of heavy handed foreshadowing ) that she will understand why people fall in love when she's older-- of which Chidori sort of says gross and "as if" and rolls her eyes at him. Jin, being the narrator perspective, shows no sign of intimidation when around Takaya, something that would bleed through into their every interaction-- especially the establishing scene introducing the cast-- if that were the case. I feel, even if the novel is not canon, the writer would be instructed not to write Takaya so friendly if he was meant to be a heartless manipulator regardless.

In the game, the most manipulative thing he ever does to either is when Chidori is pulled back into Strega. Takaya tells her that there is nowhere else she can go and reminds her that death is not to be feared in a way that sounds like he's repeated this mantra often enough he knows she can guess it. This seems spooky, but the tension is immediately alleviated by the flippant and kind of sassy way that Chidori assures them she remembers Takaya's advice. This is not how you talk to your cult leader and this is not a cult, this is something closer to a gang or a club-- at worst, a coven of witches ( considering their team name is "witch" in italian.). They simply have an in-group and out-group sort of mentality, a shared since of identity, and a shared view of the world to go with it, which is to be expected when you've been openly shunned and mocked by the average person ( as seen at the start of the first scene with Shinji ) But this scene, when compared to all their mundane and lighthearted interactions, doesn't imply anything more severe than the leader of your misfit club reminding you why we don't hang out with the normies. You're "one of us" and a level of loyalty and commitment is expected when you otherwise always act as a group.

Yes, he is very cold and indifferent to the sight of his team members getting hurt-- or hurting themselves, for that matter, but the reason for this is obvious. In Reload, Takaya plainly expresses that he is feeling attachment ( for the protag at the moment ) but is avoiding his own capability for attachment intentionally. That scene was meant to establish that he can feel attachment, that he isn't as cold as he pretends to be, to encourage the viewer to see him with a little more nuance. What causes a man to force himself to be colder than he really is? What can cause an avoidance toward emotional attachment? Maybe...... watching 100 children die after being orphaned and stolen away to live underground for years? lmao

And so, when Takaya watches Chidori do self harm or literally sacrifice her life, for one-- he's not going to parent her, they don't have that kind of relationship, and he would be a hypocrite if he tried to encourage her not to do what she wants to to her dying body-- and two, of course he doesn't mind if Chidori dies, he's expecting that to happen anyways. His one greatest gift is his uncanny ability to accept death and the death of others. Mourning you openly is not how he expresses emotion. Especially when he sincerely believes death is a blessing. Its just the way she died that he's a little annoyed by. ( And why shouldn't he be honestly-- the girl threw her life away on the first nice guy she met at the mall just to make his work harder from his perspective, lmao ) BUT. In the comic version of that scene, Takaya does let himself be cut across the chest purely because he hesitated to shoot when he saw Chidori's spirit protecting Junpei. So... that might imply something.

However, if there is any greater evidence against any who claim that Takaya does not care about Jin especially... Takaya's final words, in multiple renditions of the story including the movies and Reload, are to say that he wishes Jin was with him as he died. If there is anyone that Takaya cared for, at least one single character in the entire game, it is above all Jin Shirato.

In the movies its very obvious, with the sad closeup shot of him looking beaten and washed up as he wishes Jin could be here to see it all end with him. I have the scene as an icon ! Look at how emotional the framing is !

So yeah, that's how I feel, it just drives me crazy when people remember Takaya as just Some Asshole lmao-- he IS an asshole! But he's no Chairman Ikutsuki, he has a lot of complexity to him beyond being the guy who killed Shinji, and not everything he does is black and white. There is highly plausible reason to believe Takaya cared for both of them in his own way, but the ever loyal, best friend, Jin Shirato, especially so. }}

[outfoxt]

Affixes, Clitics, and Particles

i think that these parts of language are really cool! so im going to try to explain them :D also i definitely did not get sent down an hours long rabbit hole of linguistic papers and i also definitely didn't find out that the reason i wanted to make this post is actually a misconception :D i love ignoring things :D

Affixes:

the wikipedia article for affixes says that "in linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form."

in hopefully simpler terms, this basically means that an affix is a letter, or a group of letters that form a single sound or syllable, that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form.

some examples of these are the somewhat well known prefix and suffix, but also the beloved infix:

prefix: undone suffix: spotless infix: abso-fucking-lutely

sidenote: my favorite thing about english infixes is that they pretty much only work with expletives. in fact, there's a tom scott video about expletive infixations!

Clitics:

wikipedia defines a clitic as such: "a clitic is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a word, but depends phonologically on another word or phrase."

in layman's terms: a clitic is a letter, or a group of letters that form a single sound or syllable, that has the function of a word in a sentence, but depends on another word or phrase based on the sound rules of the language.

a few examples of clitics can be seen in finnish (which also has a great many affixes but we're not talking about those right now):

-ko/kö -han/hän -pa/pä -kin

the spelling of the clitic depends on vowel harmony. if you want to learn more, this dissertation is all about finnish clitics!

you may be asking yourself how to tell the difference between clitics and other parts of speech. well this study has just the thing for you! quite a few tests are suggested by the author of this study if you want to be able to tell if something is a clitic or not, including some of the following:

a phonological test observe how the clitic forms a phonological unit with an independent word. (do not ask me how this one works i dont know) accentual test "clitics are accentually dependent, while full words are accentually independent." put simply, if you can't put stress on it, it's probably a clitic syntactic test a word can stand on its own and be subject to normal word processes such as tense changes while a clitic cannot do this

Particles:

"'Particle' is a cover term for items that do not fit easily into syntactic and semantic generalizations about the language[.]"

read: "particle" is a miscellaneous, catch all term for anything that doesn't fit into the above two categories (or any other word categories like nouns, verbs, etc.)

the author of this study (who i'm going to refer to as Zwicky from now on because it's easier) says that theres no such thing as a particle and that its distinction from affixes, clitics, words, and clauses is unnecessary. i think thats an. interesting take.

anyway even though Zwicky just said theres no such thing as particles (which, how could he do that? theres kids around! we dont want to ruin the magic!) he concedes that there is actually a group of words that are commonly called particles that he agrees are actually particles. but he decides to call them discourse markers instead. because fuck you.

i dont like any of the words that Zwicky included so i made a list of my own:

-ね (ne) eh (canadian english) innit (common transcription of "isn't it", british english)

the funny thing is im coming out of this still not entirely clear on what a particle is. i thought i knew, i did some research, realized i didnt know, and now i'm here. based on how Zwicky puts it, it feels like the category of "particle" exists to accommodate the fact that there might be words* that arent affixes, clitics, words, or clauses but it feels like Zwicky is just being contrary. I should probably have done more research but this post was supposed to be done 24 hours ago.

out of context highlights from my research process: - sanskrit - the panini rule - doch - verbosely long section titles

*i dont actually mean words, i mean a morpheme which is a letter or a group of letters that form the representation of one sound that carries meaning, but i didn't want to make that sentence long and unreadable

if i'm wrong, please tell me! i would appreciate being corrected, i know i am not an expert on this topic in the slightest.

[irrevocablecondition]

hi robyn! did you ever apply to oxbridge for uni and did you get an interview? any advice on that as it’s application season and i’m terrified x

HELLO oh god rough time of year init this brought back memories. giggling over the fact your first thought was a marauders tiktoker 😭 putting this under the cut because it's long but hi yes, cambridge offer holder here

i think my firsttt piece of advice is knowing whether it's truly for you or not! i spent my entire academic career doing courses for them and getting my name known there only to get in and go :/ i don't think this is for me actually. it was more just the expectation, yk? so literally a weekkkk before move in i asked my current uni if they'd still take me and just kept cambridge open as a phd option

that's my first bit of advice! oxbridge isn't the be all and end all <3

the actual application? unique. i know personal statements are different now but i used a different version for cambridge than i did elsewhere that was more,,, academic? more focused on what areas of my subject i enjoy and everything that i'd done with cambridge previously -> the more unique the better tbh, i waffled about the introduction of the printing press (literature degree)

you're also gonna want to put things in that, if you do get to the interview, you can expand upon a lot. AND subject ties! i applied for literature and included other subjects in tandem which they really like

interviews ! they're really not as scary as people suggested actually! i did an entry exam and three interviews, all of them were fine but they do ask the famous questions 😭 i got asked what kitchen utensil i'm most like so yk,,, that's not a myth at all LMAO. they mostly just ask about your personal statement BUT then move onto like "what do you think about this other random book/what about this other topic?"

OH ALSO !! idk if this is degree based or a universal thing but my first interview had a mini test where they gave me an extract of old english and i had ten minutes to translate it.

really unlike other unis your academics are the forefront obviously: they want proof that you care about this subject, proof of what about it you like, and examples of things you've done outside of your classes to facilitate your learning (i.e i did summer schools, dissertation courses, young magistrates, competitions etc etc blah blah blah they love that stuff)

also !! colleges !! there's not too much pressure on what college you choose because if that one doesn't take you but they see potential in you, they'll chuck you into the pool for others to take. i initially didn't get in because the college i chose had a lower deprived quota :/ so they didnt need another poor kid lols but i got into the pool and got KINGS?! which is like,,, i didn't apply there because of how elite it is

so colleges aren't the be all and end all either !! choose what one feels right for you, but don't lose hope if that one rejects you.

idk if any of this was helpful actually it's just the three big things you're told when you apply anyway oopsie but,, that's it really. they really are just like other unis but with a pretty label and prestige.

so my main advice is that,,, (1) it's meant to be difficult ! and if you get further in your application, don't worry if you don't know things. in the interviews they ask you obscure and random questions not because they want to catch you out, but they want to see your thought process !

and (2) it's difficult. it's elite and they get so many applicants, a rejection doesn't define you. which sounds like i dont believe in you LOL but i do !! even getting to this point is so so so impressive and i hope it all goes well !! but if it doesn't? the world keeps spinning and you're no less brilliant without oxbridge

anywayz ! dms are open if you want to yap or need help with anything !! i'm no expert but i've had the post-application sobs and the general AHHHHHH i suck moments and still somehow managed to pull it off

[cookinguptales]

So... Dante's Inferno. I promised my second post would be a deep dive into the parallels and allusions being made to Dante in s2 of Malevolent. In other words, I'm going to finally make my case for you.

I think it's a pretty good one! But I guess whether you agree with me is up to you.

I'll preface this by saying that the last time I read the Inferno cover-to-cover was about fifteen years ago. I did some skimming to reacquaint myself while relistening to this season, but I didn't do a deep dive. So let's just call this an inexhaustive list, okay? I'm sure there are more examples than I'm going to throw out in this post, but I figured that I'm writing a tumblr meta not a dissertation, so it would be okay if I didn't have every single potential allusion.

I'll also say that any quotes I make are from the Mandelbaum translation just because it's by far the easiest to understand. I'm not going to be doing citations or anything (again, not a dissertation) but if you want to know any of my sources, just drop me a line and I'll be happy to drop the canto.

(cw: discussions of suicide, violence, and general Christianity)

As I said before, I believe that the Dreamlands, as Arthur Lester experienced them, were a manifestation of Dante's Dis that The King in Yellow used specifically to give Arthur a path towards penitence and salvation, hoping that he would eventually allow himself some sort of "divine forgiveness."

In other words, the KIY forced Arthur to face the punishments of the last four circles of Dante's Inferno in the hopes that it would cause Arthur to let go of his guilt, and therefore his attachment, to Faroe. And then, of course, he could make his move.

(In plainer English, sometimes a person who is dreaming wishes that they were dreaming, not knowing that they already are. Like that, Dante wanted to be forgiven for his actions not realizing that he already was. Dreamlands, penitence, guilt, etc. It's a whole thing.)

I'm going to try to stay on track in this post because there's a lot to cover. I'm going to talk about some of these concepts and themes a lot more in-depth later, but for now I just wanna lay out some very surface-level observations.

Dis is a gated section of Dante's Hell that includes circles 6-9 -- in other words, the circles dedicated to punishing the heretics, the violent, the fraudulent, and the traitors.

We should probably technically start with 6 and make our way down, but the ordering gets a little fuzzy as we go, so I'm going to structure this a little differently.

This is my meta so frankly I'm going to do what I like here. I'm just going to talk about these in the order I find them most compelling.

The first part of s2 that really made me sit up and take notice was the living forest that Arthur and John pass through near the beginning of the Dreamlands. Dante's forest of souls in the seventh circle is one of the most famous and lingering images of the entire poem, so it immediately caught my attention.

I'm going to be dedicating an entire post just to this forest, so I won't go into too much detail here, but there is a forest in the seventh circle where the trees are black and gnarled, like the ones in the Dreamlands, and like the ones in the Dreamlands, they were watered with blood.

These are the bodies of souls who committed suicide, and Dante is told that when the end times come and Hell is emptied out, when all of the other souls are reunited with their bodies, these souls, in punishment for taking their physical bodies for granted, will be forced to carry their own corpses hanging from their branches.

These trees can speak and bleed, and -- I mean, there's a lot to say about themes of suicide and self-sacrifice in s2. There's even more to say about this concept of protecting your physical body, not giving it up, and not allowing yourself to be separated from it. And then what does it mean when John and Arthur sacrifice a piece of themselves to this living wood in the end...?

Those are questions for a later post. But the parallels between the Dreamlands forest and that in the Inferno seem clear -- and that's before the winged monsters come. Yes, that happens in the Inferno, too, and they're Harpies.

(*looks into the camera like Kermit the Frog*)

There is also depiction of dismemberment in this section of Inferno, which is another pretty crucial similarity to Malevolent.

Ugh, I did get bogged down in some details. Let's be brief with the rest of 7.

Other key punishments found in the seventh circle of Hell and also the Dreamlands: a sea of red sand in a desert that is so hot that it constantly burns you, a vast ravine, an incredibly painful storm, and various red bodies of water surrounded by black rocks. Different water does different things, but none of it's really good. It's probably good that John and Arthur didn't go in the red or purple lakes.

(Perhaps more of a stretch, when Dante and Virgil are taken to the next circle of Hell, it's via a huge serpentine creature that can sting people. It's not exactly the same as the snake in the boat... but well. It is a serpent and a boat is a method of conveyance.)

Circle 8 -- fraud. Circle 8 is comprised of these things called "malebolge", and I've seen a lot of different translations of that word. The male- part is easy -- it's the same one that we see in "malevolent". Evil. The -bolge part I've seen translated as pouches, ditches, trenches, and... well, pits.

There is this really, really, really long part of the poem where they go around to all the pits to see all the different kinds of punishment for fraud. I'm not going to be exhaustive here, nor do I think that all of it lines up quite as 1:1 as it did in circle 7. Some of these things I'm about to point out I think are stretches but others I think are pretty clear.

The two main parallels to circle 8 that I see in Malevolent are the giant pit that they fall into (where they encounter the creature that's being fed) and the smaller prison pits that they're later trapped in by the KIY.

Let's talk about the cave system first. When Dante and Virgil first enter Dis (and in other parts going forward) they struggle with a lot of uneven, gravelly terrain that Dante occasionally falls on. (Created by earthquakes that happened because of Jesus, but that's not important.) That does seem to correspond to the gravelly ground that gave way beneath Arthur and John to send them into the vast blackness that has quite a bit in common with a few of the malebolge. One malebolge is an endless black void that Dante eventually realizes is filled with black pitch. (See: the endless darkness of the pit.) Another is filled with stench and refuse, like the rotting remnants of the creature's dinners. Another involves heads being wrenched from their place and turned around in their sockets, reminiscent of Arthur's dislocated arm.

Other malebolge seem to align with later experiences, like when they are in the ritual halls and in the prison pits themselves. There are two malebolge that seem to speak to Arthur's concern that John will either be separated from him or take over his body: one pit contains dragon-like snakes that bite the punished sinners, then slowly transform into the sinner as the sinner becomes the snake; the other pit involves people being quite literally cleaved in two.

(From the part where the dragons become one with the sinners, then take their bodies. Sounds familiar!)

A third malebolge contains sinners who are being tortured with incessant thirst, like Lorick the cana.

So I do think that the actual contents of these evil pits come up fairly often throughout Arthur's travails, but I think the much bigger issue, and the one that maps more clearly onto Arthur's time in the Dreamlands, is the concept of pits designed to punish prisoners in the first place. The description of the malebolge (circular pits surrounded by a huge wall that encircles all of them) is similar to that of the prison pits (many circular pits that are encircled by a huge wall) and, like the sinners bound to their malebolge, John and Arthur are being tortured in their prison pit as well.

Even more interesting, I think, is a particular sinner that can be found later in the 9th circle. (Forgive me for jumping ahead a bit, but you'll see in a moment why I'm doing it.) There's a man named Ugolino that Dante encounters in the lake of ice who is frozen to another man -- and Ugolino is eating that man's head. Why? Because in life, that man held Ugolino and his children prisoner and purposefully starved them.

Now -- this next part is argued over by both translators and scholars (one of the translators I consulted for this had a whole diatribe about this in the middle of his translation, lmao) but what I'm about to say does seem to be an accepted interpretation of the text. I even checked Sparknotes and it's the only interpretation they give, so I assume that regardless of what Dante intended, this is a common modern understanding of the scene.

Ugolino, after his children had died (arguably due to his own actions), was forced to consume their flesh.

(Some scholars say he just starved to death, but again, even Sparknotes is a big proponent of the cannibalism theory. lmao)

So... we have a story about a prisoner being denied food specifically to demoralize him and force him to feed on the flesh of his fellow prisoners. That sounds familiar. :')

(And "Faust", of course, is an allusion to another literary figure who dealt with the devil...)

I think that regardless of how well the specific punishments of the pits fit Arthur's journey (I'd say... so-so, depending on the punishment), the concept of punishment pits in general is strongly associated with the Dreamlands, and what happened to Arthur in those pits is uh. Let's just say that Dante did it first.

Now... before I go onto the ninth circle, one of the clearest, most obvious, and in some ways most fascinating allusions to Dante, I'll quickly backtrack to the sixth circle of Hell, heresy.

Heresy is a complicated thing in a universe that contains both Christianity and a lot of other gods, and I think it's certainly dealt with in s2, but maybe in not quite the same ways...

The description of the sixth circle of Hell is pretty quick and pretty sparse. Essentially, it's a vast plain of open tombs that are surrounded by fire. They're made of stone and the people inside them are supposed to be dead, but they are unable to rest, instead being roasted alive inside of their tombs.

I puzzled over this one for a while, and I think it's still entirely possible that it was meant to be skipped altogether in Malevolent. But. There is a part at the very beginning of s2 that never quite seemed to tie into the rest of the narrative, and I wonder if, in a way, it was meant to be one of these stone tombs.

A stone building, like the stone tombs indicated by Dante. Roofs of red iron, like the stone heated to "glowing heat" that Dante likened to hot iron...

A large hole in the ground. Perhaps a stack of firewood...

Inhabitants thought to be "departed" but clearly still very much still here...

I don't know. Could be an allusion to the fiery tombs of the living dead. Hard to say.

It's hard to know where he was going with this portion, honestly. I get the impression that something might have been headed off by an audience decision here, so idk where it would have gone if it had found its logical conclusion. The souls in the sixth circle can see the future (but not the present), so it could have been something pretty cool.

Ah, well. Hard to know.

I'll get back to more solid ground. The ninth circle.

The ninth circle of Hell, home of traitors (including Satan himself), is one of the most well-known parts of the poem. At the bottom of Hell is, quite infamously, a frozen lake of ice.

I mentioned poor Ugolino before, but there are other prisoners of the ice who are also very interesting.

One in particular, Branca d’Oria, seems thematically important. This was kind of a weird addition to Dante's Hell. See, Branca d’Oria was a real-live person who was still alive when this was written. How is a living person in Hell? Well, Dante asked him that in the poem, too.

According to The Inferno, Branca d’Oria's crime (the murder of his father-in-law) was so terrible that his soul was taken down to Hell while he was still alive, and his soul was replaced with a devil who took control of his body.

(If you think that a simple murder doesn't seem worse than all the other stuff in Hell, I guess... this is kind of Dante being a true crime girlie...?)

Regardless of Dante's writing choices, I think you can see why this one caught my eye. Once Arthur and John get to the lake of ice, their imminent confrontation with the KIY has them both wondering if just that will happen to Arthur. Will a devil (John) take control of his body and cast his soul out?

There are a lot of passages of Dante that are concerned with the attachment of the soul to the body, so I'll probably do an entire post on that. Lot of stuff about whether souls can be severed from their mortal form, whether they can be replaced by other spirits, etc.

Kayne specifically brings up this question (as does the KIY) in the lake of ice, which brings me to the other really fascinating part of the ninth circle.

Caina.

(Yes, named for that Cain.)

Caina is the portion of the lake of ice that is reserved specifically for people who have killed family members. It's part of the realm of traitors, not murderers, and is considered particularly heinous. Dante finds two brothers who are being punished by being quite literally frozen together.

(Again, two souls, one body, one whole, there's a vibe here.)

I talked a little bit about Kayne before... I don't think he's bound to this part of the Inferno, or even an organic part of it, but I do think that he's consciously playing along with it. After all, he chose to meet Arthur and John in the frozen lake. He chose to call himself Kayne. It's not his real name. That seems pretty clear. But it's what he chose to call himself.

He lured Arthur in with the music box symbolizing his dead daughter. He dirtied it with blood. He purposefully leaned into Arthur's guilt about "murdering" his daughter. And he called himself Kayne.

Feels pointed to me.

And I do think Kayne very certainly belongs in the ring reserved for traitors. lmao. I cannot imagine that he's not fucking the two of them over somehow.

Side note, I'd also say that the description of amphitheater-like rooms feels like an allusion to the Inferno right there. Its circles are shaped like an amphitheater with the lake of ice right in the center!

And just to be clear, it points both up and down. When they get to Satan and fly past him, the same shape is going out the other way. (Through the earth's core.)

The final really big allusion to Dante is not an allusion to the Inferno at all, but to Purgatorio/Paradiso. I am speaking, of course, of the garden.

A garden that his followers can't enter... A garden where things are presumably safe... A garden where Arthur finally comes to true understanding...

I mean. It's Eden, right? Of course it's Eden.

And Arthur, in his own way, is partaking of the fruit.

Eden is actually where Purgatorio ends and Paradiso begins, in Dante's travels. There's... a lot to be said here, about "Earthly Paradise", as it's called in Dante, and how it's a symbol of regaining innocence, its connections with Beatrice, etc. But I'll leave that for another post.

The reason why it's important here, though, is that it symbolizes an escape from Hell. It's what Dante found after going through all the punishments of Hell, after meeting Satan, after regaining his metaphorical innocence. It's what the KIY was dangling in front of Arthur as escape, both from the Dreamlands and his own guilt.

The fact that it was used to manipulate, to hurt, to fake Arthur out, is actually such an interesting twist on the source material. I kind of love it.

(I'll also just say real quick that I believe that the selenine (while existing as a cure-all in other Lovecraft literature) is actually a parallel to the waters of Lethe, which can also be found in Dante's Earthly Paradise. This is water that makes you forget your past and all past sins so you can become purified and continue on to heaven! Or get your ass snatched by the King in Yellow! I'll talk about this more later!)

And then... y'know, there's Daniel.

I have a lot to say about Daniel in the future, but for now... I think this is what it all kind of boils down to.

Like yes... on a surface level, there are a lot of Dantean punishments in this book. Yes, Arthur starts rambling about the Minotaur, who guards the seventh circle of Hell. Yes, there are tons of little asides and allusions to the cosmology of this universe.

But I think this here is the key. This whole dream is about judgment from a god that Arthur no longer believes in and absolution that will never come.

Arthur is, quite frankly, out of options. He's been clinging to this guilt and shame for a very long time now, and he sees no real possibility for forgiveness from God or anyone. Only punishment.

So... the KIY gives him God's punishment. But do the tortures of the Inferno really make Arthur come to terms with his own guilt? Not in the way the KIY wants, obviously, but... I mean, I do think there is some growth there. I just don't think it came from the torture.

Arthur wanted to be tortured. He thinks he deserves to be tortured. To be punished. That comes up... many times throughout the podcast. But it isn't punishment that helps him come to terms with his own actions, that help him come to live quietly with his guilt.

It's love.

And Dante's Inferno, at its heart, is about love. According to Dante, the deepest depths of Hell are frozen because ice is the lack of warmth, and a lack of warmth is the lack of love.

Because here's what Dante's Commedia is about, from beginning to end. Dante is having a crisis of faith and his lost love, his dear deceased Beatrice, orchestrates this journey (and eventually becomes his guide) from her place in heaven and saves his soul on earth -- through her love.

I'll talk about this more later, I swear I will, but for now... The KIY gave Arthur the Hell he thought he deserved because he wanted Arthur to find grace through penitence. The King wanted Arthur to give up his past so he could steal his future.

But what Arthur actually gleaned from this awful experience is perhaps closer to what Dante actually intended his message to be. That closing yourself off from others, that hurting others, that betraying others, these are all the worst sins. In the end, it's a violation of human connection that will damn you.

And the only real way to salvation is through love.

I feel like in some ways this is the largest allusion of all, opaque as it is. This is what the entire poem is about. Not just gawking at punishments but finding growth through love.

It's about learning that shame can't fix you, y'know? Love and support are an awful lot more effective if you truly wish to change.

And that, my friends, is Dante's Divine Comedy. :')

[readingloveswounds]

Hi Sophie! Advice on improving academic writing? I've always been told I was a good writer (by college professors and peers), but my PhD advisor keeps telling me I don't write formally enough. I'm in a humanities discipline btw. I don't think writing comes naturally to me at all, so it always feels like a daunting task... and now with the added factor that apparently I suck at academic writing. Unfortunately, throughout my academic career no one ever taught me how to write, we never had that kind of help, which means it's been a lot of trial and error. Thank you - and I love your blog! <3

Hi! Thank you so much!!

In his opening remarks leading up to my defense, my advisor explained how I had to learn to write in (academic) English after having done my undergraduate literature degree all in French, so you've come to the right place. I started grad school getting comments about how I was 'writing French in English' (i.e. using French academic style in English) but have improved so, so much. You don't have to become perfect overnight - I improved massively over the years of my degree. I got a C on my first short analysis paper in my first-year seminar - and had to rewrite it; it was mortifying, but hey, I passed my defense with distinction.

Good academic writing comes with practice and time, which can certainly be frustrating, but everything you do with a mind to improving will help, even minutely.

One thing to remember is that formal academic writing is a particular style - it is a method of communication different from everyday writing and even formal oral presentations. It is its own type of performance that you do to insert yourself into a community and communicate your ideas within a framework that is familiar across a discipline.

Read other peoples' writing. This was some really good advice that I got. Go through writing that you have read in the past and find books/chapters/articles that you like. What do you like about these styles? How do the authors achieve this? Try to figure out how you can apply these concepts in your own writing. It also just helps to keep reading secondary criticism (which we're supposed to be doing anyway but I often slack at) in your field, so you get a grasp on what people write about and how they do it - more exposure to this will have an effect on your own writing.

Have other people read your writing. It sounds like your advisor has already read some of what you've written - you may want to ask them for concrete examples of what they feel is not formal enough so you can work on it. Definitely keep checking in with them, but if you have the chance to share writing with other students in your department, I would do that. I also know that schools sometimes have writing groups that people can participate in - this may be helpful to get other eyes on your work as well.

Look at what formal writing standards are. Especially since you haven't had much formal practice, you might want to look at a style guide like the Chicago Manual of Style, especially if you know specific things that make your writing informal. I know that I have had a real problem with prepositions - formally, you're not supposed to end sentences with them, and I had to fix that and remember not to mess that up when writing the entire dissertation. The CMOS (or Strunk and White for...MLA I think?) will give you a pretty comprehensive rundown of parts of speech and grammar - it does require a subscription so check if your school has institutional access. If not, your library almost certainly has a paper copy. You do not have to follow all rules at all times - BUT it's good to know which ones you can get away with skirting and which ones you need to follow at all times.

Resources I really like PurdueOWL for citation help, but they have resources WITH examples on a lot of aspects of academic writing, which could be helpful. It's definitely aimed at undergrads, but is worth a look. Harvard's writing center has a blog that might be an interesting read, as they go over common errors as well as tips - their main page has some resources as well, but ultimately links to Purdue, so that's going to be a good place to start.

Practice! Sit down and try writing a paragraph or two in the most formal style you can muster. Make it overly formal if you like - you just want to get a handle on both what makes writing formal and maybe try to figure out how to see your own voice in it. This doesn't have to go anywhere, but doing it may help you figure out what you need/want to change. Any assignments etc will help you develop this as well - pay attention to comments on style and grammar in what is returned to you.

Best of luck! As disheartening as it is to hear that your writing isn't up to standard, do not let that freak you out - it just means that you have to spend more time working on your writing - you may want to budget more time for paper revisions, for example. Time is in short supply in grad school, but this is really worth it for future you.

[maniculum]

Google Docs vs. Geoffrey Chaucer

A while back, just for fun, I pitted Google Docs's fancy new (read: hilariously inept) machine-learning spellchecker against a chapter of my dissertation that contained a lot of quotations from Le Morte Darthur:

At the time I suggested I might go back and do the same with the chapters that included substantial quotation from the Canterbury Tales and (shudder) Piers Plowman... and today I find myself with little better to do, so let's give it a go. Below the cut.

Extremely helpful there, thanks. For the curious, gilofre is a plant; in Modern English it's gillyflower. Clowe is just "clove". "Clowe-galofre" is nowhere on Google or in the OED, but it seems "Galofre" is an attested surname, so Google thinks maybe that's what I meant.

Fascinating choices here. That is of course meant to be nutmeg, and Google Docs has seemingly decided that putting in a space to turn one misspelled word into two words, one of which is spelled correctly, is a positive development. That or this is a continuation of the previously-observed trend that Google turns things into brands and corporation as much as possible -- apparently there is a company called "Emuge-Franken", which is the only result for "emuge" on Google Search.

It hasn't gotten anything right so far, by the way -- all those red underlines I haven't screenshotted anything for, it either suggests a word that is wrong but unremarkably so, or fails to suggest anything.

(Never mind, it got a couple right in between the last one and this one.)

This is interesting in that it shows Google Docs interprets things differently based on capitalization. This instance of bityde is capitalized because it's at the beginning of the line; the other one in the phrase bityde what bityde, which isn't capitalized, Google is able to correctly interpret as "betide". However, it seems to think the first is a proper noun and makes different suggestions. (Blyde is the Afrikaans name of the Motlatse River in South Africa, it would seem.)

I am reluctantly forced to hand it to Google Docs with this one. Like, no, that's not what Chaucer meant of course, but I can respect the shot being taken. Also interesting that it gets the blue underline because you can't really spell a transliteration wrong, but that's not how the system we normally use renders it. Not sure why spere "spear" (Google suggests "sphere") and vestiments "vestments" (Google gets this one right) are also marked as blue (style/grammar) rather than red (spelling), though.

... and now I'm taking what I just handed to Google Docs back away. WTF is this? Why...? you know what, we're moving on.

Bafflingly, Google thinks there is nothing at all unusual about that first line. Yep, that's normal Modern English there.

And here's our first example in this post of Google Docs trying to suggest a spelling that is also in Middle English, because I very much suspect the data it uses has been contaminated. Actually, come to think, if their machine learning system bases its judgments on what other users write rather than the old system with a set dictionary, I bet all the people writing papers about pre-standardized-spelling English literature are really screwing up the data. Which is hilarious -- if true, that would mean that I'm actually part of the problem for writing this whole dissertation full of Middle English quotes in Google Docs.

You might think this is another example of the same, but in fact the change from -ioun to -ion makes that suspect, and the Middle English Dictionary doesn't recognize it without the <u>. And if you Google Refleccion, all the results are in Spanish. However, I can't seem to find it in a Spanish-English dictionary, and those same dictionaries tell me the Spanish for reflection is reflexion -- maybe this is a variant spelling? I only have basic high-school Spanish to draw on here, so if any of my followers are fluent and can explain refleccion to me, I would be interested to learn.

Hm... no, that's not right either. Although a quick Google search tells me that there is a YA book called Physik, so that's probably what's screwing up this one. Probably not ideal for that sort of thing to happen.

And this one, it seems, is French. (Again, according to the Middle English Dictionary, all the attested Middle English spellings have the <u> -- but the French cognate is in fact spelled just like Google suggests, as far as I can tell. I don't speak French at all, though, so grain of salt.) I wonder how that happened -- do non-English words just kind of drift into the machine-learning system's vocabulary? Possibly through the same mechanism I speculated about with the Middle English above -- i.e., people write documents that are mostly in English, but contain some quotations or something in other languages, and if that happens enough, Google starts to think it's an English word?

Wait, is that maybe what's screwing a lot of this up? Either Google's system is going "This document is in English, so all the words in it are English words" and thus stuff just keeps bleeding between languages and screwing up the dictionary, OR Google's system is just kind of language-agnostic and sees no issue with suggesting French words in a document that's mostly in English? Is this why there are so many words that aren't correct Modern English spelling, but which Google Docs doesn't mark wrong? Like, they happen to line up with words in other languages, so Google just thinks you're borrowing really haphazardly throughout?

Also, side note, it tried to correct "hir" to "hirt", which is not an English word, but apparently stands for High Impact Resistance Training. Moving on.

Shenden is a Middle English verb that basically means "to damage or destroy". You don't really see it much in Modern English, though the OED has a couple examples of 20th-century usage. Anyway, I thought this was another case of Google bringing in different Middle English words, but a quick search tells me "Sente" is a skincare brand. That's probably more relevant.

Google Docs again just ignoring whole lines.

Odd choice there, sight being closer than site in terms of spelling. Maybe the algorithm assumes that if you end with an <e> you probably mean the second one.

Interesting, Google Docs. Why do you think that should be "night"? (Oddly, it actually gets all the red-underlined words in this line correct, meaning it pretty much has the context of the word.) Somewhat weird suggestion there.

I'm about a quarter of the way through the document and I think this is long enough for now; I'll probably come back and reblog with additions later. Before I go, however, here are my lists of "things spellcheck should be able to fix but can't" from what I've gone through so far.

First, spellings that differ from Modern English by only one letter, but which completely stump Google Docs (i.e., it marks them wrong but only gives the "why am I not seeing a suggestion?" message):

Goute ("gout")

Herbes ("herbs")

Melodye ("melody")

Smale ("small")

Swete ("sweet")

Syde ("side")

Ther ("there")

Wel ("well")

And second, words that are not correct in Modern English but that Google Docs does not mark wrong:

Anoon ("anon")

Attempree ("a temperate")

Beautee ("beauty")

Bowle ("bowl")

Dar nat ("dare not")

Daunce ("dance")

Dede ("dead")

Doon ("do")

Dronke ("drank")

Dronken ("drunken")

Fyr ("fire")

Gyse ("guise")

Hadde ("had")

Hir ("her")

Hir ("their")

Hond ("hand")

Lak ("lack")

Lakked ("lacked")

Lordes ("lords")

Maad ("made")

Pyne ("pain")

Rasour ("razor")

Sayde ("said")

Shere ("shear")

Som ("some)

Sondry ("sundry")

Spyces ("spices")

Styward ("steward")

Syk ("sick")

Thencens ("the incense")

Usshers ("ushers")

Wente ("went")

Wyf ("wife")

Y-goon ("gone")

[tchaikovskyed]

Hi! I am an Arthurian prof and I saw your post about Malory Daily. I have a few suggestions on editions!

Most scholarship these days focuses on the Winchester Manuscript version of the Morte, whereas most popular modern English editions use the Caxton version as their source. Any public domain versions of the Morte will use Caxton. Winchester is considered closer to Malory's original text (but it's not The original), since Caxton (often heavily) edited the text to better serve his mercantile audience. For example, he makes heavy cuts to the Roman War as well as the Pentecostal Oath. If you're looking to include scholarship with each day's post, I recommend taking this into account, as most contemporary scholarship is going to focus primarily on Winchester!

With that in mind, I have a few recommended editions, although these are not in the public domain:

For Middle English (ME), PJC Field's edition through DS Brewer is the only (as in best) option. There's a paperback edition that costs ~$25 that is a BRICK but it is the best bang for your buck while also just straight up being the best version. There's also a hardcover set of the Morte and accompanying notes that is like $350 and is considered the scholarly standard, but the paperback edition is the exact same thing minus the notes. If you haven't read ME before, Malory is a great place to start because it is VERY LATE ME. He was writing in the century after Chaucer, and it's much easier to read than good ol Geoff. This is the version that most scholarship will be citing; the journal Arthuriana requires all Malory quotes to be from this version. Field in general is a great expert on all things Malory as well.

For modern English, I recommend the translation by Armstrong from Parlour Press. I believe it's also ~$25. Dorsey Armstrong is currently the editor of Arthuriana and she quite literally wrote the book on gender in the Morte. Her translation is really accessible and sticks extremely close to the ME. In my opinion, this is going to give you the closest experience to reading the ME without having to read the ME.

Future editions: at some point a translation from Whetter and Tolhurst is going to come out. K.S. Whetter is one of the big names working directly with the Winchester Manuscript (literally wrote the book on it too, studied under Field, etc) so this is bound to be a great version for anyone who wants an experience closest to the manuscript.

I hope this is helpful!

Thank you so much for this, it's been extremely helpful! I was going to make a short post about different editions but this has been 100% more coherent than anything I was going to write, and I will include all your notes in the blog's about page!

Unfortunately because I'm not too sure about copyright issues, it's easiest for the Substack to include a public domain version (more specifically the version on Project Gutenberg), with an accompanying post comparing the differences between this version and the Oxford World Classics Helen Cooper (which I'll make available online via a big ol' resources GDrive) and the Complete Works edited by Eugene Vinaver (which I have a physical copy of).

Seconded on the P.J.C Field edition which was my bible when I was writing my dissertation, although I've had a look online and it's close to impossible to access unless you are affiliated with a university in some way. I had no idea a new edition was in the works but that is really exciting!

[scotianostra]

On 7th April 1718 Hugh Blair was born in Edinburgh.

Hugh Blair went to Edinburgh High School and Edinburgh University, graduating Master of Arts in 1739. He was licensed to preach in 1741, and soon after became tutor in the family of Simon, Master of Lovat.

Hugh Blair was a leading figure in the Church of Scotland. He was one of the ‘literati’, Edinburgh’s intellectual élite, an early member of the Select Society and early fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. As Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Edinburgh from 1760, he held the first dedicated chair of English in any university.

Blair gave public lectures on English language, literature and literary criticism. He chaired a sub-society created by the Select Society, called the ‘Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language’.

Blair was closely linked with the appearance and growth in popularity of the controversial Ossian poems, ostensibly translated by James MacPherson. He arranged for the publication of the poems and wrote a preface to MacPherson’s ‘Fragments of ancient poetry’, first published in 1760.

In subsequent debates about the authenticity of the Ossian poems, Blair strongly defended the poems as authentic examples of ancient Gaelic literature. In 1763, he published ‘A critical dissertation on the poems of Ossian’ in which he argued that they were genuine. This dissertation established Blair’s reputation as a literary critic.

Our bard, Rabbie Burns, struck up an unlikely friendship with Blair, the two exchanging letters and anecdotes, even though the poet was over 40 years his junior.

Hugh Blair died 27th December 1800 (aged 82) and is buried in Edinburgh's Greyfriars Kirkyard.

[delightful-to-be-read]

The City & The City - China Miéville

If ever I had a backlog book, this is it. I love China Miéville. King Rat is one of the books I most regularly recommend. But I’ve started this maybe 10 times and always drifted out of it. Often seeing a particular friend is the trigger for me to try again. I start it, I like it, I’m intrigued, I drift away. Goodreads tells me I’ve been reading it since March 2023.

I suspect the way the world is built might be a bit too implicitly explained when I’m tired. It’s in first person and he’s balances the exposition well but I struggle to retain neologisms. It’s a me problem.

The world is complex. There are two fictional cities living in close supposition and they are forbidden from acknowledging each other when they interact or sliding into the other city - “breaching” - without going through passport control. Britain and the US and so on also exist.

Besel, where it’s set.

Ul Qoma, where they can’t go.

Within this world, it’s a murder mystery, narrated by the lead detective.

Spoilers below the cut.

I’m always really curious about 1* reviews of books I like. I’m also curious about the people who spend time writing about books they don’t like in the first place, but I spend time reading them so who am I to judge?

A reflection on the 1* reviews:

There are always some bizarre ones. Someone said it was a bad translation into English, which I don’t think it was. Miéville’s from Norwich.

There are always some twats who think they’d spotted some deficiencies that other people’s lack of genius will blind them to. I suspect their reading experience is pretty joyless on the whole.

Sometimes there are books that need skilful readers and the reviews makes it clear that the book was too challenging (Alan Bennet’s The Uncommon Reader has a gentle reflection on this). I’m not a skilful enough reader to enjoy Dickens, for example. Too hard. I also think that it’s not a good first Miéville book: it reads much more easily if you’re conversant with his style.

Most of the time, with a book that can’t be objectively a Bad Book - if there is such a thing - as millions of people enjoy it, I suspect they’re looking for or expecting something they don’t get. Especially if the book overlaps genre as this does. The misdirection is effective and I wanted the thing he was directing us towards to be the truth - I kind of knew there wasn’t enough book left for it to be the case, but other than that, he had me totally convinced. The fact that it wasn’t drew it away from being a fantasy book and towards a police procedural. If you were a reader who only really enjoys fantasy, I can’t imagine you’d enjoy it or at least not the ending.

I listened to an interview with Miéville and it certainly seems the police procedural was his focus. What he set out to do, he did very well, but he said he kept going back to Chandler, who is another writer I feel I’m not skilful enough to read. Too dense, and this book is dense. I can’t help but feel that the issue of some of the 1* readers was that he’d created a mind-blowing world and then used it for a thriller.

This is also not the first book I’ve read, and I think they’ve been cross-genre books, where a premise is established and people expect the book to be about explaining the premise and they’re disappointed that it’s not. It’s absolutely fine that the split of the cities is never explained. Elegant. Particularly as he had a perfectly good explanation that he could have used had he so chosen.

Of course, for some people it’s just not for them (someone said it’s not their cup of tea with, I’m pretty sure, no self-awareness). That’s fine. But I don’t bother finishing a book I don’t like, let alone write a five paragraph dissertation on it.

[mademoiselle-red]

Reading the Renault fandom dissertation, part 4: the online TC fandom analysis begins…

An academic decided to write about us, online fans of Mary Renault’s works, for her phd dissertation in 2018, and as the subject of her research, I will be covering & commenting on what she wrote over a series of posts ✍️📑 (Here is part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, and part 6)

For part 4, we begin to delve into Chou’s analysis of the online TC fandom, which she calls the “millennial fandom” because it sprung up in the new millennium (the mid-2000s).

“While Renault’s works have mostly lost their relevance for readers of historical fiction and gay literature, Renault has found a new fandom in internet communities. On LiveJournal.com, the social networking website that has been a platform for many fandom communities since 1999, there are two major communities devoted to Renault and her works: maryrenaultfics (since 2004) and maryrenault (2005). While these communities have become less active due to decreasing popularity of LiveJournal itself, Renault fandom is still active on more recent fandom platforms such as Tumblr and Archive of Our Own”

So far this checks out. These are all the places we have congregated in.

“Renault’s new fans are not the “older gay men” who have gone digital, nor are they the “serious-minded teenagers” interested in classical times, or the academics who are finally paying the author her long-overdue attention. The cult popularity that Renault’s works achieved in the community of online fan “prosumers,” especially for those who are interested in “slash”—fantasy about male homoeroticism largely produced for and by women—demands a renewed examination of how Renault’s works could be reread and re-evaluated.”

I’m pretty sure there are middle aged men, academics, and serious minded history-obsessed teens among us. But cis women (and bisexual folks) do comprise half of the fandom (according to an informal poll I ran a while back).

“According to Fanlore Wiki, one of the largest Wikipedia websites about English- speaking fan activities, one of Renault’s LiveJournal community has been in existence since 2004, aptly named “Mary’s Handmaidens.” On the Fanlore page about “Mary’s Handmaidens,” a passage describes the gender and sexual constituent of the online community: “The community includes members of both sexes, with (by comparison with many other fandoms) a notable contingent of men, though the majority of writers of fan fiction are women. Various sexual orientations are represented among the membership.” The statement about a “notable contingent of men” is a curious one compared to the “handmaidens” in the title of the community. Despite its consciously inclusive taglines (“the community includes members of both sexes”, “various sexual orientations are represented”), the community adopts a female persona as its identity.”

This is a fair point! The handmaidens group name really wasn’t inclusive. And cis women did and still do comprise the largest group in Renault fandoms (and slash fandoms in general).

“Another example of Renault’s Internet fandom is The Theban Band’s fan arts based on Renault’s novels (see fig. 4). Among fan artworks on Renault’s works by The Theban Band, one piece based on The Charioteer illustrates serial lines of flights from the fans to Renault, from Renault to her characters, and then from her characters to antiquity (see fig. 5). The artwork demonstrates the fantastical disposition of the simultaneous disidentification and cross- identification with otherness, which in the scene depicted is embodied in a leap to another time and place. This artwork captures the moment in which Ralph and Laurie’s flirtatious book-exchange takes place in The Charioteer.”

What about this above image demonstrates disidentification and cross-identification with its subject matter? It appears to be a just a faithful visual rendition of the scene from the novel.

“If Ralph is attempting to initiate Laurie to homosexuality, it is interesting that the knowledge of homosexuality that he passes on (instead of homosexuality itself) is explained as a fantasy. In this scene of erotic initiation of a young boy, the only physical contact between the two characters is through a book that is “just a nice idea.” In the same scene, the two are depicted as dangerously close to a kiss In the passage, Ralph merely makes an “outward movement” and then steps back. What takes place in between, the “[h]alf-remembered images” of “the tents of Troy, the columns of Athens, David waiting in an olive grove for the sound of Jonathan’s bow” preoccupy Laurie’s mind strangely more so than the immediate presence of Ralph.”

I guess she is on the no-kiss team for chapter 2. 😚

“Together with the Phaedrus that Laurie physically receives, the fantasy of a homoerotic past mediates the modern, homosexual relationship between Laurie and Ralph throughout the entire story. In this sense, Phaedrus functions for the two characters much like how Renault’s books function for her readers. The Charioteer is an adoring look to the past clothed as a story about the inner struggles of a modern homosexual, or, more precisely, about how the struggles must be negotiated through a fantasy of the past. Renault’s books were for her mid-century gay readers “a badge of homosexuality” in much the same way Plato’s Phaedrus is for Ralph and Laurie: a communication about desire in the present through a collective fantasy of a past that contains the ideal form of that desire. […] Laurie looks back into a mythical past in order to contextualize his homosexuality, and Renault herself turns to the idea of Greek Love to write about male homoeroticism. In a similar way, the 21st-century fans locate in Renault’s works a kind of male homoeroticism that seems unavailable in the here and now of post-gay sexual politics.”

What are post-gay sexual politics? In what way precisely is the kind of male homoeroticism in Renault’s works, and in TC in particular (since this passage focuses on TC) no longer available in the here and now? While things have improved a lot for queer people, especially here in the west, homophobia has not gone away! Do all LGBTQ people in the Americas and Europe (where Renault’s books are published) no longer face familial and social ostracism after coming out? Readers both in the old livejournal and here on tumblr have mentioned how they could relate to TC because they come from homophobic families and communities. Through TC and the Greek novels, people can read about characters experiencing similar emotions and situations, across time, space and sometimes gender, and feel comforted, knowing that they are not alone, that this love exists, it is real, and it will find a way.

“The three-fold leap in time for Renault’s millennial fans constitutes a fantasy that is thrice removed from the “reality” of sexual desire. If Ralph and Laurie could be said to negotiate their own identity through an ancient Greek philosopher, and if as critics have argued, Renault masks her own lesbian identity by male homoeroticism located both temporally and cultural distant from her own, it is much more difficult to argue that there is a sexual truth being filtered through Plato, Renault’s characters, and finally Renault herself for the millennial fans.”

While Laurie & Ralph and the mid-century gay readers use The Phaedrus / The Charioteer to communicate their sexuality through “a collective fantasy of a past that contains the ideal form of that desire”, the “millennial fans”, according to Chou, are too far removed from the “reality” of sexual desire to receive “a sexual truth.” This assumes that the millennial fans do not use The Charioteer to explore and understand their own sexuality and cannot relate their own sexual realities to the same-sex desires depicted in the novel. This, as I said in the paragraph above, is not true, since many readers in these online communities do identify as LGBTQ+ and can relate to LGBTQ+ experiences. It is true that many of the millennial fans are not specifically gay men using these gay books to reveal their sexualities to each other. And there are indeed straight women among us, but in my experience, we are definitely NOT a majority straight-women group. Most of us are queer people who, like Ralph/Laurie and the mid-century gay readers, have found each other through this book (as friends and as lovers ❤️)

My commentary on Chou’s online TC fandom analysis continues in part 5, and a tumblr username familiar to many of us here makes a surprising appearance in the dissertation 👀👀👀

[littlekiwi78]

A Bit Out of the Ordinary

Tonight as I lay in bed I read Charli Oakeby's dissertation for her bachelor's in English, and I found it a great example of the overlapping of disciplines. Oakeby's analysis of Lana Del Rey's discography is inherently intertwined with art analysis as she analyses Del Ray's work. Around a 50-page read, I greatly enjoyed Oakeby's interrogation of Goethe's 'eternal feminine' through four principal archetypes.

[flowerandblood]

How did you get so good at writing? Were you born that amazing or did you practice? I’m trying to become a writer but I seem to suck at it. Loooove all your work btw 🥰

This is actually a very difficult question, but I'm glad you think I'm a good writer. That so kind of you. 💐

I have always liked Polish language and literature lessons, especially text analysis, during our classes we also have to write something like an "rozprawka". In other countries it is most often called an "essay", but in our case this form has clearly defined rules and is not an argument purely with your thoughts, only arguments for and against, analysis of fragments of texts, a bit as if you were a prosecutor.

Rozprawka comes from the Polish word rozprawa, which means dissertation in English.

By analyzing works of literature from all over the world in this way, you begin to analyze them very deeply, and it seems to me that nothing helps me in writing more than my experiences with other classical writers that I have read.

I love Edgar Allan Poe, I love Jane Austen, I love Molière, I love Sophocles, I love Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dostoyevsky, but also many outstanding Polish writers and artists, Gombrowicz, Mickiewicz, Wyspiański.

I have their books at home and they had a huge impact on me, but what impressed me the most was the analysis of these texts, because without it you don't fully understand what you're reading.

I have always liked creating my stories, but I usually presented them naturally to me, in the form of drawings and comics. It turned out that it was easier for me to present and describe something with words than with drawings, even though I am an artist (hehe). So I didn't write before I created this fanfic account, with maybe two exceptions, but only with my friend, and before that all my texts were serious comparative analyzes of other books.

So I don't know if I was born with it, probably not, but the words just come to me. First I come up with scenes and then I write them down, but sometimes I just write and the plot takes care of itself. I never plan my stories, I usually have no idea what will happen in them, I come up with ideas on the fly. I never know how it will end, it's always a guess. I admire writers who plan everything step by step, I would die halfway through, I try to write whenever I feel inspired.

Yesterday and today, for example, I wrote 8 chapters of The Prince and The Fox and I will probably write a few more, because I have inspiration, I feel this story now and I want to go further.

I will add that I write in my native language: Polish, because it is the language in which I think and in which words come naturally to me, and only then I translate them into English.

I don't know if it will help you, but my advice, for the despair of some people, is this: read the classics of literature!