Critical Essays Archive
Excavating the Past in Don DeLillo’s Underworld
Rather than simply being connected by the rampant consumerism or the refuse of the Cold War that populates this novel, the characters of DeLillo’s 1997 novel are deeply connected by their emotional response to the beautiful.
Frame Stories and the Passage of Time
If one purpose of a frame story in a novel is to prime the reader to listen to what might be a long or meandering tale, what’s the purpose of a frame in a short story?
Corelli’s Mandolin and the Patriarchy
While the focus of Louis de Bernières’ 1994 book is the love story between a young woman, Pelagia, and Captain Antonio Corelli, one of the many side plots is that of the ruin of Mandras, Pelagia’s first fiancé, at the hands of masculine ideals.
“A Selfie as Big as the Ritz” and “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz”
By comparing a selfie to a hotel that stands tall and decadent in the cultural imagination, Lara Williams draws connections between the subtle themes of mapping, ownership, and value present in both her story and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s of a similar name—“The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.”
Narrative and Conspiracy Theories
Though Thomas Milan Konda notes a recent sharp increase in the consumption of conspiracy theories and is concerned by it, his new book offers insightful context for why the United States has become as obsessed with conspiracy theories as it is.
The Unexpected Feminism of Elena Ferrante’s Scorned Woman
In contrast to many other more contemporary narratives, Elena Ferrante’s 2002 novel does not seek to avoid or minimize the pain of a broken marriage by playing into fantasy and wish fulfillment.
The Outlined Subject
The outline, the contour, of skin, for all its fragility and permeability, for all the fathomless depths of intention and desire it conceals, remains for many the most salient fact of their lives in the world.
Berg, The Weird, and The Eerie
Ann Quin’s debut novel takes aim at the difficulties of daily life, bringing to light our lack of control and the need for introspection when faced with even the simplest of questions.
Modern Day Ghost Stories
In contemporary memoir, like works by Kiese Laymon and Jesmyn Ward, the ghosts that haunt the narrators are past selves, dead loved ones, or other traumas that manifest in these writers’ lives.
Reading Carmen Maria Machado’s Update on Carmilla
In this new edition, Machado has taken on the duty of an antique frame restorer. The resulting work is a hybrid form, a beautiful and terrible monster that shifts whenever you look at it, back and forth between history and fantasy, repression and liberation, horror and desire.