It is said that the fetal ape looks more human than a mature one, and some have suggested that humanity arose through a process of arrested development.[1] -The Parallel World of Narnia, Chad Walsh. The early twentieth century saw the rise of real and troubling issues, giving Eric Hobsbawm good reason to name the period [...]

Technology has evolved in leaps and bounds in the last few decades. It is a prevalent part of today’s society, so much so that it has influenced culture irreversibly. Culture is both what makes us who we are, and what makes us part of a group. It shapes us as individuals and gives us our [...]

Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971) follows the story of Alex, a young working-class man whose rebellious nature cannot be subdued by social conventions. He is violent, uneducable, and a danger to all classes of society. His plot is presented by Kubrick in an elaborate cinematic framework, using highly symbolic scenery and music, and exploiting [...]

Laughter, colour, revelry and chaos. Clowns, fools and grotesque exaggeration. Such are the sights and sounds of a carnival, a Feast of Fools. The way Bakhtin infuses this liberal atmosphere into a particular literary form is what lies at the heart of his Carnivalesque. Like the carnivals themselves, the Carnivalesque is about breaking oppressive forms [...]

The changing landscapes of literature: digital media as potential and platform. The contention that interest in literature is waning seems to be everywhere. We are being constantly bombarded with the idea that quality creative writing by inspirational and innovative writers is something only a small group of dedicated elite readers seem to be continuing to [...]

One of central narrative achievements of the Legacy of Kain series is its ability to frustrate traditional videogame genre expectations, subverting them to overthrow the player’s assumptions. When observing the franchise, one is struck with its decade-long mindset of the developers in placing the story at the foreground of the experience, using the gameplay as a tool to slowly unravel the plot.

It would be hard to deny that technology occupies the role of ‘other’ in our popular consciousness, in spite of the fact that it orbits around us throughout our lives. Our preoccupations regarding technology extend even to popular fiction – indeed, popular culture is a fertile breeding ground for myths surrounding technology to proliferate and [...]

C. S. Lewis said ‘We want to see with other eyes, to­ imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own’ as a means of explaining why humans appreciate literature. In terms of romance novels, readers tends to find themselves either comparing their amorous relationships with that of the featured couple, or yearning for that ideal relationship which the novel projects.

That the Beatles are immortal is hardly a point to be disputed. A pointer to their perpetual status might be found in the hallucinogenic, Carnivalesque whirl of their art, found particularly in their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the fantastical Magical Mystery Tour that followed it - the albums that propelled them to god-like status.

Lamia, Lilith, serpent and seductress; the rich history of the female vampire serves to remind us that she did not appear recently as a feminist response to a heterosexual male-dominated society, but has been with us since the dawn of creation. Literally.