Abstract: This article intends to analyze the critical realism writing style in J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy by focusing on the narration of Chapter One and the first part of Chapter Two. Combining with a brief review of the theory of critical realism in fictions, which debuted in the 19th century English literature, the passage finally gives a personal understanding of the writing style. Key Words: Critical Realism, Characteristics, features, society 1. Preface As J.K. Rowling's first novel for grown-ups, The Casual Vacancy is an impressive work with adult features. The novel can be regarded as a major turning point of Rowling’s writing career, for she took a giant step to move beyond the magic, after the big success of the Harry Potter series.
This setting is significant as it conveys the idea that Catherine could be a heroine but would be an unlikely one. It is widely believed that Austen satirizes the form and conventions of gothic novels that were popular during the time when Austen wrote Northanger Abbey. In particular, Austen is said to have targeted Anne Radcliffe, who wrote The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), a gothic novel that Catherine loves to read during her stay in the spa town Bath. The differences between the heroines already become clear when comparing the appearances of Austen’s Catherine to Radcliffe’s Emily. Catherine is described in the following way: “She had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without color, dark lank hair, and strong features – so much for her person; and not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her
The setting is very important in the elaboration of this specific fictional text. The time and space we are dealing with are much relevant for creating the perfect background for a heroine like Jane to live in. Culturally speaking, Gothic novels were in evidence at the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It involved a lot of stereotypes, fantastic elements, and melodrama. Yet, although some critics define Jane Eyre as a Gothic piece of literature, it is true that it ruptured several aspects to create something quite new, including characterization points that will be discussed further.
First, Christine can “speak” to readers by channeling her own persona into her main character. Further, the form of authorial conversation with allegorical figures was a popular didactic medieval convention, and this textual structure remains accessible today. When Judith L. Kellogg writes, “the space in which the city [of ladies] is built must be within each woman,” she bridges the six-hundred years since the writing of The Book of the City of Ladies with a few strokes of her pen. In other words, Christine urges individual women to take the first step toward realizing a feminist hereafter. By writing (as author) and creating (as heroine) a city of ladies, Christine emphasizes women’s spaces, self-defense, and memory as keys to the creation of women’s history and future.
The novel Jane Eyre is an autobiographical account including elements of a fairy tale, gothic mystery and is Bildungsroman, as it follows the characters internal development. This essay will focus on Jane’s controversial standing in her autobiography, where she searches to be independent and of a higher social standing. The way in which Charlotte Bronte imposes the style of writing in describing scenes and passages containing letters sets the content of the novel and leads to the climax of the text and inevitably the ending of the novel. From the opening paragraph which creates the scene for the narrators essential traits, to the letters perceived throughout, provide the context for the plot. Jane Eyre is an autobiography in which she tells of her journey through life, imposing her need of achieving independence and social stature to be at last happy and fulfilled.
Explore how the writer presents the horrors of war in ‘Not So Quiet’ The book ‘Not So Quiet…: Stepdaughters of War’ was written by Evadne Price under the pseudonym of Helen Zenna Smith. Evadne was originally approached to write a parody of All Quiet on The Western Front, Remarque’s iconic novel, she instead decided to write a war-story from the point of view of a serious woman war-worker. In this essay I will be looking at how the writer presents the horrors of war. The book is written in first person narrative, it is almost a stream of consciousness and this makes the readers feel as if they are experiencing everything with the protagonist, Helen. It opens with a harsh and unflinching description of Helen’s life as an ambulance driver in France.
Compare and contrast how strong feelings are shown in Jane Austen's 'Emma' and William Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice'? Jane Austen's "Emma" is compressed with strong emotions. From the opening lines of the novel, we can identify the protagonist, Emma Woodhouse's, feelings of joy towards her life, as a high society lady in 19th century England; the time of Britain's rise in global power. Although this seems like a momentous time, Austen uses her literature to depict emotions that would not have been noticed at the time of her writing. She portrays strong feeling regarding the social class system of the time, the view towards women and marriage, and the complexities friendship and compassion held in the 19th century.
Explore the opening few pages of The Bloody Chamber in relation to the Gothic genre In the opening few pages of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ Carter explores the feminist notion of a female identity existing independently of, and not limited, by male identity. The opening line of the novel, ‘I remember how’ lays the foundations of a text that puts focus on the influence of the past, shadowing Gothic expectations. Furthermore, by letting the heroine tell her own story empowers the figure of woman by placing her in the traditional male dominated role of storyteller instead of confining her to the stereotypical ‘damsel in distress’. Carter bases ‘The Bloody Chamber’ on the fairytale legend of ‘Bluebeard’, however unlike a traditional fairytale, generally in third person, Carter challenges this stereotype by giving the heroine a voice further exploring the effects of empowering women. However, Carter uses the narrator to alternate between strength and passivity, although constantly lines the text with repeated images of female assertiveness.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey: a Gothic Parody The Gothic fiction is a literary genre that combines elements of both horror and romance. It flourished in England during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a “reaction against the rigidity and formality of other forms of Romantic literature. [1]” It has often been said that the first true Gothic romance was The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole and first published in 1764. Although during this period many of the highly regarded Gothic novelists published their writings and much of the novel’s form was defined, this genre is not limited to this time whatsoever. Indeed, the Gothic can still be found nowadays in the
It might be said that Northanger Abbey addresses the value of fiction as well as that of reading in a wider sense: explore. In this essay, I argue that through her characters, Jane Austen uses Northanger Abbey to express the importance she places on reading both fiction and non-fiction in real life. While Austen criticises history and fact for “the statement of improbable circumstances, unnatural characters, and topics of conversation which are no longer concern of anyone living” (Austen, 1818, p. 24) and praises the novel for being “a work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed” (Austen, 1818, p. 24), she repeatedly stresses that beneath its mockery of 18th Century Society and the Gothic, Northanger Abbey’s main message is about the dangers of confusing reality with fiction. In his essay ‘“A mere skeleton of history”: Reading Relics in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey’ Terry F. Robinson draws the comparison between Austen’s writing and that of William Godwin’s essays ‘Of History and Romance’ and ‘Essay of Sepulchres: or, A Proposal for Erecting some Memorial of the Illustrious Dead in All Ages, On the spot where their remains have been interred.’ These essays argue that history is the ‘skeleton’ and fiction the ‘muscles and the flesh’, and Robinson concludes his reading of Godwin with ‘“The writer of romance then is to be considered as the writer of real history” because romance “consists in a delineation of consistent, human character.”’ (Godwin, 1797, p. 372) In her book about reading, Austen and her narrator instruct their readers on the correct books to read through the trials and tribulations of their heroine-in-training, Catherine Morland. Before the events of the novel, Catherine “read all such works as heroines must […] Pope […] Gray […] Thompson […] Shakespeare’ (Austen, 1818, p. 7).