Comparative Essays - The Little Glass Slipper’ by Perrault and ‘Cinderella’ by Dahl

The tale of Cinderella has been recognized around the world and the themes from the tale appear in the folklore of many cultures. Thus, many versions emerge based on the archetypal character of Cinderella where most of the versions always center around a benevolent, but persecuted heroine who happens to be the victim of her step-family after the death of her mother. Her father is either absent or neglectful, depending on the version. The heroine also has a magical guardian (fairy godmother) who helps her to defeat her persecutors and receive her fondest wish by the end of the tale. The same sort of clothing, usually a shoe or a glass slipper also shapes the story where at the end the heroine is recognized for her truth worth. What is an archetype? According to Bert.O States (1980: 334) archetype is best described as:

…a sort of quark in the structure of time whose existence we can only posit as being necessary to explain the phenomenon of unintentional recurrence. In fact, unlike the quark (which, as I write, we have just caught streaking boldly through matter), the archetype is not discrete at all but the ghost of a former form, endlessly migratory, infinitely tolerant of new content, ever fresh, ever archaic.

Comparative Literature - A Comparative Critical Essay

Comparative literature, the combined study of similar literary works written in different languages, which stresses the points of connection between literary products of two or more cultures, as distinct from the sometimes narrow and exclusive perspective of English Literature or similar approaches based on one national canon. Advocates of comparative literature maintain that there is, despite the obvious disadvantages, much to be gained from studying literary works in translation.

Poem ‘Talking to Myself’ By Kishwar Naheed (Personal Reviews)

Kishwar Naheed is one of the best known Urdu feminist poets of Pakistan. She was born in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1940. Her family moved to Lahore in Pakistan during the the sub-continent of 1947. Kishwar had witnessed violence (including rape and abduction of women) associated with partition. She has published six collections of poems between 1969 and 1990. All her texts are about to redefine the man and woman relationship in the context of female sexuality, politics and social issues.

The poem ‘Talking to Myself’ is about a feeling and dream of a woman who wants to be free. She has a desire to go beyond what the man and this world expected from a woman. In the poem, the persona gives pictures to the readers about pain, misery and oppression that she faced from a person called man. But the most important, this poem purposely gives a sarcastic expression of what tortured and oppressed woman’s feel towards a man. It is based on what the man have done to her. It also tells that the persona can do more than the man expects because she can fight against all bad things that happen to her before and this will give bad effect to the man’s pride.

Poem "My Mother" By Mahmoud Darwish (Personal Reviews)

“My Mother”, another powerful and meaningful poem from Mahmoud Darwish. He was considered to be the most important contemporary Arab poet working today. He was born in 1942 in the village of Barweh in the Galilee, which was razed to the ground by the Israelis in 1948. As a result of his politi-cal activism he faced house arrest and imprisonment. Darwish was the editor of Ittihad Newspaper before leaving in 1971 to study for a year in the USSR. His poems are known throughout the Arab world, and several of them have been put to music. His poetry has gained great sophistication over the years, and has enjoyed international fame for a long time. He has published around 30 poetry and prose collections, which have been translated into 35 languages. He is the editor in chief and founder of the prestigious literary review Al Karmel, which has resumed publication in January 1997 out of the Sakakini Centre offices. He published in 1998 the poetry collection: Sareer el Ghariba (Bed of the Stranger), his first collection of love poems. In 2000 he published Jidariyya (Mural) a book consisting of one poem about his near death experience in 1997.

Katherine Mansfield Biography (1888 - 1923)

New Zealand's most famous writer, who was closely associated with D.H. Lawrence and something of a rival of Virginia Woolf. Mansfield's creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy, alienation - all this reflected in her work with the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters. Her short stories are also notable for their use of stream of consciousness. Like the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, Mansfield depicted trivial events and subtle changes in human behavior.

"Henry was a great fellow for books. He did not read many nor did he possess above half a dozen. He looked at all in the Charing Cross Road during lunch-time and at any odd time in London; the quantity with which he was on nodding terms was amazing. By his clean neat handling of them and by his nice choice of phrase when discussing them with one or another bookseller you would have thought that he had taken his pap with a tome propped before his nurse's bosom. But you would have been wrong." (from 'Something Childish But Very Natural')

Short Story "Miss Brill" By Katherine Mansfield (Personal Review)

‘Miss Brill’ is a short story written by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) - Pseudonym of Kathleen Murry, where by her original name is Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp. She was born in Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-class colonial family. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, was a banker and her mother, Annie Burnell Dyer, was of genteel origins. She lived for six years in the rural village of Karori. Later on, Mansfield said "I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was, too. But, better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all." At the age of nine, she had her first text published. Later on, she was well-known as the New Zealand's most famous writer and was closely associated with D.H. Lawrence and something of a rival of Virginia Woolf. Mansfield's creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy and alienation. Therefore, what comes to my mind that all these have reflected in her work with the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters especially in this short story called ‘Miss Brill’.