...literature, I believe that it is a persona narrating, perhaps close to the author’s voice but not one and the same. It is this persona, its growth from child to man, and its escapist addiction that form the theme. Reading and books play a necessarily large role in the poem but as example habits, or escapist addictions. As many of his poems, ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ is imbued with subjects current to the time; the collection The Whitsun Weddings was compiled in 1964 and the circulation of cheap paperbacks was very much still a new concept. Though it opened up literature to all classes, both in price and availability, Larkin is adamant in indicating both the opportunity it presents in flawing the character of the reader as well as the inherent defects present in society. This is possibly due to the new wave of cheap literature threatening a librarian’s custodian career. Larkin is recognised for his representation of life at its most mundane, as Jean Hartley put it; “ordinary people doing ordinary things”, and infamous for his unmitigated cynicism of that life. ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ is typical in this sense; the persona presented unwittingly self-depredates in full view of the reader in the most mundanely comic of manners, supported by the confused use of the language. As in many of Larkin’s poems from ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ “A study of Reading Habits” is dedicated to the ordinary. As in “Ambulances”, “Sunny Prestayn” and “Take One Home for the...
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...Larkin has been regarded as one of the most pessimistic poets. Larkin surely takes a very dark view of human life. The main emphasis in his poems is on failure and frustration in human life. And then there is his preoccupation with death. In a number of poems he emphasizes the sombre and grim aspects of human life and in many poems he speaks of the cert of death. We are all aware of the facts of failure and frustration in human life and we are all aware of the faith of death. But what makes Larkin a pessimist, and a confirmed pessimist at that, is his repeated emphasis, and over-emphasis, on these aspects of human life. On explanation of his repeated reminders to us of the certain of death, he has been regarded as “a graveyard poet”; and the general and brooding atmosphere of melancholy and despondency in his poems justifies the label “pessimist” for him. A number of poems come to our minds in this connection. The poem Ambulances paints a gloomy picture of human life because of the fact that every street is visited by an ambulance at one time or the other. An ambulance is a symbol of disease and death. Dockery and Son contains the following pessimistic line: “Life is first boredom, then fear”. And this poem concludes with the pessimistic view that there is old age, and that the end of old age is death. Aubade is a poem in which Larkin’s fear of death reaches its climax. Larkin himself described it his “in-a-funk-about-death poem.” The Positive Features of His Pessimistic...
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...Alita Fonseca Balbi “The Less Deceived”: Subjectivity, Gender, Sex and Love in Sylvia Plath's and Philip Larkin's Poetry Belo Horizonte Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 2012 i “The Less Deceived”: Subjectivity, Gender, Sex and Love in Sylvia Plath's and Philip Larkin's Poetry by Alita Fonseca Balbi Submitted to the Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras: Estudos Literários in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Mestre em Literaturas de Expressão Inglesa. Thesis Advisor: Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida, PhD Belo Horizonte Faculdade de Letras Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 2012 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my father, Tadeu, for always reminding me of the importance of having dreams and being true to them; for motivating me to be creative and to believe in my potential; and for teaching me to seek beauty and happiness in everything I see and do. To my mother, Socorro, for always making sure I enjoy all the possibilities that cross my path, and for reminding me that hard work is the only means to achieve my goals. To my brothers, Bruno and Diego, for being my best friends. To my sister-in-law, Sabrina, for embracing me as family and making me feel at home even when I’m not. To Paulo, for his company, for his love and care, and for all his witty remarks. To the professors of Letras, Julio Jeha, José dos Santos, Eliana Lourenço and Gláucia Renates, for being extraordinary professors, and for all the knowledge each...
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...A group of a few women born in the second decade of the century might together illustrate the diversity of the twentieth-century novelist's interests. Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975), the author the novels The Soul of Kindness and Blaming, is a refined stylist whose swift flashes of dialogue and reflection and deft sketches of the wider background give vitality to her portrayals of well-to-do family life in commuter land. Some of her later novels are In a Summer Season (1961), and The Wedding Group (1968.) Elizabeth Taylor has humour and compassion as well as disciplined artistry, and has logically been compared with Jane Austen. So has Barbara Pym (1913-1980) who tasted fame, sadly enough, only at the end of her life (her real name was Mary Crampton). Another restrained and perceptive artist, she is a master of J f ingenuous and candid dialogue and reflection which are resonant with comic overtones. Critics I called her "modern Jane Austin. Excellent Women (1952) and A Glass of Blessings (1958) were reprinted in the late 1970s when Philip Larkin and David Cecil drew attention to the quality of her neglected work. Later novels, The Sweet Dove Died (1978) and Quartet in Autumn (1978), are no less engaging in their blend of pathos and comedy. One might well put beside these two English writers the Irish writer Mary Lavin (1912-1996), whose short stories focus on the ups and downs of family life with quiet pathos and humour. Her novels, The House in Clewes Street (1945)...
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...Approaching the Work Anthology How to compare the poems Meerkat Poetry Meerkat Poetry In section B of your AS exam, you will be asked to write one essay about the poems in the Work anthology. You will be given a choice of two questions. You can compare and contrast at least two poems of your choice, in response to a statement: OR You can compare one named poem and one other of your choice, in response to a statement: All the poems that you choose must come from the Work section of the anthology, which you have studied. How will my response be marked? Your response will be marked for three assessment objectives: AO1: 15 marks: AO2 – 5 marks: AO3 - 20 marks: TASK 1: Understanding how to compare Look carefully at the mark scheme for AO3. In addition to what is noted above, it always states: “In order to meet the AO3 requirement, effective comparison and contrast will need to be demonstrated.” Answer the following questions. 1. How are you asked to show similarities between the poems? 2. How are you asked to show differences? 3. What is meant by “literary” – what might you refer to in a literary response? Sample question with its indicative content from the mark scheme: For 5a: Compare all the way through, all your points should lead to exploring a similarity of a difference Compare all the way through, all your points should lead to exploring a similarity of a difference It’s OK to disagree with the statement in the question It’s OK to disagree with the statement in...
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...name from Queen Victoria who ruled from 1837 to 1901; it was a complex era characterised by stability, progress and social reforms, and, in the mean time, by great problems such as poverty, injustice and social unrest; that’s why the Victorians felt obliged to promote and invent a rigid code of values that reflected the world as they wanted it to be, based on: * duty and hard work; * respectability: a mixture of both morality and hypocrisy, severity and conformity to social standards (possessions of good manners, ownership of a comfortable house, regular attendance at church and charitable activity); it distiguished the middle from the lower classes; * charity and philanthropy: an activity that involved many people, expecially women. The family was strictly patriarchal: the husband represented the authority and respectability, cosequently a single woman with a child was emarginated because of a wide-spread sense of female chastity. Sexuality was generaly repressed and that led to extreme manifestations of prudery. Colonialism was an important phenomenon and it led to a patriotism deeply influenced by ideas of racial superiority: British people thought that they were obeying to God by the imposition of their superior way of life. The concept of “the white man’s burden” was exalted in the works of colonial writers (such as Rudyard Kipling). This code of values, known as “Victorian Compromise” founds its basis in some religious and philosophical movements: * evangelicalism:...
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...CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA An Interpretive History TENTH EDITION James J. Rawls Instructor of History Diablo Valley College Walton Bean Late Professor of History University of California, Berkeley TM TM CALIFORNIA: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY, TENTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill, a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Previous editions © 2008, 2003, and 1998. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1234567890 QFR/QFR 10987654321 ISBN: 978-0-07-340696-1 MHID: 0-07-340696-1 Vice President & Editor-in-Chief: Michael Ryan Vice President EDP/Central Publishing Services: Kimberly Meriwether David Publisher: Christopher Freitag Sponsoring Editor: Matthew Busbridge Executive Marketing Manager: Pamela S. Cooper Editorial Coordinator: Nikki Weissman Project Manager: Erin Melloy Design Coordinator: Margarite Reynolds Cover Designer: Carole Lawson Cover Image: Albert Bierstadt, American (born...
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...___________________________ LIVING HISTORY Hillary Rodham Clinton Simon & Schuster New York • London • Toronto • Sydney • Singapore To my parents, my husband, my daughter and all the good souls around the world whose inspiration, prayers, support and love blessed my heart and sustained me in the years of living history. AUTHOR’S NOTE In 1959, I wrote my autobiography for an assignment in sixth grade. In twenty-nine pages, most half-filled with earnest scrawl, I described my parents, brothers, pets, house, hobbies, school, sports and plans for the future. Forty-two years later, I began writing another memoir, this one about the eight years I spent in the White House living history with Bill Clinton. I quickly realized that I couldn’t explain my life as First Lady without going back to the beginning―how I became the woman I was that first day I walked into the White House on January 20, 1993, to take on a new role and experiences that would test and transform me in unexpected ways. By the time I crossed the threshold of the White House, I had been shaped by my family upbringing, education, religious faith and all that I had learned before―as the daughter of a staunch conservative father and a more liberal mother, a student activist, an advocate for children, a lawyer, Bill’s wife and Chelsea’s mom. For each chapter, there were more ideas I wanted to discuss than space allowed; more people to include than could be named; more places visited than could be described...
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...GLOBALIZATION THE ESSENTIALS GEORGE RITZER A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication Globalization Globalization A Basic Text George Ritzer This balanced introduction draws on academic and popular sources to examine the major issues and events in the history of globalization. Globalization: A Basic Text is a substantial introductory textbook, designed to work either on its own or alongside Readings in Globalization. The books are cross-referenced and are both structured around the core concepts of globalization. 2009 • 608 pages • 978-1-4051-3271-8 • paperback www.wiley.com/go/globalization Readings in Globalization Key Readings and Major Debates Edited by George Ritzer and Zeynep Atalay This unique and engaging anthology introduces students to the major concepts of globalization within the context of the key debates and disputes. Readings in Globalization illustrates that major debates in the field are not only useful to examine for their own merit but can extend our knowledge of globalization. The volume explores both the political economy of globalization and the relationship of culture to globalization. The volume is designed so it may be used independently, or alongside George Ritzer’s Globalization: A Basic Text for a complete student resource. 2010 • 560 pages • 978-1-4051-3273-2 • paperback Order together and save! Quote ISBN 978-1-4443-2371-9 GLOBALIZATION THE ESSENTIALS GEORGE RITZER A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication This edition first...
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...MORE ADVANCE NOISE FOR QUIET “An intriguing and potentially lifealtering examination of the human psyche that is sure to benefit both introverts and extroverts alike.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Gentle is powerful … Solitude is socially productive … These important counterintuitive ideas are among the many reasons to take Quiet to a quiet corner and absorb its brilliant, thought-provoking message.” —ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, professor at Harvard Business School, author of Confidence and SuperCorp “An informative, well-researched book on the power of quietness and the 3/929 virtues of having a rich inner life. It dispels the myth that you have to be extroverted to be happy and successful.” —JUDITH ORLOFF, M.D., author of Emotional Freedom “In this engaging and beautifully written book, Susan Cain makes a powerful case for the wisdom of introspection. She also warns us ably about the downside to our culture’s noisiness, including all that it risks drowning out. Above the din, Susan’s own voice remains a compelling presence—thoughtful, generous, calm, and eloquent. Quiet deserves a very large readership.” —CHRISTOPHER LANE, author of Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness 4/929 “Susan Cain’s quest to understand introversion, a beautifully wrought journey from the lab bench to the motivational speaker’s hall, offers convincing evidence for valuing substance over style, steak over sizzle, and qualities that are, in America, often derided. This book is brilliant...
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...******Created by ebook converter - www.ebook-converter.com****** ******ebook converter DEMO - www.ebook-converter.com******* ******Created by ebook converter - www.ebook-converter.com****** KOINONIA HOUSE Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83816-0347 ******ebook converter DEMO - www.ebook-converter.com******* ******Created by ebook converter - www.ebook-converter.com****** COSMIC CODES Copyright © 1999 by Koinonia House Revised 2004 P.O. Box D Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816-0347 Web Site: http://www.khouse.org Second Printing 2004 Third Printing 2011 ISBN 978-1-57821-072-5 Design and production by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Scripture quotations in this book are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Publisher. Printed in the United States of America. ******ebook converter DEMO - www.ebook-converter.com******* ******Created by ebook converter - www.ebook-converter.com****** “Cosmic Codes was the authoritative resource that we relied on in the research of our PAX-TV/Discovery Channel television special Secrets of the Bible Code Revealed. It’s absolutely packed with fascinating factual information on all of the Bible-related codes.” DAVID W. BALSIGER PRODUCER, SECRETS OF THE BIBLE CODE REVEALED “Chuck Missler writes from a technological and Biblical background in this cutting-edge analysis of the hidden codes...
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