The Great Gatsby: characters and characterization
Explore characters and characterisation in The Great Gatsby: Gatsby, Daisy, Nick, Tom, social masks, desire, class, and Fitzgerald’s irony.
Littérature
Articles de littérature française, britannique, américaine et espagnole : analyses, auteurs, œuvres, mouvements littéraires et pistes de lecture.
The Great Gatsby: the Romantic Quest
The term quest calls up the fairy tale motif or the German Märchen (Tieck; Grimm), which has been studied by Propp in Morphology of the Folktale.
The Great Gatsby: an American novel
America in the Great Gatsby is a fundamental notion and the novel cannot be studied without the historical context of the time.
Introduction to The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald: from the Lost Prairies to the Realist Jungle
Both the novel and the American society correspond to the beginning of a modern era. America is a direct consequence of the age of reason (18th century).
An analysis of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is a very prolific artist, involved in the feminist movement and human rights issues on the international scene.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream : synopsis
Read a clear synopsis of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, from Athenian lovers and fairy magic to comic confusion, theatre, and reconciliation.
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee : chapter analysis
Study Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee through chapter analysis, childhood memory, rural England, poetic prose, community, and lost innocence.
19th Century Literary Movements : Realism and Naturalism
Explore 19th-century realism and naturalism through social observation, heredity, environment, class, detail, determinism, and major writers.
Questions d’orthographe : « 1,9 gramme » ou « 1,9 grammes » ? « moins de deux heures suffira » ou « moins de deux heures suffiront » ?
Question d’orthographe : faut-il écrire “1,5 million” ou “1,5 millions” ? “1,9 gramme” ou “1,9 grammes” ? On vous dit tout sur la règle de grammaire.
The 19th Century : Romanticism in Art and Literature
Romanticism is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century.
The Gothic and the Fantastic
Explore the Gothic and the fantastic in literature: fear, ambiguity, supernatural effects, haunted spaces, transgression, and narrative doubt.
« If » – by Rudyard Kipling
The poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, read aloud with the intonation and the verses to follow along.
The 18th Century: the Age of Enlightenment
Explore the 18th century as the Age of Enlightenment: reason, satire, progress, science, politics, sensibility, and literary transformation.
Questions d’orthographe: écrit-on « Elles se sont succédées » ou « elles se sont succédé »?
Faut-il écrire “elles se sont succédées” ou “elles se sont succédé” ? Comprenez l’accord du participe passé avec un verbe pronominal.
Questions d’orthographe : écrit-on : « les pommes que j’ai mangées » ou « les pommes que j’ai mangé »?
Aujourd’hui, dans Questions d’Orthographe, nous allons nous intéresser à l’accord du participe passé. L’accord correct, c’est “les pommes que j’ai
Questions d’orthographe : dit-on « des pièces ci-joint » ou « des pièces ci-jointes » ?
Écrit-on des pièces”ci-joint” ou “ci-jointes” lorsque l’on joint ou attache des fichiers à un email ?
L’accord des verbes en français : ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir
La règle générale est simple : le sujet s’accorde en nombre avec le verbe. Ainsi, si le verbe a plusieurs sujets, il se met au pluriel.
La naissance d’un projet encyclopédique à Rome !
Analysez la naissance du projet encyclopédique à Rome : savoir, transmission, culture grecque, érudition latine et ambition universelle.
Don Álvaro o la Fuerza del Sino por el Duque de Rivas
Don Álvaro, un indiano rico y misterioso que vive en Sevilla, tiene un romance con doña Leonor, hija del Marqués de Calatrava.
Doña Inés (Historia de Amor) por José Martínez Ruiz [Azorín]
José Martínez Ruiz ( Azorín) nació en Monóvar (Alicante) en 1873. Su padre era abogado y fue alcalde del pueblo.
A transformed vision of time in Regeneration
Analyse how Pat Barker transforms time in Regeneration through trauma, memory, hallucination, flashback, repetition and shell shock.
Landscape and mindscape in Regeneration: Burns, trauma and nature
Analyse landscape and mindscape in Pat Barker’s Regeneration through Burns, trauma, focalisation, hostile nature and the return of war memory.
Historical figures and fictional characters in Regeneration
Analyse how Pat Barker blends real historical figures and fictional characters in Regeneration to explore war trauma, memory, class and moral conflict.
First dialogue between Rivers and Sassoon in Regeneration
Analyse the first dialogue between Rivers and Sassoon in Pat Barker’s Regeneration: sanity, protest, duty, therapy and moral conflict.
The plot in Regeneration by Pat Barker: transformation, trauma and return
Analyse the plot of Pat Barker’s Regeneration through Sassoon, Rivers, Prior, trauma, Craiglockhart and the moral problem of return.
The setting in Regeneration by Pat Barker: Craiglockhart as a second battlefield
Analyse the setting in Pat Barker’s Regeneration: Craiglockhart, the home front, darkness, nature, war trauma and symbolic spaces.
English Literature: Periods, Authors, Works and Study Guide
Explore English literature through its major periods, authors, genres and works, from Beowulf to Shakespeare, Romanticism and modern war writing.
Introduction to Regeneration by Pat Barker: war trauma, history and fiction
Introduction to Pat Barker’s Regeneration: historical fiction, Craiglockhart, shell shock, Rivers, Sassoon, Owen and the trauma of World War One.
War Poet: Wilfred Owen, Poetry and the Pity of War
Study Wilfred Owen’s war poetry, biography, influences, shell shock, Craiglockhart, Sassoon, realism, irony and the famous “pity of war”.
Edward Thomas: nature, England and the quiet poetry of war
Edward Thomas turned English landscape, memory and doubt into haunting war poetry. Discover his life, themes, poems and quiet modern voice.
Rupert Brooke: idealism, patriotism and the myth of the war poet
Rupert Brooke, English war poet of 1914, became famous for The Soldier, patriotic idealism and the myth of beautiful youth sacrificed in WWI.
World War One poetry: why war poetry became a literary problem
World War One poetry changed English literature by moving from patriotic idealism to pity, trauma, irony and disillusionment.
Richard III : Order and Disorder, the Elizabethan problem
It is very often an issue in Shakespeare’s plays. It deals with order and degree: each thing in the Universe has a place in a scale of things.
Richard III: the ambiguity of Richard’s evil
Richard generates a special relation between word and deed. He tells the audience what he is going to do, then does it, and finally recalls what he did.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream : a comedy
Explore A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a comedy through love, disorder, fairy magic, mistaken identity, theatrical play, and restoration.
Structure in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is remarkable for the many levels of its text: Theseus and Hippolyta, the young lovers, the mechanicals, and the fairies.
Introduction to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Discover A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Shakespeare’s comic world of love, illusion, fairies, theatre, transformation, and festive disorder.
Background of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare draws his material from a large body of social background, historical facts and myth: Greek background, May festivities, fairies and spirits.
The Dramatic Quality in Macbeth: Violence, Prophecy and Stage Tension
Analyse the dramatic quality of Macbeth through prophecy, violence, dramatic irony, stage action, rhythm, disorder and Shakespearean tragedy.
Political Questions in Macbeth: Kingship, Tyranny and Legitimacy
Analyse political questions in Macbeth: kingship, tyranny, legitimacy, rebellion, prophecy, violence and Shakespeare’s vision of power.
Introduction to Macbeth: Plot, Characters, Themes and Tragedy
A clear introduction to Macbeth: plot summary, characters, ambition, evil, witchcraft, guilt, kingship and Shakespearean tragedy.
Lord Jim: how is Conrad’s first-hand experience of seamanship perceptible throughout the Patna episode ?
Conrad was a sailor and gave us a flavour of seamanship: read ch1-20, there are segments that should not be missed.
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad : « A free and wandering tale »
Explore Lord Jim as a free and wandering tale, from narrative frames and moral failure to honour, guilt, colonial spaces, and Conrad’s irony.
Relatives in « Cider With Rosie » by Laurie Lee
Laurie Lee belongs to a large family, due to his father’s two marriages. There are 8 members in the family and Laurie is one of the youngest.
The Short Story and the Novel
Compare the short story and the novel through structure, character, plot, unity, scale, narrative focus, reader effect, and literary form.
Edgar Poe : une Descente dans le Mäelstrom
L’action se situe au sommet d’une montagne, le Helseggen, sur la côte de Norvège dans la province de Nortland. Le panorama est effroyablement désolé…
Edgar Poe : Metzengerstein
Une époque lointaine, moyenâgeuse (châteaux) dans une région centrale de la Hongrie aux mœurs si étranges que l’on croit à la métempsycose.
Électre : tragédie et originalité du drame giralducien
Analysez Électre de Giraudoux : tragédie, mythe antique, ironie moderne, originalité dramatique, justice, vérité et tension politique.