By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Two of the nine tracks to feature on Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s third album, Architecture and Morality (1981), were about the medieval French saint Joan of Arc. These two tracks, ‘Joan of Arc’ and ‘Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)’, open the second side of the original LP release of the album, and come between the industrial mood-piece ‘Sealand’ (which concludes side one) and the instrumental title track.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The Waste Land, first published in 1922, is arguably the most important poem of the whole twentieth century. It remains a timely poem, even though its origins were very specifically the post-war Europe of 1918-22.
Written by T. S. Eliot, who was then beginning to make a name for himself following the publication (and modest success) of his first two volumes of poetry, The Waste Land has given rise to more critical analysis and scholarly interpretation than just about any other poem. Critics and readers are still arguing over what it means.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Good Country People’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64).
The story, which focuses on a woman with a wooden leg who is befriended by a young and innocent-seeming bible salesman, takes in many themes, including innocence versus knowledge and our perceptions of others: perceptions which are often quite false.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Remember Sascha?’ is a short story by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), included in his 1996 collection Quicker Than the Eye. The story hasn’t attracted much in the way of critical commentary, either in academic studies or analyses of Bradbury’s work or more widely in the blogosphere, so this review is a small attempt to remedy that. First, to summarise this charming little story though.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Albert Camus (1913-60) was one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in Algeria, which at the time was still part of the French empire, Camus studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and his fiction and essays are both ‘philosophical’ in their outlook and their approach to understanding the modern world.