By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Power’ is a 1978 poem by the African-American poet Audre Lorde (1934-92), published in her collection The Black Unicorn. Lorde was a self-described ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.’ In ‘Power’, Lorde explores racial injustice, and in particular, racial violence against children, and discusses how Black writers such as herself should respond to it.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
The story of Narcissus is one of the most enduringly popular, and instantly recognisable, from classical myth. The very name of Narcissus has become a kind of shorthand for self-love and self-regard.
But the actual facts of the Narcissus story are a little more complex than they first appear. Who fell in love with Narcissus, and what was her name? Or was it even a ‘she’? How did Narcissus give his name to the flower known as the ‘narcissus’ – and did he, in fact, give his name to it at all?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘And of Clay We Are Created’ is a short story by the Chilean writer Isabel Allende (born 1942), included in her 1989 collection The Stories of Eva Luna. In the story, a mountain avalanche causes a cataclysm which leads to thousands of deaths. The story follows the attempts of a newscaster who tries to save a thirteen-year-old girl who has become trapped in the mud.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Girl’ is a short story by the Antigua-born writer Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949). In this very short story, which runs to just a couple of pages, a mother offers advice to her teenage daughter about how to behave like a proper woman. ‘Girl’ was originally published in the New Yorker in 1978 before being reprinted in Kincaid’s collection At the Bottom of the River in 1983.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Journey’ is a poem by the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), a poet who has perhaps not received as much attention from critics as she deserves. It’s been estimated that she was the bestselling poet in the United States at the time of her death, so a few words of analysis about some of her best-known poems seem appropriate. ‘The Journey’ is a poem about someone who leaves behind their old life and embarks on a journey towards a new one.