Author Details

This paper attempts to define the eclectic and structural nature of Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills by examining how the novel’s intertextual reading spurs on to accomplish its final textual integrity. And also, it addresses the African American desire for recreating a black version of the American dream and the resultant destructive effects and the fragmentation of their psyche which forms the crux of the novel. Naylor evolves Linden Hills based on Part I of Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy (1321) titled The Inferno. Like Dante and Virgil in The Inferno, the dual protagonists of this novel Willie Mason and Lester Tilson, the young poets, are left to ponder over the journey to gain insight into human failings or undergo a significant revelation. The implementation of intertextuality spotlights the similarity between the existing text and the more established classical texts taken for analysis. The model text helps to unravel the aesthetic, philosophical and thematic quality of the text and also engenders their related successful associations.

Keywords

American Dream, Hell, Intertextuality, Journey, Material Prosperity, Spiritual Awakening.

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References

Frazier EF. The Black Bourgeoisie. The Critical Response to Gloria Naylor. Sharon Felton and Michelle C. Loris, Eds. London: Greenwood Press; 1997.

Allen M. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Inferno. New York: Bantam Books; 1980.

Tullio M. The Interpretation of Dialogue. Chicago: Chicago UP; 1990.

Montgomery ML. Conversations with Gloria Naylor. USA: Mississippi UP; 2004.

Naylor G. Linden Hills, New York: Penguin Books; 1985.

Ward CC. Linden Hills: A Modern Inferno. Gloria Naylor: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah, Eds. New York: Amistad; 1993.

Allen G. Intertextuality. New York: Routledge; 2007.

Collins G. Narrative structure in Linden Hills. The Critical Response to Gloria Naylor. Sharon Felton and Michelle C. Loris, Eds. London: Greenwood Press; 1997.

Intertextuality. Dictionaryreference.com. Dictionary Reference. 2015 Sep.

Epidemics in Literature: Literary Dynamics

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Authors

K. Kokila ¹

Affiliations
1 Assistant Professor of English, Vellalar College for Women (Autonomous), Erode, Tamil Nadu, IN

Source

HuSS: International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol 8, No 1 (2021), Pagination: 1-4

Abstract

Humans have experienced and endured harrowing situations and horrors beyond their bounds witnessing wars, holocausts, plagues and the spread of epidemics, floods, famine and numerous natural calamities. The study of epidemics has been a recurring theme of traditional literary motif in Literature for over centuries. Upon the insistence of the epidemic in literature, many writers have explored, illustrated and represented this motif in their literary genres, underscoring not just its terrifying but also emphasizing the importance of nurturing human resilience and ways and means to confront them.

Keywords

Eschatology, Hermeneutics, Human Resilience, Literary Motif, Post Apocalypse, Reception Theory.

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References

Camus A. The Plague. Penguin Books Limited. 2013.

Boccaccio G. The Decameron. Penguin Books Limited. 2003.

London J. The Scarlet Plague. Dover Publications. 2015.

Krishnaswamy N, et al. Contemporary Literary Theory: A Student’s Companion. Trinity Press. 2017.

Riva, Michele Augusto. “Pandemic Fear and Literature: Observations from Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, doi: 10.3201/eid2010.130278.

Simon, Ed. “On Pandemic and Literature.” The Millions, 2020. themillions.com/2020/03/on-pandemic-and-literature.html.

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