Category Archives: Zeitgeist
The Great Gatsby goes mainstream: nightmare or dream?
One year ago this blog generally faced the topic: what happens when a reader sees its favourite book turn into a movie? The question attracts even more approaches today, a … Continue reading
Defining contemporary Japanese literature
Despite living in the age of globalisation, Japanese literature seems to appear on the shelves of other continents’ libraries and bookshops as niche literature, an exclusive genre for the intellectual … Continue reading
The Zhdanovian novel – a literary rule for the masses
When do we define a novel as ‘zhdanovian‘? Is this term related to Russian-only contexts? The answer would be no. In fact, despite being known for outlining the theories of … Continue reading
The hidden Modernist: the unique style of Stevie Smith
The 1930s were a very peculiar time in the history of English literature. The pessimistic vein of English authors produced some of the darkest and deepest works of the last … Continue reading
Re-thinking Georgian poetry
When King George V succeeded his father Edward VII, a multitude of events were beginning to manifest. Social instability and international tensions were already paving the way for the ‘war … Continue reading
When Faust moved to Russia: Bulgakov and temptation
As Paris celebrates the Journées européennes du Livre russe et des Littératures russophones (literally, “The European Days for the Russian Book and Russophone Literatures“), why not dedicate a post to … Continue reading
Fritzes, Poilus,Tommys and their war of words in the trenches
Every time I read accounts on the Great War, I stumble upon nicknames that seem to appear out of nowhere, but sound as if they had been lingering in folklore … Continue reading
This is France 1892: the dangerous pen of Michel Zévaco
In October 1892 French journalist Michel Zévaco was jailed for having published these words: ”The bourgeois kill us with hunger; let’s steal, kill, dynamite, all means are good to get rid of … Continue reading
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