MarisaJun 16What is Free Indirect Discourse in Literature?What do the works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, and Virginia Woolf all have in common? Ok, ok, well *other* than being kickass...
MarisaFeb 145 Books to Give Yourself a Self-Love ValentineBook buying is its own kind of love language. This Valentine's Day, instead of picking up a romance novel, check out these non-fiction books
MarisaJan 7Has the pandemic stolen your love of reading? Here are four ways to rekindle the love affair Many say the pandemic has reduced their interest in reading. Here are a few tips to reignite your love of reading.
MarisaOct 28, 202110 Facts About Edgar Allan PoeBiographical facts about Edgar Allan Poe, the famous American Gothic writer.
MarisaOct 20, 2021That Creepy Feeling You Get with a Spooky BookWhy does somethings seem scary? Read about Freud's theory of the uncanny to understand how writers and movies manipulate our expectations.
MarisaSep 28, 2021Who's Who in 'The Sun Also Rises'It is no secret that Ernest Hemingway drew on his personal experiences attending the bullfights in Pamplona to draft his 1926 novel The...
MarisaSep 19, 2021The Lost Generation in LiteratureIn his memoir titled A Moveable Feast (1964), Ernest Hemingway recounts how writer Gertrude Stein first heard the term “génération...
MarisaAug 17, 202110 Facts About Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ 1. Aware of her growing popularity, Austen had anxiety over how Emma would be received by the reading public, writing: “My great anxiety...
MarisaJul 29, 2021Literary Cocktail: The French Blonde from 'China Rich Girlfriend'"As guests walk up the long pebble driveway to the house, a line of French waiters in black Napoleon-collared jackets welcome us with...
MarisaJul 27, 2021A Historic Glimpse of the French Literary SalonsWhat is a literary salon? Literary salons have their origins in the Renaissance idea of gathering for debate in the courts of Italy and...
MarisaJul 13, 2021Six Facts About the BrontësWith three literary geniuses in the family—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—the Brontës certainly secured themselves a (rightful) place in the...
MarisaJul 1, 2021Book Diversity in Canadian LiteratureTraditionally Canadian Literature, or CanLit, has highlighted voices of European settlers, been divided along English versus French...
MarisaApr 29, 2021Capturing the Gothic Life of Shirley Jackson on FilmI finally had the time to sit down and watch the 2020 movie Shirley (currently on Amazon Prime), based on a novel of the same name by...
MarisaApr 21, 2021Charlotte Brontë's Rejected Novel 'The Professor'On this day in 1816, Charlotte Brontë was born! So, it is only fitting that I recently completed my reading of the first novel she ever...
MarisaApr 12, 2021School Textbooks Reflect our Societal ValuesI recently wrote a post about What Makes a Literary Classic in which I was thinking about what we culturally consider a ‘classic’ and how...
MarisaMar 8, 2021Filling the Literary Gaps: English Female Writers 1750 - 1915Not Just Jane: Rediscovering Seven Amazing Women Writers Who Transformed British Literature (2016) by Shelley DeWees is a delightful...
MarisaFeb 24, 2021Reviewing One of the First English NovelsHow do you review a book that is 300 years old? The grammar, punctuation, and narrative structure are not like anything we see in today's...
MarisaFeb 9, 2021Classic F#@*ing LiteratureNot typical classroom vocabulary, but a historical lesson nonetheless! That oft used F word can be a noun, an adjective, a verb, an...
MarisaJan 3, 2021Finding Their Voice: The Female Bildungsroman"Bildungsroman" is a German word meaning novel of education or formation. The term has become a literary category for written works whose...
MarisaDec 14, 2020Creating Christmas Traditions with Charles DickensCharles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) continues to be read, watched and performed after more than 175 years, and is enjoyed by all...