by Anna Budziak “A Prince of Court Painters,” a story about the painter Antoine Watteau, was composed when Pater had already known the taste of fame and the sting of criticism. Although he wished it to be published unsigned, it appeared, in October 1885, in Macmillan’s Magazine, with his name […]
by Sophie Franklin On the first page of Jeanette Winterson’s Written on the Body, which was first published thirty years ago this month, the nameless narrator declares: ‘Love demands expression’ (1993, 9). The proceeding narrative (Winterson does not like to call her books ‘novels’) then seeks to deconstruct the clichés […]
by Angelika Zirker While much was made of the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth (in 2014), John Donne’s 450th birthday remains a little in the shadows. And yet Shakespeare’s near-contemporary is one of the major poets of the period, and one of the most prominent metaphysical poets at that. […]
by Curtis Runstedler The last anniversary of the year is H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann”. It is one of H. P. Lovecraft’s favourite short stories, and we are celebrating the centenary of its writing; the text actually came out in 1922 but Lovecraft wrote it in December […]
by Angelika Zirker “… what is the use of a book […] without pictures or conversations?” – this is the question that Alice asks herself at the opening of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, while she is “sitting by her sister on the bank” (“Down the Rabbit-Hole”). No use at […]
by Tobias Kunz As the changing seasons make outdoor activities increasingly unattractive, the slow re-opening of cinemas has coincided, unsurprisingly, with the return of superhero blockbusters to the top of the box-office rankings. Films like Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings or Suicide Squad (all 2021) […]
by Sarah Briest As sheep roam the early summer meadows of Tübingen, creating idyllic pastoral tableaux on the slanting green hillsides, it is not incongruous to feel reminded of the setting of early modern pastoral romances. The imagination only has to supply a prince or two, in shepherd’s robes, striding […]
by Matthias Bauer This month, April 2021, we are celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Henry Vaughan, one of the most fascinating Early Modern English poets. He was born on 17 April 1621, at Newton-upon-Usk, Brecknockshire, Wales, together with his twin-brother Thomas, who later devoted his life to […]
by Vera Yakupova Text Read in the Video: “Monday or Tuesday” Lazy and indifferent, shaking space easily from his wings, knowing his way, the heron passes over the church beneath the sky. White and distant, absorbed in itself, endlessly the sky covers and uncovers, moves and remains. A lake? […]
by Sarah Briest The 400th anniversary of the publication of John Taylor’s The Colde Tearme, Or, The Frozen Age, Or, The Metamorphosis of the Riuer of Thames is of no great significance – one might be tempted to say of no significance; even in 1621, when this humble but charming […]