Has Oxford made us hate reading?
"Ever felt like you were suffocating under a pile of books, making the idea of picking up yet another feel utterly daunting?"
P.G. Wodehouse’s Ukridge at 100
It is unfortunate that P.G. Wodehouse's reputation in Oxford takes such a blow from his being a popular favourite among OUCA members. Still, he...
Lost in translation?
As someone who is half Japanese, I’ve become accustomed to reading literature in different languages. Some books I’ve enjoyed so much that I’ve read...
War, Peace and Writing
Throughout history, art has left an indelible cultural impact on humanity’s collective understanding of war. Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ is perhaps the most famous manifestation of...
Oliver Twist, a Sceptical 9th Grader, and an Orthodox Monastery: The Making of a New Generation in Northern Kosovo
Eager hands reach toward the ceiling as children at the Ismail Qemali school in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo, desperately try to attract the attention of...
Literary Red Flags: Cause for Alarm?
"The internet loves to tell us what to do, especially when there's a healthy smattering of pseudo-psychology involved."
Sir Philip Pullman receives the Bodley Medal
Sir Philip Pullman has been awarded the Bodley Medal in a ceremony at the Sheldonian Theatre.
The medal is awarded by the Bodleian Library “to...
Harry Potter as Therapy
'I am 25 years old, and I have reread the Harry Potter books 10 times, but in this review I want to introduce you to something truly special'
Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying: Tracing the Atmospheres of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
'When the pandemic hit Ontario, William Faulkner was a cadet in the Canadian Royal Air Force. Writing home to his parents, he would bemoan the lengthiness of his base’s lockdown, and the protracted sense of time it engendered.'
Embracing the Echoes: The Significance and Allure of Literary Retellings
'The concept of reimagining an existing story is relatively new in the context of storytelling, emerging more prominently in recent years.'
Dahl in the Dock; or, the publishing industry and its consequences
"Modern editors aim to unanchor texts from their historical moorage."
Irmgard Keun’s normal superwomen
Lori Latour reviews the life and work of the 20th century German novelist Irmgard Keun.
Convibrating bed
ames was particularly agitated today. Since the release of his little book – or, at least, that’s what she liked to call it, because, as she kept reminding him, it had first come out in The Little Review – he had been stuck short of a cliff edge that was giving him lip and making it awfully difficult to climb back to the height he had been at before.
In conversation with Francesca Tacchi
Any book that begins with the sentence “Every day is a good day to kill Nazis” is bound to catch my interest. Luckily for...