Yet, despite the widening of the general frame, Orientalism still reigns; though it’s not as brazen, its subtle forms are everywhere. Same As It Ever Was: Orientalism Forty Years Later.Philip Metres reflects upon Edward Said, Othering, and the representation of Arabs in US culture.
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A Delightful Close Reading of a Terrible Trump Poem
Emily Temple takes apart a horrible inaugural poem for Donald Trump written by Jospeh Charles MacKenzie. It really is terrible, faux-classical, Scottish-themed drivel, based on rhyming couplets, heavy handed metaphors, and railing against Trump’s (and the alt-right’s) perceived enemies. Take this stanza for example: Whilst hapless old harridans flapping their trapsTeach women to look and behave …
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Language is always in a process, a la the philosophy of Bergson, of motion and evolution. To write in English means to write in a language that expands. A language in perpetual bloom Who Gets to Decide What Counts as “English”? Gabrielle Bellot on Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan’s debut novel Sarong Party Girls, Englishes, and decolonizing …
I wanted the book to do what novels generally do: tell a story. Ophelia has one of the play’s most powerful lines: “Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.” My attempt was to give her something of what she may be. Also, and again quite aside from the constraint, here …