The difficulty of defining poetry is in drawing a line which keeps everything poetic on one side, everything prose on the other. It can’t be alliteration or rhyme or meter or syllabification, because for every one of those, I can
Poetry is well known for its rhythm and its meter, particularly by those who know that not all poetry relies on such. Many an English speaker has fond or at least present memories of childhood rhymes like Mother Goose, traditional
Last week’s article was all about ‘n-dimensional spaces’ and literary analysis. We considered the options for ‘what are we counting as part of this story,’ levels of priority (how important each element is to us right now), and the comprehensivity
I consume a fair amount of media criticism, both contemporary and historical. I read about writing, about what’s written, and about writers. As a function of this, I have to give a lot of thought to how different critics critique.
In this second installment of the series, we’re still looking at G.K. Chesterton, because I’ve been continuing a read-through of his works. Today, though, we’re not looking at his fiction; no, we’re looking at what his literary criticism, at his
Last week’s look at the unique virtues of story covered its ability to invest the world with meaning and its power to teach what I termed an ‘aesthetic conscience’, an instinct towards beauty in all parts of life. Today we’ll
Where does story excel not-story? Why should you read a story instead of a work of philosophy or science or theology? Fun is an answer, but not a complete one. We still want a better reason, something we can tell
As the premier Author of all reality, we should expect God to excel at the craft. Scripture, in other words, should be a work of art, viewed as literature. Due to its history, context, and purpose, though, Scripture looks very,
In Part One, we considered the two layers of interpretation (intention and results), their facets, their two modes of interaction (including meta-intent), and the two purist interpretations- to see only the results (death of the author) and to see only
I addressed ‘death of the author’ quite early on in this blog’s career, and frankly, when I reviewed that article a half a year later, I was unimpressed. Thus, today I’ll be returning to the topic, giving what I believe