English Literature

2021

Poetic justice is a very contentious literary device that refers to rewarding of the good and the punishment of the bad at the end of a narrative. Its use dates as far back as to the classical period despite its relatively late coinage by Thomas Rymer in 1677. The proponents of the term adopt an ethical, instructive perspective to the literary works, although numerous critics point out the devaluing aspect of such a use in literature. In this article, it is aimed to analyse the fifteenth-century Scottish poet Robert Henryson’s implementation of the literary device in the fables of “The Fox and the Wolf” and “The Paddock and the Mouse”. Morall Fabillis is a collection of thirteen fables that depicts a world reigned by injustice, sin, and corruption. However, the aforementioned fables imply that the tables can anytime be turned against the wicked. Therefore, in this article, it is argued that Henryson’s sparse usage of poetic justice heightens the effect of the intended moral through the element of surprise and designation of punishment in proportion to the committed crime.

'fair is foul & foul is fair', 2019

Taken from the opening chant spoken by the three witches in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title of this exhibition and its accompanying publication "Fair is foul & foul is fair" provokes the audience to consider that the dramatic events which are about to unfold do not convey the reality that lurks ominously beneath the surface. The words of the three witches point to the ineluctable truism that nothing is ever as it seems. It is fitting that these words should set the literary and syntactical mise en scène for this exhibition by Aideen Barry and Alice Maher as, over time, the work of both these artists contains the paradox the witches’ words speak. Making work in an era of social and political upheaval, both artists reflect on the multifarious ways in which women’s knowledge and experience have been omitted from history, their laboring bodies obfuscated, their voices silenced, their language refused. Barry’s performative films gesture inexorably towards the myriad ways in which feminine subjectivity is rendered both uncanny and monstrous, hysterical yet prodigious within a signifying economy that singularly de-valorizes their labor. In Maher’s prints, sculptures, and giant wall drawing, the female body becomes a site of metamorphosis, a hybrid repository for secret, arcane or un-symbolized knowledge and experience, that can yet re-emerge as some new un-anticipated form of symbolization. In the works of both artists, the artistic voice is in emergence from the body to evoke a re- corporealized language that persists to invoke a resistance and transformation that is inevitable. Taken from catalogue essay by Tina Kinsella “Gaping Mouth’d: On the Politics of the Body in the Work of Aideen Barry and Alice Maher” The Publication is punctuated with a Poem by one of Ireland leading poets and literary artists, Doireann ní Ghríofa. "Split/End" was commissioned as both a text sculpted in response to the works of Barry and Maher but also a performative poetry script which was performed and reimagined by Sean Nós Performance Artist Ceara Conway on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition. This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition fair is foul & foul is fair Aideen Barry & Alice Maher November 9-December 15 American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center Washington, DC Published by Solas Nua and The American University ISBN: 978-1-7321553-8-1 Designed by: Oonagh Young, Design HQ, Dublin, Ireland commissioned by Solas Nua, American University Museum and The Katzen Art Center and with support from the Embassy of Ireland, Emigrant Support Programme.

2015

Poetic justice is one of the most contentious literary issues. On the one hand, it has been seen as a fulfilment of the demand that literature should be ethical, useful and instructive, and, on the other hand, it is said to show the inappropriateness of such a demand. Salman Rushdie aligns himself with the latter school when he, in his acceptance speech of the Hans Christian Andersen Award on August 17, 2014, says about storytelling:The good can lose, and fables can have anti-heroes instead of heroes. In the Indian animal fables of the Panchatantra, the two jackals at the heart of the stories are anything but good. One of them is devious, even Machiavellian, and the other, much more devious. Right does not always triumph. In fact, in these stories, it rarely does. [...] The story's amorality makes it more attractive to us than a clear moral message would.But poetic justice still has its defenders, too, especially when it is not restricted to awarding virtue but comprises the inf...

2018

The theme arises from the legal-academic movement "Law and Literature". This newly developed field should aim at two major goals, first, to investigate he meaning of law in a social context by questioning how the cgaracters appearing in literary works understand and behave themselves to the law (law and literature), and second, to find a theoretical solution of methodological question whether and to what extent the legal text can beinterpreted objectively in comparision with the question how literary works should be interpreted (law as literature). Yhe subject of justice and injustice has been covered not only in treatises of low and philosophy, but also in many works of literature: On the one hand, poets and writers have been outraged at the social condition of their time. on the oher hand, some of the have also contributed fundamental reflections on the idea of justice itself.

Miranda, 2016

Genre: Forms of Discourse and Culture, 2018