AQA English Literature, Spec A - Critical Readings

What does Phillip C. Kolin say about Othello?

“His very place in the script is uncertain and unstable”

How does Carol McGinnis Kay describe Othello?

“A man of low self-esteem who will snatch at any straw to shore himself up”

What does Phillip C. Kolin say about Desdemona?

“Desdemona challenges and provokes”

What does James Calderwood think about Desdemona?

That she is victimised by a “proprietary husband claiming absolute title to his wife’s body”

What does Julian C. Rice say about Desdemona?

“She shares the responsibility for her own murder”

What does Harold Bloom say about Iago?

“It is Othello’s tragedy but it is Iago’s play”

How does William Hazlitt describe Iago?

As a “typical stage machiavel”

What does William Hazlitt say about Iago’s morality?

He has a “perfect indifference to moral good or evil”

What does Ania Loomba suggest about “Othello” ?

The central conflict stems from “the racism of a white patriarchy and the threat posed to it by both a black man and a white woman”

What did Lisa Jardine say about Desdemona?

She was punished for being “too-knowing” and “too-independent”, her death is a lesson to teach what happens if you go against the male hierarchy

What is a Marxist view of religion in the Handmaid’s tale?

It is weaponised to control the masses

How would a structuralist analyse the Handmaid’s tale?

Through Atwood’s use of binary opposition (opposite groups + their conflicts)

What did Carol Ann Howells say about “The Handmaid’s Tale” ?

Atwood’s choice of a female narrator turns the traditionally masculine dystopian genre upside down. Instead of focusing on state oppression it looks at the political effect of the patriarchy.

How does Pilar Somacarrera describe the aunts’ power in “The Handmaid's Tale” ?

It “is disguised as a spirit of camaraderie”

How does Pilar Somacarrera analyse “The Handmaid's Tale” through a Foucauldian lens?

“Gileadean regime…aims to be ubiquitous and internalised by the population”

How can a streetcar names desire be analysed through a Marxist lens?

Human relationships have been inevitably warped by forces of political and capitalist systems

What does Carol Ann Howell’s argue about the Handmaid's tale's structure?

“Offred creates a mosaic of alternative female worlds which deny patriarchal myths of women's submissiveness and silence.”

What does Laura Mulvey argue about the male gaze?

Media is “constructed for the pleasure of the male viewer.” + women are “the bearer of meaning and not the maker”

What is a Marxist view of “A Room With A View” ?

George + Lucy defy class barriers

How do John Locke’s ideals align with “A Room With A View” ?

Lucy’s development is based on her experiences

What does Bernard Deckle say about Williams’ writing?

“His plays deal consistently with a serious theme - self-pity, the persistence of memory that holds people in its grip and will not let them go with their lives.”

How could “The Handmaid's Tale” be analysed through a Freudian lens?

When discussing the tulips’ petals like teeth it links with the theory Vagina Dentata - Offred is tired of her subjugation under the patriarchy + wishes to emasculate those in power

What does Clum argue about Blanche?

“Blanche is a wild card in the seven card stud game that is the sex / gender system”

What does Cohn argue about Stanley?

“His cruelty defends his world.”