These lines reinforce the value of inner beauty, female courage and self-confidence while scrutinising gender clichés and given social standards. The speaker presents herself not as pretty, cute or “built to fit a fashion model’s size” (line 2), but as strong, proud, mysterious, in one word: phenomenal. Rejecting gender stereotypes, the strong voice encourages and […]
A tragedy on the American Dream – exploring themes of human interaction, dependence and isolation. The narrator follows George and Lennie, two very opposite friends, who dream of owning their own piece of land during the Great Depression. Before their dream comes true, Lennie accidentally commits a murder and their vision becomes even more impossible… […]
A young-adult novel about racism, injustice and prejudice in the American South. The story is told from the perspective of the six-year-old girl ‘Scout’, who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her younger brother in a small town in Alabama during the time of the Great Depression. It is a peaceful summer until Tim […]
The speaker of the poem states that while a summer’s day fades away, the beauty of the addressee will not, as it is preserved in the lines of the sonnet.
This empowering poem by award-winning author Maya Angelou explores sexism, oppression, resilience and racism. Using a call and response technique, Angelou tells the story of a black woman fighting for equality and the right to self-expression by speaking up. The confident, female voice condemns harassment and inequalities against people of colour and loudly recalls that […]
An autobiographical novel on racial segregation, identity, and hypocrisy. The white journalist J. H. Griffin retells the story of a remarkable experiment: In 1959 at the height of racial tensions, he uses a dermatological drug that darkens his skin – so he could pass as an African American. Griffin embarks on a six weeks’ journey […]
A dystopian novel on social inequality, manipulative tendencies in the media and autocratic governments. In the trilogy’s first part, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen lives in District 12, which is part of a post-apocalyptic society controlled by a brutal regime. On the Day of Reaping each district offers two teenagers as ‘tributes’ to participate in the Hunger […]
A story about religion, struggle for survival and the relativity of truth. Yann Martel’s Life of Pi follows a young man who survives a shipwreck in a lifeboat with a large Bengal tiger – resisting hunger, thirst, fear and loneliness for 227 days. Growing up in India as a son of a zookeeper, “Pi” Patel studies […]
A young adult novel on corruption of power, violence and history repeating itself. After a documentary fails to make his students understand how fascism works, Ben Ross, a high school teacher, decides to conduct a social teaching experiment. Applying concepts of fascism to his group of students works more effectively than expected – Ben notices […]
A teenage-detective novel on high school culture, identity conflicts, bullying and peer pressure. Hannah has committed suicide. Shortly after, her classmate Clay receives a package with a set of audio tapes. While Clay works his way through the tapes, the reasons for what happened to Hannah are revealed and he begins to see life at […]
A prototypical modernist short story with complex metaphors and imagery highlighting isolation and gender. The short story “Cat in the Rain” follows an American couple on vacation in postwar Italy. It features topics such as femininity, loneliness, longing and disappointment.
“Five Notes After a Visit” follows an unnamed, female narrator travelling from England to Northern Ireland (Belfast/Derry) – where she was born – to visit her boyfriend Stewart. During her visit, she experiences troubles, tensions and a trauma that she reflects upon in diary-like notes. The recommended edition Ireland – Changes and Challenges: Short Stories […]
A prototypical modernist short story with complex metaphors and imagery. Somewhere in northern Spain an American man and a young girl are having drinks at a bar in a train station. They are waiting for a train to Barcelona, where she is going to have an abortion. She seems to be afraid of the procedure, […]
Prototypical modernist short story on class issues, wealth and self-reflexion with complex metaphors and imagery. The Sheridan family is preparing a party in the garden of their mansion, when the news arrives that Mr. Scott, their neighbor, died in an accident. Laura, the daughter of the Sheridans’, wants to cancel the party – but her […]
A modernist short story adressing alienation, confrontation and illusion that follows Miss Brill, who works as an English teacher in France. Every Sunday she visits the public gardens to sit on a bench observing her surroundings. She imagines the whole scenery as a theatre play in which everybody – including herself – has a particular […]
A witty, lighthearted short story about vanity, desire and competition that satirized the manners of the Edwardian upper class. Mrs. Packletide, an English aristocrat of the Edwardian era, wants to demonstrate her superiority to her social competitor Mrs. Bimberton and therefore plans to hunt a tiger. With the help of an entire village and a […]