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 […]
This young adult fiction is the debut novel from the magical realist Harry Potter series. Harry is an orphan, living with his aunt and uncle and their son Dudley. He finds out that he is no ordinary boy at all, when on his 11th birthday he receives an invitation to the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft […]
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, […]
A short story about nationality, citizenship, artificial boundaries and cultural identity. “Borders” was published in T. King’s collection of short stories One Good Story, That One (1993). A boy with his mother – both of Blackfeet origin (first nations = indigenous people of North America) – are on the way from Canada to the US to visit […]
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 […]