The OWU English Department Blog
Fantasizing about reading classic literature was (and still is) one of my favorite pastimes. So, when I got the opportunity to read works like Homer’s Illiad and Dante Alighieri’s Inferno with Professor Merkel, you could say that the dark academia wannabe in me was excited. Reading works like these were required for a class called “The Devil, the Hero, and God” which looked at literature that had these interactions.…
The holidays are coming up– this is the perfect opportunity to expand your book collection and treat yourself to some new reads. Whether you are looking for an emotionally gripping book, captivating poetry, or a purely self-indulgent read, this list has the perfect story for you.
The following recommendations are a collection of essays or feature elements of essay writing in their composition.…
Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is a film that changed my life. When people talk about the magic of cinema it is almost impossible to define. I think that you know it when you see it though. That could not be more the case than with Taxi Driver. This film has tremendously guided my personal work, as I plan on writing and directing feature films for the rest of my life.…
When I first read Rachel Ingalls’ Mrs. Caliban this semester in Professor Butcher’s Narratives 2: Longer Forms, I was perplexed as to how the story could have any literary significance. At face value, this is the story of a lonely housewife, Dorothy, in an unhappy marriage who falls in love with a monstrous frog-like man–a clear allusion to the aquatic creature Caliban from Shakespeare’s The Tempest.…
As I sat, partaking in another session of mindless scrolling, I happened across a stereotypical 60 second “day in the life” vlog with one slight distinction. Instead of the trendy pop music one would expect to find dominating the app, this particular TikTok featured a clip of a strikingly beautiful orchestral composition, “Easy Lovers” by the late Italian film composer Piero Piccioni. …
The leaves have changed color, and Halloween quickly approaches, which means that now is the perfect time to bring out some spooky literature. Whether you love horror novels, or just need a quick tale to put you in the Halloween time spooky-season mood, this list has a story for you.
If you love the classics but haven’t yet read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, you should consider adding it to this year’s Halloween reading list.…
I read this novel on the back porch of my childhood home in a sleepy suburb of the Pacific Northwest over the summer, and was struck by the nearby history that I had never learned. Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist is based on and takes place during the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle; its take on the historical facts of the event is painted by Yapa‚Äôs poignant, lyrical phrasing.…
Earlier this semester, I saw at the Ross Art Museum the exhibit “Baltimore Lives,” by photographer, Baltimore native, and Ohio Wesleyan alumni John Clark Mayden. The exhibition consists of a collection of photographs taken between 1970 and 2012 across African-American neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland portraying the every-day-lives of their residents in their routinely habitats.…
Personally, I’m a die-hard Seth Rogen fan—I love everything he makes from Superbad to pottery, so when I first heard he was coming out with a podcast, I knew I was going to listen to it no matter what. I probably would have loved it even if it was a “typical comedian-hosted chat show,” which the podcast’s description adamantly refuses it is.…