History of the Vampire: Its Themes and Motifs

Written by Roland McGurr. If asked to consider the vampire, most people would imagine the portrait of the vampire that was popularized and immortalized in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula: a humanoid figure with an aristocratic air and something registering to an onlooker as not-quite-right, whether in disposition or features. The traits that may begin…

The Devil (Dante) Knows

Lucifer is an infamous figure, and writers imagine him in a stunning range of ways. Dante Alighieri’s take on the devil is seen in his medieval work Inferno, which explores nine circles of hell, culminating in the last, in which Dante sees Lucifer face to face. With how well-known Inferno is, one might expect Dante’s…

Arthurian Women Revised: Steinbeck’s Women as Masculine & Feminine

The tales of King Arthur and his knights are some of the most well-known stories around the world, subject to many interpretations and adaptations, with one of the best adaptations being that of John Steinbeck, author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Having admired Sir Malory’s arthurian tales as a child, Steinbeck began…