Author Archives: Beyond the Underground

Using Strain Theory to Provide New Perspectives on the Response to Anomie in Charles Bukowski’s Novels: 2. Failure: Rejection and Retreatism

Factotum follows the life of the character Henry Chinaski during the 1940s as he unsuccessfully attempts to become a journalist and a writer. Chinaski takes on a series of low-skilled, low-paid jobs all of which he considers beneath him before he finally accepts that he is destined for a life of under employment while notContinue reading “Using Strain Theory to Provide New Perspectives on the Response to Anomie in Charles Bukowski’s Novels: 2. Failure: Rejection and Retreatism”

Using Strain Theory to Provide New Perspectives on the Response to Anomie in Charles Bukowski’s Novels: 1. Introduction

Charles Bukowski has long been considered a rebellious author, an opinion informed by his subject matter: people on the edges of society, drinking and gambling, and also his approach to writing. Abel Debritto argues that from the beginning of his career, Bukowski had a non-conformist streak.[1] This is an identity which was created from theContinue reading “Using Strain Theory to Provide New Perspectives on the Response to Anomie in Charles Bukowski’s Novels: 1. Introduction”

Worked Shoots and Smart Marks: Locating the Post-Modern Era in Professional Wrestling

May 27th 1996 saw the emergence of the post-modern period in professional wrestling’s mainstream with the debut of Scott Hall on Nitro. Post-modernism as an artistic movement is broadly characterised by the concept of deconstruction. It demonstrates a heightened self-awareness of genre and assumes a rich schematic repertoire on the part of its audience. ByContinue reading “Worked Shoots and Smart Marks: Locating the Post-Modern Era in Professional Wrestling”

Boundaries: The country/city opposition in eighteenth-century and Romantic literature.

The city and country dichotomy is one which pervades eighteenth-century art, from the neo-classicists through to the Romantic period. It follows a trajectory from outright hostility towards the city and its representations of commodification, stemming from an anxiety towards the proto- industrialisation of the early 1700s, ‘London, Swift subliminally suggests, is the new Sodom/Gomorrah,’[1] toContinue reading “Boundaries: The country/city opposition in eighteenth-century and Romantic literature.”

‘You’re a Better Man Than I’: An Eriksonian Analysis of Childhood Identity Construction in Kipling

Identity is a key, recurring theme in the bibliography of Rudyard Kipling. Identity formation has many facets and Kipling focuses on geography, naming, and behaviour. Some critics have explained Kipling’s focus on identity and how it can be formed and moulded by way of his own upbringing. Phillip Mason believes that Kipling’s own fragmented upbringingContinue reading “‘You’re a Better Man Than I’: An Eriksonian Analysis of Childhood Identity Construction in Kipling”

Hiding in Plain Sight: The Bushman/San narratives and the influence of Western translators.

In this essay, I will explore how the Bushman culture is presented through folklore and examine how various translators have acted as conduits. I will analyse whether it is correct to group the Bushman together into one unit and follow chronologically the different labels that have been applied to these people; Bushmen, San, and /Xam.Continue reading “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Bushman/San narratives and the influence of Western translators.”

Filling in the Gaps: The Homogenous Cowardice of Contemporary Book Publishers

Ever since the novel form burst onto the literary scene writers have been struggling with its obvious limitations in representing the hidden, interior processes of the human mind. Some of these experiments have tampered with the fabric of the book itself, removing pages numbers and even parts of pages. In the early days of theContinue reading “Filling in the Gaps: The Homogenous Cowardice of Contemporary Book Publishers”