Zach GibsonVictorian Hoaxes and Postmodern Counterfeits: The Figure of the Forger in Oscar Wilde’s The…In Oscar Wilde’s short story “The Portrait or Mr. W.H.” and his essay “The Decay of Lying,” he uses acts of deceit and counterfeit to…Dec 31, 2021Dec 31, 2021
Zach GibsonBalloons and Deep Fakes: New Media Hoaxes in the 19th and 21st Centuries — Edgar Allan Poe’s…Between 2020 and 2021, Norwegian photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen performed what he called “[his] own little Turing test” in order to…Dec 31, 2021Dec 31, 2021
Zach GibsonReaderly Expectation and Misdirection: Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person” and its Paratextual…In Gérard Genette’s 1987 book, Paratexts he examines the liminal elements of a work that “enable it to become a book and be offered as such…Sep 29, 2021Sep 29, 2021
Zach Gibson“This Nicholas anon leet fle a fart as greet as it had been a thonder-dent”: Carnival, Grotesque…Though primarily concerned with the subversive use of folk humor and popular culture during the renaissance, Russian philosopher and…Sep 29, 2021Sep 29, 2021
Zach GibsonMeaning and Entropy in Nabokov’s “Symbols and Signs” and Borges’ “Library of Babel”Vladimir Nabokov’s 1948 short story “Symbols and Signs” is a compact, 2,160-word puzzle that anticipates the literary engagement with…Sep 29, 2021Sep 29, 2021
Zach GibsonThomas Pynchon’s Hollow Earth: Halley, Maskelyne, and Symmes in Mason & Dixon and Against the DayLiterary Critic Edward Mendelson aptly describes Thomas Pynchon’s oeuvre in his 1976 essay, “Gravity’s Encyclopedia,” placing him in line…Sep 29, 2021Sep 29, 2021
Zach GibsonSome Versions of the Pastoral Pastiche: Urban Idyll and Consumerism in James Joyce’s “Nausicaa”The literature of international modernism developed alongside rapid developments that drastically altered city life. As populations boomed…Nov 29, 2020Nov 29, 2020
Zach GibsonSatire and American Epic in Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and DixonRussian linguist and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin offers a unique solution to early twentieth century debates over the defining traits…May 26, 2020May 26, 2020
