Rogues and Villains
May 4, 2016
In honour of May the Fourth, Dr Nathan Waddell from our School of English shares some thoughts on the upcoming film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Do rogues win? They usually do in the Star Wars universe. They certainly will in Rogue One, the first of the Star Wars anthology movies. Due for release in …
Marvel’s civil war – unlimited power and no supervision
April 20, 2016
Should superheroes be subject to government oversight? Robyn Muir and Ibtisam Ahmed from the School of Politics and International Relations choose their team and explain why. Robyn Muir is #TeamIronMan and in favour of regulation The issue of regulation is something that surrounds us all, but what is it? Is it monitoring individual conduct or is …
The Book Was Better?
March 3, 2016
Leaving campus yesterday, I passed a student whose T-shirt stated uncompromisingly THE BOOK WAS BETTER. Sound stuff, and words to live one’s professional, personal and emotional lives by. And it started me wondering about films and adaptations which cunningly got around this problem by going a bit sideways. Refusing to just reproduce the original, these …
‘We never go out of style, never go out of style’: On Taylor Swift and Repetition
February 19, 2016
At the recent Grammy Awards for 2016, Taylor Swift not only picked up the Best Music Video award for her hit ‘Bad Blood’ (featuring Kendrick Lamar), her album 1989 was also awarded the Album of the Year as well as the Best Pop Vocal Album. Whilst Swift had previously won the Album of the Year …
The walking dead of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
February 17, 2016
Last week I watched Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and came away with a rather warm feeling in my offal. Released in time for Valentine’s day, this movie has a great deal of cerebral appeal, a lot of heart, and some period ladies venting spleen to serious (tongue through cheek) comedic effect. The film is based …
Iphigenia in Westeros: Greek Tragedy Meets Game of Thrones
February 5, 2016
When HBO Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 9, ‘Dance of Dragons’, first aired, in June 2015, viewers with an interest in Greek myth recognised the harrowing scene of the death of Shireen Baratheon as a re-telling of the story of Greek princess Iphigenia. In texts featuring the stories surrounding the Trojan War, and most …
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
February 1, 2016
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies sounds like an incongruous title. Up there with Apocalypse Snuggle, perhaps. Or Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Doilies. But on second thoughts, the combination of Austen and zombies might make more sense. Austen is, in some senses, a zombie author. She’s been reprinted, adapted, filmed, franchised, merchandised and monetised in …
Queer Narratives and Intersectional Sexuality
January 27, 2016
The paradigm of queer storytelling has seen a massive shift in recent decades. While queer characters – usually gay men – started off as the butt of severely outdated punchlines when they first breached the mainstream, the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights worldwide, combined with a greater understanding of the various identities that make up the …
The Continuing Legacy of The X-Files
January 25, 2016
On Sunday 24th January The X-Files returned to TV screens after a 14-year hiatus. While the new series has aired in the US to mixed reviews, the original was a landmark in US television. First broadcast on the Fox network in 1993, the series followed the investigations of two FBI agents into cases of paranormal …
Sadness sells? Death and the Young Adult Protagonist
January 14, 2016
An epic poem in Latin, about the foundation of Rome. A narrator and a protagonist, both young women. From bereavement at the beginning to a climactic death. All in all, Caroline Lawrence’s Queen of the Silver Arrow is a striking and unusual piece of children’s literature. It tells the story of the warrior princess Camilla, …
