Criticism

Subjugation (interpersonal or otherwise) is a recurring theme throughout the book. But for Carrero-Lopez, to merely state that it exists isn’t enough. Instead, the material conditions that allow people to jeopardize or determine the autonomy of others serve as centerpieces,…

The Substance falls right into the same historic trappings of the misogynistic punishment rituals that horror has long perpetrated. So why is the film—and the media it has inspired since its release—hailed as a feminist masterpiece?

There, she meets a man who tells her of the ascendant rise and fall of his wealth, how inheriting a few Norman Rockwell paintings led to a cross-country motorcycle journey and, eventually, drug-fueled, late-night lawn mowing. Every character is full…

This Dark Night effectively refutes the lasting image of the Brontës as isolated sad girls, stuck in the sticks with their abusive reverend father, which originated with Elizabeth Gaskell’s now-classic hagiography of her close friend, Charlotte Brontë. Lutz sketches a…

You remember your younger self’s devotion the way you remember a book you once loved: vivid, moving, but no longer yours.

There is a sinister breeze blowing throughout the story, like the big bad wolf that is always stalking the piggies and the sheep. It’s often lingering right outside the gates or behind the wall, sometimes breaking through, breaking ribs, bruising…

Perverts is full of squirting, fingering, vibrators, life-changing kisses, and of course, meaningful lesbian glances. Yet intimacy, if it ever arrives, does so as a terrifying and delightful surprise.

Are elegies fundamentally love poems? Or are love poems always tinged with elegy, knowing they contain their own ending?