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Articles on Literature

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Why did she do all the work while Santa got all the glory? What would happen if she delivered the toys? Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How Mrs. Claus embodied 19th-century debates about women’s rights

Many early stories praise her work ethic and devotion. But with Mrs. Claus usually hitting the North Pole’s glass ceiling, some writers started to push back.
‘Moby-Dick’ inspired the Warner Brothers film starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab – and perhaps can inspire readers today amid the climate crisis. Fox Photos/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

The lessons ‘Moby-Dick’ has for a warming world of rising waters

Melville’s epic novel about life aboard a wayward whaling ship holds lessons for the climate crisis today.
Spanish authors (from left), Agustin Martinez, Jorge Diaz and Antonio Mercero, who have been writing bestsellers as Carmen Mola. Quique Garcia/EPA

What makes a good literary hoax? A political point, for starters

A true hoax provokes. It questions cultural biases, shattering conventions. But the curious case of the three men writing as a female author Carmen Mola does none of this.
The work of imagining alternate futures is also about re-casting alternative pasts, as is done in the award-winning novel, ‘Washington Black’ by Esi Edugyan and adapted for the screen by podcast guest Selwyn Seyfu Hinds. Washington Black/Random House

How stories about alternate worlds can help us imagine a better future: Don’t Call Me Resilient EP 7

Stories about alternative worlds can be a powerful way of critiquing the problems of our own world.
Nathalie Jolivert, ‘World Championship: Dessalines Pa Ap Pran Go l,’ Acrylic on Canvas 90 in x 192 in. (c) Nathalie Jolivert

4 Haitian novels that beautifully blend history, memory and reality

Confronted with centuries of exploitation by their country’s ruling class and foreign powers, Haitian writers warn against the impulse to seek solace in outside intervention or cynical humor.

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