The Radical Voice of Margaret Oliphant: Extending Domesticity in Hester and Kirsteen

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Women's Writing on 24/04/2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09699082.2020.1751435?journalCode=rwow20This paper demonstrates how the nineteenth-century writer Margaret Oliphant drew upon her domestic identity to write in radical ways which could educate and inform her young female readership. Through the exploration of two female characters, Catherine Vernon in Hester (1883) and Kirsteen Douglas in Kirsteen (1890), the paper demonstrates how Oliphant represented the importance of opportunities available for young women within 'extended domesticity', a version of the domestic space which extended beyond conventional boundaries to include all women. Through representations of female characters like Catherine and Kirsteen, who had careers and even businesses, of their own, Oliphant showed the possibilities available for women whose lives did not fit into the conventional mould of marriage and maternity. Hester and Kirsteen allow Oliphant to represent two very different versions of domesticity, and to reinforce the necessity for an extended version of it, which allows women the space to find personal growth and fulfilment. The paper engages with the scholarship of critics such as George Levine and Katherine Mullin to explore Oliphant's radical voice and to reinforce her place as an important writer

Harry Potter: A Hero of Mythic Proportions

This thesis argues that Harry Potter, the main character in the series of novels written by J.K. Rowling, is a mythic hero. A character in literature deemed a hero can only be a mythic hero by completing a series of events both predetermined and determined by the hero. Joseph Campbell’s work A Hero With a Thousand Faces outlines these qualities a character must possess and the events he must complete in his life called the initiation, the departure, and the return of the hero. Using Campbell’s seminar work as a critical perspective, I read the protagonist of the Harry Potter novels as a mythic hero. Starting life with nothing, he overcomes his circumstances while remaining virtuous and strong. His strength and virtue allow him to rid the wizarding world of evil, thus solidifying his status of a mythic hero

The house always wins: Designer appointments at historic fashion houses

In March of 2011 the fashion world was shocked to learn one of their greatest talents had been suspended and then fired from one of the most coveted design positions available due to anti- Semitic comments uttered during a drunken tirade (Horyn, 2011). As the creative director of one of the world’s most well known fashion brands, Christian Dior, Galliano’s fall from grace was of interest to both industry insiders and the general public, alike