The Byronic hero is arguably the most enduring literary archetype of the Romantic period, originating from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and then developed across his subsequent works. While critics have traced its legacy into Gothic fiction and popular romance, its transformation through the Brontës’ heroes, Heathcliff and Rochester, particularly within the contemporary subgenre of [ ]
Once Upon a Time I started PopLit When I signed up for the MA in Modernities, I had a specific idea of what the programme and its assessments would look like. Particularly, one word was looming over my shoulder: essays. Essays, essays, and even more essays. The varied assessment of the module EN6009 came [ ]
Beware! This post contains ALL THE SPOILERS for Young Sherlock. If you haven’t watched the show, consider watching it before reading this post. I promise, it is so worth it. Then you can come back here for some thoughts! If you have been around me recently, you must have heard either “I’m so stressed” or [ ]
In this post, I would like to reflect on Textualities 2026, the mini-conference I had the pleasure of organising alongside my cohorts from the MA in Modernities and the MA in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at University College Cork. The conference came to life in just three weeks, meaning there was little to no margin [ ]
Although a bit late to the party, I am finally responding to this seminar. Sometimes thoughts need time to brew. On Friday, during the Textualities mini-conference, my classmate s discussion of the video game The Last of Us and the Anthropocene made me think about the connections between the environment and popular culture, which reminded me [ ]
[This article is part of The Reject Project, and as such, it has been co-reviewed by the other co-authors and co-editors of The Reject Project.] “It was as if a curtain had fallen, hiding everything I had ever known.” (Rhys 7). This is the first line of Jean Rhys ’ Voyage in the Dark, which tells the [ ]
Over Christmas, while in Switzerland to visit my family, I found myself in a car with my sister (driving) and her boyfriend, who asked me if I knew a new viral Italian singer called TonyPitony. What followed upon the first listening felt like pure provocation: his lyrics are exaggerated, filled with deliberate vulgarity and obscenity. [ ]
This post includes spoilers for Wicked and Wicked For Good. If you do not want any spoilers, watch the movies (cause they’re two masterpieces) and then come back here for some popular literature analysis. On Friday, I went to the cinema by myself to watch Wicked: for Good, and thanks to the postmodernist seminar on [ ]
Last Wednesday, two events which seemed completely unrelated occurred in my life: my sister failed her first driving test, and in the afternoon, I attended a talk from Dr Alan Gibbs on the presence of naturalism in the novels of Paul Auster. It was only after I listened to the talk that I began to [ ]
This is a work of fiction. While certain characters and events are inspired by real life, they have been altered and fictionalised to serve the needs of the story. evicted at twenty-one–because a millionairesplit one home into two.we moved out in a weekmy roommate on her knees, clutching the carpet,sobbing between half-packed boxes,while we dragged [ ]