Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. HarperCollins Publishers, 2015. In Coraline, Gaiman tells the story of an adventurous little girl who, when ignored by her parents, seeks adventure and affection elsewhere. Beginning with a little door to nowhere, the story gets increasingly darker as Coraline receives warnings from her various neighbors that even they do not understand. And…
Caged Bird: Poetry and Memory
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a new type of text for us this semester. However, like our other texts, it seems to operate within and between genres -- the only difference is the genre. At first, Caged Bird seems to just be an autobiography. Maya Angelou is presenting a first person narrative…
The Shack: Behavior in a Christian cage
As we discussed in Sofia's blog, The Shack presents quite a few opportunities for divergent ways of reading. On one level, this text can be read as the grief narrative of a father who lost his daughter. On another level, The Shack can be read as a myth, rich in symbolism and figurative language. However, I am not particularly…
Kindred: Who are we?
Kindred, as revealed by our past blogs, deals with relationships. The novel relates genres of history with science fiction, past with present, black with white. Although less obvious, Kindred also embodies a relationship between reader and storyteller. Typically, you think of this relationship as a connection between two people: the reader and the storyteller. However,…
Coraline: Let’s go through the little door
Stepping into one of Neil Gaiman’s works always feels the same for me. It’s as if I’ve been to this world before —maybe once a long time ago— but now I can’t seem to remember anything about it. It’s sort of like walking through your own house, but everything is turned at a 15 degree…
Group Four 