Author：ZHU Yuhan, LUO Xinping

Abstract: The aristocratic gentleman in Shakespearean romantic comedy and the witty trickster in Jonsonian satirical comedy represent the dual traditions of English Renaissance comedy, yet both are flawed: the former lacks agency in resolving conflicts, while the latter exhibits uncivility. In The Way of the World, William Congreve transcends these models by creating Mirabell as a Lockean gentleman—a synthesis of the aristocratic protagonist’s grace and the trickster’s resourcefulness. Inspired by John Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Mirabell embodies rational self-governance, moral...

Vol. 9 No. 2 Dec. 2025      Time：2025-12-01

Author：XIE Minmin

Abstract: In assessing the quality of poetry, George Santayana advanced a graded criterion that may be termed a “trilevel theory.” Although this conception originally emerged from his reflections on poetry, it came to serve as an overarching framework for his broader literary vision, mirroring his views on some literary elements such as form, matter, and theme. What is especially compelling is the latent unity of Santayana’s diverse intellectual roles—philosopher, aesthetician, and literary critic—within this literary structure. His pursuit of aesthetic excellence, advocacy of realism and literary...

Vol. 9 No. 2 Dec. 2025      Time：2025-12-01

Author：Visam MANSUR, Nergiz Öznur VARDAR

Abstract: This article examines Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People through the intersecting frameworks of grotesque realism and unnatural narrativity to explore how form and language mediate subaltern experience. Set in the aftermath of a fictionalized Bhopal disaster, the novel defies conventional narrative structures through a posthuman narrator, Animal, whose grotesque hybrid identity challenges anthropocentric and neoliberal paradigms. The analysis foregrounds how Sinha employs bodily imagery, obscenity, and narrative fragmentation to critique dominant institutions such as law, medicine,...

Vol. 9 No. 2 Dec. 2025      Time：2025-12-01

Author：WEN Yiwen

Abstract: Given its direct borrowings from and intertextual relations to other similar texts, “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains” has often been accused of flagrant plagiarism or lack of originality. Such a simple assertion ignores not only Poe’s deviation from these sources but also his rationale for such initiatives. While duly recognizing Poe’s indebtedness to his predecessors and contemporaries, this paper proposes to examine Poe’s literary re-creation and parody by concentrating on his subtle treatment of these borrowed texts, and in so doing, look also at his subversive approach to colonialist...

Vol. 9 No. 2 Dec. 2025      Time：2025-12-01