LITERATURE AND EXPERIMENT

01

Generation X: On Amanda's essay...

"Your essay is inspiring because it touches quite a few important aspects. I particularly like the fact that you have chosen "time" --- a popular theme in modernist fictions as well --- as one of the themes, which allows some of us who work on modernist literature to compare our writers, texts, and analyses with yours. As for the style of writing, you wrote fluently and your choice of words are generally effective and accurate."

(LEUNG, John) 

 

02

Patchwork Girl: On Bonnie's essay... 

"I really like your choice of text—you work on a hypertext, which is a very unique choice in our colloquium as most of us work on novels. Yet, you still manage to demonstrate how it is highly relevant to our theme of literature and experiment in your essay, with close analysis of the hypertext and its various techniques such as collage and fragmentation, which are also commonly found in some of our selected texts in the colloquium."

(LI, Pansy)

 

03

The Sound and The Fury: On Dora's essay...

“This is a thoughtful essay, with solid research work and ample examples. I like how you implicitly put our colloquium’s theme in the topic of your essay. The analysis is based heavily on the primary text, which gives the essay a very solid literary basis. Stylistically, the essay is appropriate in register and mostly uses sophisticated and precise terminologies.”

 

(CHANG, Yu Ting, LAU, Joseph and YIU, Oscar)

 

04

Mrs. Dalloway: On John's essay...

"John’s topic is relevant to the theme of literature and experiment and his claims are sound. The diction and references used aligns with the academic writing style. His citations on Murphy’s theories are careful and highly relevant. Overall, I enjoyed reading your essay!"

 

(MAK, Bonnie and LEONG Amanda Caterina)

​

05

The Outsider: On Joseph's essay...

"I really enjoyed reading your essay. Your essay is well-researched and thoroughly supported with textual evidence and other scholar’s articles. The structure of your essay is very clear and easy to follow, each paragraph develops and builds onto the next one. I think the “road-map” you provided in the introduction where you laid out explicitly the different points you will explore especially helped to guide readers. I also found the point about the dual justification and antidotal effect in the characterization of Meursault very interesting. Your evaluation of the value of Camus’ experiment is thought-provoking, it concludes and ties together all your points very well." 

(CHANG, Yu Ting)

 

06

The Picture of Dorian Gray: On Lawrence's Essay...

"Your essay proposes a very clear argument that is also highly relevant to the theme of our colloquium. Your essay is well supported with different sources, from primary to secondary texts, your essay demonstrates the depth and amount of research you have conducted. It is also easy to follow your essay with the sub-headings. Great essay you have there and I like how you’d developed your essay in steps."

(CHANG, Yu Ting and YIU, Oscar)

 

07

The Ladies' Paradise: On Oscar's Essay...

"The evidence is convincing to suggest that Zola experiments naturalism in focusing the observation of environment. In choosing the element of environment, this single paragraph has identified the sharp difference between naturalist novel and realist novel. Broadly speaking, your points are based on textual evidence and show solid research work. In particular, you show strong understanding in Zola’s ideas when quoting from and summarizing confidently his essay." 

(LAW, Lawrence and LAU, Joseph)

 

08

Cloud Atlas: On Pansy's Essay...

"With a clear thesis and well supported arguments, Pansy’s essay is highly relevant to our theme on literature and experiment. She presents interesting discussions on Cloud Atlas as a postmodern metafiction and brings insightful arguments concerning Mitchell’s heterotopia building and cyclical experimentation of time. You proceed in employing abundant textual evidences to demonstrate how the novel qualifies as a postmodernist metafiction by featuring genre mashups and “metafictionality”. Especially for the latter term, you did an excellent job to illustrate the novel’s “self-reflective consciousness” with various examples on how protagonists of some novellas question and critique objects emblematic of the plots of other novellas."

(CHAN, William and MAK, Bonnie)

​

09

The Cantos: On William's Essay...

"William’s essay has a clear thesis closely related to the theme of literature and experimentation. His arguments are often well supported with ample textual examples and close reading. The diction and grammar used are mostly precise and accurate. In short, a very inspiring and rich essay. I would like to read the Cantos later!"

(MAK, Bonnie and LEUNG, John)

 

10

Kafka on the Shore: On Yu Ting's essay... 

"In general, this is a thoughtful essay with ample evidence. It is highly relevant to our theme and to our colloquium, and furthermore it highlights what is at stake in literary experiments. I think the quotations from other scholars are very helpful to support your argument and you’ve put them well into your text. I like how this essay is simple to read but is immensely in depth with its ideas and analysis. Stylistically, the diction is clean without unnecessary sophistication, and this contributes to the readability of this essay in spite of its solid intellectual sophistication.”

​

(TAN, Dora, LAU, Joseph and YIU, Oscar)