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Books you should read: ‘Butter’ by Asako Yuzuki
In the UK, we have an idiom where we say ‘butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth’. For example, I might say, ‘She looks innocent, but I knew deep down that butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth’. This is to say that someone who appears innocent on the surface, is in reality untrustworthy, or there is…
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“The Language of Subversion”: Art, Trauma and the Reimagining of Selfhood in Speak: The Graphic Novel (2019)
More often than not, the children’s literature genre is misrepresented as aiming to sanitise real world issues, introducing narratives containing conflicts that always end in happy resolutions. We reflect on children’s books as innocent, pure, devoid of real world consequences and danger. A form which repeatedly presents childhood and teenagehood in a raw, subversive fashion…
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Ocean at the End of the Lane: Review (Norwich Theatre Royal)
[This article was originally published in UEA’s official student newspaper, Concrete.] I came to Ocean at the End of the Lane with expectations it would be like many of Neil Gaiman’s stories – spooky, fantastical and packed full of adventure. The play I watched included all these elements, but the emotional intensity of the performance…
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UEA Live greets Hanya Yanagihara
[This article was originally published in UEA’s official student newspaper, Concrete, for arts supplement, Venue.] In March, UEA Live hosted perhaps one of their biggest literary events yet with a talk from Hanya Yanagihara, author of bestsellers A Little Life and To Paradise. Being as obsessed with A Little Life as I am, I bought…