UBC English Students' Association | The go-to resource for all students in UBC's English department.

Coping with an Alien Lifestyle

Coping with an Alien Lifestyle

by Jessica Lee on Apr 27, 2020 • No Comments

UNCERTAINTY. ALIEN. COPE. Three words float continuously in Lilith Iyapo’s mind when she awakens in a living alien ship: uncertainty, alien, and cope. She struggles to adjust to her new housemates, the Oankali, who claims to have rescued the “best” humans from earth to preserve humanity after a nuclear world...

More Than Fairy Tales: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Brilliance of Children’s Literature

More Than Fairy Tales: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Brilliance of Children’s Literature

by Jaslyn Thienbunlertrat on Apr 24, 2020 • No Comments

C.S. Lewis, the author of the well-loved Chronicles of Narnia, once said that “a children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” There are books that we fall in love with during childhood, which, upon returning to, seem almost lifeless compared...

"It's Not Just a Dream, it Could be Our Reality"

“It’s Not Just a Dream, it Could be Our Reality”

by Jessica Lee on Apr 24, 2020 • No Comments

The little things make a difference in the bigger picture. Global warming and climate change are not new concerns, but why do some of us continue to treat it as if they are topics not worth being proactive about? In Chris Van Allsburg’s Just A Dream (1990), Van Allsburg places the readers...

5 Books to Rejuvenate Your Reading List for the Springtime

5 Books to Rejuvenate Your Reading List for the Springtime

by Apoorva Mahajan on Mar 20, 2020 • No Comments

A few terms synonymous with spring would include sunshine, bloom, allergy season, and here in Vancouver: cherry blossoms. Along with spring also comes the dreaded (for some) task of spring cleaning. So get out those dusters and open the blinds. Perhaps you’ll stumble upon your bookcase as you power down...

6 TIPS TO BEAT YOUR WRITER’S BLOCK!

6 TIPS TO BEAT YOUR WRITER’S BLOCK!

by Jessica Lee on Mar 13, 2020 • 1 Comment

We are approaching that time of the term when we scramble to find the perfect words to use for our term papers. It could also be the moment when you’re struggling to find a way to silence the cursor on your screen that continuously taunts you every time it pulses on the...

“Is this your buying China?”: Luxury consumerism and superficiality in William Wycherley’s The Country Wife

“Is this your buying China?”: Luxury consumerism and superficiality in William Wycherley’s The Country Wife

by Aiden Tait on Mar 6, 2020 • No Comments

Following increased maritime trade and a reliance on foreign goods, the commercial revolution that swept through England in the late sixteenth century resulted in an intensified desire for new and hitherto inaccessible luxury commodities. One such commodity, china porcelain, resulted in a “china fever” that continued well into the eighteenth...

Writing Might Save Your Life

Writing Might Save Your Life

by Jessica Lee on Feb 25, 2020 • No Comments

Why do we watch movies, listen to audiobooks, and write poetry, songs, and stories?! What makes storytelling compelling to all of us regardless of our knowledge, social classes, and our wide variety of interests? In Jen Sincero’s book, You Are A Badass (2013), she shares personal anecdotes reflecting on her journey to...

Analyzing the Fahrenheit 451 Films by Truffaut and Bahrani

Analyzing the Fahrenheit 451 Films by Truffaut and Bahrani

by Elizabeth Trim on Feb 21, 2020 • No Comments

Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury is one of my favourite books for a multitude of reasons, such as Bradbury’s use of poetic language and its’ timeless, universal themes. Although Fahrenheit 451 was originally published in 1953, over 60 years ago, many themes are still relevant today; specifically censorship, and the loss of...

"Why Does Everyone Like Joe Goldberg?" - Strangership and Privilege in Netflix's You

“Why Does Everyone Like Joe Goldberg?” – Strangership and Privilege in Netflix’s You

by Lauryn Collins on Feb 14, 2020 • No Comments

The popularity of the Netflix thriller You is garnering increasing media attention from critics, theorists, and fans alike after the second season was released at the beginning of January 2020. Falling under fire for the obsessive attention that the psychopathic protagonist, Joe Goldberg, has gotten from young fans, the depictions of stalking,...

Creating a Story Without Words: Parallels in Story and Music-making

Creating a Story Without Words: Parallels in Story and Music-making

by Katie Gaston on Feb 7, 2020 • No Comments

Music and writing have a lot in common. You may have even heard stories themselves be described in terms of music- like beats of action, the rhythm of words, and the melody, or a voice, of an author. Throughout the years, these two disciplines have helped each other to both...

“Such dread as only children can feel”: Childhood trauma in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

“Such dread as only children can feel”: Childhood trauma in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

by Aiden Tait on Jan 25, 2020 • No Comments

“For me,” Jane begins, following the incident in the red room, “the watches of that long night passed in ghastly wakefulness; ear, eye, and mind alike strained by dread: such dread as children only can feel” (Brontë 20). Saturated as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre is with unnerving or unsettling sensations, what...

The Power of Texts and Images in My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade

The Power of Texts and Images in My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade

by Jessica Lee on Jan 18, 2020 • 1 Comment

NB: The metaphors are shown in capital letters as indicated by Barbara Dancygier and Eve Sweetser’s Figurative Language (2014) text. For every song a musical artist publishes, the artist creates an album cover art to represent the theme and messages conveyed in the music. In The Black Parade (2006) album, written and sung by the American...

Be Still: Slowing Down to Savour Life

Be Still: Slowing Down to Savour Life

by Jaslyn Thienbunlertrat on Jan 11, 2020 • No Comments

“When we lose our sense of wonder we become dissatisfied with who we are,” Madeleine L’Engle says in her book on creation and human identity (Madeleine 51). When I came back to her words this month, I connected just as strongly to them as I had the first time I...

The Polar Express: The Train You Need to Ride Every Year

The Polar Express: The Train You Need to Ride Every Year

by Jessica Lee on Dec 21, 2019 • No Comments

Many of Chris Van Allsburg’s books have been projected into a motion picture film such as Zathura (2005) and Jumanji (1995). Van Allsburg’s most memorable book to film project is The Polar Express(1985) which has gained the status of being a Christmas film played each year like Frosty the Snowman (1969) and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). But...

“You, Who Have Devastated the Souls of the Living”: Heroes, Hubris, and the Victorian Gothic in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

“You, Who Have Devastated the Souls of the Living”: Heroes, Hubris, and the Victorian Gothic in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

by Lauryn Collins on Dec 13, 2019 • No Comments

Although Christmas time and ghost stories seem to us strange bedfellows, the two were commonly found lying together in the nineteenth century. Ghouls and ghosts, seances and mystics, changelings and revenants were all immensely popular among the Victorians – and their presence was felt year-round in high society. Christmas was...

The 2020 Colloquium!

Announcements / Blog

The 2020 Colloquium!

by UBC ESA Exec on Oct 11, 2019 • No Comments

The English Students’ Association is hosting our sixth annual academic conference, The Colloquium! This conference features presentations from English undergraduate students and faculty members. The Colloquium offers the opportunity to share your work and discuss ideas with other students and faculty members in the English Department. Please see below for...

Latest entries

VOTE NOW IN ESA'S 2020/2021 EXECUTIVE TEAM ELECTIONS!

VOTE NOW IN ESA’S 2020/2021 EXECUTIVE TEAM ELECTIONS!

by UBC ESA Exec on Apr 21, 2020 • No Comments

ESA members, please vote for the election candidates you support by filling this form. Our voting form closes on April 25th, at 12 PM. *Only ESA members may vote in ESA’S elections* Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our executive elections have transitioned online. This year, we have several candidates for the 2020-2021 executive team. Their...

ESA'S AGM: 2020 ELECTIONS UPDATE

ESA’S AGM: 2020 ELECTIONS UPDATE

by UBC ESA Exec on Mar 3, 2020 • No Comments

Elections will take place at our Annual General Meeting. Due to health concerns and to ensure everyone’s safety, we will hold our Annual General Meeting online. Details to be Announced. Looking for a fun opportunity to get involved with the English undergraduate community while developing leadership skills? We are officially seeking executives for next year’s ESA team....

LITERATURE TO LIFE: WE EAT TOO MANY PAPER PLATES

LITERATURE TO LIFE: WE EAT TOO MANY PAPER PLATES

by Jessica Lee on Nov 28, 2019 • No Comments

Thinking beyond ourselves has become a dominant theme in my Canadian Environmental writing course that influences my decisions on a day-to-day basis. It is annie ross’ collection of poems from Pots and Other Living Beings(2019) that inspires me to reflect on my consumption of food, clothing, and other materialistic items. I am not insisting to start...

Literature to Life: Three Timeless Must-Know Gift-Giving Tips You Need

Literature to Life: Three Timeless Must-Know Gift-Giving Tips You Need

by Jessica Lee on Nov 28, 2019 • No Comments

From my previous post “Literature to Life: We Eat Too Many Paper Plates,” I analyzed annie ross’ Pots and Other Living Beings (2019) to continue ongoing discussions pertaining to recent climate strikes. With the upcoming Black Friday sale and holidays next month, I want to suggest a few alternatives for everyone to think about when...

A Tribute to Stephen King

A Tribute to Stephen King

by Katie Gaston on Nov 22, 2019 • No Comments

To say that Stephen King is a good writer would be an understatement. With nearly 100 books selling over 350 million copies and stories transformed into television series and movies that have left an indelible mark on our pop culture, Stephen King is a capital “G” Great writer. I paid a visit to one of...

Colloquium 2020: Call for Editors!

Colloquium 2020: Call for Editors!

by UBC ESA Exec on Nov 19, 2019 • No Comments

Interested in gaining editing experience? Looking to take part in an enriching academic conference? The ESA is looking for editors to assist with the 2020 Colloquium! Editors will have a hand in selecting the pieces that will be presented at the conference, as well as work closely with those selected to refine their work. Some...

Society’s Biggest Joke: Put on a Happy Face

Society’s Biggest Joke: Put on a Happy Face

by Jessica Lee on Nov 15, 2019 • 2 Comments

Both heroes and anti-heroes share a common goal in life to find his or her form of happiness by conquering any problem he or she faces to achieve his or her goal. In Todd Phillips’ film, Joker (2019), the audience is challenged to perceive the protagonist Arthur Fleck, a party clown and failed comedian, as an example...

"A salvatory of green mummy": John Webster and Corpse Medicine

“A salvatory of green mummy”: John Webster and Corpse Medicine

by Aiden Tait on Oct 7, 2019 • No Comments

Jacobean dramatist John Webster approached the taboo and the questionable with inexhaustible determination, plunging the contemporary reader into those dark, uncomfortable spaces we prefer to skirt around, never lingering for too long for fear of what we might uncover. For Webster, a preoccupation with the gruesome side of mortality manifests particularly strongly in his references...

What Should We Do with Henry’s Freedom Box?

What Should We Do with Henry’s Freedom Box?

by Jessica Lee on Jun 28, 2020 • No Comments

We need to persevere, like Henry, to fight for a world where we can all live comfortably without the fear of being oppressed by each other.