Category: Reviews
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Book Review – Parreñas, Rhacel. 2011. Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Rhacel Parreñas’ 2011 text, “Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo”, seeks to examine the misconceptions surrounding the Filipina hostesses of Japan whose livelihood came under global scrutiny through the US-led anti-trafficking campaign. Rosie Inwald discusses Parreñas’ work and the issues with a top-down perspective on the agency of these women.
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Book Review – Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence
R. F. Kuang’s 2022 novel, “Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence”, holds a critical lens to the British Empire, examining the atrocities perpetuated by academic institutions. Naomi Wallace discusses Kuang’s work which combines fantasy with a powerful critique of imperialism, set in nineteenth-century Oxford.
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Film Review – All Quiet on the Western Front (2022): A Gut-Wrenching Tale of War
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022) explores the brutality and trauma of war, following the life of a German soldier during WWI. Fleur O’Reilly reviews Edward Berger’s adaption of this classic work.
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Film Review – Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling: Tragedy and the Pursuit of Perfection
Olivia Wilde’s 2022 feature, “Don’t Worry Darling” blends the macabre and the glamorous against a background of 1950s America. Georgia Smith delves into Wilde’s world of seduction, tension, and Victory.
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Theatre Review – Petronius’ Satyricon, adapted for stage by Martin Foreman
Petronius’ Satyricon is a classic Ancient Roman text from the first century CE, depicting scenes of debauchery and extravagance. Fiona MacRae reviews a recent stage exhibition of the text, brought to life for a modern audience by Martin Foreman at Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh.
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Exhibition Review – Anatomy: A Matter of Death and Life
Written by Tristan Craig. Exploring the long, and at times bloody, history of medical practice, ‘Anatomy: A Matter of Death and Life’ offers a fresh glimpse into the lives and minds of those who shaped the discipline. Tristan Craig discusses the National of Museum of Scotland’s latest exhibition and the enduring legacy of Edinburgh’s most infamous murderers.
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The Portrayal of Female Desire and Lesbianism in Deepa Mehta’s Fire
Written by Kat Jivkova. Deepa Mehta’s deeply impactive 1996 film, ‘Fire’, is a portrayal of female desire as resistance to Hindu patriarchy. Kat Jivkova asks why, as something deeply embedded in Indian life and a not a mere Western import, this stirred much imagination, and ire, on its release.
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Review: Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London, Simon Newman (2022)
Written by Boryana Ivanova. Simon Newman’s 2022 text examines racial slavery in Early Modern London by reconstructing the lives of individuals who fled from their enslavement and sheds light on the freedom-seeking Black community of England.
Retrospect Journal 