In Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim, the very first scene is one where the eponymous character, a young Irish orphan living in India, resolves a linguistic mismatch. A Tibetan lama asks a policeman for directions to the Lahore Museum in Urdu, but the policeman speaks only Punjabi, thus rendering the lama “helpless” (Kipling 12) until Kim steps in to translate. Unsurprisingly, the theme of the power of language continues throughout the novel, further complicated by the introduction of English to the mix of Urdu, Punjabi, and Hindi.

In James Olney’s 1984 essay “I Was Born: Slave Narratives, Their Status as Autobiography and as Literature,” Olney addresses that most slave narratives follow the same format, which makes them both straightforward and repetitive. He argues that these strict conventions are essential because slave narratives exist for ex-slaves to add their story to the ever-growing testament about slavery, not for the author to explore and take ownership of their history.

Growing up is a universal part of the human experience. A whole genre of literature, called the bildungsroman, follows this path from adolescence to adulthood. The term bildungsroman was not widely used until around 1870, but it was first coined in 1817 and aptly labels a long list of works stretching from the end of the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century ("Bildungsroman"). The root word bildung translated from German into English can refer to “development,” “education,” “apprenticeship,” “self-culture,” “acculturation,” or “formation” (Lyons 1).

Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Cranford (1851–53) is set in a quiet English village withdrawn from the commerce and industrialization dominating larger cities. The society of Cranford is populated by a small group of matriarchs, unmarried or widowed, who often ritualize and bond over domesticity: salvaging and sewing of fabrics, discussing elegance and etiquette - what to wear, how to eat and what food to serve, when to call and how long the call should last - sharing new crotchet and knitting patterns, gossips and new collections of fineries.

While it was not until later in his career that F. Scott Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, his 1925 magnum opus, The Great Gatsby, bears the distinct influence of the silver screen. At the time when he penned the novel, celebrity culture was rapidly emerging, and film actors and actresses ascended to American royalty. This was accompanied by an explosion in advertising which marketed every product imaginable to help viewers emulate their favorite idols.

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston writes a “memoir of a girlhood among ghosts” by piecing together cultural myths and personal experiences to develop her sense of self. Her novel challenges the genre of memoir, as it includes elements of fiction and often deviates from her own life. Kingston’s literary and stylistic choices are significant in that they convey her unique, intersectional position.

“The World is flat.” Global communication, due to fiber optics and the Internet, is faster and more efficient than at any other time in history. Today’s world is globally integrated to a tremendous extent, making simultaneous contact with people in all corners of the globe feasible. This has led to unprecedented levels of financial and economic collaboration between countries. Unfortunately, this “flattening” of the world has also contributed to the international financial crisis the global economy is in today.

For the past few years, Pakistan has experienced a very serious energy shortage that does not seem to be getting any better.  A growing demand for power, an aging infrastructure, and poor development by the Pakistani government have all contributed to the shortage of power in the country.  The daily power outages are having an immense impact in the lives of the Pakistani people.  This problem needs an effective solution that can bridge the gap between power supply and demand before it grows any larger.  Some may suggest that the best way to solve Pakistan’s energy shorta