Karen Kittrell

Author's posts

CSI: A Gentleman in Moscow

(Context – Subtext – Intertextuality) The author, Amor Towles, name drops in A Gentleman in Moscow. He weaves the names of literary greats, facts from the writers’ lives and passages from classics. A special surprise is the frequent mentioning of Chekhov and Tolstoy. I search for a term to describe this writing technique. No, it’s …

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CSI: The Seagull (part 1 of 3)

The acronym, CSI, usually stands for “crime scene investigation.” In the next three posts, I will coin a new meaning for CSI – context, subtext and intertextuality. In Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, action occurs offstage, relying on subtext to convey the dramatic action to the audience. Dictionary.com defines subtext as the true meaning of a …

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The Top Score

Lists, rankings and ratings eliminate some of the guesswork in life. For example, instead of chancing a bad experience, I check rating websites for a restaurant, a movie or even a church. Goodreads and other online forums allow readers to post comments and ratings about novels or collections of stories. How would the general population …

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Theatrical Lightning; The 10-Minute Play

Anton Chekhov’s four hundred plus short stories are an easier writing topic than his plays. My curiosity took me to Chekhov’s most famous plays: The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya. Why did Chekhov shift from short stories to plays? His first play, perhaps marketed incorrectly as a comedy, was not received …

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 You, Me, Tolstoy and the Rest of the World

Summer is the season for love and affairs. I plan to have as many affairs as I can. Of course, I mean “art affairs” because good art demonstrates Tolstoy’s Theory of Art. In films, paintings and writing, art relationships convey emotion and bridge the distance between the artist and the art recipient. Film is an …

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