Laura Deneke Boeken

Bertha Mason, often portrayed as a monstrous figure in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, lacks a defined history or personality. The narrative reveals that her perceived madness is influenced by deeper issues within her marriage to Rochester. Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea reimagines Bertha's backstory, illustrating how her tragic descent into madness stems from a toxic relationship and cultural dislocation rather than inherent evil. This novel serves as a voice for Bertha and other West Indian women, highlighting their struggles and complexities beyond the confines of Brontë's tale.

Exploring the influence of the Internet on the English language, this book delves into Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and its historical context. It examines how online interactions have shaped vocabulary, introduced new spelling and punctuation norms, and altered levels of formality in language. The text includes a comprehensive empirical study focused on the linguistics of business email, appealing to both linguists and general readers interested in the evolution of communication in digital spaces.

Romance intertwined with materialism is a central theme in F. Scott Fitzgerald's works, where characters relentlessly pursue love and wealth. Often, these narratives feature a poor young man enamored with a wealthy woman who dismisses him due to his financial status. Drawing from his own life experiences, Fitzgerald crafts compelling and relatable stories. Over time, his perspective on love and materialism evolves, reflecting a deeper understanding of these complex relationships throughout his literary career.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald, alongside Ernest Hemingway, is a key figure of American modernism, shaped by the Roaring Twenties and the Lost Generation. This book explores Fitzgerald's life and surroundings, analyzing how they influence his renowned works, including "The Great Gatsby," and examines his novels and short stories.

Ever since the extent of the Internet’s popularity as a mass medium became foreseeable, linguists have speculated about and investigated its effect on the English language. Now that the majority of English speakers worldwide uses the Web to communicate, its influence on linguistic practices has never been more obvious. This book investigates the extent and nature of the Internet’s impact on language use. It begins with a brief overview of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and its history, covering all of the most discussed and relevant aspects in respect to Internet and language. The following chapters analyse in great depth the Web’s impact on vocabulary, and the process of lexical innovation. They cover new spelling and punctuation conventions that have developed online, and discuss the varying levels of formality and informality in language use. Finally, the book presents a detailed empiric study of the linguistics of business email. This investigation is targeted at an audience of linguists and laymen interested in how the daily use of email, chat and instant messenger alters the way we write and talk.