Blurring Reality and Illusion in Hogg and Tiptree
- Alfie Goodwin
- Jan 21
- 1 min read
Author Bio:
Alfie is a second-year English Literature and History student from West Yorkshire. His interests mainly revolve around postwar British poetry and modern British history. That said, he also has a soft spot for French poetry—particularly that of the infamous poètes maudits.
Abstract:
This essay explores how James Hogg and James Tiptree destabilise boundaries between the real and the imagined in order to challenge both their readership’s metaphysical and political complacencies. Tiptree’s speculative sci-fi short story The Girl Who Was Plugged In suggests that we may drastically underestimate the extent of the imaginary in our lives, whilst Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner undermines our metaphysical certainties in order to challenge spiritual and epistemological hubris. Moreover, both writers blur reality and illusion in order to portray their elision in contemporary technological society, on the one hand, and in reified sectarian ideology, on the other—thus challenging their readership’s political complacencies.
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