Siddharth Chauhan

  Literary Criticism and GenAI: Reading Frankenstein Through Four Critical Lenses Understanding Marxist, Feminist/Gender, Ecocritical and Queer Criticism through Generative AI Introduction Generative Artificial Intelligence has become an increasingly useful tool in literary studies. It can provide explanations, suggest interpretations, compare theoretical approaches, and help students approach a literary text from different critical perspectives. However, using GenAI for literary criticism should not mean simply asking for definitions of theories. The more useful approach is to ask AI to demonstrate how a literary critic actually reads and interprets a text . For this activity, I explored four important approaches to literary criticism: Marxist Criticism, Feminist/Gender Criticism, Ecocriticism, and Queer Criticism . The primary source for understanding these approaches was Dilip Barad's “On Marxist, Feminist, Ecocritical, and Queer Criticism.” The source explains the major conce...

  Frankenstein: From Revolutionary Birth to Cultural Phenomenon A Cultural Studies Reading of Mary Shelley’s Creature, Science, Empire, and Popular Culture Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) is often remembered as a Gothic story about a scientist who creates a monster. Yet, from the perspective of Cultural Studies, reducing the novel to a simple horror narrative overlooks its deeper engagement with class, revolution, race, imperialism, scientific modernity, social exclusion, gender, and the cultural anxieties of its historical moment . The Creature is not merely a frightening monster; he is also an outsider produced by society, a figure through whom Shelley explores what happens when an individual is denied recognition, affection, education, and belonging. Written in the aftermath of the French Revolution and during a period of rapid intellectual and scientific change, Frankenstein reflects a world fascinated by the possibilities of human progress wh...

  The Little People of Power: Marginalization in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead From Shakespeare’s Court to the Modern Corporate World Introduction: Looking Beyond Hamlet Shakespeare’s Hamlet is usually remembered as the tragedy of Prince Hamlet—the prince who struggles with revenge, morality, madness, identity, and death. However, a Cultural Studies approach encourages us to look beyond the central character and examine those figures who remain at the margins of the narrative. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two such characters. They are not the rulers of Denmark. They are not the central agents of revenge. They do not control the political machinery of Elsinore. Instead, they occupy an uncertain position between friendship and political service. They are summoned by King Claudius to discover what is happening to Hamlet, and they become instruments within a larger power structure. The worksheet for this activity asks us to examine how their marginalization ref...

 A Postcolonial and Cultural Studies Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Ideas Introduction Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most influential contemporary Nigerian writers whose works engage with questions of identity, gender, race, culture, colonialism and representation. Her novels and essays demonstrate how literature can challenge dominant narratives and give voice to experiences that have often been ignored or simplified. The three talks discussed in this activity— “The Danger of a Single Story,” “We Should All Be Feminists,” and her Harvard Class of 2018 address on truth in the post-truth era —extend many of these concerns beyond fiction. The three talks can be read together as a powerful intellectual journey from representation to gender equality and finally to truth and responsibility . Adichie asks us to question the stories we inherit, the gender roles we accept, and the truths we choose to speak or ignore. These ideas are especially relevant to Postcolonial Studi...