2015

The weapon focus effect is described in the literature as the narrowing of a witnesses’ attention to the weapon being held by the perpetrator of a crime, to the detriment of peripheral details such as the perpetrator’s appearance. Research into this phenomenon intensified during the resurgence of interest in psychology and law in the 1960s, when the abilities and limitations of eyewitness testimony became a major focus of forensic psychologists.

The issue of women’s rights and equality is a particularly contemporary phenomenon, having its roots in the first wave of feminism, which started in the mid-19th century and early 20th century in Western Europe and North America. Feminism was a response to the prevailing patriarchal structure of western society, where the public spheres of power and politics were controlled by men, and a woman’s role was restricted to the private sphere of home and family. The second wave of feminism, which also occurred in Western Europe and North America, began in the late 1960s and began to politicize feminism by inserting feminist thinking into the personal and public spheres.

Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” (1697) and Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves” (1979) are two contrasting depictions of a young girl’s encounter with a wolf. In both cases, the encounter symbolizes the loss of the girl's virginity. While, in Perrault’s work, this sexual encounter leads to the young girl’s demise, Carter associates it with her fulfillment. These varying depictions of pleasure, which both hold valuable insight on the expression of female sexuality, are made evident within the stories through the young girl’s identification with her cape, the extent to which homogeneity exists between man and wolf, and the power dynamic between beast and child.

Writers have long worried that their work will be misinterpreted by their audiences. Authorial intent, regardless of how it might be dismissed by twentieth-century and contemporary theorists, has been paramount to writers throughout history. Geoffrey Chaucer is one of them. His short poem, “Chaucers Wordes unto Adam, His Owne Scriveyn,” directly addresses this issue. His other works are also indicative of this anxiety, foremost Troilus and Criseyde.