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Tag Archives: Literature
Shakespearean Scandals
Although William Shakespeare is central to our cultural canons, his plays are full of the worst sort of social ills, including racism and sexism. Stephen Greenblatt talks about these literary scandals.
The Woman That I Am
Soyini Madison discusses her book, The Woman That I Am: The Literature and Culture of Contemporary Women of Color, and invites you to meet contemporary women of color and to share the power of their writing.
A Book of Their Own
Women writers have always enriched American literature but only now has women’s writing found a reference book of its own. Editors-in-chief Cathy Davidson and Linda Wagner-Martin discuss The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States.
Afro-Caribbean Lit
A discussion of the Afro-Caribbean language and literature.
Ethnicity and Education
A talk about race, education, and historically black colleges and universities. A discussion of the ideological origins of African American literature.
Literary Reflections
R. W. B. Lewis discusses Literary Reflections, a retrospective on his fifty-year career as one of America’s most distinguished cultural observers.
Improvised Europeans
Alex Zwerdling discusses his new book, Improvised Europeans: American Literary Expatriates and the Anglo-Saxon Legacy.
Rethinking European Lit
A talk about satire and structure in early modern French literature. A discussion of new perspectives on Old English literature.
Literary Lives
A discussion of contemporary literary criticism and the common reader. David Ellis discusses his contribution to a new three-volume biography of the British writer, D. H. Lawrence.
Cultural Conflicts
A discussion of maps, the medieval imagination, and the literature of British imperialism.
Bible Stories
Robert Alter discusses his new book, The World of Biblical Literature. Jonathan Lamb talks about the problem of human suffering and the Old Testament book of Job.
Story and Song
Eudora Welty sits for an interview at the National Humanities Center
Helen Vendler‘s recent books include Voices and Visions: American Poets (Random House) and The Music of What Happens: Essays on Poetry and Criticism (Harvard University Press).
Eudora Welty‘s recent books include One Writer’s Beginnings (Warner Books, 1985).
Posted in Episodes
Tagged Literary Criticism, Literature, Novelist, Poetry, Pulitzer Prize
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Medieval Literature and Society Part 2
In writing about bygone historical eras, scholars and literary historians often find parallels with contemporary ideas and social questions. The Middle Ages in Europe–the period roughly spanning the years 500 and 1500 A.D.–are a case in point. Where in modern ways of thinking about and seeing the world around us do modern scholars find analogies that reflect the days of Geoffrey Chaucer and the society he inhabited? How do these parallels express themselves today?
Medieval Literature and Society Part 1
Why do modern popular audiences think of the medieval period as The Dark Ages ? What are some of the differences and parallels that characterize the contract social sysyms we now inhabit in contrast and comparison to the status societies of the Middle Ages?
Sexuality, Literature, and Society in Victorian England
Steven Marcus discusses his book The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-nineteenth-century England, which explores gender and sexuality in Victorian literature. Marcus argues that labeling the Victorian period as “repressive” is an oversimplification. He addresses how differently the various socioeconomic groups in England defined appropriate sexual behavior during this time period and how expectations of sexual conduct depended greatly on gender. Marcus draws on characters and situations from the works of Charles Dickens and George Eliot as examples.
Marcus, a founder of the National Humanities Center, was a Fellow at the Center(1980-1982) and professor of English at Columbia University at the time of the interview.
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
Posted in Episodes
Tagged Gender, Literature, Sexuality, Victorian, Victorian literature
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