Professing Literature

Professing Literature

Why do great novels, poems and plays move us and excite us? How can they change the way we look at ourselves and the world? What do these authors have to teach us? Why do they matter? There are no better answers to these questions than those provided by the authors themselves. We want to let them speak. Professing Literature is not a broad summary of major works. Instead, it will zero in on one or two key passages, looking at them closely in order to figure out what is at stake. The goal will be to appreciate an author’s brilliance by seeing him or her in action. We will unpack key phrases, images and metaphors and we will consider the techniques the writer uses to make ideas come alive.

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Jaksot(24)

EP08 - Prufrock Among the Women | Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Part One)

EP08 - Prufrock Among the Women | Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Part One)

T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (Part One). This is the first of two episodes devoted to one of the most famous poems of the twentieth century, wherein Eliot’s enigmatic speaker in...

24 Joulu 20211h 25min

EP07 - The Archer with the Bow | Beowulf

EP07 - The Archer with the Bow | Beowulf

Beowulf. A shining young warrior has crossed the water and saved the Danish people from a dreadful monster and his scarcely less dreadful mother. As the Danes honour Beowulf with feasting, gifts and...

15 Marras 20211h 18min

EP06 - Memories of Jane | Salinger, "The Catcher in the Rye"

EP06 - Memories of Jane | Salinger, "The Catcher in the Rye"

J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 11. Jane Gallagher had been the sort of girl who kept her kings in the back row. Is she still? As sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield unravels over the...

26 Heinä 20211h 13min

EP05 - Alone in the Darkness | Milton, “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent”

EP05 - Alone in the Darkness | Milton, “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent”

John Milton, “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent.” In the early 1650s John Milton lost his eyesight. Blindness forced him out of politics, where he had been an important figure in Oliver Cromwell...

17 Heinä 202154min

EP04 - Lunchbreak At the Victory Mansions | Orwell, "1984"

EP04 - Lunchbreak At the Victory Mansions | Orwell, "1984"

George Orwell, 1984, Chapter One. The opening paragraphs of George Orwell’s novel seem innocuous, as a man named Winston Smith returns to his apartment building for lunch. However, from the first sent...

5 Heinä 20211h 3min

EP03 - When the Sweet Turns Sour | Heaney, “Blackberry Picking”

EP03 - When the Sweet Turns Sour | Heaney, “Blackberry Picking”

Seamus Heaney, “Blackberry-Picking.” Today we consider a lyric poem from Death of a Naturalist, Seamus Heaney’s first collection (1966). In “Blackberry-Picking” Heaney recounts a memory from his chi...

25 Touko 202157min

EP02 - Losing Your Way at a Picnic | Austen, "Emma"

EP02 - Losing Your Way at a Picnic | Austen, "Emma"

Emma, Vol 3, Chapter 7. A bright summer day in Surrey offers a sharp contrast to emotional storms. In this episode we discuss one of Jane Austen’s great set pieces, the picnic at Box Hill. Emma get...

12 Touko 20211h 2min

EP01 - In the Middle of a Murder | Shakespeare, "Macbeth"

EP01 - In the Middle of a Murder | Shakespeare, "Macbeth"

Macbeth, Act Two, Scene Two. In the inaugural episode of Professing Literature we examine a conversation held in the aftermath of one of literature’s most famous murders. Macbeth has just stabbed a ...

22 Huhti 20211h 5min