books
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The History of Literature #187 – The Brontes
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL6589836731.mp3 Although their lives were filled with darkness and death, their love for stories and ideas led them into the bright realms of creative genius. They were the Brontes – Charlotte, Emily, and Anne – who lived with their brother Branwell in an unassuming 19th-century Yorkshire town called Haworth. Their house, a parsonage, sat on… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #186 – Robert Louis Stevenson
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL7032446443.mp3 Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894) went from a childhood in the western islands of Scotland to the heights of literary popularity and success, beloved and admired for his adventure stories Treasure Island and Kidnapped and his eerie portrait of a double life The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dismissed by Virginia Woolf as a writer… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #185 – Marcel Proust
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL4076527235.mp3 Marcel Proust (1871-1922) did little of note until he turned 38 years old – but from that point forward, he devoted the rest of his life to writing a masterpiece. The result, the novel In Search of Lost Time, published in seven volumes from 1913 to 1927, stands as one of the supreme achievements… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #184 – George Eliot
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL6223856341.mp3 Perhaps the greatest of all the many great English novelists, George Eliot was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Her father Robert managed an estate for a wealthy family; her mother Christina was the daughter of a local mill-owner. Among her rather large family, Mary Ann stood apart as the… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #183 – Samuel Beckett (with Nick Barilar)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL8195318887.mp3 We’re back! A newly reenergized Jacke Wilson returns for a deep dive into the life, works, and politics of Samuel Beckett. Yes, we know him as one of the key figures bridging the gap between modernism and post-modernism – but was he more than just a highly refined artist generating art for art’s sake?… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #181 – David Foster Wallace (with Mike Palindrome)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL6877722377.mp3 Frequent guest Mike Palindrome takes the wheel for another solo episode on David Foster Wallace, including a deep dive into Wallace’s unfinished manuscript The Pale King, published posthumously in 2011. DAVID FOSTER WALLACE (1962-2008) was an American author best known for his novels The Broom in the System and Infinite Jest, his story collection Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, his essay… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #180 – Donald Barthelme
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL4377919286.mp3 Donald Barthelme’s “The Balloon” (1966) is one of the strangest and most enduring short stories to come out of the second half of the twentieth century. Filled with Barthelme’s gift for observation and detail, his wild imagination, and his playful wit, “The Balloon” represents for many the work of a postmodern master at… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #178 – Shirley Jackson and “The Lottery”
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL7740184186.mp3 In this episode, we take a look at the classic twentieth-century American short story, “The Lottery” (1948) by Shirley Jackson. Why did it cause such an uproar? Who banned it and why? And how well does it hold up today? We’ll be discussing all this and more with special guest Evie Lee. SHIRLEY JACKSON… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #177 – Sherwood Anderson (with Alyson Hagy)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL6927210211.mp3 One hundred years ago, a collection of short stories by a little-known author from Ohio burst onto the literary scene, causing a minor scandal for their sexual frankness. In the years since, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio (1919) became more famous for its insightful portrayal of a town filled with friendly but solitary individuals, who wrestle with… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #175 – Virgin Whore – The Virgin Mary in Medieval Literature and Culture (with Professor Emma Maggie Solberg)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2977229302.mp3 Today, we know the Virgin Mary as quiet, demure, and (above all) chaste, but this wasn’t always the way she was understood or depicted. In her new book Virgin Whore, Professor Emma Maggie Solberg investigates a surprising – and surprisingly prevalent – theme in late English medieval literature and culture: the celebration and veneration of… Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 