history of literature
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The History of Literature #192 – Alfred Hitchcock
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL5756347776.mp3 Jacke’s joined by the Hall of Fame Guest Mike Palindrome (President of the Literature Supporters Club) for a look at the ten greatest films by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock directed dozens of films, including masterpieces of the suspense genre like Strangers on a Train, Shadow of a Doubt, Saboteur, Notorious, Vertigo,… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #191 – Chinua Achebe
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL6481062046.mp3 Chinua Achebe’s first novel Things Fall Apart (1959) ushered in a new era where African countries, which had recently achieved post-colonial independence, now achieved an independence of a different kind – the freedom of imagination and artistry, as African authors told the stories of their geography, their culture, and their experience from the point of view… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #190 – Blood and Sympathy in the 19th Century (with Professor Ann Kibbie)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL1450661738.mp3 “England may with justice claim to be the native land of transfusion,” wrote one European physician in 1877, acknowledging Great Britain’s role in developing and promoting human-to-human transfusion as treatment for life-threatening blood loss. But what did this scientific practice mean for literature? How did it excite the imagination of authors and readers? And… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #189 – Weeping for Gogol
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL8073950603.mp3 “Gogol was a strange creature,” said Nabokov, “but genius is always strange.” Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809 – 1852) rose from obscurity to a brilliant literary career that forever changed the course of Russian literature. Born in 1809, he and his contemporary Pushkin influenced the titans who followed, including Tolstoy and Doestoevsky and Chekhov. Best… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #188 – Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes (with Yuval Taylor)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL2710216578.mp3 They were collaborators, literary gadflies, and champions of the common people. They were the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance. Their names were Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960), the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967), the author of “the Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Let America Be… Continue reading
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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 #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
Jacke Wilson 