Critical Readings
CriticalReadings.com
Critical Readings examines key literary texts using close reading and critical analysis, and explains these approaches in discussion. Listeners will learn about the texts themselves and about how to approach a text for critical analysis.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 26, 2023 • 1h 8min
CR Episode 181: Moby Dick, Part VII
The panel discusses chapters 52-59, with special attention given to how the structure of the narrative both anticipates and surpasses post-structuralist critiques whilst challenging the genre of the novel and changing the attitudes of its readers.Continue reading
Jun 19, 2023 • 1h 24min
CR Episode 180: Moby Dick, Part VI
The panel discusses chapters 43-51, examining the presence of Romanticism in the text and character of Ishmael, and highlighting how the text's rapid shifts in perspective and narrative focus may further structuralist and poststructuralist readings.Continue reading
Jun 12, 2023 • 1h 24min
CR Episode 179: Moby Dick, Part V
The panel discusses chapters 35-42, exploring Melville's purpose in adopting a multigeneric style, and paying special attention to Ahab's motivations, including his conception of malice and universal evil, and his understanding of justice and vengeance.Continue reading
Jun 5, 2023 • 1h 15min
CR Episode 178: Moby Dick, Part IV
The panel discusses chapters 26-34, with a particular focus on the effect of genre considerations in framing the novel, its shift into Shakespearean tonality and structure, and Melville's use of humour amidst grave and existential subject matter.Continue reading
May 29, 2023 • 1h 6min
CR Episode 177: Moby Dick, Part III
The panel discusses chapters 16-25, with a particular attention to characterisation beyond Ishmael and Queequeg--particularly that of Peleg, Bildad, Elijah, and Bulkington--and to the overarching Old Testament Biblical influences upon the narrative.Continue reading
May 22, 2023 • 1h 25min
CR Episode 176: Moby Dick, Part II
The panel reads chapters 5-15, with a special focus on the description and narrative use of religious symbolism and devotional practice, contrasting the Christian Ishmael and the pagan Queequeg to illustrate Ishmael's welcoming, fraternal worldview.Continue reading
May 15, 2023 • 1h 26min
CR Episode 175: Moby Dick, Part I
The panel reads the prologues and first four chapters of Moby Dick, provides an overview of the publication history of the text, and discusses the character and reliability of the jocular, circuitous narrator, who commands the reader to 'Call me Ishmael.'Continue reading
May 8, 2023 • 1h 14min
CR Episode 174: Shakespeare’s Lucrece, Part III
The panel concludes with an examination of Lucrece's central role as a Shakespearean protagonist, addressing her attitude towards the conflict between Roman shame and the natural law, and how her speech is situated across historical contexts.Continue reading
May 1, 2023 • 1h 19min
CR Episode 173: Shakespeare’s Lucrece, Part II
The panel reads the second third of Shakespeare's Lucrece, with particular attention to the paradoxical presentation of light and darkness, and to the dual nature of guilt and shame in the poem, as situated within a putatively historical Roman context.Continue reading
Apr 24, 2023 • 1h 27min
CR Episode 172: Shakespeare’s Lucrece, Part I
In the first of a three-part series on Shakespeare's Lucrece, the panel explores the Roman history and sources for the poem, before reading and examining its metaphors with a focus on Sextus Tarquinius' internal debate and final, abhorrent resolution.Continue reading
