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
Jan 17, 2022 • 1h 6min
CR Episode 112: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I
The panel reads the first part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, providing an overview of the formal aspects of the poem, the history of the manuscript (Cotton Nero A.x), theories about authorship, and analysis of the poem's titular, veridian symbolism.Continue reading
Jan 10, 2022 • 1h 6min
CR Episode 111: Light Verse of Ogden Nash
The panels searches for a smile / And dwells with Ogden Nash a while. / Some lines are light and some are scary / But the formal aspects rather vary. / Most of them rhyme in a manner relaxin', / But the metrics range from good to absen'.Continue reading
Jan 3, 2022 • 59min
CR Episode 110: The Poetry of Langston Hughes
In the first podcast of 2022, the panel reads five poems spanning the entire poetic arc of Langston Hughes, from the famous lines of "I, Too" to the scenes of the "Lincoln Theatre", before ending with the Christmas message of "Shepherd's Song".Continue reading
Dec 27, 2021 • 45min
CR Episode 109: H.M.S. Pinafore
In a special, Christmas episode, the panel reads selections from W. S. Gilbert's libretto to H.M.S. Pinafore, and discusses how they are representative of Gilbert's penchant for comic 'topsy-turvy' plots which include keen-eyed social commentary.Continue reading
Dec 20, 2021 • 59min
CR Episode 108: William Carlos Williams and Minimalism
The panel reads "The Red Wheelbarrow", "This Is Just to Say", and "Gulls" by William Carlos Williams and discusses both their connexion to the Imagist and Modernist movements of the early twentieth century, and their complexity in relation to Minimalism.Continue reading
Dec 13, 2021 • 1h 10min
CR Episode 107: The Poetic Satire of Jonathan Swift
The panel reads three of Jonathan Swift's poems which satirise responses to the inescapable facts of human biology, and focuses on their depictions of privacy and separation, essential human dignity, and cultural attitudes towards sexuality.Continue reading
Dec 6, 2021 • 1h 52min
CR Episode 106: Scott’s The Lady of the Lake
The panel reads extended selections from each canto of Sir Walter Scott's narrative poem, "The Lady of the Lake", highlighting Scott's interest in reviving the medieval, the importance of history to his work, and his use of varying poetic forms.Continue reading
Nov 29, 2021 • 1h 3min
CR Episode 105: The Poetic Arc of Ted Hughes
The panel reads a selection of poems by Ted Hughes compassing the scope of his poetic oeuvre, from the early and animalistic imagery of "The Jaguar" to the modernist scenes of "Here Is the Cathedral", before concluding with the confessional "Last Letter".Continue reading
Nov 22, 2021 • 59min
CR Episode 104: Form and Detail in the Poetry of Richard Wilbur
The panel reads four poems by Richard Wilbur, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World", "A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra", "Mind", and "Year's End", particularly examining the intricacy of their details and their formal attributes.Continue reading
Nov 15, 2021 • 1h 17min
CR Episode 103: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Songs of Travel
The panel traces themes of wanderlust, resignation, wistfulness, lonliness, and fatalism in six poems excerpted from Stevenson's Songs of Travel, including "The Vagabond", "Bright Is the Ring of Words," "Whither Must I Wander", and "The Woodman".Continue reading
