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
Jul 29, 2019 • 56min
CR Episode 7: Paradise Lost, Book VII
The panel examines the moment of creation, the etymological development of atheism and chaos, divine warnings against transgressing the proper bounds of intellectual curiosity, and the potentially physical nature of Creation's hymn of praise to its Maker.Continue reading
Jul 22, 2019 • 1h 23min
CR Episode 6: Paradise Lost, Book VI
The panel welcomes Zac Watson as special guest to discuss questions about Paradise Lost, before examining the War in Heaven, Classical cosmogeny, Satan's parodic inventiveness, angelic biology, and an unlikely connexion to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.Continue reading
Jul 15, 2019 • 1h 2min
CR Episode 5: Paradise Lost, Book V
Clinton and Dr. Cooper examine the fifth book of John Milton's Paradise Lost, with a particular focus on Milton's Arian Christology and whether Satan is a reactionary against a revolutionary God who is rhizomatic in the sense of Deleuze and Guattari.Continue reading
Jul 8, 2019 • 1h 16min
CR Episode 4: Paradise Lost, Book IV
The panel examines John Milton's prosody (particularly in the light of Dr. Johnson's comments) and reflects upon his troublesome Christology and potentially Arian leanings, before proffering the merest hint of a speculation about Milton's Mariology.Continue reading
Jul 1, 2019 • 1h 11min
CR Episode 3: Paradise Lost, Book III
The panel discusses the third book of John Milton's Paradise Lost, with special attention on aspects including the ambiguously diabolical imagery of the opening, and Milton's philosophical approaches to the problem of evil, free will, and predestination.Continue reading
Jun 24, 2019 • 1h 11min
CR Episode 2: Paradise Lost, Book II
The panel discusses Book II of John Milton's Paradise Lost, with a focus on the fallen angels as an inversion of divine imagery, the politics and plots of Pandaemonium, the natures of Sin and Death, and a possible instance of Miltonian heresy.Continue reading
Jun 17, 2019 • 1h 1min
CR Episode 1: Paradise Lost, Book I
In the first episode of Critical Readings, the panel begins a twelve-week discussion of Milton's Paradise Lost, with discussion focused on the poem's nature as an epic and the apparent ideological conflict between Milton's politics and his protagonist. andContinue reading
