

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 15, 2024 • 1h 19min
CR Episode 231: Le Morte Darthur, Part VI
The panel discusses the first two tales in the Tristram section—Sir Tristram and la Beall Isode and Sir Lamerok de Galys—with attention to Malory's sources, the Lancelot-Tristram parallelism, and the apparent shift towards an interest in courtly love.Continue reading

Jul 8, 2024 • 1h 29min
CR Episode 230: Le Morte Darthur, Part V
The panel discusses the episode of Sir Gareth of Orkney, with attention given both to the anti-egalitarian worldview and historical reality of the period, and to the role of violence and prouesse in the Arthurian Court—and the moral clarity it provides.Continue reading

Jul 1, 2024 • 1h 38min
CR Episode 229: Le Morte Darthur, Part IV
The panel reads the tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake, with attention given to the features of mediaeval romance, Malory's use of humour and his knowledge of the details of knightly combat, and the different, sometimes competing ends of Arthurian governance.Continue reading

Jun 24, 2024 • 1h 31min
CR Episode 228: Le Morte Darthur, Part III
The panel reads the Roman War sequence with particular attention to Malory's use of historical progression, metaphor, and physical violence, especially in regard to his understanding of military knighthood and the use of wise counsel in governance.Continue reading

Jun 17, 2024 • 1h 31min
CR Episode 227: Le Morte Darthur, Part II
The panel catches up on the tale of "Balyn and Balan," before discussing "The Wedding of King Arthur" and "The Book of Adventures", with comments on the vexed nature of Malorian chivalry, and Malory's use of both foreshadowing and narrative parallelism.Continue reading

Jun 10, 2024 • 1h 19min
CR Episode 226: Le Morte Darthur, Part I
The panel discusses the biography of Sir Thomas Malory, the textual history of Le Morte Darthur, the lineage of King Arthur, and the initial formation of the textual world of Arthurian England, including Merlin, Uther, Igraine, Morgause, and Mordred.Continue reading

Jun 3, 2024 • 1h 18min
CR Episode 225: All for Love, Act V
The panel closes discussion of Dryden's All for Love with an examination of the death of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, how the scene differs from that of Shakespeare, and what role is ultimately played by Octavius, even despite his absence from the stage.Continue reading

May 27, 2024 • 1h 6min
CR Episode 224: All for Love, Act IV
The panel discusses the penultimate act of Dryden's All for Love, with special attention to the depictions (or rather, lack thereof) of Octavius, the villainous portrayal of Alexas, and the play's lack of a clearly-defined figure of heroic virtue.Continue reading

May 20, 2024 • 1h 9min
CR Episode 223: All for Love, Act III
The panel discusses the third act of Dryden's most successful play, All for Love, with particular attention to Marc Antony's lack of constancy, and Dryden's artistic reimagining of historical events in order to place Octavia in Cleopatra's palace.Continue reading

May 6, 2024 • 1h 21min
CR Episode 222: All for Love, Act II
The panel reads the second act of John Dryden's All for Love, with special attention to the rhetorical manoeuvres of Cleopatra, and the psychological state of both Antony and Cleopatra, as their outsized emotional investments doom them both.Continue reading