Professor Kozlowski Lectures

Professor Kozlowski plays some plot-thread-round-up by briefly discussing the many characters (and chaotic situations) who arise in the last chapters of the first part of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.  Next time - something completely different!

Professor Kozlowski watches (and is watched by) Professor Woland's "Black Magic and Its Exposure" show at the Variety theatre (in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita).

Professor Kozlowski continues his discussion of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita by reviewing the devil's retinue, going over the Russian characters we've encountered so far, and discussing the themes of envy and justice as Bulgakov discusses them in the text.

Professor Kozlowski embarks on his discussion of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, beginning with the devil's mysterious appearance in Russia, Soviet antipathy to religion, and why Bulgakov insists on including a revisionist history of Jesus' interaction with Pontius Pilate.

Professor Kozlowski discusses Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" - a love letter to Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker" which totally misses the moral point underlying Irving's story, and may inadvertently expose some of the ideological problems lying at the heart of the 20th Century's greatest atrocities.

Nope.  Just nope.

Professor Kozlowski discusses two key chapters of Fyodor Dostoevsky's massive, ugly masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov.  We touch especially on Ivan's arc through the story, and how Dostoevsky uses his character to explore the psyche of the new Russian intellectual, condemn his ideology, and still prescribe compassion for his loneliness.

Professor Kozlowski takes a stab at interpreting Byron's satirical labyrinth: Don Juan.  Including: Hypocrisy! The obvious(?) conflict between classical education and conventional morality! Hypocrisy! The absurdity of racial/bloodline purity! Marital distress! Hypocrisy! Criticism of the Enlightenment! Romantic idealization of Don Juan! More Hypocrisy!

Professor Kozlowski discusses Washington Irving's delightful and cutting short story of social satire and satanic shenanigans: "The Devil and Tom Walker".  This includes some discussion of where the story succeeds - and fails - in its commentary on 19th century racism, Irving's whip-smart prose, and a substantial tangent on usury.

Professor Kozlowski concludes his discussion of Goethe's Faust, Part One by discussing the fall of Gretchen/Margareta, and touching briefly on the conclusion of Faust, Part Two for the sake of closure.  He managed to do all this without breaking into tears - this time.