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New Books in Literary Studies

New Books Network

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow

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00:57:08

Xiaofei Tian, "Writing Empire and Self: Poetic and...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/19

China’s early medieval period, from the fifth through the early seventh century, from the Northern and Southern Dynasties through the unified Sui, was a time of political fragmentation, military strife, and ethnic conflict. It also witnessed brilliant artistic creations as well as a full flowering of court culture, with poetry at its heart. How did poetry come to be regarded as the most potent form of cultural capital, a privileged literary genre, and a foundational skill for members of the elite

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42:04

Catherine A John, "Afroindigenization: A Theory of...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/15

In Afroindigenization: A Theory of Grassroots Cultural Practice (Duke University Press, 2026), Catherine A. John addresses the underbelly of spiritual resilience shaping a range of African diasporic institutions, traditions, and practices. John argues that repressed forms of indigenous African knowledge systems manifest in a myriad of culturally embodied ways in African diaspora spaces and places. From mermaid lore in rural Jamaica to hip-hop trance-induced dance in Los Angeles to the stories of two

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46:18

Christopher Freeburg, "Soul: A Brief History of Black...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/11

Today’s guest, Christopher Freeburg, is the author ofSoul: A Brief History of Black Cultural Life(Yale University Press, 2026). This book explores the US history of black cultural life as a history of soul – a spiritual lived practice rooted in communally fostered music, religion, and politics. It makes the case that soul is forged through black community connections and that it’s sustained by moral principles, or pillars, which define how it is lived. The book’s four chapters are organized around

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75:14

A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets,...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/10

Spanning more than 400 years of spiritual transformation and imagination,A Nation Wrestles With God(Restless Books, 2026)collects diverse writers—poets, novelists, theologians, scientists, musicians, politicians, comedians, artists, mavericks, naturalists, futurists, and more—whose daring texts incited change and continue to influence a growing nation. In this anthology, you will find the stories, poems, letters, speeches, sermons, essays, song lyrics, comic strips, newspaper columns, and

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58:22

Leonhard Emmerling, "The Idiots: The History of the...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/09

In a world obsessed with expertise and control, the figure of the idiot illuminates deeper truths about society.In this interview,Morteza Hajizadeh interviewsLeonhard Emmerling about his bookThe Idiots: The History of the Homo Nullus(Seagull Books, 2026)Dostoevsky and Nietzsche wrote about him; Dadaists and punks idolized him; artists like Warhol and Beuys made him their icon. From holy fool to punk rebel, the idiot—a figure that traces its roots back to the Greekidiotes, a person who was

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44:26

Lucas L. Johnson II, "Remembering Roots: How an...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/08

As we approach the 50th anniversaries of Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novelRoots(1976) and its landmark television adaptation (1977), journalist and storyteller Lucas L. Johnson II reflects on the enduring legacy of Haley’s work through the voices of those it continues to move, including scholars, artists, genealogists, students, and original cast members like LeVar Burton and Ben Vereen. With vivid personal anecdotes, emotional tributes, and probing reflections,Remembering Roots: How an

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43:56

Jonathan Swift and David Womersley ed., "Gulliver's...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/07

Gulliver's Travelsis one of the landmarks of world literature. Gulliver's adventures with the tiny but spirited Lilliputians, the giant inhabitants of Brobdingnag, the flying island of Laputa, and the rational horses of Houyhnmhnmland have become globally famous for their satirical wit and visionary creativity. Early editions credited Gulliver himself as the author, and many readers believed him to be a real person. Later commentators have variously described the work as proto-science fiction, as

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53:56

Agnes Mueller, "Holocaust Migration in German Jewish...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/05

InHolocaust Migration in German Jewish Literatures(Cambridge UP, 2026),analysing the past two decades of literature on Holocaust memory and migration stories, Agnes Mueller engages with writers such as W.G.Sebald, Thomas Bernhard, Edgar Hilsenrath, Benjamin Stein, Mirna Funk, Fred Wander, Barbara Honigmann, Julia Franck, Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Olga Grjasnowa, and Kat Kaufmann to explore current debates on Israel, the German Democratic Republic, gender, Jewish and Muslim identity, and

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62:04

The Political Philosophy of Mark Twain: On His...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/02

While many know that Mark Twain created some of the most famous characters in literature—Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Jim and Puddn’head Wilson—too few have understood that the Missouri author wasn’t only America’s greatest humorist, but also one of its most subtle political thinkers. But what was the political philosophy of the elusive and ironic Mark Twain for his new democratic America?To help answer that question, as we continue Season 6, I have as our guest Ivan Kenneally. A contributor

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51:30

Aonghus MacKechnie, "Edinburgh: City of Romanticism"...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/09/01

Romanticism made Scotland famous. It critically shaped the course of Scottish culture, while impacting on cultures elsewhere and inaugurating the country’s still-flourishing and lucrative tourist industry. This book is about Edinburgh’s most emblematic architecture over the long 19th century: the castellated and stone built cityscape of national revivalist architecture. It reveals why Scotland had by the 1820s become one of Europe’s great centres of Romanticism, due both to the majestic

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39:46

María Angélica Thumala Olave, "The Love of Books:...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/30

Why do people read? InThe Love of Books: Attachment to a Changing Cultural Object(Manchester UniversityPress, 2026)María Angélica Thumala Olave,a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Science, explores people’s relationship to books and to reading, demonstrating the pleasure and importance books provide in contemporary life. Moving beyond a narrow focus on the social status offered by books and reading, the analysis shows the role of material

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75:35

Stefan Collini, "Literature and Learning: A History...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/29

Literature and Learning: A History of English Studies in Britain(Oxford University Press, 2025)by Stefan Collini The study and teaching of English literature is generally regarded as one of the central disciplines in the modern university, yet for much of its history it struggled to gain academic legitimacy and was frequently derided as 'a soft option'. Its early professors responded by emphasizing its scholarly character, foregrounding philology and literary history in ways that marked the

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59:12

Courtney Weikle‑Mills, "Sugarcoated Ethics:...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/29

What if children’s literature was never as innocent as we imagine?InSugarcoated Ethics: Children’s Literature and Atlantic Enslavement(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026), the relationship between childhood reading and Atlantic slavery is brought into sharp focus. The book argues that children’s literature did not merely emerge alongside the plantation economy; it was deeply shaped by it. Sugar, sweetness, moral instruction, and domestic comfort were all tied to systems of enslavement and

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68:31

Transcending Disciplinary Confinements With(in)...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/25

Thisis Dr. Swati Joshi's inaugural episode on theNew Books Network. In this episode, she interviews Dr. Lucy Jeffery about her monograph,Transdisciplinary Beckett: Visual Arts, Music, and the Creative Process(ibidem Press,2021). She is also co-editor and author ofReplaying Communism: Trauma and Nostalgia in European Cultural Production, published by CEU Press and AUP in 2026. She is co-founder of the Replaying Communism project, which received funding from the AHRC SWW-DTP (2023) and the Visegrad

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89:41

Sabrina Inowlocki, "Ancient Apologetics and the...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/24

Ancient apologetics is usually treated as a literary genre or a branch of early theology. This Element offers a different account. It argues that many Jewish and Christian texts conventionally labeled 'apologetic' are better understood through a bibliographic and archival lens: They produce authority not only by defending doctrines, but by organizing books, constructing corpora, mobilizing archives, and regulating interpretation. Tracing a trajectory from the Letter of Aristeas to Jerome's De viris

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56:52

Patricia A. Billingsley, "Lorca in Vermont: The...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/24

A groundbreaking reassessment of the relationship between Federico García Lorca and American poet Philip Cummings and its impact on the poems in Lorca's landmark collection,Poet in New York.In August 1929, Spanish poet Federico García Lorca left New York City to spend ten days with his friend and lover Philip Cummings at a lakeside cottage in northern Vermont.Lorca in Vermont: The Spanish Poet and His American Lover(High Road Books, 2026)tells the story of two young men with mismatched goals and

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43:44

Joseph Acquisto, "Baudelaire's Objects" (Bloomsbury,...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/22

Baudelaire's Objects(Bloomsbury,2026) examines Baudelaire's multifaceted use of natural, domestic, urban, and esthetic objects in his verse and prose poetry, as well as the ways his poems reshape our understanding of objects and how those objects destabilize, yet preserve, the subject-object relation.Charles Baudelaire's representation of objects in the natural world establishes a relation that is neither one of identity between human subject and nature nor a relation of domination; he

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39:54

Emily Sibley, "The Poetics of Incivility: Satire and...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/20

The Poetics of Incivility: Satire and Subversion in Modern Arab Culture(Cornell UP, 2026)explores impolite modes of expression—satire, crude humor, and rudeness—as a critical lens for both aesthetic innovation and sociopolitical critique.In the Arab world—from Cairo's Tahrir Square and the thoroughfares of Beirut to war-torn Gaza—political demands have been framed by satirical cartoons and graffiti or in subversive poetry and song. Emily Sibley shows that these forms of resistance are not new to

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33:22

Aarthi Vadde, "We the Platform: How the Internet...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/15

We the Platform:How the Internet Changed Twenty-First-Century Literature(Columbia University Press 2026) by Aarthi Vadde is a groundbreaking account of mass writing in the twenty-first century, identifying rarely recognized forms of literary possibility amid the profound upheavals in traditional publishing. Aarthi Vadde examines the explosion of textuality across digital platforms: countless writers, diverse publishing formats, and vast communities of readers responding to stories publicly and

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50:56

Xiaofan Amy Li, "The Aesthetics of Risk in...

New Books in Literary Studies ·

2026/08/15

TheAesthetics of Risk in Franco-East Asian Literatures(Cambridge UP, 2026)is the first book that examines the concept of risk in non-anglophone world literature. Focusing on how risk is produced and reshaped by literary aesthetics, Li argues that risk is a creative rather than negative force in world literature. Instead of disaster narratives, Li approaches risk from the fresh perspective of ludic aesthetics, or playful, gamelike, illusionistic and experimental literary strategies. Comparatively

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2,273 results

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