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PODCAST

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.

arts literature

All Episodes

67:21

CR Episode 122: Owen Meredith

Critical Readings ·

2022/04/04

The panel reads a selection of verses from Owen Meredith--Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Earl of Lytton--an eminent Victorian statesman and poet, including an excerpt from the second part of his long, anapestic epic, "Lucile", and two shorter poems.Continue reading

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59:22

CR Episode 121: The Poetry of Robert Graves

Critical Readings ·

2022/03/28

The panel reads the poetry of Robert Graves, from his early war poetry to the work of his later life, with special attention to his theory of The White Goddess, including "A Dead Boche", "A Boy in Church", "The God Called Poetry" and "The Spoilsport".Continue reading

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65:00

CR Episode 120: The Poetry of D. H. Lawrence

Critical Readings ·

2022/03/14

The panel reads four poems by D. H. Lawrence: "Whales Weep Not!", "Moonrise", "When I Read Shakespeare", and "Only Man", and discusses their frank but sensual depictions of sexuality, communication, communion, nature, salvation, and damnation.Continue reading

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75:20

CR Episode 119: Pope and Wordsworth in Conversation

Critical Readings ·

2022/03/07

The panel reads two Pope's 'An Essay on Man' and Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' in conversation with one another--looking at the similarities of their conclusions and the difference in their approaches--as they address the roles of Man, Nature, and God.Continue reading

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72:46

CR Episode 118: Introduction to Conrad Aiken

Critical Readings ·

2022/02/28

The panel reads a selection of three poems by Conrad Aiken--"The Room", "Exile", and "Goya"--and discusses their dreamlike imagery, and the impact of personal tragedy, English Romanticism, and Freudian and Jungian theories, upon Aiken's poetry.Continue reading

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59:15

CR Episode 117: Milton’s Lycidas

Critical Readings ·

2022/02/21

Following on the theme of love and death, the panel reads Milton's pastoral elegy, "Lycidas", dedicated to the memory of Edward King, with special attention to Milton's theology and his critique of both the contemporary English clergy and community.Continue reading

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101:53

CR Episode 116: Venus and Adonis

Critical Readings ·

2022/02/14

For St. Valentine's Day, the panel reads what is likely to have been Shakespeare's first officially published work: his genre-defying Tragi-Comi-Ovidian poem "Venus and Adonis", dedicated to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton.Continue reading

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90:34

CR Episode 115: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part IV

Critical Readings ·

2022/02/07

The panel concludes "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with an examination of the poem's liminal spaces, an evaluation of Gawain's moral virtue, a discussion on the nature of courage, and questions about the role of community in the act of contrition.Continue reading

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94:56

CR Episode 114: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part...

Critical Readings ·

2022/01/31

The panel reads the third part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", with particular attention to the juxtaposition of the forest hunting, killing, and skinning/gutting scenes with those of courtly love in the luxurious bedchamber of Sir Gawain.Continue reading

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62:43

CR Episode 113: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II

Critical Readings ·

2022/01/24

The panel reads the second part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", and examines the theological significance of the seasons, the detailed military fortifications of Castle Hautdesert, and the appearance of the beautiful Lady Hautdesert.Continue reading

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66:24

CR Episode 112: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I

Critical Readings ·

2022/01/17

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

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66:10

CR Episode 111: Light Verse of Ogden Nash

Critical Readings ·

2022/01/10

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

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58:42

CR Episode 110: The Poetry of Langston Hughes

Critical Readings ·

2022/01/03

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

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45:11

CR Episode 109: H.M.S. Pinafore

Critical Readings ·

2021/12/27

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

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59:04

CR Episode 108: William Carlos Williams and Minimalism

Critical Readings ·

2021/12/20

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

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69:41

CR Episode 107: The Poetic Satire of Jonathan Swift

Critical Readings ·

2021/12/13

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

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111:49

CR Episode 106: Scott’s The Lady of the Lake

Critical Readings ·

2021/12/06

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

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62:37

CR Episode 105: The Poetic Arc of Ted Hughes

Critical Readings ·

2021/11/29

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

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58:32

CR Episode 104: Form and Detail in the Poetry of...

Critical Readings ·

2021/11/22

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

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76:31

CR Episode 103: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Songs of Travel

Critical Readings ·

2021/11/15

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

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342 results

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