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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

68:37

CR Episode 297: The Dunciad, Part III

Critical Readings ·

2025/11/17

The panel reads the third book of the 1743 Dunciad, in which the poem swells to its crescendo, heaping scorn upon the agents of Dullness and the rampant spirits of ignorance and commercialism that threaten the survival of the arts from opera to poetry.Continue reading

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79:42

CR Episode 296: The Dunciad, Part II

Critical Readings ·

2025/11/10

The panel discusses the second book of Alexander Pope's final Dunciad (of 1743), with attention to the historical personages who are satirised, including Flecknoe and Blackmore, and the effects that they had on later poets and on the English stage.Continue reading

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94:40

CR Episode 295: The Dunciad, Part I

Critical Readings ·

2025/11/03

The panel reads in full the first book of Pope's final version of The Dunciad, giving special attention to the various cultural references and personal depictions in the poem, along with a look at the parodic critical footnotes provided by the author.Continue reading

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90:06

CR Episode 294: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Critical Readings ·

2025/10/27

Celebrating Halloween, the panel discusses one of Washington Irving's best-known works—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow—with special attention to the role of characterisation, historical detail, and descriptive imagery in a near contemporary to Jane Austen.Continue reading

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90:03

CR Episode 293: Pride and Prejudice, Part IV

Critical Readings ·

2025/10/20

The panel discusses the concluding chapters and a series of insightful reader questions about the influence of Austen's religion, the role of romance in her novels, and her development of realistic, compelling characters with flaws and areas of growth.Continue reading

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74:23

CR Episode 292: Pride and Prejudice, Part III

Critical Readings ·

2025/10/13

The panel discusses chapters 35–49, with special attention to the rational development of Elizabeth's appreciation of Mr. Darcy, and to Jane Austen's reformist, but not revolutionary, attitude to the social mores and expectations of Regency-era England.Continue reading

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77:49

CR Episode 291: Pride and Prejudice, Part II

Critical Readings ·

2025/10/06

The panel discusses chapters 18–34, with topics of interest including Mr. Darcy's concealed gallantry, whether Mr. Collins has any goodly qualities, Elizabeth's sensible regard for her family's reputation, and her internally conflicted personal values.Continue reading

en-GB

93:16

CR Episode 290: Pride and Prejudice, Part I

Critical Readings ·

2025/09/29

The panel reads chapters 1–17 of Pride and Prejudice, with special attention to the developing form of the novel in the Regency era, the biographical connexions between Austen's life and her novels, and the initially peripheral nature of the protagonists.Continue reading

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71:08

CR Episode 289: E.A. Robinson’s Gothic Verse

Critical Readings ·

2025/09/22

The panel discusses five poems by E.A. Robinson, with discussion centring on their use of the gothic, their shared imagery of death and hell (and their response), and particularly their formal qualities seen across three villanelles and two sonnets.Continue reading

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80:33

CR Episode 288: Edwin Muir’s Narrow Place

Critical Readings ·

2025/09/15

The panel discusses four poems from Edwin Muir's collection The Narrow Place (1943), with a focus on their formal features, their connexion to a version of Nietzsche's philosophy, and their opposed characterisation of the civilised and natural worlds.Continue reading

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76:16

CR Episode 287: The Beginnings of English Poetry

Critical Readings ·

2025/09/08

The panel discusses two of the earliest examples of English poetry—Caedmon's Hymn and The Dream of the Rood (sometimes attributed to Cynewulf)—with a discussion of translation theory, Saxon influence, and the development of English poetry and language.Continue reading

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76:51

CR Episode 286: The Rape of the Lock, Part II

Critical Readings ·

2025/09/01

The panel discusses the concluding three cantos, with attention to Pope's heroi-comic satire of epic in both content and form, and his use of references to his own involvement in the real-life events enacted by the poem's fictional protagonists.Continue reading

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80:30

CR Episode 285: The Rape of the Lock, Part I

Critical Readings ·

2025/08/25

The panel discusses the first two cantos of Alexander Pope's heroi-comical peacemaker poem, with special attention to its use of foreshadowing, the style and tenor of its dialogue, and its allegedly Rosicrucian spiritology (and its textual origins).Continue reading

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71:16

CR Episode 284: Poetry and Music

Critical Readings ·

2025/08/18

The panel is joined by the novelist H.S. Cross to discuss three poems that have been famously set to music: "The Lark Ascending" by George Meredith, "Most Glorious Lord of Life" by Edmund Spenser, and "Three Songs for St. Cecilia's Day" by W.H. Auden.Continue reading

en-GB

82:16

CR Episode 283: Tristram Shandy, Part XIV

Critical Readings ·

2025/08/04

The panel concludes the summer reading with the ninth and final book of Tristram Shandy, compassing the manner of the liaison between Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman, with special attention to Toby's wound, Trim's knee, and Mrs. Shandy's constant purity.Continue reading

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60:22

CR Episode 282: Tristram Shandy, Part XIII

Critical Readings ·

2025/07/28

The panel reads the conclusion of the eighth book, with attention to metaphorical fortifications and battle plans, a tale of one-sided love between Corporal Trim and a Nursing Nun, and a budding romance between Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman.Continue reading

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76:00

CR Episode 281: Tristram Shandy, Part XII

Critical Readings ·

2025/07/21

The panel discusses the books seven and eight, with particular attention to the parallel narratives used to describe the approach to Lyons, the different forms of bad luck Tristram encounters there, and the Widow Wadman's love for Uncle Toby.Continue reading

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66:56

CR Episode 280: Tristram Shandy, Part XI

Critical Readings ·

2025/07/14

The panel discusses narrative lines straight and winding in book six, and parallel trips in France in book seven, including Tristram's three visits to Auxerre: as a child, as a young man, and in the narrative 'present' when the book is being written.Continue reading

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53:22

CR Episode 279: Tristram Shandy, Part X

Critical Readings ·

2025/07/07

The panel discusses the majority of the sixth book, with attention to the 'picture' of the Widow Wadman, the story of Le Fever and his orphaned son, the mode of classical dress, and the rise of the novel in both its historical and literary contexts.Continue reading

en-GB

59:31

CR Episode 278: Tristram Shandy, Part IX

Critical Readings ·

2025/06/30

The panel discusses the conclusion of the fifth book, with attention to how the hobby horses of Trim and Toby reappear, and what they suggest about the potential truth in ancient knowledge and the pedagogical value of learning fundamental texts by rote.Continue reading

en-GB

297 results

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