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Christmas Life in the Face of Death
Film Friday This past week two dissimilar works, unexpectedly brought together in my life, reaffirmed for me the power of Christmas celebrations. Comparing them provides interesting insights into why...
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Don’t Underestimate Midsummer Madness
Edwin Landseer, "Midsummer Night's Dream" Today is the summer solstice (one of only two times this decade when it falls on June 20), giving me an excuse to write about Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve...
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The Meaning of Soldiers and Sex
Yesterday I took the advice I offered in yesterday’s post and observed Memorial Day by listening to some of my father’s World War II stories. In the process I gained a new awareness into the...
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Prevent Sexual Assault with Literature
Daniel Gabriel Rossetti, Sir Percival and the Holy Grail Early last week, before my father’s final illness and death exploded into our lives, I was writing about our society’s problem with predatory...
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Green Knight’s Lessons on Death & Dying
Originally I had planned to spend this past summer finding an idea for, and beginning work on, my next book. Instead, I spent it helping my mother take care of my father and listening to him tell...
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Is Peyton Manning Pitted against Puck?
Sports Saturday I’ve been trying to think of a narrative that does justice to the clash between the best passing team in the history of the NFL and one of history’s greatest defenses. I have arrived...
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An Afghan Vet’s Green Knight Encounter
Student gifts arrive daily when one is a literature teacher. I received a wonderful reading story recently from Matt Alexander, a former Marine twice deployed to Afghanistan, which has caused me to...
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Warning Labels for the Classics
Duncan Grant, “James Strachey” “Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm” blared an ominous New York Times headline and then proceeded to mention The Great Gatsby in the first sentence....
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Sir Gawain & the ISIS Beheadings
The headless Green Knight instructs Gawain The world has watched in horror as ISIS militants have beheaded hostages, which in turn have generated copycat beheadings. At the moment, I am teaching one of...
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Sexual Misconduct in the Classics
Hogarth, “Before” Last week, as a Maryland state employee, I took a special on-line course on sexual misconduct. Colleges and universities have not been as sensitive as they should be to complaints...
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10 Famous Fetish Objects in Lit
Audrey Beardsley, “Rape of the Lock” In the literature I’ve been teaching recently, I’ve been struck by how many fetish objects there are. Fetishes are things which, while insignificant in themselves,...
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Connecting Art to Life
Tobias Wilson-Bates Christmas came early this year. I gave a reading of essays from Better Living through Beowulf as part of our college’s Creative Writers series and I was introduced by…my son....
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The Peace of Wild Things
Tidewater swamp at St. Mary’s College of MD Spiritual Sunday I focus on humans’ relationship to nature in my Introduction to Literature course, and this past semester many students wrestled with the...
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Hoping against Hope in the Face of Death
Illus by Robbins, “Wizard of Earthsea,” Ged and his otak My faculty reading group grappled with the issue of hope last week. Specifically, we discussed philosopher Adrienne Martin’s book How We Hope: A...
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How Fantasy Saves Our Souls
Freeman in “The Hobbit” I have been reading essay proposals from my American Fantasy class so today’s post is designed to help my students with the theory portion of their papers. Feel free to read...
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Puck’s Summer Magic
Tucci & Everett as Puck and Oberon This past Saturday having been Midsummer Night’s Eve, I found myself returning to Rudyard Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906), a book from my childhood. It’s a...
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Warning Labels for the Classics
Duncan Grant, “James Strachey” “Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm” blared an ominous New York Times headline and then proceeded to mention The Great Gatsby in the first sentence....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sir Gawain & the ISIS Beheadings
The headless Green Knight instructs Gawain The world has watched in horror as ISIS militants have beheaded hostages, which in turn have generated copycat beheadings. At the moment, I am teaching one of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sexual Misconduct in the Classics
Hogarth, “Before” Last week, as a Maryland state employee, I took a special on-line course on sexual misconduct. Colleges and universities have not been as sensitive as they should be to complaints...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 Famous Fetish Objects in Lit
Audrey Beardsley, “Rape of the Lock” In the literature I’ve been teaching recently, I’ve been struck by how many fetish objects there are. Fetishes are things which, while insignificant in themselves,...
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