Tag Archives: Doctor Faustus

The Year in GOP Soul Selling

By Robin Bates | Published: December 29, 2017

This blog’s “post of the year” compared the GOP’s embrace of Trump to Faustus selling his soul to the devil.

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My Teaching Mission: Keeping It Real

By Robin Bates | Published: May 22, 2017

In which I reflect back upon my teaching career and focusing on my students “keeping it real.”

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A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”

By Robin Bates | Published: April 9, 2017

“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.

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Trump’s Faustian Emptiness

By Robin Bates | Published: February 15, 2017

Donald Trump has a lot in common with Doctor Faustus: both are narcissists who create hells for themselves by being unable to reach out beyond themselves.

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How to Make All Your Fantasies Come True

By Robin Bates | Published: February 13, 2017

In high school I learned, from Jacques Offenbach’s opera “Tales of Hoffman,” how to make all my sexual fantasies come true. It took several decades of married life to fully embrace his insight.

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The GOP’s Faustian Bargain with Trump

By Robin Bates | Published: January 31, 2017

New York Times columnist David Brooks says that the GOP is striking a Faustian bargain by collaborating with Donald Trump. Christopher Marlowe shows the price that is paid for dealing with the devil and also tells us how one can get one’s soul back.

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Aristotle Changed the Way Europe Thought

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2017

In “Aristotle’s Children,” Richard Rubenstein gets us to rethink the Faith-Reason and Religion-Science splits. When Aristotle revolutionized the High Middle Ages, Church leaders and thinkers tried to reconcile the tensions. Knowing this has me rethinking Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Donne.

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Shakespeare Was Malvolio

By Robin Bates | Published: July 4, 2016

Recent research shows how much of a social climber Shakespeare was. The knowledge gives us new insight into characters like Malvolio and Othello.

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Envy, the Sin That Blinds

By Robin Bates | Published: June 28, 2016

In this week’s poker essay by novelist Rachel Kranz, envy is described as the one deadly sin that gives no pleasure at all.

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