“Cuck” has become a favorite insult amongst alt-right types. In today’s post I trace literary references to cuckolds going back to Chaucer.
Monthly Archives: April 2017
A Literary History of the Insult “Cuck”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged alt-right, As You Like It, Canterbury Tales, Christopher Marlowe, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, cuckolds, cuckservatives, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Miller's Tale, Othello, William Shakespeare, William Wycherley Comments closed
Must I Dwell in Slavery’s Night?
In anticipation of Passover, I share a poem composed by the African American slave George Moses Horton.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Passover", "Slave's Complaint", Exodus, George Moses Horton, slavery Comments closed
Calling Out Trump’s Assault on Nature
Look to Euripides’s “The Bacchae” if you want to know how a divine seer would call out Donald Trump for his assault on the environment. Teiresias says that Pentheus is “possessed by madness so perverse, no drug can cure.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bacchae, Donald Trump, environmental policy, EPA, Euripides Comments closed
Mosley & Du Bois: Art as Propaganda
In a visit to our college, novelist Walter Mosley was asked to respond to a W. E. B. Du Bois passage about art as propaganda. Mosley said that, if his art is true, it will indeed function as propaganda in that it will overturn racial stereotypes.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Criteria of Nego Art, Devil in a Blue Dress, racial stereotypes, racism, W. E. B. Dubois, Walter Mosley Comments closed
A Fascist Novel & Immigration Policy
Raspail’s “Camp of Saints” is currently influencing White House policy in ways similar to how “Atlas Shrugged” has guided Speaker Paul Ryan. The novel needs to be taken seriously.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Camp of Saints, Donald Trump, Fascism, German Freikorps soldiers, immigration policy, Jean Raspail, Steve Bannon Comments closed
Loving Led to Social Justice
The film “Loving” is a quiet but powerful film about the struggle against miscegenation laws. The Lovings’ battle helped the mixed race family of former poet laureate Natasha Trethewey, who talks about her parents and her own journey to find meaning.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Loving", Civil Rights, miscegenation, Natasha Trethewey Comments closed
Swift’s April Fools Broomstick Joke
The all time master of the April Fools joke was Jonathan Swift. Here’s one of his lesser ones where he draws deep philosophical by meditating on a broomstick.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged April Fools, Donald Trump, fake news, Jonathan Swift, Meditation on a Broomstick Comments closed
