When Ivanka Trump quotes Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” in her recent book, she does everything I tell my students not to: she reduces the work to herself.
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Ivanka Doesn’t Understand “Beloved”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beloved, Ivanka Trump, slavery, Toni Morrison, Women Who Work, working women Comments closed
Using Doublethink To Sell Trumpcare
House Republicans appear to be using Doublethink to sell their healthcare plan. If it works, there will be no stopping them.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 1984, AHCA, Donald Trump, George Orwell, GOP, GOP healthcare plan, healthcare, politics Comments closed
From Wycherley to Crazy, Stupid, Love
In my “Restoration and 18th Century Couples Comedy” class, my students paired old rom-coms with contemporary films, including “Ten Things I Hate about You,” “How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, “Friends with Benefits,” and others.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 10 Things I Hate about You, Alexander Pope, Aphra Behn Country Wife, Austenland, Belle's Stratagem, Brave, Crazy Stupid Love, Don Jon, Friends with Benefits, Hannah Cowley, He’s Just Not That into You, How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Jane Austen, Mean Girls, Oliver Goldsmith, Rape of the Lock, Richard Sheridan, Rivals, Rover, Say Anything, Sense and Sensibility, She Stoops to Conquer, William Wycherley Comments closed
The Third Who Walks Always Beside You
Rowan Williams has a powerful poem about the Road to Emmaus in which he tries to capture the tangible-yet-intangible quality of Jesus in our lives. He may be dialoguing with T. S. Eliot’s own use of the episode in “The Waste Land.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Emmaus", Resurrection, Rowan Williams, T. S. Eliot, Waste Land Comments closed
Most Impactful Books for Every Country
For fun, someone has created a map in which the most impactful works of literature are shown for almost every country in the world. Many of the selections are debatable but the map is good for starting conversations.
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Disability: Assemble Me Piece by Piece
Allison Barrett, a St. Mary’s College of Maryland senior, shares her senior project presentation, which includes poetry and creative non-fiction to capture the experience of a disabled or non-neurotypical woman.
Swift’s Popularity with Today’s Students
Students crowded into the gym to listen to the publisher of “The Onion.” It is therefore not surprising that they are also responding enthusiastically to Jonathan Swift. I share some of their thoughts on the satirist in today’s post.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, politics Comments closed
Jane Eyre, Still Groundbreaking
In her senior project, one of my students looked at four film adaptations of “Jane Eyre” and concluded that Bronte’s novel is more radical than all but one of them.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged adaptations, Charlotte Bronte, film adaptations of Jane Eyre, Jane Eyre Comments closed
Berry Chooses Hope over Despair
Wendell Berry “A Vision” could serve as the guiding star for the environmental movement. He sees a world with clean rivers, thick forests, and clean sky as “no paradisal dream,” even as he acknowledges the difficult challenges ahead.
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