Monthly Archives: November 2017

Dorian Gray Was Social Dynamite

By Robin Bates | Published: November 30, 2017

Oscar Wilde’s accusers but him in jail, but they were right about one thing: “Picture of Dorian Gray” is social dynamite.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2017

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s romance with the west turned dark during the Great Depression, anticipating many of today’s Trump voters.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 28, 2017

I list my student Senior Seminar projects, which examine literary works that caused a stir and try to figure out why.

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By Robin Bates | Published: November 27, 2017

Comedian Seth Meyers recently compared Robert Mueller’s gaze to the eye of Sauron. No wonder there is panic in the White House.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 26, 2017

Moliere’s “Tartuffe” is a great satire of religious hypocrisy. It also shook up the 17th century French church in other ways and was banned.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 24, 2017

As he demonstrates in “Measure for Measure,” Shakespeare would understand the ins and outs of modern sexual assault politics.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 22, 2017

To grapple with the fact of male sexual assault, it helps to have powerful literary explorations. Murakami provides one in “Kafka on the Shore.”

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2017

What are we to do about all of our sexual assaulters, given that they probably number in the thousands? Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has an answer.