Hamlet’s soliloquies changed the way we see ourselves and others and led the way to the novel.
Monthly Archives: December 2023
Soliloquies Changed Us Fundamentally
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Angus Fletcher, Charlotte Bronte, Hamlet, Harold Bloom, Harper Lee, Huckleberry Finn, humanism, Jane Eyre, Le Cid, Pierre Corneille, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, soliloquies, Sorrows of Young Werther, To Kill a Mockingbird, transcendentalism, Wonderworks Comments closed
Light in a Time of Darkness
Allan Boesak’s “Advent Credo” reminds us that Advent is a time of radical hope.
Dec. 7 & Watching One’s Son Go to War
Today being Pearl Harbor Day, I share a Gwendolyn Brooks poem about a mother who loses her son to the war.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "sonnet-ballad", Gwendolyn Brooks, Scott Bates, World War II Comments closed
Pachinko and the Miracle of Teaching
Min Jin Lee’s “Pachinko” has a scene that goes to the heart of literature teaching.
Burns on December (and Austen on Burns)
In “Thou Gloomy December,” Burns mourns a sad parting. While I enjoy Burns, I also enjoy Austen’s satiric takedown of the poet in “Sanditon.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Thou Gloomy December", December, Jane Austen, Robert Burns, Sanditon Comments closed
George Eliot’s Humanism
George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” was instrumental in developing a new humanism.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Angus Fletcher, George Eliot, humanism, Ludwig Feuerbach, Middlemarch, sense of duty, Wonderworks Comments closed
A Shadow Falls, the Book Glows
As we enter a season of darkness, this Rilke poem reminds us to listen for the numinous.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "You Come and Go", Advent, Dante, Inferno, Rainer Maria Rilke Comments closed
