50 years ago, black protesters would have been seen as Conrad sees Africans in “Heart of Darkness,” an undifferentiated mass. Achebe helped change that.
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Achebe vs. Trump’s Heart of Darkness
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Chinua Achebe, Colonialism, George Floyd, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Minneapolis riots, racism, riots, Things Fall Apart Comments closed
Read to Resist Trump & Trumpism
Literature provides those resisting Trump with a “no bullshit” zone, a safe space where they can center themselves.
Read to Resist: An Introduction
Thursday I share today the introduction to my upcoming book, which is still in draft form and whose title I keep changing. Latest title: Read to Resist: Classic Lit Provides Tools for Battling Trump and Trumpism. I’m still not entirely satisfied with that and so will keep tinkering. In any event, here’s my first attempt […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alexander Pope, Beowulf, Donald Trump, Dunciad, Go Set a Watchman, H. G. Wells, Harper Lee, Invisible Man, John Milton, Leo Tolstoy, Othello, Paradise Lost, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trump resistance, War and Peace, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Baldwin on Making Education Relevant
Baldwin’s “Essays to Teachers” reminds them of what education should really be about.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Invisible Man, James Baldwin, Julius Caesar Ralph Ellison, Letter to Teachers, racism, Terrorism, William Shakespeare Comments closed
DACA Kids, Back to the Shadows?
“Invisible Man,” with its protagonist moving in and out of shadows, is all too relevant as the Trump administration threatens to deport the DACA kids.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged DACA, Donald Trump, Invisible Man, Jeff Sessions, Ralph Ellison Comments closed
Not a Reader (and Proud of It)
What do a president’s reading habits say about his/her vision of America? Obama’s celebration of a diverse America is the vision of a voracious reader. Trump’s shallow narrative is the vision of one who doesn’t read.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Humanities, Liberal arts education, Martha Nussbaum Comments closed
We Benefit When We Check Our Privilege
Do be blind to one’s privileges is to live in a world of shadows and phantoms, as Ralph Ellison and Lucille Clifton both make clear. Life if much richer if we identify our blindnesses and engage with people as three-dimensional beings.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "wishes for sons", Invisible Man, Lucille Clifton, racism, Ralph Ellison, white privilege Comments closed
My Next Project: How Lit Changed History
I lay out the parameters of my current book project, “How Literature Changed Western History.”
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
Can Art Thwart Trump? A Debate
In which I argue with a writer who claims that art and artists have an inflated sense of their power and that they are irrelevant in the battle against Donald Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Grapes of Wrath, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Invisible Man, John Steinbeck, propaganda, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, social realism, socialist realism, Uncle Tom's Cabin, W. H. Auden Comments closed
