As I teach William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, I am struck by the resemblances between Restoration society and our own.The play was written in 1676 during the age of Charles II, and in some ways our worlds couldn’t be more dissimilar.This was a monarchy and a very formal society in which sincerity was viewed with […]
Tag Archives: Barack Obama
Obama as Wycherley’s Country Wife
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Country Wife, cynicism, materialism, Restoration comedy, William Wycherley | Comments closed
Is Obama an Allworthy or a Beowulf?
Like many supporters of health care reform, I am distressed by what I see as right-wing attempts to disrupt civil discussions on the matter. Practically no one disputes that we are facing a financial crisis over health care costs and health care coverage. My own 27-year-old son and his wife, who have just started a […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Beowulf, Henry Fielding, leadership, Tom Jones | Comments closed
Taking on Grendel Rage
If Grendel rage is on the rampage in America, do we have a Beowulf who can defeat it? And what would defeating it look like? In a recent New York Times piece, liberal columnist Frank Rich talks about how irresponsible talk from political commentators and politicians essentially enable those committing hate crimes, even though these […]
The Favorite Books of American Presidents
I’ve had fun discussing the reading of Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas over the last couple of days, and while I’ve come up dry on further posts about the Supreme Court and literature, it has given me the idea of periodically dipping into reading stories of other political figures. I’ll start a list here, beginning […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Abraham Lincoln, Al Gore, Albert Camus, Bible, Bill Clinton, Book of Job, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Cremation of Sam McGee, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edward Arlington Robinson, Elizabeth Alexander, Eric Carle, From Russia with Love, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, George W. Bush, George Washington, Ian Fleming, James Dickey, John Kennedy, Joseph O'Neill, Leo Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, Mr. Flood's Party, Netherworld, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Proverbs, Richard Corey, Richard Nixon, Richard Sheridan, Robert Frost, Ronald Reagan, School for Scandal, Shooting of Dan McGrew, Song of Solomon, Stendahl, Teddy Roosevelt, The Red and the Black, The Stranger, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Toni Morrison | Comments closed
Bush, Obama, and Gulliver’s Travels
I return for one last time to Swift, who provides invaluable perspectives for understanding contemporary politics. Swift was a shrewd student of political dynamics. His satire is often an allegorical depiction of real life people and incidents, and if one knows one’s history, one can read parts of Gulliver’s Travels as a roman à clé, […]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged allegory, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, Modest Proposal, satire | Comments closed
