Thursday Normally I would be delighted with a New York Times article that matched up presidential candidates with works of literature, such as Ted Cruz with Beowulf, Hillary Clinton with Persuasion, and Bernie Sanders with Around the World in 80 Days. This piece, however, strikes me as so uninformative that it’s all but useless. I’ve tried […]
Tag Archives: Beowulf
Cruz as Beowulf? Try Grendel
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Around the World in 80 Days, Bernie Sanders, Carla Fiorina, Charles Dickens, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Austen, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne, Mansfield Park, Marco Rubio, Mark Twain, Mike Huckabee, Oliver Twist, Persuasion, politics, Rand Paul, Tale of Two Cities, Ted Cruz Comments closed
This Time Grendel Chose Umpqua
Every time there is another mass killing, this time at Umpqua Community College, I turn to “Beowulf.” Few works understand such violence as well as this medieval Anglo-Saxon epic.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Ceremony, Charles Harper Mercer, gun control, Leslie Marmon Silko, mass shootings, NRA, serial killers, Umpqua College shooting Comments closed
Grendel Violence Never Ends
Once again a horrific mass shooting. Once again an occasion to turn to “Beowulf.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dylann Storm Roof, Emanuel AME Church killings, Grendel, gun violence, mass killing, mass shooting Comments closed
The Complex Inner Life of Teachers
Lily King’s “The English Teacher” is filled with literary lllusions, most of them thematically important.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Voice", Annabelle Lee, Edgar Allen Poe, Homer, Huckleberry Finn, Love Song of J. Alfred Pruforck, Mark Twain, Odyssey, Othello, Rose for Emily, T. S. Eliot, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, William Faulkner, William Shakespeare Comments closed
If Beowulf Went to War with ISIS
The Jordanian response to the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot reminds us that Grendel’s Mother is on the loose in the Middle East. Beowulf models how we should respond.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged blood feuds, Grendel's mother, grieving, ISIL, ISIS, revenge killings Comments closed
Grendel in Paris
As with other mass killings, “Beowulf” has lessons for the Paris massacre. Defoe and Rabelais, meanwhile, give us insight in the targeted satirical journal “Charlie Hebdo.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charlie Hebdo, Daniel Defoe, Gargantua, Lucille Clifton, Rabelais, satire, Shortest Way with Dissenters, Terrorism Comments closed
“Queer and Marxist Readings of Beowulf”
A Buzzfeed post uses as proof of English majors’ superiority the fact that they can execute queer and Marxist interpretations of “Beowulf.” We explore what such interpretations would entail.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged critical theory, English majors, Marxist theory, queer theory Comments closed
