Tag Archives: Margaret Atwood

The Sexual Politics of Circe-Odysseus

By Robin Bates | Published: November 30, 2020

Miller’s novel “Circe” engages with a long tradition of Circe and Odysseus depictions, including those of Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Sophocles, Dante, Tennyson, and Atwood.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Circe, Circe Mud Poems, Euripides, Hecuba, Inferno, Madeline Miller, Penelopiad, Philoctetes, Sexual Politics, Sophocles, Ulysses | Comments closed

Think of Amy Coney Barrett as Aunt Lydia

By Robin Bates | Published: October 13, 2020

Given Amy Comey Barrett’s rightwing positions on abortion, healthcare, and LGBTQ rights, she can be compared to Aunt Lydia in Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Amy Coney Barrett, GOP, Handmaid's Tale, Supreme Court, Testaments | Comments closed

Read to Grapple with Climate Change

By Robin Bates | Published: July 27, 2020

Sian Cain uses literature to grapple with her decision, in light of climate change, not to have children.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Afterland, Amina Cain, Amitav Ghosh, Avni Doshi, Barbara Pym, burnt Sugar, childbearing, Children, Children of Men, cli-fi, climate change, climate fiction, Cormac McCarthy, Cygnet, D. H. Lawrence, David Wallace-Wells, Doris Lessing, Drowned World, Elena Ferrante, Fleishmann Is in Trouble, Future Home of the Living God, Indelicacy, J.G. Ballard, Jenny Offill, Lauren Beukes, Louise Erdrich, Lydia Millet, Mark OConnell, Melissa Broder, Notes from an Apocalypse, Ottessa Moshfegh, Overstory, P.D. James, Pisces, Rachel Cusk, Richard Powers, Road Not Taken, Season Butler, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Uninhabitable Earth, weather, When It Happens, Year of Rest and Relaxation | Comments closed

Atwood Gets the Authoritarian Mindset

By Robin Bates | Published: May 25, 2020

In her sequel to “Handmaid’s Tale,” Atwood demonstrates a deep understanding of authoritarianism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, GOP, Testaments, Trumpism | Comments closed

Sci-Fi Provides Pandemic Guidance

By Robin Bates | Published: April 20, 2020

Our society is currently split on the value of scientific expertise. That split goes back at least as far as Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Andromeda Strain, Anthony Fauci, COVID-19, Donald Trump, Frankenstein, Last Man, Mary Shelley, Michael Crichton, Oryx and Crake, pandemics, science fiction, Stand, Stephen King | Comments closed

A Literary Survey of What Plagues Mean

By Robin Bates | Published: April 19, 2020

A survey of how literary authors have grappled for meaning in times of pestilence bolsters our own search. I look at Sophocles, Virgil, Defoe, Porter, Camus, King, Mandel, Atwood, and Erdrich.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Emily St. John Mandel, Journal of the Plague Year, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, Pestilence, plague, Sophocles, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil | Comments closed

Top 2018 Post: Atwood Saves a Life

By Robin Bates | Published: December 31, 2018

New Year’s Eve 2018 will always stand out for me as the year I retired. As I look back at my posts over the past 12 months, therefore, I have chosen to highlight one about my final senior project. Ashley Kadva, a single mother of two, shows us how literature is more than a luxury. Margaret Atwood […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged childhood trauma, Edible Woman, Robber Bride, Surfacing | Comments closed

Teaching Lit in Ljubljana

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2018

I share my experiences teaching Shakespeare and post-colonial literature in Slovenia.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Handmaid's Tale, Midsummer Night's Dream, Prešeren (France), Romeo and Juliet, travel abroad, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Atwood’s Circe vs. Brett Kavanaugh

By Robin Bates | Published: October 8, 2018

Monday The contrast between an accommodating Christine Blasey Ford and an exploding Brett Kavanaugh is indelibly printed on my mind and may be the major thing I take away from the hearings. That white privileged men can use anger to assert dominance while women and people of color must speak in measured tones has become […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford, Circe Mud Poems, Donald Trump, male entitlement, Mitch McConnell, Sexism, white male privilege | Comments closed