A transcript of a talk given at the University of Ljubljana on “how literature changes lives.”
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Tag Archives: Percy Shelley
Theories about Lit’s Impact
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Frederick Engel, Horace, Karl Marx, Martha Nussbaum, Matthew Arnold, Plato, Rachel Blau du Plessis, Samuel Johnson, Sir Philip Sidney, Wayne Booth Comments closed
In Defense of The Merchant of Venice
Percy Shelley believes that great art transcends the prejudices of its time, even when it is cloaked in them. If he is right, then “Merchant of Venice” is less of a problem play than many people consider it.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged anti-Semitism, Defence of Poetry, Merchant of Venice, Othello, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Can Lit Also Be a Force for Evil? A Debate
The classics are capable to doing great good but can they also do harm? Even as they powerfully open up the mind to new possibilities, can they also close it down? A debate.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Anabelle Lee", Aristotle, Bridge to Terabithia, Charles Dickens, Earth Sea Trilogy, Edgar Allan Poe, George Eliot, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jane Austen, Katherine Paterson, Middlemarch, Old Curiosity Shop, Plato, Pride and Prejudice, Sir Philip Sidney, Twelfth Night, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Ursula Leguin, William Shakespeare Comments closed
How Poets Are the Legislators of the World
Shelley saw great literature as changing the way we see reality. Sometimes, however, it takes hundreds of years for this to be evident.
Poetry Enlarges the Moral Imagination
Shelley’s “Defence of Poetry” makes one of the strongest cases in history for how poetry changes the world.
Hiding behind the “I” in Lit Essays
Using “I” in literature essays doesn’t necessarily lead to more engagement with the work.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "England in 1819", Fan's Notes, Frederick Exley, teaching literature Comments closed
Once We Memorized Poetry
Memorizing poetry used to be standard classroom practice and poetry was widely popular before the snobs came in.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Ozymandias", "Trees", Alfred Lord Tennyson, Cleanth Brooks, Gunga Din, Joyce Kilmer, Memorizing poetry, Robert Penn Warren, Rudyard Kipling, Ulysses, William Wordsworth Comments closed