Tag Archives: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Puck’s Summer Magic

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2015

“Midsummer Night’s Dream” dips into ancient British legends about the mystical aspects of midsummer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged A. S. Byatt, Children's Book, E. Nesbit, Midsummer Night's Dream, Midsummer Night's Eve, summer, summer solstice, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

How Fantasy Saves Our Souls

By Robin Bates | Published: April 13, 2015

Great fantasy can always be seen as oppositional, pushing against prevailing modes of thought and opening up portals into new human possibilities.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Age of Reason, Bacchae, Don Quixote, Enlightenment, Euripides, fantasy, Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Miguel de Cervantes, Scientific Revolution, Tracks | Comments closed

Hoping against Hope in the Face of Death

By Robin Bates | Published: February 25, 2015

Following philosopher Adrienne Martin, I meditate on what it means to “hope against hope” or to have “unimaginable hope.” The texts I use are “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “Beowulf,” and “Wizard of Earthsea.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Afghanistan, Beowulf, death and dying, hope, Military, Ursula K Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea | Comments closed

The Peace of Wild Things

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2014

My Intro to Literature class explored how a disconnect from nature leads to existential anguish while opening themselves up to nature provides spiritual nourishment.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ancient Mariner, "Egrets", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Killing the Trees", "Peace of Wild Things", All the Pretty Horses, Bacchae, Barbara Kingsolver, Ceremony, Cormac McCarthy, Euripides, Flight Behavior, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, Midsummer Night's Dream, Nature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, spiritual healing, Wendell Berry, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Connecting Art to Life

By Robin Bates | Published: December 17, 2014

In a lovely introduction to a reading I gave the other night, my son Toby examined the value of the liberal arts.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Comments closed

10 Famous Fetish Objects in Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2014

Literature is filled with fetish objects that take on outsized significance to various characters.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Pope, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Emma, Great Expectations, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Marcel Proust, Prophet's Hair, Rape of the Lock, Salman Rushie, Tell-Tale Heart, Tom Jones | Comments closed

Sexual Misconduct in the Classics

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2014

A sexual misconduct course required of all employees got me thinking of problematic situations in the books that I teach.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "The Lover: A Ballad", "Written in a Lady's Prayer Book", Aphra Behn, Bacchae, Charlotte Bronte, Euripides, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, John Wilmot, Lucille Clifton, Rape, Rover, Sense and Sensibility, sexual assault, sexual harassment, Tom Jones | Comments closed

Sir Gawain & the ISIS Beheadings

By Robin Bates | Published: September 29, 2014

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” helps us understand the horror we feel at the ISIS beheadings.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged beheadings, ISIS, Middle East, Terrorism | Comments closed

Warning Labels for the Classics

By Robin Bates | Published: May 20, 2014

Suggestions that certain classics come with “trigger warnings” leads of the following reflection.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged censorship, Geoffrey Chaucer, Homer, Iliad, Importance of Being Earnest, John Milton, Oscar Wilde, Paradise Lost, Wife of Bath | Comments closed