In my postcolonial lit course, I applied Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism to Haggard’s “She” and Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” It’s not pretty.
Tag Archives: To His Coy Mistress
Orientalizing the Other
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Snake Charmer", "To His Mistress Going to Bed", Andrew Marvell, Colonialism, Edward Said, empire building, H. Rider Haggard, Heart of Darkness, John Donne, Joseph Conrad, Orientalism, She Comments closed
Ensnar’d with Flow’rs I Fall on Grass
Friday I found utterly dispiriting this past week’s Democratic debates in which candidates lasered in on tiny differences while a fire rages all around us. I haven’t wanted to relax my vigilance regarding Donald Trump since autocrats win when we become so worn down that we stop paying attention. Nevertheless, these two wretched debates made […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "August", "Ode to Autumn", "Garden", Andrew Marvell, Birches, English gardens, John Keats, Robert Frost, summer Comments closed
Helms’s Attack on Marvell’s “Coy Mistress”
Tales of unexpected attacks against great literature: in 1966 Jesse Helms, later a rightwing North Carolina senator, attacked Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” for providing male students a chance to talk about erotic matter in front of female students.
10 Memorable Poetic Pick-Up Lines
10 memorable pick-up lines from poetic greats. Try them at a bar near you.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Flea", "Phyllis Be Gentler", "The Lover", "To His Mistress Going to Bed", "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time", Andrew Marvell, Aphra Behn, Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond de Rostand, Jane Austen, John Donne, John Wilmot, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Pride and Prejudice, Robert Herrick, Rover, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Textualist Judges Out of Control
Textualist judges committed the same mistake as formalists in ruling against federal subsidies for citizens who signed up for Obamacare in the federal exchanges.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Andrew Marvell, formalism, Hamlet, Obamacare, textualism, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Nothing So Sensible as Sensual Inundation
Poetry, with its eye on what really matters, can help us taste food again. Mary Oliver’s “Plum Trees” reminds us to eat with full awareness.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Plum Trees", Andrew Marvell, Food, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Mary Oliver, Sensuality, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
Empty Sex in an Empty World
John Wilmot, by Jacob Huysmans (1675) I’m have just finished teaching Lord Rochester and, as always, it has been an adventure. I sometimes think I get more embarrassed than the students by his explicit sexual language. My women students (they’re all women in this class) are more tolerant of his diatribes against their gender than I […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Against Constancy, Andrew Marvell, Fragment of Seneca Translated, John Wilmot, materialism Comments closed
