At Chronicle Vitae, Rob Jenkins has written about the ways he tries to sell students on taking literature courses. I quibble with the idea of literature as “a record” of what people thought: while the ideals, lifestyles, and assumptions of…
Tag: Literature
2016 in Review
The last half of 2016 almost seems like a different year from the first. It is that the resurgence of rightwing populism was sudden but that the power it has amassed became suddenly undeniable. The danger no longer looms: it…
Why White Women Voted for Trump—And How Literature Can Save Us
All women live with a constant drumbeat of real and threatened violence against us. White women, however, are taught that the worst of that violence comes from men of color and that only the white supremacist patriarchy can save us,…
Essay: Whither Teaching in the University Novel?
Now that I have converted my doctoral thesis into a book, my critical work is moving in two directions. One looks at the questions raised during my first project, mostly related to how power, pleasure, play, and pedagogy overlap in…
Twelve In ’12
Achievements I finished my PhD. The Journal of Modern Literature accepted a piece of mine. Like This Press accepted my chapbook manuscript. The Kenyon Review Online accepted and published a short story of mine I co-organized a highly successful postgraduate conference in Joyce studies.…
Naipaul’s Comments Were Offensive, But What about the Question?
By now, VS Naipaul’s misogynistic comments been thoroughly mocked in the manner they deserve. What has been largely overlooked, however, is that as Amy Fallon reported in the Guardian, he made these claims after having been asked “asked if he…