Subtext: Conversations about Classic Books and Films
By Wes Alwan and Erin O'Luanaigh
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Image by Wes Alwan and Erin O'Luanaigh
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Subscribers: 104
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Episodes: 116
Description
Subtext is a book club podcast for readers interested in what the greatest works of the human imagination say about life’s big questions. Each episode, philosopher Wes Alwan and poet Erin O’Luanaigh conduct a close reading of a text or film and co-write an audio essay about it in real time. It’s literary analysis, but in the best sense: we try not overly stuffy and pedantic, but rather focus on unearthing what’s most compelling about great books and movies, and how it is they can touch our lives in such a significant way.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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The Sublime Mundane in Conrad Aiken’s “Morning Song of Senlin” (Part 2)
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Dec 23, 2024 |
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The Sublime Mundane in Conrad Aiken’s “Morning Song of Senlin”
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Dec 16, 2024 |
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The Aesthetics of Death in “Beetlejuice” (1988) (Part 2)
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Dec 09, 2024 |
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The Aesthetics of Death in “Beetlejuice” (1988)
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Dec 02, 2024 |
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A Strange Fashion of Forsaking in the Poetry of Thomas Wyatt (Part 2)
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Nov 25, 2024 |
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A Strange Fashion of Forsaking in the Poetry of Thomas Wyatt (Part 1)
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Nov 18, 2024 |
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Formal Meets Feral in “A New Leaf” (Elaine May, 1971) – Part 2
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Oct 28, 2024 |
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Formal Meets Feral in “A New Leaf” (Elaine May, 1971) – Part 1
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Oct 21, 2024 |
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Love Dishonored in Euripides’ “Medea” (Part 6)
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Oct 14, 2024 |
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Love Dishonored in Euripides’ “Medea” (Part 5)
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Oct 07, 2024 |
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Love Dishonored in Euripides’ “Medea” (Part 4)
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Sep 30, 2024 |
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Love Dishonored in Euripides’ “Medea” (Part 3)
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Sep 23, 2024 |
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Love Dishonored in Euripides’ “Medea” (Part 2)
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Sep 16, 2024 |
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Love Dishonored in Euripides’ “Medea” (Part 1)
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Sep 09, 2024 |
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Love and Loneliness in “Arthur” (1981) – Part 2
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Sep 02, 2024 |
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Love and Loneliness in “Arthur” (1981) – Part 1
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Aug 26, 2024 |
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Courtly Reciprocity in “Laustic” and “Guigemar” by Marie de France (Part 2)
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Aug 19, 2024 |
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Courtly Reciprocity in “Laustic” and “Guigemar” by Marie de France (Part 1)
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Aug 11, 2024 |
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Sight and Solitude in Le Samouraï (1967) by Jean-Pierre Melville (Part 2)
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Aug 05, 2024 |
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Sight and Solitude in Le Samouraï (1967) by Jean-Pierre Melville (Part 1)
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Jul 29, 2024 |
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“Notes from the Underground” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: An Anatomy of Human Self-Destructiveness (Part 2)
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Jul 22, 2024 |
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“Notes from the Underground” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: An Anatomy of Human Self-Destructiveness (Part 1)
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Jul 15, 2024 |
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Staking Claims in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) (Part 2)
|
Jul 08, 2024 |
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Staking Claims in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) (Part 1)
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Jul 02, 2024 |
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Psychedelic Regrets in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Part 6)
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Jun 24, 2024 |
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Psychedelic Regrets in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Part 5
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Jun 16, 2024 |
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Psychedelic Regrets in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Part 4)
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Jun 11, 2024 |
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Psychedelic Regrets in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Part 3)
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Jun 03, 2024 |
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Psychedelic Regrets in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Part 2)
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May 27, 2024 |
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Psychedelic Regrets in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
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May 20, 2024 |
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Sins of Omission in “On the Waterfront” (1954) (Part 2)
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May 13, 2024 |
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Sins of Omission in “On the Waterfront” (1954) (Part 1)
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May 06, 2024 |
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Consciousness Bemoaned in “Aubade” by Philip Larkin (Part 2)
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Apr 29, 2024 |
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Consciousness Bemoaned in “Aubade” by Philip Larkin (Part 1)
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Apr 22, 2024 |
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Identity and Infamy in “Citizen Kane” (1941) (Part 2)
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Jan 15, 2024 |
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Identity and Infamy in “Citizen Kane” (1941) (Part 1)
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Jan 08, 2024 |
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Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 6)
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Dec 25, 2023 |
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Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 5)
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Dec 18, 2023 |
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Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 4)
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Dec 11, 2023 |
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Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 3)
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Dec 04, 2023 |
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Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 2)
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Nov 27, 2023 |
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The Emptiness of Signification in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 1)
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Nov 20, 2023 |
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(post)script: Post-Tryst (Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters”)
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Nov 13, 2023 |
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The Tyranny of the Good in Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters”
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Nov 06, 2023 |
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Odysseus and Penelope’s Comedy of Remarriage (“The Odyssey,” Postscript to Part 3)
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Oct 30, 2023 |
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Terminal Wooings in “The Odyssey” (Part 3 of 3)
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Oct 23, 2023 |
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Foolish Adventures in “The Odyssey” (Part 2 of 3)
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Sep 25, 2023 |
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Home as Identity in “The Odyssey”
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Aug 28, 2023 |
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Competing Affections in “The Lion in Winter”
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Jul 31, 2023 |
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Friendship and Honor in “Becket” (1964)
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Jul 03, 2023 |
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Losing Your Head in Alice Munro’s “Carried Away”
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Jun 05, 2023 |
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Time and Taboo in “Back to the Future” (1985)
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May 16, 2023 |
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The Violence of Redemption in John Donne’s “Batter My Heart” (Holy Sonnet 14)
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Apr 10, 2023 |
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Mortal Pretensions in John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” (Holy Sonnet 10)
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Mar 13, 2023 |
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Trauma and Repetition in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” (1974)
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Feb 13, 2023 |
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Better and Bested in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
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Jan 16, 2023 |
|
Pagan Poetics in “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens
|
Dec 19, 2022 |
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Production for Use in “His Girl Friday”
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Nov 21, 2022 |
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Post-Doctoral Bedevilment in Christopher Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus”
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Oct 24, 2022 |
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Fate and Blame in “Long Day’s Journey into Night”
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Sep 26, 2022 |
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Work as Madness in “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957)
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May 09, 2022 |
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What Falls Upon the Living in James Joyce’s “The Dead”
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Apr 11, 2022 |
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Finding Home in Stephen Spielberg’s “E.T.” (1982)
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Mar 14, 2022 |
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The Power of Calm: Two Wordsworth Sonnets
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Feb 28, 2022 |
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What Nature Betrays: Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” (Part 2)
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Feb 14, 2022 |
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Mother Nature’s Nurture in Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” (Part 1)
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Jan 31, 2022 |
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The Fool Gets Hurt in Fellini’s “La Strada” (1954)
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Jan 17, 2022 |
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False Roles and Fictitious Selves in “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin
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Jan 03, 2022 |
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(post)script: Post-Wonderful
|
Dec 27, 2021 |
|
The Pain of Anonymity in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946)
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Dec 20, 2021 |
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(post)script: Is “Die Hard” a Christmas Movie?
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Dec 13, 2021 |
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Attachments “Die Hard” at Nakatomi Tower
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Dec 06, 2021 |
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Mad as Hell in “Network” (1976)
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Nov 22, 2021 |
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Autonomy and Incest in Sophocles’s “Oedipus Rex”
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Nov 08, 2021 |
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Gender Opera in “Tootsie”
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Oct 25, 2021 |
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Our Name is Subtext, Podcast of Podcasts. Hear our “Ozymandias” Discussion, Ye Listeners, and Despair!
|
Oct 11, 2021 |
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Sex and Tech in “Alien” by Ridley Scott
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Sep 27, 2021 |
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Dead Wall Reveries in Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener”
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Sep 13, 2021 |
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Cursed Kids or Psych-Au Pair? “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James
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Aug 30, 2021 |
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Gentility and Injustice in “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
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Aug 16, 2021 |
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Realism as Cruelty in “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams
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Aug 02, 2021 |
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Prestidigitocracy in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939)
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Jul 19, 2021 |
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Formulated Phrases in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot: Part 2
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Jul 05, 2021 |
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Disturbing the Universe in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot: Part 1
|
Jun 21, 2021 |
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(post)script: Post-Apocalypse
|
Jun 14, 2021 |
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At Home with War in “Apocalypse Now” (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola
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Jun 07, 2021 |
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Unsound Methods in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”
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May 24, 2021 |
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On the Lam with “Thelma & Louise” (1991)
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May 10, 2021 |
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Spiritual Matters in Chekhov’s “The Student” and “A Medical Case”
|
Apr 26, 2021 |
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Art and Action in Chekhov’s “The House with the Mezzanine”
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Apr 12, 2021 |
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Nipped by Love in Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog”
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Mar 29, 2021 |
|
Business Gets Personal in “The Godfather” (1972)
|
Mar 01, 2021 |
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(post)script: Post-Hall: Pimps, Pills, and Automobiles
|
Feb 22, 2021 |
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Love and Nostalgia in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” (1977)
|
Feb 15, 2021 |
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Yielding to Suggestion in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”
|
Feb 01, 2021 |
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Clever Hopes in W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939”
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Jan 18, 2021 |
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The “Human Position” of Suffering in W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts”
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Jan 04, 2021 |
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Mutual Amusement in “The Awful Truth” (1937)
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Dec 21, 2020 |
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Against Specialization in Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler”
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Dec 07, 2020 |
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Kill Billy: Order and Innocence in Melville’s “Billy Budd”
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Nov 23, 2020 |
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(post)script: Post-Gatsby
|
Nov 16, 2020 |
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The American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”
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Nov 09, 2020 |
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Being Yourself in John Cassavetes’s “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974)
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Oct 26, 2020 |
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Worrying about the Future in Mike Nichols’ “The Graduate” (1967)
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Oct 05, 2020 |
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Slouching Towards Bethlehem in W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming”: Part 2
|
Sep 28, 2020 |
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Things Fall Apart in W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming”: Part 1
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Sep 21, 2020 |
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Filial Ingratitude in in Shakespeare’s “King Lear”
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Sep 14, 2020 |
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The “Intelligent Way to Approach Marriage” in Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954)
|
Sep 07, 2020 |
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The Acceptance of Mortality in Keats’s “To Autumn”
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Aug 31, 2020 |
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Escape into Art in Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale”
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Aug 24, 2020 |
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Truth as Beauty in Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
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Aug 17, 2020 |
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Mastery and Repetition in “Groundhog Day” (1993)
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Aug 10, 2020 |
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Love and Wit in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”
|
Aug 04, 2020 |
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(post)script: Debut
|
Aug 01, 2020 |
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Expediency and Intimacy in Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment” (1960)
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Jul 27, 2020 |
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Marital Economics in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
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Jul 20, 2020 |