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Tag: Prose

Moby Dick: The Lee Shore, by Rockwell Kent

CR Episode 177: Moby Dick, Part III

29 May 2023 Critical Readings

The panel discusses chapters 16-25, with a particular attention to characterisation beyond Ishmael and Queequeg–particularly that of Peleg, Bildad, Elijah, and Bulkington–and to the overarching Old Testament Biblical influences upon the narrative.

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Moby Dick: The Sermon, by Rockwell Kent

CR Episode 176: Moby Dick, Part II

22 May 2023 Critical Readings

The panel reads chapters 5-15, with a special focus on the description and narrative use of religious symbolism and devotional practice, contrasting the Christian Ishmael and the pagan Queequeg to illustrate Ishmael’s welcoming, fraternal worldview.

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Herman Melville FEATURED

CR Episode 175: Moby Dick, Part I

15 May 2023 Critical Readings

The panel reads the prologues and first four chapters of Moby Dick, provides an overview of the publication history of the text, and discusses the character and reliability of the jocular, circuitous narrator, who commands the reader to ‘Call me Ishmael.’

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Arctic Stars FEATURED

CR Episode 166: H. P. Lovecraft’s Polaris

13 March 2023 Critical Readings

The panel, joined by special guest Lane Haygood, reads H. P. Lovecraft’s Polaris, and discusses its rich symbolism, use of metaphor, deliberately archaic language, ambiguous resolution, and how its formal structure mirrors its narrative content.

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Peacock Pie, by Randolph Caldecott (from Irving's Sketch Book)

CR Episode 157: Washington Irving’s Christmas

9 January 2023 Critical Readings

The panel reads Washington Irving’s Christmas sequence from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and examines how its portrayal of an old-fashioned, English Christmas served to influence attitudes towards the ideal of Christmas in the United States.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne FEATURED

CR Episode 152: Young Goodman Brown

28 November 2022 Critical Readings

In Critical Reading’s first episode dedicated to a work of prose, the panel reads Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, Young Goodman Brown, and examines its allegorical structure, considering what it might suggest about both human nature and the modern era.

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John Donne FEATURED

CR Episode 61: Poetry and Prose of John Donne

28 December 2020 Critical Readings

If it must be Donne, let it be done well! The panel reads Donne’s selected poetry and prose: a Christmas sermon, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, “The Flea”, and selections from both “La Corona” and “Holy Sonnets”.

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