A podcast about reading texts like an English professor. Your host is Michael Ullyot, Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary. Episodes are designed to appeal to curious and intelligent non-specialists. For more information, contact the host at { ullyot@ucalgary.ca }.
Examine Shakespeare's tragedy of love, jealousy, and manipulation. From Venice's political intricacy to Cyprus's contested shores, we analyse how Shakespeare intertwines personal drama with geopolitical conflict. Explore why *Othello* continues to engage audiences over 400 years after its premiere.
4 Sept 2024
How to Read Sir Philip Sidney's The Defence of Poesy
Sir Philip Sidney's The Defence of Poesy, written around 1580 and published posthumously in 1595, is the first significant work of literary criticism in English. This episode explores Sidney's arguments for poetry's power to teach and delight, his concept of the poet as a creator of "golden worlds," and his assertion of poetry's superiority over other disciplines in moving readers to virtuous action.
NOTE: I say 1580 was “340 years ago,” but of course that’s off by a century. English professors evidently can’t do math.
For my complete read-through of The Defence of Poesy, start here.
22 Mar 2024
How to Read Richard Wagamese’s Medicine Walk
Richard Wagamese’s 2014 novel Medicine Walk is the story of Franklin Starlight’s journey of mutual discovery with his dying father. It’s a novel about storytelling, and the personal and cultural identities that stories confer; but also about humans knowing their place on the land — a knowledge that goes beyond words and theories to experience, to embodiment rather than mental understanding.
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