On Shakespeare’s “illiteracy”
This year marks 400 years since the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, but why was he singled out for his lack of knowledge about classics, as well as his “illiteracy”?
Found in translation: how the amateur translator brought Asian classics to a 19th century audience
Today, translation is a professionalized activity closely linked to the publishing industry. For most of the nineteenth century, however, this organized chain of production had yet to be established.
Translating Proust again
“There is no ideal, ultimate translation of a given original. Classic texts in particular, from Homer onwards, are susceptible of multiple readings and retranslations over time.” Brian Nelson discusses translations of classic works and the difficulties with translating Proust in particular.
Five children’s classics that stand the test of time [reading list]
The books people remember most are often the ones from their childhoods, and it’s no surprise; many children’s books have survived decades of changing tastes and digital distractions, continuing to entertain generations of children and even adult readers.
Melville’s wisdom: making the past speak to the present
Damien B. Schlarb discusses how “Melville’s wisdom,” the version of moral philosophy Herman Melville crafts in his fiction through his engagement with biblical wisdom literature, may help us confront our own moment of informational inundation and uncertainty.
“There is no writer can touch sir Walter Scott”: Joyce and the Wizard of the North
There is a network of intertextual links between Walter Scott and James Joyce. Richard Barlow teases out some of the allusions and references to Scott and his work in Joyce’s texts, comparing the different visions of history offered by these two writers.
Bringing museum collections to life
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has declared a focus for 2023 on sustainability, well-being, and community.
How well do you know your twentieth-century literature? [Quiz]
Try this short quiz to test your knowledge and learn more about famous twentieth-century texts!
“Think like a forest”: how forest literature can help us fight climate change
The gargantuan task of the fight against climate change needs practical know-how and political militancy. It also requires a clear sense of its wider goals. Robert Spencer explores how “forest literature” can help us to formulate new ways of inhabiting the living world.
Beaumarchais and Electronic Enlightenment
The addition to Electronic Enlightenment of nearly 500 letters from the Beaumarchais correspondence is a significant event in eighteenth-century studies.
Xenophon’s kinder Socrates
The idea that Xenophon’s Socratic dialogues entirely lacked the philosophical bite or intellectual depth of Plato’s had become a commonplace in a philosophical discourse which prioritised abstract knowledge over broader ethics. Dr Carol Atack makes the case for Xenophon’s kinder Socrates.
Reading Between the Lines: Bernard MacLaverty’s Grace Notes and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland
A novel about a female composer struggling with depression after the birth of her child does not, on the face of it, seem to have much to do with war or peace in Northern Ireland. But appearances can be deceiving.
Why read Proust in 2023?
The world is literally on fire; authoritarianism threatens multiple countries; racism and xenophobia are rampant; women’s and LGBTQ rights are under threat—why on earth would anyone spend time reading a 3,000-page novel by a man who’s been dead (exactly) a hundred years?
Macbeth, King James, and biting the hand that feeds you?
Possibly the most dangerous play William Shakespeare wrote was The Tragedie of Macbeth. The drama is packed with illegality: assassination of kings; prophecies about kings; supernatural women; and necromancy. To add to the danger, Shakespeare’s employer, King James, was a prickly patron of the performing arts and notorious for his sensitivity to slights, real and perceived. […]
A Black Irish-American rejoinder to Gone With The Wind: Frank Yerby’s The Foxes of Harrow
“The Foxes of Harrow” (1946), a Southern historical romance by Black Irish-American author Frank Yerby (1916–1991), writes back to Margaret Mitchell’s bestselling novel, “Gone with the Wind” (1936). Although Yerby and Mitchell were both raised in Georgia during segregation by mothers of Irish descent, their socially assigned racial identities created divergent approaches to representing the pre- and post-Civil War South in their respective novels.
Sir Stanley Wells and the First Folio
2023 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication the First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays, which has since acquired the status of a cultural touchstone.