The History of Literature

Latest Episodes:

368 The Story of the Nativity (with Stephen Mitchell) Dec 20, 2021

Show notes

Stephen Mitchell has translated or adapted some of the world's most beautiful and spiritually rich texts, including The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, Gilgamesh, Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad Gita, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, and The Way of Forgiveness. In his latest book, The First Christmas: A Story of New Beginnings, he brings the Nativity story to life as never before. In this special episode, Jacke talks to Stephen about his translations, his search for spiritual truths, and his work imagining the story of the first Christmas from multiple points of view.

Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

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367 The Beatles and the Power of Narrative | Tolstoy on Twitter Dec 16, 2021

Show notes

Jacke talks to Mike Palindrome about his work on the "Tolstoy Together" project sponsored by Yiyun Li and A Public Space, along with some other thoughts about reading great books on Twitter. THEN Jacke responds to the incredible Peter Jackson film Get Back, with some thoughts about the stories we tell about the Beatles and how narratives shape our understanding who we are and how we fit in the world. He also runs through the reasons usually given for the Beatles breakup, assesses them for their narrative power, and offers up a new idea that just might be the most powerful of all.

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366 Evelyn Waugh (with Phil Klay) Dec 13, 2021

Show notes

The English novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was regarded by many as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his time. A self-proclaimed curmudgeon, for whom the Conservative Party was not conservative enough, Waugh converted to Catholicism in his twenties and never looked back. He resisted change in all areas of life, expressing the opinion that he wished he had been born two or three centuries earlier. At his best, he was darkly funny, using his misanthropy like a bright light to illuminate cracks and flaws in society's foundations, and using his pointed wit to skewer anyone and everyone he encountered, including himself. At his worst, he was a crazy quilt of what George Orwell called "untenable opinions," with all the racism and anti-semitism one might expect from a self-satisfied man of his era. In this episode, Jacke is joined by author Phil Klay to discuss Waugh's religion, military background, and his novel A Handful of Dust in particular. The two also discuss Klay's award-winning fiction, his writing process, what it means to be a Catholic writer in Waugh's time and our own, and the new podcast American Veteran: Unforgettable Stories, which Klay hosts.

PHIL KLAY is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. His short story collection Redeployment won the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction and was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times. His debut novel, Missionaries, was released in October 2020 with Penguin Press.

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365 Moby Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Odyssey (A Bob Dylan Reading List) | PLUS Some thoughts on Charles M. Schulz Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

Your humble podcaster-squirrel is back! Jacke considers the legacy of Charles M. Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown and Peanuts, and reflects on the difference between being "best known for" and "known for" an artistic endeavor. THEN Jacke continues the discussion of Bob Dylan and literature (is his music literature? is it not? does "poetic song verse" bridge this gap?) with Dylan's own words on the centrality of literature to his music, as delivered in his speech accepting the Nobel Prize.

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364 Bob Dylan, the Blues, and Songs with Literary Power (with Mike Mattison and Ernest Suarez) Dec 06, 2021

Show notes

What happened in the Sixties? How did singers of popular music transform from mere entertainers to the poetic bards of their generation? Were these songs literature? If so, what does that mean? And if not, what exactly are they? In this episode, Jacke talks to the authors of a new book, Poetic Song Verse: Blues-Based Popular Music and Poetry about a new way of acknowledging, analyzing, and discussing the literary qualities of works by singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and those who came before and after.

MIKE MATTISON is a singer, songwriter, and founding member of Scrapomatic and the Tedeschi Trucks Band with whom he has won two Grammy Awards.

ERNEST SUAREZ is the David M. O'Connell Professor English at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He has published widely on southern literature, poetry, and music.

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363 William Butler Yeats Dec 02, 2021

Show notes

Born into a remarkable family full of talented artists, the Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (1865-1938) nevertheless stood out. Deeply immersed in mysticism and the occult - along with Irish politics, the development of the theater, and devotion to advancing the spirit of Ireland's native heritage - Yeats bridged the divide from the traditional verse forms of the nineteenth century to the concision and vivid imagery of modernism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923 and continued to write until his death at the age of 73. In this episode, Jacke takes a (partial) look at one of the great figures of twentieth century literature.

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362 Kurt Vonnegut (with Tom Roston) Nov 29, 2021

Show notes

Jacke talks to journalist Tom Roston about his new biography of Kurt Vonnegut, The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse Five. PLUS Jacke reads excerpts from one of Vonnegut's most famous speeches, the address he gave to Agnes Scott College in 1999. Enjoy!

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361 Five Glimpses of Gratitude (Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, WS Merwin) Nov 25, 2021

Show notes

Feeling grateful, Jacke rummages through the literary storage trunk to find works on gratitude by five poets and essayists: Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, and W,S. Merwin. Enjoy!

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360 FMK Shakespeare! (with Laurie Frankel) | Tolstoy's Gospel (with Scott Carter) Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

It's a good day for cooking! First up: Scott Carter, author of the play Discord: The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy, joins Jacke for a look at the gospel as updated by Leo Tolstoy. Then novelist Laurie Frankel (author of One Two Three) stops by for a special Shakespeare game. Hope you enjoy!

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359 Forgotten Women of Literature 6 - Eliza Haywood and Fantomina | PLUS Keats's Letter on Shakespeare and "Negative Capability" Nov 18, 2021

Show notes

During her stormy and mysterious life, Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756) was one of the most prolific writers in England. Her "amatory fictions" were unapologetically sensationalistic, earning her the opprobrium of her mostly male critics. But in spite of being described (some might say slandered) by Alexander Pope in his Dunciad, Haywood kept going - acting, writing, translating, publishing - and set many trends even as she bridged the divide from one era to another. Today, she stands as a remarkable figure, with novels like Fantomina demonstrating her willingness to explore themes of gender politics, sexual passion, and contemporary scandals long before it was common to do so.

PLUS Jacke takes a look at one of the most famous letters in literature, Keats's epiphanic description of Shakespeare's "negative capability," including the painting Keats had just gone to see.

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