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Writ Large — Arts
Writ Large

There’s more to a book than what’s written on its pages: a book can change the world. In each episode of Writ Large, host Zachary Davis talks with one of the world’s leading scholars about one book that shaped the world we live in—whether you’ve heard of it or not. These conversations go beyond the plot summaries to unpack each book’s context and creation, and reveal its lasting influence on the ideas of today. Learn more at writlarge.fm

Copyright: © Zachary Davis

Latest Episodes:

On Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis' "The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas" Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is such a complex and clever allegory of Brazilian society that many readers didn’t initially understand just how searing its critique really was. Its author, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, was the grandson of former slaves writing to and about the slaveholding class at the time and is widely regarded as the most prominent Brazilian writer of all time. His writing is noted for its formal experimentation, and while this book is certainly funny and self-aware, it also communicates the cruelty of the Brazilian elite. Flora Thomson-DeVeaux is the translator of a new English version of The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, as well as many other texts. Sidney Chalhoub is a professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. His books include Machado de Assis, historiador, about the literature and ideas of Machado de Assis and A força da escravidão: ilegalidade e costume no Brasil oitocentista on illegal enslavement in nineteenth-century Brazil. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.

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On Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" Oct 21, 2022

Show notes

By the early 19th century, slavery was still a brutal reality in southern U.S. states, and a growing movement to abolish slavery nationwide was taking hold. In 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe published her first novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was intended to be an anti-slavery book, to provide a positive view of Black people in America. But it also has another, more complicated legacy, unintentionally birthing new racist stereotypes. Professor Robin Bernstein is a Professor of African and African American Studies and of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University. She is the author of Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights as well as Cast Out: Queer Lives in Theater and a children’s book titled Terrible, Terrible! See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.

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On Fyodor Dostoevsky’s "The Brothers Karamazov" Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

The Brothers Karmazov is Fyodor Dostoevsky’s last novel. In it, he presents his ideas about culture, the human soul, and God, and he uses his characters, the brothers Ivan, Dimitri, and Alyosha, as examples of his philosophical ideas. These brothers have to reconcile with the past, but also for their part in it. This book was a response to the conditions in Russia at the time it was written. And since then, it’s continued to shape philosophy itself. Yuri Corrigan is an Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature at Boston University. He studies the intersections of philosophy, religion, and psychology in modern Russian and European literature. He is the author of Dostoevsky and the Riddle of the Self and is working on two new books, titled Soul Wars and Chekhov as a Moral Thinker. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.

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On Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" Oct 19, 2022

Show notes

In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, an investigation into the nature of wealth. Smith is now considered the Father of Capitalism or the Father of Modern Economics. In fact, many people think of him as an economist and only an economist, but scholars tend to think of him as a moral philosopher. Smith lived in an era of great change, and the moral questions of the time were closely linked to developing politics and economies. Glory Liu is a College Fellow in Social Studies at Harvard University. She is currently working on an intellectual history of Adam Smith’s reception in American politics and political economy from the eighteenth century to the present. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.

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On Carl von Clausewitz's "On War" Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

Carl von Clausewitz wrote On War in 1832 after experiencing the Napoleonic wars. The eight books of this text contain Clausewitz’s theory of war. In it, he addresses the relationships between war and policy, tactics and strategy. A basic textbook in military academies, this book is read by both military strategists and political scientists. And it can be interpreted in two very different, but accurate ways. Gil-li Vardi is a military historian and visiting scholar at Stanford University where she teaches about military history, particularly the First and Second World Wars. She has published articles in War in History and the Journal for Strategic Studies. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.

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On Immanuel Kant's "Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals" Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Immanuel Kant’s early work wasn’t much to write home about. But as his career developed, Kant published incredible works of philosophy that continue to challenge and influence our greatest thinkers. In 1785, he published the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and challenged the foundations of human value. Professor Richard Bourke untangles this complex work and discusses how Kant—whether we realize it or not—has permeated our culture. Richard Bourke is a professor of the History of Political Thought at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke and Peace in Ireland: The War of Ideas. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.

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On Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" Oct 14, 2022

Show notes

Joseph Conrad, who published 20 books and several best-sellers by the time of his death, was also a sailor. Heart of Darkness follows seaman Charles Marlow’s journey down a river in Africa. It is Conrad’s most well-known book today. This tale of colonialism in Africa is shrouded in mystery, and the book itself has fallen in and out of favor since its publication. Harvard professor Maya Jassanoff discusses why Heart of Darkness is an exemplar of what it means to read a text within its historical context. Maya Jassanoff is a Harvard professor of History. Her book The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World won the Cundill Prize in History. She is also the author of Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World and Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm.

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On Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" Oct 13, 2022

Show notes

In 1651, the English Civil Wars were ending, and Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan. He used the book to advocate his ideal government: an absolute, monarchical sovereign. He also highlighted the problems that will inevitably arise in a democracy, the kinds of division and inaction that challenge us today. Professor Susanna Siegel discusses the way Hobbes’ Leviathan shaped the way we understand our everyday relationship to political institutions. Susanna Siegel is a professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. She is the author of The Rationality of Perception and The Contents of Visual Experience. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm.

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On Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Prince" Oct 12, 2022

Show notes

You may know the term “Machiavellian,” but where does the word really come from? Niccolò Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat who worked firsthand with Italy’s most powerful politicians. He wrote his famous book, The Prince, as a sort of instruction manual for the Medici princes of Florence. And while Machiavelli’s ideas were shocking to many—and repugnant to some—the influence of his ideas has been profound. James Hankins is a professor at Harvard University where he teaches History, focusing particularly on Renaissance intellectual history and political thought. He is the author of Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm.

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On Hannah Arendt's "Origins of Totalitarianism" Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

In 1951, following the Holocaust and Second World War, Hannah Arendt wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism. Arendt’s aim was in part to document and reflect on the atrocities that had occurred. But more importantly, she wanted to expose the elements of the human condition that enabled those atrocities to happen as well as the tools societies can use to fight totalitarian regimes. Amir Eshel is a professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature at Stanford University. He is the author of Poetic Thinking Today and Futurity: Contemporary Literature and the Quest for the Past. See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm.

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