Critical Readings

The panel discusses the first half of the Quest for the Holy Grail, including Galahad's knightly debut, the arrival of the Grail in the court, Gawain's impetuous vow, and King Arthur's sorrow—and what it means for the common good of the realm.Continue reading

The panel reads the conclusion of the Tristram sequence, including the begetting of Galahad, with special attention to the quality of worshypfulness and how it may be acquired and kept, including by women and through means other than knyghtly prouesse.Continue reading

The panel reads of the Tournament at Surluse and the strife of the Orkney brothers, and considers in detail what a question about the use of a single word—lette—might imply not only for the character of King Arthur but for the entire Malorian project.Continue reading

The panel reads the King Mark sections of Le Morte Darthur—presenting the first fully-realised villain of the piece, complete with motivations, personality, and an identifiable modus operandi—and discusses its implications for Malorian kingship.Continue reading

The panel reads three episodes from the Tristram section—"Le Cote Male Tayle", "The Madness of Sir Tristram", and "The Tournament at the Castle of Maidens"—and examines the actions of four malevolent characters: Mordred, Morgan, Mark, and Mellyagaunce.Continue reading

The panel discusses the first two tales in the Tristram section—Sir Tristram and la Beall Isode and Sir Lamerok de Galys—with attention to Malory's sources, the Lancelot-Tristram parallelism, and the apparent shift towards an interest in courtly love.Continue reading

The panel discusses the episode of Sir Gareth of Orkney, with attention given both to the anti-egalitarian worldview and historical reality of the period, and to the role of violence and prouesse in the Arthurian Court—and the moral clarity it provides.Continue reading

The panel reads the tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake, with attention given to the features of mediaeval romance, Malory's use of humour and his knowledge of the details of knightly combat, and the different, sometimes competing ends of Arthurian governance.Continue reading

The panel reads the Roman War sequence with particular attention to Malory's use of historical progression, metaphor, and physical violence, especially in regard to his understanding of military knighthood and the use of wise counsel in governance.Continue reading

The panel catches up on the tale of "Balyn and Balan," before discussing "The Wedding of King Arthur" and "The Book of Adventures", with comments on the vexed nature of Malorian chivalry, and Malory's use of both foreshadowing and narrative parallelism.Continue reading

The panel discusses the biography of Sir Thomas Malory, the textual history of Le Morte Darthur, the lineage of King Arthur, and the initial formation of the textual world of Arthurian England, including Merlin, Uther, Igraine, Morgause, and Mordred.Continue reading

The panel closes discussion of Dryden's All for Love with an examination of the death of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, how the scene differs from that of Shakespeare, and what role is ultimately played by Octavius, even despite his absence from the stage.Continue reading

The panel discusses the penultimate act of Dryden's All for Love, with special attention to the depictions (or rather, lack thereof) of Octavius, the villainous portrayal of Alexas, and the play's lack of a clearly-defined figure of heroic virtue.Continue reading

The panel discusses the third act of Dryden's most successful play, All for Love, with particular attention to Marc Antony's lack of constancy, and Dryden's artistic reimagining of historical events in order to place Octavia in Cleopatra's palace.Continue reading

The panel reads the second act of John Dryden's All for Love, with special attention to the rhetorical manoeuvres of Cleopatra, and the psychological state of both Antony and Cleopatra, as their outsized emotional investments doom them both.Continue reading

The panel reads the first act of John Dryden's take on the story of Antony and Cleopatra, All for Love, with a focus on Marc Antony's mental state, the military situation with which he is confronted, and whether he is at fault for his circumstances.Continue reading

The panel concludes with the final act of Antony and Cleopatra, highlighting Octavius' intentions towards his defeated political foe, Cleopatra's attempt to escape the wheel of fate, and the Roman development of Boethius' response to Stoicism.Continue reading

The panel reads the fourth act of Antony and Cleopatra with particular attention to the character of Marc Antony and his worldview of personal honour and prowess, in conflict with the political schemes and grand designs of both Octavius and Cleopatra.Continue reading

The panel discusses the third act, with a focus on the deterioration of the Roman political situation, Marc Antony's skills as a battlefield leader and a political figure, and the sophisticated psychological understanding of both Octavius and Cleopatra.Continue reading

The panel discusses the second act of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, with a focus on the Roman political situation, the difference between republican and dictatorial rule, and Cleopatra's intoxicating effect upon those caught in her orbit.Continue reading

The panel reads the first act of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, providing an historical overview of the events, and reading the text with attention given to the psychological motivations of the drama and their historical context within Roman culture.Continue reading

The panel reads three poems by Lady Mary Wroth, from The Countess of Montgomery's Urania and Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, discussing their context, social impact, and the paradox of their genre conventionality but also Elizabethan authorial radicalism.Continue reading

The panel reads three poems by N. Scott Momaday, including "The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee", "The Monoliths", and "Rings of Bone" with special attention to the usage of active and passive symbolism, and the function of time, stasis, and circularity.Continue reading

The panel discusses Melville's short story, "Bartleby, the Scrivener", and examines the symbolism of its characters, the meaning of Bartleby's passive resistance, and the various interpretations of the work in light of history and literary theory.Continue reading

The panel reads three, middle-length poems by the XXth century imagist poet, Amy Lowell, with special attention to their use of garden-like symbolism, liminal spaces (physical and temporal), and the moon as a metaphorical representation of transience.Continue reading

The panel reads two later poems by Thomas Warton, including "Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's Painted Window at New College Oxford" and "Written at Vale-Royal Abbey in Cheshire," and considers them within the context of Anglicanism and the Enlightenment.Continue reading

The panel introduces one of the Graveyard Poets, Thomas Warton the Younger, and reads in full his most famous poem, "The Pleasures of Melancholy", with attention to how it prefigures the Romantics even as it remains part of the Augustan worldview.Continue reading

In advance of Burns Night, the panel reads four poems by Robert Burns, including "To a Mouse" and "For a' That and a' That", with special attention given to the presence of Romanticism, the use of dialect, and the brotherhood of mankind within nature.Continue reading

The panel discusses the second half of Melville's Benito Cereno, with a focus on the American abolition movement, the obliviousness (wilful or not) of Captain Amasa Delano, the mental domination of Benito Cereno, and Bobo's refusal to be subjugated.Continue reading

The panel provides a primer to academic publishing, including surveying the field, finding an argumentative niche, entering the conversation, and basic research practises, before moving on to symbolism in the first half of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno.Continue reading

The panel reads the last three staves, covering the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future, and Scrooge's penitential reformation, with special attention to Scrooge's position within the community, and the motivation behind his miraculous change.Continue reading

The panel reads the first two 'staves' of Charles Dickens' classic Christmas story, covering the visitation of the first two ghosts—Marley and Christmas Past—and discussing both Scrooge's miserly spirit and how he is humanised, rather than villainised.Continue reading

Dr. Madeline Potter joins the panel as a special guest to conclude, discussing Dracula's role as a theological monster, the original ending with the destruction of Dracula's castle, Mina's role as heroine, and the novel's differing depictions of death.Continue reading

The panel reads chapters 19–23, with a special focus on both Mina Harker's personality and her treatment at the hands of the male characters, along with the death of Renfield, the Count's ability to manipulate the elements, and his escape from London.Continue reading

The panel reads chapters 15–18 and discusses Stoker's use of cliffhangers and foreshadowing both as a textual convention and as a narrative device, before attending to Seward's unification of the materialist and metaphysical theories that he encounters.Continue reading

The panel discusses chapters 12-14, comprising a series of false endings both literal and metaphorical, with attention given to how Stoker's overall plot structure is replicated within individual episodes, and to the combination of faith and science.Continue reading

The panel welcomes guest expert Dr. Madeline Potter to discuss chapters 5–11, comprising the letters and journals of Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, and Dr. Seward, and their observations tragic and fantastical, from giant bats to bug-eating maniacs.Continue reading

The panel discusses the first four chapters of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with attention given to the history of the author and the text, the epistolary and gothic form of the novel in its Romantic context, and the narrative development of tension.Continue reading

The panel reads five poems from Hebrew Melodies, a cycle of poems by Lord Byron originally set to music by Isaac Nathan, including one of Byron's most-anthologised works, "She Walks in Beauty," and a companion piece to "The Destruction of Sennacherib".Continue reading

The panel discusses the two scenes of the final act of Hamlet, with attention to the text's focus on death, the mirroring of Hamlet with Fortinbras and Laertes, Horatio's constant companionship, Ophelia's burial, and the ultimate defeat of Claudius.Continue reading

The panel discusses seven scenes, with attention to Ophelia's innocence and madness, Laertes' hot-blooded response to the death of his father, Claudius' failure to demonstrate the wisdom and prudence of a good king, and Hamlet's apparent inscrutability.Continue reading

The panel reads Act III of Hamlet with attention to Hamlet's feigned (or semi-feigned) madness, his suicidal or existentially fatalistic attitude, and the instability and even fatal measure of his interactions with Ophelia, Polonius, and Queen Gertrude.Continue reading

The panel begins with a brief exercise in parsing Shakespearean prose, followed by a reading of Act II's scenes, with attention to Polonius' ambitious scheming, and Hamlet's feigned (or genuine?) madness with his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Continue reading

The panel reads the first act of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, providing an overview of the action and the textual history, with selected readings from within the five scenes paying particular attention to puns, irony, and the mirroring of characters.Continue reading

The panel discusses the concluding volume of Frankenstein, beginning with Victor's narration of his series of personal tragedies and ending with Captain Walton's letter describing the death of Victor and the monster's final, vengeful resolve.Continue reading

The panel discusses the second volume of Frankenstein (chapters 8–16) focusing on the moral qualities of Victor Frankenstein and of his creature, their connexion to Paradise Lost, and the dangerous results of mankind usurping the creative place of God.Continue reading

Madeline Potter joins the panel to begin a three-week reading of Mary Shelley's gothic novel, Frankenstein, with this week's discussion attending to the multiple frames of the narrative and the web of tension between pride, creation, and human endeavour.Continue reading

The panel reads and discusses "God's Grandeur", "Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend", and "The Windhover", attending to their Romantic underpinnings, anticipation of modern poetic developments, and formal characteristics including 'sprung rhythm'.Continue reading

In the final episode on Moby Dick, the panel discusses the fulfilment of Fedallah's prophecy and his death, Starbuck's dilemma and despair, the destruction of the Pequod, the death of Ahab, Ishmael on the margins, and some final genre considerations.Continue reading

In the penultimate Moby Dick episode, the panel discusses chapters 114–128, focusing on the ship's sails, quadrant, compass, and line; the refashioning of the Pequod into the expression of Ahab's will; and Ahab's final abandonment of his humanity.Continue reading