literature
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Defending The Western Canon, vol. II (Aesthetic value & Kafka)
As a staunch defender of the Western Canon as it has been characterised by the likes of Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Harold Bloom, George Steiner, Frank Kermode, among many other of our classic, canon-centric critics, I find—as I have done before, see vol. I—that it is necessary to illuminate the notion of “aesthetic merit” as… Continue reading
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Fernando Pessoa’s (unpublished) play: The Duke of Parma
It was around 1909, according to biographer Richard Zenith, that Pessoa wrote the first pages of passages and scribbled fragmented notes for his five-act play, “The Duke of Parma: A tragedy.” Which, if it sounds rather Shakespearean, was supposed to be just that. According to Zenith: “It is one of the largest and weirdest of… Continue reading
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Hegel’s Logic: You have been taught the Hegelian system wrongly
It is no coincidence I have chosen Dutch painter Judith Leyster’s The Last Drop as the “pictorial reference”, as it were, for this crucial issue of which I am, at long last, about to expound. I touched on this in my Walt Whitman essay and later in my commentary on King Lear; but what instigated… Continue reading
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Tennyson’s Ulysses seen through Wallace Stevens’s: Prologues To What Is Possible. A perspective on the Tennysonean Ulysses
I have admired and read Wallace Stevens for years (see my appreciation of Stevens here), and just the other night, while re-reading my way through Harold Bloom’s exuberant A Map of Misreading (1975), in which Stevens is a central figure, I took to my Complete Poetry & Prose edition of Stevens (The Library of America… Continue reading
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From Philip Levine’s: The Simple Truth (1994)
Here’s an excerpt from one of my most treasured poets, Philip Levine, and his exuberant ‘The Simple Truth’, written in 1994, for which he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Like other modern poets such as Wallace Stevens, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell and James Schuyler, among others, Levine is included in Harold… Continue reading
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Emily Dickinson is a cornerstone of Western Literature
I intend this short, introductory essay to be a companion to my “Dissecting Dickinson” series in which I analyse (or, as it was, dissect) Dickinson’s poems. Each is linked here:From Blank to Blank —My Wheel Is in the Dark!The Guest Is Gold and Crimson Within Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon there are approximately 800 authors,… Continue reading
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From Robert Lowell’s: For Lizzie And Harriet (1973)
If there is a poet with whom I find myself connected, perhaps more so than any other, it is Robert Lowell. While his Pulitzer-winning books of poetry Lord Weary’s Castle (1946) and The Dolphin (1973) are best known among readers (and these are indeed magnificent works), it is, quite consistently, his ‘For Lizzie and Harriet’… Continue reading
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Where to start with Henry James
Henry James, of whom I presently, and with possibly the greatest literary joy of my life, have read anything and everything there is to read, is by far one of the best, most refined, most scandalously clever authors I have had the pleasure of reading. It is no secret by now, I am well aware,… Continue reading
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Reflections on Goethe’s: Faust part 1 and Ibsen’s: Peer Gynt & A Doll’s House
The essays on this blog have, thus far, been singularly analytical in their approach as far as the works dissected, from Shakespeare to Dickinson, from Rabelais to Whitman, from Nabokov to Montaigne. However, as many of these essays take much time and effort, I have had in mind for some time posting (in between larger,… Continue reading
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Shakespeare’s King Lear, scene 1.1: Full commentary
The Tragedy of King Lear may very well be Shakespeare’s crowning achievement, and possibly the best play written in literary history. Personally, I am divided between King Lear and Hamlet, though in periods Othello and Macbeth will make their appearance, in periods Antony and Cleopatra or Measure for Measure. Even The Tempest, Twelfth Night or… Continue reading
The Western Canon 