This article examines new theories and praxis of listening for silenced voices and of telling compelling stories that make us human. Elucidation of our Levinas-inspired theories of the Other is followed by a discussion of classroom practices for in-person and remote instruction that foster collaborative knowledge building and intersectional…[Read more]

It is my contention that iconic lyrics of this period register a shift in awareness of human psychology that gives them a status equal to that we might grant to major tragedies like Hamlet and King Lear, or novels such as Proust’s masterpiece and War and Peace. The contemporary literary and artistic consequences of this evolution are perhaps more…[Read more]

The Mocedades de Rodrigo is an epic poem in Castilian that narrates the fictional deeds of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the young Cid. The prose narrative of his youth first appears in 1295. The unique version in verse is preserved on a much later manuscript (ca. 1400). The poem includes the early history of the families of the poem’s two main pr…[Read more]

The Mocedades de Rodrigo is an epic poem in Castilian that narrates the fictional deeds of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the young Cid. The prose narrative of his youth first appears in 1295. The unique version in verse is preserved in a much later manuscript (ca. 1400). The poem includes the early history of the families of the poem’s two main pr…[Read more]

Describes and provides examples of modules and assignments for a sophomore Brit Lit survey and an upper-division poetics class that responded to student demands for a more racially diverse canon. Includes a brief discussion of Lucius Henry Holsey, enslaved worker on the UGA campus, who claimed to have learned to read from Milton’s Paradise Lost…[Read more]

Gender roles in Shakespeare’s plays take on new meanings when they are embodied by Asian actors. Learning more about Asian approaches to performance not only enriches our worldview but also makes Asian cultures less abstract and Asian people more relatable as fellow human beings. Reflecting the idea that strength and empowerment can take many f…[Read more]

Since the nineteenth century, stage and film directors have mounted hundreds of adaptations of Shakespeare drawn on East Asian motifs, and by the late twentieth century, Shakespeare had become one of the most frequently performed playwrights in East Asia. There are five striking themes surrounding cultural, racial, and gender dynamics. Gender…[Read more]

I briefly survey the function of books, written artifacts, literary criticism and connoisseurship/curation in apocalyptic literature from Mary Shelley to Malka Older (with a nod to the Book of Revelation) and in contemporary Young Adult fiction and “cli-fi” — science fiction and fantasy centered around climate change, such as Kim Stanley…[Read more]

This is a PDF I made to aid in navigating the 1521 Baldus based on the 2 vol edition by Attilio Portioli (1882-9)

Here are four different versions of a traumatic scene from the life and times of Baldus, starting with the woodcut print of Folengo’s 1521 Macaronic Works

Scanned images of woodcut prints from subsequent editions of Folengo’s 1521 Macaronic Works

51 full-page woodcut prints illustrate Folengo’s 1521 epic poem Baldus

The greatly augmented and extremely popular 1521 ediion of Folengo’s Macaronic Works features many extras: angry letters, highly laudatory letters, an accusation of text theft, a revealing dialogue and more

This essay suggests that with the increasing prominence of “historical poetics” as a set of social collectives, methodologies, and debates (especially about literary analysis), now seems to be an ideal time to assess its history and consider its future. The first part of the essay offers a genealogy of historical poetics, accounting for some of…[Read more]

A letter from Folengo’s pseudonym-personality, Merlin, to the printer Paganini, claiming that he does not want to relinquish his own copy for publication; a response from Paganini telling him that he got a copy of the text from Federico Gonzaga (accompanied by the letter Gonzaga sent to Paganini, 1520); a letter to the reader from Paganini, and a…[Read more]

In 1517 Teofilo Folengo published an epic poem under the name Merlin. Another Folengo pseudonym (or heteronym) wrote a wildly creative account of the dicovery of this text and praise for the author.

Este ensayo propone una lectura de Conquista de las islas Malucas (1609) del poeta, historiador y eclesiástico Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola (1562-1631) como un gabinete de curiosidades textual lleno de narraciones y objetos maravillosos. El autor emplea sus propias ideas sobre la escritura de la historia para crear una crónica de conquista co…[Read more]

This is the UNEDITED PRE-PRINT of my section of the multi-authored article “Journal of a Plague Year: Six Voices from American Universities,” ed. Christa Jansohn, which appeared in _Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen_. The other authors were Andrew James Hartley, Jean Howard, Christoph Irmscher, Anthony Lioi, and Lisa S.…[Read more]

This essay challenges the current dismantling of Shakespeare’s oeuvre by the questioning of the texts and authorship of many of his plays, in order to undercut their scripts’ authority, thereby authorizing drastic reinterpretations by critics and directors. The essay in contrast seeks to extend the authorship and flexibility of Shakespeare’s authorship