Episode 266: “Best of” Series – An Experiment in Criticism, Ch. 5-7
Release Date: 03/04/2025
Episode 295: “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, Part 2
The Literary Life Podcast
Today on The Literary Life podcast Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks continue their two-part series on Christina Rossetti’s narrative poem “.” They begin discussing this poem by connecting it with the larger conversation on art and the literary tradition, pointing out the flaws of modern ways of reading. Angelina emphasizes the importance of understanding this poem, as well as other classic works of fantasy, in terms of the fairy world and how symbolism and allegory work in fairy tales. After these preliminary thoughts, they go into more detail about this poem, including the obvious...
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Episode 294: “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, Part 1
The Literary Life Podcast
Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast! This week we begin a brief, two-episode series covering Christina Rossetti's narrative poem "." Our hosts, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks, look at the life and family background of Christina Rossetti, highlighting her devout Christian faith as key to understanding her poetry. Thomas shares the dates for the Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite periods in terms of art and literature. Angelina asks what the form of this poem is as we approach this together, and she and Thomas propose a few connections and preliminary ideas they have about "Goblin Market"...
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Episode 293: The Literary Tradition
The Literary Life Podcast
On today's episode of The Literary Life podcast, our hosts Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks attempt to get us closer to an answer to the question "What is the literary tradition?" After acknowledging the difficulty of approaching this question, Angelina shares an analogy for understanding the literary tradition as differing degrees of ability to see. The first big idea she wants us to consider is that literature is not a closed system but is a coherent, consistent, self-referential world of literature. Thomas and Angelina also discuss the resonances and symbols of the tradition, the problem...
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Episode 292: The Age of Innocence on Screen
The Literary Life Podcast
On today’s episode of The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina and Thomas are joined by Atlee Northmore to discuss film adaptations of Edith Wharton’s . After sharing their commonplace quotes, Atlee begins outlining the history of screen adaptations of Edith Wharton’s novels, some of which were made during her own lifetime. Angelina and Thomas talk about their high standards for movie adaptations of books and how Scorsese’s film surpassed their expectations. Together they discuss Scorsese’s inspiration for this film, the painstaking detail of each scene in the film, how the editing...
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Episode 291: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ch. 22-End
The Literary Life Podcast
This week on The Literary Life Podcast we wrap up the book discussion portion of our series on Edith Wharton’s . Today, Angelina and Thomas begin with chapter 22, going through the significant scenes all the way to the end of the book. They talk about the ways in which this book is an elegy, as well as the continued glimpses of “the family” as the main character. They also discuss the ways in which May shows herself to be more cunning that she pretends in contrast to Ellen’s lack of pretense. Other topics of discussion are America’s relationship with foreign influence, Archer’s...
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Episode 290: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Ch. 9-21
The Literary Life Podcast
Welcome to The Literary Life Podcast and our series covering by Edith Wharton. Angelina and Thomas open with their commonplace quotes, then begin discussing the events and characters of this section of the book. Some of the ideas they build on this week are the challenges to social conventions, the many references to the goddess Diana and May’s “boyishness”, examples of the pretense of society, and the language of flowers. In addition, Thomas shares his feelings about the character of Newland Archer, and Angelina points out the recurring themes of love triangles throughout these...
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Episode 289: “The Age of Innocence” by Edith Wharton, Ch. 1-8
The Literary Life Podcast
Welcome to The Literary Life Podcast and a new series featuring the book . Our hosts, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks introduce us to American Gilded Age author, Edith Wharton, the "First Lady of American Letters." They also share their own experiences with reading Wharton's stories, novels, and letters, as well as some background on the time period and cultural context in which she was writing. In discussing the first several chapters of this book, Angelina and Thomas point out small details and subtleties that Wharton uses to give us hints about the characters and situations she presents....
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Episode 288: Literary Milestones
The Literary Life Podcast
On today’s episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina and Thomas will be talking about the milestones of a reader’s literary life. This episode developed in response to the many questions they’ve received over the years about challenges people face throughout their reading lives. They begin by thinking back to childhood and recalling the first time they each chose a book for themselves and fell in love with the story, as well as the feeling of getting their first library cards as children. Thomas asks Angelina when was the first time she found herself arguing with a book, and he...
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Episode 287: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, “Tiger, Tiger”
The Literary Life Podcast
On today’s episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas wrap up their discussion of by Rudyard Kipling with the final Mowgli story–“Tiger, Tiger.” Before beginning to talk about the story, the chat a little about Kipling’s other works and his place in literary history and what sort of writer he was. In this section, Angelina points out the parallels to the first story, as well as the mythic qualities of the whole tale. Together they cover the various ideas in this section, including the ideas of belonging, freedom and boundaries, and heroism. Join is next week...
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Episode 286: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, “Kaa’s Hunting”
The Literary Life Podcast
On The Literary Life podcast this week, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas continue their discussion of by Rudyard Kipling. After sharing their commonplace quotes for this week, they begin talking about “Kaa’s Hunting.” Angelina asks Cindy about the age range for this book, which is recommended on students. They talk about Mowgli’s upbringing and training in the law of jungle, in contrast to the monkeys who are lawless. Other highlights of this conversation are the Edenic ability of Mowgli to speak to the animals, the complex role of the serpent in folklore, and the resurrection imagery in...
info_outlineAngelina and Cindy open today’s discussion of C. S. Lewis’ An Experiment in Criticism with a recap of the terms that Lewis defines in chapters 5-7, starting with myth. They talk about what it means to have an “extra-literary” experience and how to cultivate the proper attitude of a good reader. Next Cindy and Angelina dig into the definition and benefits of literary fantasy versus the dangers of morbid fantasy. They talk about our deep need for stories of “the other” and have experiences with people and places that are not the same as our own.
Another big topic of conversation is the idea of literature being escapist, particularly fantasy and fairy stories. Angelina and Cindy talk about several things related to this idea: belief and disbelief, fiction versus nonfiction, and the wonder of childhood. Cindy brings up Lewis’ comments on the comic and what relation that has to the current popularity of the graphic novel. Angelina also explains why we shouldn’t be looking to directly relate to a character in a novel in order to get something out of the book.
To view the full show notes for this episode, including quotes, poetry, and book links, please visit https://theliterary.life/266/.