Tag Archives: sexual assault

Using Novels for Sexual Assualt

By Robin Bates | Published: February 27, 2020

In Sanditon the novel, unlike the television series, the villainous Sir Edward Denham reads novels. He learns the wrong lessons from Samuel Richardson, however.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Clarissa, Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Moll Flanders, Pamela, rakes, Samuel Richardson, Sanditon, seduction | Comments closed

Teach Chaucer to Address Sexual Assault

By Robin Bates | Published: January 17, 2019

Thursday I’ve been talking with Idaho English teacher Glenda Funk, who is proposing a panel for the upcoming NCTE convention (National Council of Teachers of English) on teaching literature in ways that make a tangible difference in students’ lives. After I mentioned how The Wife of Bath’s Prelude and Tale foreground issues of sexual assault, […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Geoffrey Chaucer, Laurie Halse Anderson, Rape, Speak, Wife of Bath's Tale | Comments closed

Lit as a Survival Toolkit

By Robin Bates | Published: January 3, 2019

Thursday Friend and occasional guest blogger Carl Rosin alerted me to a heartfelt Commonweal article by an English professor describing how literature helped her confront and work through childhood abuse. Cassandra Nelson’s difficult history leads to some remarkable insights into trigger warnings, which she opposes. Nelson’s view on trigger warnings is pretty much my own […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bluest Eye, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Bruno Bettelheim, childhood trauma, Dante, Inferno, Junot Diaz, King Lear, sexual abuse, Toni Morrison, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Kavanaugh-Pentheus vs. Angry Women

By Robin Bates | Published: September 28, 2018

Euripides’s “Bacchae” gives us good insights into Kavanaugh’s alcohol consumption and his relation with women.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged alcohol, Bacchae, Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford, Euripides, Senate Judiciary hearings | Comments closed

Atwood and the Aziz Ansari Affair

By Robin Bates | Published: January 17, 2018

Margaret Atwood is under fire for her cautions about #MeToo movement. Her novels are useful, however, in the Aziz Ansari affair.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Hustand", Alias Grace, Aziz Ansari, bad date, Cat's Eye, Handmaid's Tale, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Margaret Atwood | Comments closed

#MeToo: A New Day for Cassandra

By Robin Bates | Published: December 27, 2017

The prophetess Cassandra wasn’t listened to, but the #MeToo movement is changing that.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aeschylus, Agamemnon, MeToo, patriarchy, sexual harassment | Comments closed

Shakespeare & Sexual Assault Politics

By Robin Bates | Published: November 24, 2017

As he demonstrates in “Measure for Measure,” Shakespeare would understand the ins and outs of modern sexual assault politics.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Harvey Weinstein, Measure for Measure, Roy Moore, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Chaucer’s Solution for Sexual Assault

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2017

What are we to do about all of our sexual assaulters, given that they probably number in the thousands? Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has an answer.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Al Franken, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Roy Moore, sexual harassment, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale | Comments closed

Tess, More Relevant Than Ever

By Robin Bates | Published: November 14, 2017

Students find Hardy’s “Tess” to be only too relevant In the age of Trump, Weinstein, and Roy Moore.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Donald Trump, Henry James, Robert Louis Stevenson, Roy Moore, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy | Comments closed