Tag Archives: Wayne Booth

My Brilliant Friend, Cure for Loneliness?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 15, 2023

The child perspective in Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend” creates a special bond with the reader.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Angus Fletcher, Charlotte Bronte, Childhood, Company We Keep, Elena Ferrante, Emily Bronte, first person point of view, Hamlet, Jane Eyre, John Knowles, My Brilliant Friend, opera, penny dreadfuls, Separate Peace, William Shakespeare, Wonderworks, Wuthering Heights | Comments closed

Better Living through Lit–the Book

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2023

In which I talk about my book, which a publisher has just accepted.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Company We Keep, reader response | Comments closed

Does Lightweight Lit Do Damage?

By Robin Bates | Published: March 1, 2021

I look at how thinkers over the centuries have viewed so-called popular or lightweight literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Pope, Dunciad, Feminism, Frankfurt School, Frederick Engels, Herbert Marcuse, Jaws, John Dryden, Karl Marx, lightweight literature, Lovers' Vows, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Percy Shelley, Persuasion, Peter Benchley, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Terry Eagleton, W.E.B. Du Bois | Comments closed

My “Last Lecture”

By Robin Bates | Published: April 16, 2018

I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Divine Comedy, Goethe, Heart of Darkness, Horace, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum Wayne Booth, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Samuel Johnson, segregation, Sir Philip Sydney, Terry Eagleton, W. E. B. Du Bois | Comments closed

Theories about Lit’s Impact

By Robin Bates | Published: March 12, 2018

A transcript of a talk given at the University of Ljubljana on “how literature changes lives.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Frederick Engel, Horace, Karl Marx, Martha Nussbaum, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau du Plessis, Samuel Johnson, Sir Philip Sidney | Comments closed

My Dinner with Mladen

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2018

An account of a dinner with an old Slovenian friend and intellectual.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged intellectual conversations, Ion, King Lear, Mladen Dolar, Oedipus at Colonus, Pierre de Marivaux, Plato, Republic, Samuel Beckett, Sophocles, William Shakespeare, Worstward Ho | Comments closed

A Cosmic Theory of Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: November 11, 2015

My attempt at an overarching theory of literature and its place in human history and human progress.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Sir Philip Sidney, Terence, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

For a Rich Life, Read Widely and Freely

By Robin Bates | Published: October 27, 2015

Literature impacts our lives but the influence is best if we read a wide variety of works. Limiting ourselves to just a few authors can warp us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Company We Keep, D. H. Lawrence, ethics of fiction, Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Lit Classics, Our Most Valuable Friends

By Robin Bates | Published: September 22, 2015

Wayne Booth compares our relationship with books to our relationships with friends. Just as we can judge whether a friendship is good for us, so can we do so with a literary work.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Company We Keep, Ethics, ethics of fiction, reader response | Comments closed