The Literary Inspirations for Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique
The creative works on which Hector Berlioz drew when writing his macabre and revolutionary symphony were fantastic indeed.
A Close Partnership: Ray and Charles Eames
The Eameses worked together across many fields, but their house in the Pacific Palisades remains the most celebrated example of their collaborative designs.
Leigh Hunt, the Unstoppable Critic
Convicted and imprisoned for libeling the Prince Regent, Hunt capitalized on his incarceration by turning his prison cell into a newsroom and grand salon.
Joseph Conrad’s Travel Stories Weren’t Black and White
Conrad’s celebration of imperial exploration is accompanied by an acknowledgment that such feats often go hand-in-hand with oppression and exploitation.
Is There an LGBTQ+ Canon?
An English professor considers the questions raised about selecting queer works for study and discussion when planning a course on LGBTQ+ literature.
12 Poems by Frank O’Hara
Plus his manifesto on Personism and writings about O’Hara by Ted Berrigan, Joseph LeSueur, and Joe Brainard.
Graffiti Limbo
A University of Virginia professor enlisted students to document the messages—profane, hopeful, despairing—left on library carrels by previous generations.
Turning Orwell into Propaganda
Many read the novels of George Orwell as pro-capitalist/anti-socialist propaganda, but his work has become a resource for all kinds of political arguments.
10 Sestinas by Modern and Contemporary Poets
The sestina form features the repetition of end words across stanzas. Here are sestinas by Louise Glück, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth Bishop, Patricia Smith, and more.
Cultural Villages in South Africa
Originally viewed as a way to educate tourists on the multiple peoples and traditions of South Africa, cultural villages may soon be a thing of the past.