Medieval Friendships: No Girls Allowed
Medieval European elites inherited the classical concept of friendship as something possible only for men. Christine de Pizan and Margery Kempe beg to differ.
Yeats and the Occult Imagination
Beneath his poems lay a lifelong devotion to magic, divination, and a visionary system that shaped his most prophetic work.
Poetry’s Vital Role in Politics
Like Walt Whitman before them, Joy Harjo and Amanda Gorman are reimagining what it means to be a poet in this democratic republic.
Caught in Partition’s Violent Fray
Published seventy-five year ago, Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar explores the devastation suffered by the women of India and Pakistan after political rupture.
The Lessons of Due Process in Julius Caesar
Shakespeare's tragedy offers a telling parable about the administration of justice—and rife mishandling thereof—in our day.
The First Canadian Novel
Often considered the first Canadian novel, The History of Emily Montague revealed its author’s true feelings about colonial Quebec.
The Long and Winding Island
New York’s Long Island has long served as a backdrop for social and political conflicts between the newly arrived and the established residents.
Enchanting Imposters
Johns Hopkins University’s Bibliotheca Fictiva Collection of Literary and Historical Forgery shows that humans have been creating fan fiction and fake news for millennia.
The Enduring Popularity of Harry Potter
How has the Harry Potter series remained so beloved across decades filled with young adult and fantasy novels?
Dissident Memoirs Across Rust-Iron Curtains
Soviet dissident memoirs, like their authors, had to cross the Iron Curtain—an iron curtain of meaning and interpretation.