“Tell Me about a Complicated Man”: A Homer Reading List
The amount of scholarship on Homer and his works can be daunting. We've created this introductory reading list to help guide your explorations.
So You Plan to Teach Moby Dick
The study of Melville’s novel is enhanced by contextualizing it with primary and secondary sources related to the American sperm whaling industry.
Writing Poetry in Prison as an Act of Resistance
A writer recounts her uncle's experiences writing poetry in prison and advocating for Indigenous rights. His death and his typewriter are intertwined.
How Do We Know That Epic Poems Were Recited from Memory?
Scholars once doubted that pre-literate peoples could ever have composed and recited poems as long as the Odyssey. Milman Parry changed that.
The Grumpiness of Little Women
By focusing in on the characters’ emotions, a scholar discovers something more than good little women. She finds surprisingly angry ones.
Full Disclosure: Why We Say Too Much When We Write Online
The internet is an emotional vampire. Scroll through your latest social network updates—or the headlines on Medium and ...
Remembering Wounded Knee at Standing Rock
Have you been wondering about the history of Standing Rock protests and the American Indian Movement? Learn why and how we “Remember Wounded Knee.”
It Turns Out Ordinary Life is Full of Poetry (Metaphorically Speaking)
The metaphor isn't just a literary device; it informs our conceptual understanding of language and the world.
From Twain to Fargo: the Outsider in American Storytelling
The Lorne Malvo character on the new Fargo TV series, is like the character Satan in Mark Twain's final novel, The Mysterious Stranger.
The Snow That Never Drifts: Emily Dickinson’s Slant Winter
Like many of her poems, Emily Dickinson's "The Snow That Never Drifts" presents a riddle for the reader