Episode 125 - Literary Theory & Literary Criticism

Book Club for Masochists: a Readers’ Advisory Podcast

This episode we’re talking about Literary Theory & Literary Criticism! We discuss what literature even is, books we haven’t read, preconceived notions, and much more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

• The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
• How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard, translated by Jeffrey Mehlman
• Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan D. Culler
• The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Is Gender Necessary?
• A Century of Weird Fiction, 1832–1937: Disgust, Metaphysics, and the Aesthetics of Cosmic Horror by Jonathan Newell
• Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction by Sami Schalk

Other Media We Mentioned

• XKCD - Types of Scientific Paper
• Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison
• The ecology of dystopia : an ecocritical analysis of young adult dystopian texts by Stephanie Dror
• Anne of Green Gables (Wikipedia)
• The Hunger Games (Wikipedia)
• Merlin (2008 TV series) (Wikipedia)
• The Vampire Diaries (novel series) (Wikipedia)
• Harry Potter (Wikipedia)
• The Third Man by Graham Greene
• The Collaborators by Pierre Siniac, translated by Jordan Stump (originally published in French as Ferdinaud Céline)
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips
• No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Annals of Pard (blog posts about cats)

Links, Articles, and Things

• Episode 084 - Political Non-Fiction
• Virginia Woolf (Wikipedia)
• Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism (Purdue)
• Racebending (Wikipedia)
• Category:Star Trek fandom (Wikipedia)
• Hugo Award (Wikipedia)
  • Best Fanzine
  • Best Fan Artist
  • Best Fan Writer
  • Best Fancast
• The Critic as Artist by Oscar Wilde
  • Read it online
• Very Short Introductions (Wikipedia)
• Robert Crumb (Wikipedia)
• James Tiptree Jr. (Wikipedia)
• Norman Mailer (Wikipedia)
• Episode 047 - Creative Writing/Books About Writing

20 Literary Theory Books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

• In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures by Aijaz Ahmad
• Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
• The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat
• The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
• Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice
• Ex-Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani
• Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? by Jesse McCarthy
• Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison
• The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
• The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership by Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ
• Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing edited by Stephanie Stokes Oliver
• Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991 by Salman Rushdie
• Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race by Naben Ruthnum
• Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction by Sami Schalk
• In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe
• Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith
• The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
• Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers edited by Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton
• The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy: Gambling, Drama, and the Unexpected by Edwin Wong

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Join us again on Tuesday, May 18th, we’ll be talking about Books We Did Not Finish!

Then on Tuesday, June 1st we’ll be discussing the genre of Crime Fiction!