Category Archives: Classics

Frank Stella, Agha Shahid Ali: Moby-Dick into ghazals

Feb 20, 2014 Stella’s “Fedallah” isn’t anything like Melville’s: not the “tiger-yellow” apparition “with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips,” but a fluid, dancing figure, with some dark streaks and shadows, it’s true, but otherwise resplendent, impressive. … Continue reading

Posted in abstract expressionism, adaptation, Arabic, Classics, Middle East, Modern art, Near Eastern poetry, Poetry, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jane Austen’s Philadelphia, Toni Morrison’s Denver

January 30, 2013 2013  is the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice, so I’ve been learning new things about Jane Austen — for instance, the fact that her aunt was named Philadelphia, Phila for short.  Phila never saw Philadelphia; no, at … Continue reading

Posted in African-American literature, Cities, Classics, collaboration, Contemporary novel, Ethnicity, Race, slavery, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Frederick Douglass, H.D.: Egypt Again

Janurary 2, 2013 She never mentioned him and probably never read him.  Still, he anticipated her. Visiting Egypt in 1887, Douglass wrote: “I do not know of what color and features the ancient Egyptians were, but the great mass of … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, ancient Greece, Christianity, Classics, Comparative literature, Egypt, Gender, Global South, Islam, Modernist poetry, Poetry, Race, slavery, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Wars, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Muriel Rukeyser, Wallace Stevens: Books of the Dead

December 26, 1012 There’s a picture of the two of them – Stevens standing at the back, and Rukeyser seated in front with Marianne Moore.   To the left of him from where they were, and to the left of … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Classics, Egypt, Environmentalism, Experimental poetry, Global South, Journalism, Labor history, lyric, Poetry, print medium, Race, Remediation, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Vernacular dialects | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Two Toledos

April 25, 2012 I’m on my way to Toledo, I told people.  Ohio, not Spain, I added.  Then I found out that the two are in fact sister cities. The association began in the 1920s when University of Toledo President, … Continue reading

Posted in Arabic, architecture, Classics, Educational institutions, epic, Islam, Midwest, mixed races, Spanish, Translation, Universities, world literature, World religions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Iraq in Poetry: Brian Turner

April 4, 2012 Teaching his poetry was easy. There was never any doubt in my mind that it belonged in the course – along with Whitman on the Civil War; John Hersey on Hiroshima; Ha Jin on Korea; Michael Herr … Continue reading

Posted in Arabic, Classics, collaboration, Contemporary novel, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Educational institutions, epic, Handwritten script, Islam, lyric, Media, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Near Eastern poetry, Translation, Twentieth century literature, Universities, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia, Gilgamesh

February 22, 2012 I’ve never given a talk at UCLA.  Caltech, yes, in nearby Pasadena; also the Huntington Library.   But never at the famed Royce Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue. So I’m a bit anxious about tomorrow: a graduate student … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Classics, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Dance, epic, Handwritten script, Mesopotamia, Near Eastern poetry, Remediation, Theater, Translation, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 67 Comments

Margaret Fuller, H.D., Joanne Kyger

December 7, 2011 Why is it that all of them reach back to ancient Greece, and not always out of any reverence for the classics?   Of the three, Margaret Fuller is the most law-abiding: in Woman in the Nineteenth Century, … Continue reading

Posted in ancient Greece, Classics, Egypt, epic, Gender, Global South, Translation, Uncategorized, world literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments