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Critical Readings

CriticalReadings.com

Critical Readings examines key literary texts using close reading and critical analysis, and explains these approaches in discussion. Listeners will learn about the texts themselves and about how to approach a text for critical analysis.

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  • 29 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 7 min
  • English

Episodes 29

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  • June 15 · 1 hr 15 min

    CR Episode 327: The Once and Future King, Part III

    An Angle of Geese Released on 15 June 2026: The panel discusses chapters 14–19 of The Sword in the Stone, with special attention to White’s romanticised depiction of feudalism and the historical setting of the action, and with a comparison of the pacifistic views of the geese vs. the warlike ants. Watch on YouTube (may include YouTube ads) with this link.

  • June 8 · 1 hr 2 min

    CR Episode 326: The Once and Future King, Part II

    Arthur and Merlin in The Sword in the Stone (1963) Released on 8 June 2026: The panel reads chapters 8–13 of The Sword in the Stone, with a focus on the precise nature of Merlin’s magic and the ‘transformations’ experienced by the Wart (but not by Kay), and a detailed examination of the episode of the Ants and their collectivism. Watch on YouTube (may include YouTube ads) with this link.

  • June 1 · 1 hr 10 min

    CR Episode 325: The Once and Future King, Part I

    T. H. White Released on 1 June 2026: The panel reads the first seven chapters of The Sword in the Stone, with attention given to the modern and medieval aspects of the setting, White’s own narratorial voice, the differing metaphors and parallels of characterisation, and the original sources. Watch on YouTube (may include YouTube ads) with this link.

  • May 25 · 58 min

    CR Episode 324: The Poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Ralph Waldo Emerson Released on 25 May 2026: The panel reads three poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson—”Uriel”, “Ode Inscribed to William H. Channing”, and “The Snow Storm”—with special attention to the role of the poet-philosopher’s transcendentalist, romanticist, and abolitionist views in the poems.

  • May 18 · 1 hr 8 min

    CR Episode 323: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V

    The Banquet Scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) Released on 18 May 2026: The panel discusses the concluding act and scene of the play, with special attention to the linguistic wordplay and the Shakespearean critique of players, audiences, and critics alike in the both the play-within-a-play device and in Puck’s epilogue.

  • May 11 · 53 min

    CR Episode 322: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV

    Calista Flockheart, Christian Bale, Dominic West, and Anna Friel in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) Released on 11 May 2026: The panel discusses the resolution of the love quadrangle, as Puck puts right the enchantments in order to bring Oberon’s original plan to fruition, before turning to consider Titania’s relationship to her husband in the wake of her own enchantment.

  • May 4 · 1 hr 10 min

    CR Episode 321: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III

    Judi Dench and Ian Richardson in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968) Released on 4 May 2026: The panel discusses the deployment of additional fairy magic, with the transformation of Bottom and the confounding of Helena, and the confusion that results when both Bottom and Helena misbelieve that they are subject of their friends’ pranks.

  • April 27 · 1 hr

    CR Episode 320: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II

    Helen Mirren as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1981) Released on 27 April 2026: The panel discusses the second act and the moment in the play when the plans of the characters begin to go astray due to mischance, with special attention to the tension between Titania and Oberon, and the expanding geographical knowledge of the time.

  • April 20 · 52 min

    CR Episode 319: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I

    William Shakespeare Released on 20 April 2026: The panel discusses the setting and form of the play, before discussing the first act and its complicated love quadrangle, with attention given to love and the threat of violence, and the characters’ creation of overlapping plans that threaten to collide.

Showing 21–29 of 29 episodes