Literate

Episode 15: Books of the Century Season Finale

What makes a "book of the century"? And who gets to decide which books make the cut? Over the past two seasons of Literate, we have been asking these questions while reading through the New York Public Library's 1995 list of the books of the century. Each episode, we explore one book from that list and why it matters. This week, however, we do something a little different. We look back over our episodes and discuss the criteria that have emerged for what makes a book of the century. Plus, we tackle some tricky questions about the value of literary classics, canons, and "books of the century".

It is our great pleasure to also feature two experts on this episode. First, we interview Ankhi Mukherjee, who is Professor of English and World Literatures at the University of Oxford. She offers erudite insights into why the classic still matters in a world marked by competing cultural values. Ankhi is the author of the award-winning book What is a Classic? Postcolonial Rewriting and Invention of the Canon, and her next book, Unseen City: The Psychic Lives of the Urban Poor, is coming out later this year.

Later, we interview Lynn Lobash, who is the Associate Director of Reader Services at the New York Public Library. Lynn gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the process of making reading lists like the one our podcast explores. Having worked at the NYPL for eighteen years, she also explains how the approach to making these lists has changed over time. Today, the reading lists that she makes, and those produced by a staff that she trains across the library's 92 locations, are far more "reader centered". 

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Episode 14: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

This week we wander through The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot. Written in the aftermath of the Great War, this long poem uses a diverse array of voices to convey a sense of disillusionment with modern life. Those voices range from the parodic to the sacred, as the poem interweaves hundreds of allusions to mythology, major world religions, literary classics, dance hall tunes, a nursery rhyme, and conversations from daily English life. So we discuss what to make of so many fragmentary images and sounds, while also asking how they reflect a postwar moment of dramatic historical and cultural change.

Two specialists, both of whom are poets and literary scholars, offer wonderful contributions to this episode. An interview with Gabrielle McIntire, who is Professor of English at Queen's University in Canada and editor of The Cambridge Companion to The Waste Land, orients our conversation about this poem. And notably, her own debut poetry collection, Unbound, comes out next month. Later we have a more free-wheeling chat about Eliot and his impact with Hannah Sullivan, who is a Tutor in English at New College, Oxford, and whose debut collection Three Poems was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2018.

**WE NEED YOUR HELP! Send us a short audio recording of your answer to the question "What makes a book of the century?" and you might be featured on the final episode of the season!**

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com

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Episode 13: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

We step into a world of uncertainty, this week, with The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. In this ghost story, a young woman takes up a new job as a governess, caring for two children who seem almost too good to be true... But while the governess tells a tale of ghostly visitations, her story brims with ambiguity and cause for doubt. As a result, readers have drawn enormously different conclusions about what, exactly, even happens. And the horror of this story really turns on James's super-sensitivity to nuance, as well as his sense of fun. Those qualities have kept readers entertained for over a hundred years, while also fueling major scholarly debates and shaping the genre of horror itself, not least by inspiring a slew of adaptations, like the recent Netflix series, "The Haunting of Bly Manor".

What a pleasure it is to hear from this week's two expert guests! In an extended reflection, Dara Downey, who lectures at Trinity College Dublin, tells us about what makes this such a great ghost story. We later learn more about the rich history the book's reception in an interview with Jonathan Warren, who is Associate Professor of English at York University in Canada and editor of the most recent Norton Critical Edition of The Turn of the Screw.

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com

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Episode 12: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Traverse Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys with us! This imaginative prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre gives a history - a life - to the madwoman in the attic of that classic Victorian novel. It depicts the Caribbean past of Antoinette, who is called "Bertha" in Jane Eyre. Although this is a tale about what drives that woman mad, the vivid sensory language and clever shifts in perspective make it a delightful read. And Wide Sargasso Sea has been read the world over. This is a globally renowned Caribbean novel, and it has also changed the way that Jane Eyre is read. The wide-ranging impact of this slim book extends into postcolonialism, feminism, and Victorian studies.

We are privileged to hear more about this book and its impact from two expert guests. In an extended reflection, the Trinidadian poet and book blogger Shivanee Ramlochan talks about her own intimate history with Wide Sargasso Sea as a reader and a writer. Later we interview Elaine Savory, who is Associate Professor of Literature at The New School and has published extensively on Rhys. She explains the importance of reading Rhys as a Caribbean novelist.

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com

Buy the book from an independent bookstore through our Bookshop affiliate page: https://bookshop.org/lists/literate-books

Episode 11: The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

Buchi Emecheta's novel The Bride Price takes us back to Nigeria! It tells the tragic story of Aku-nna, a city girl, whose childhood in Lagos is cut short by the unexpected death of her father. Unable to afford urban life, her family then returns to their ancestral village of Ibuza. But Aku-nna finds herself frequently estranged by the customs there. As she comes of age in this new context, The Bride Price offers a glimpse into wider matters of gender and culture. Yet especially through her marriage and death the book highlights the impact of one tradition: the bride price, a payment made by a male suitor to marry a girl. While this is a story very much rooted in its Nigerian setting, at its best, it also raises more transcendent themes. Indeed, it displays a wry, intimate knowledge of the tragedy and comedy of human life.

This week we are privileged to feature two formidable expert guests. An extended reflection is offered by the poet and scholar Abena Busia, who is soon to be Emerita Professor of Rutgers University. She is also currently Ghana's Ambassador to Brazil. Then, we interview the publishing legend Margaret Busby, who was Britain's first black woman publisher, as well as the publisher and editor of The Bride Price.

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com

Buy the book from an independent bookstore through our Bookshop affiliate page: https://bookshop.org/lists/literate-books

Episode 10: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is the most widely read African novel, and we're exploring some of the reasons why. We follow its main character, Okonkwo, from childhood to death. From the start, it's an enthralling story of striving and courage as he surmounts various challenges to establish himself as an Igbo elder and warrior in Umuofia, during the late 1800s. However, this novel from Nigeria does not end with his rise to wealth and power. It ends, instead, with Okonkwo's final reduction to death and disgrace by the colonial British government. And there is as much poignancy in the way this story is told as there is in the story itself. From its complex cultural portraiture, to its delicious use of language and its sophisticated engagements with the tradition of the English novel: Things Fall Apart offers a powerful, pleasure-filled read.

Two scholars expand our own readings of Things Fall Apart this week. We hear an extended reflection from writer and literary critic Wamuwi Mbao, who lectures in the Department of English at Stellenbosch University. He offers an erudite critical lens, shaped by his wide-ranging literary knowledge and his own experience as a writer. Wamuwi has a new book out this month, Years of Fire and Ash: South African Poems of Decolonisation.

We also interview Terri Ochiagha, who is a Lecturer in World Literatures at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her fine-grained knowledge of Achebe, this book, and its reception is informed by numerous relevant publications, not least of which is A Short History of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (2018).

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com 

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com

Buy the book from an independent bookstore through our Bookshop affiliate page: https://bookshop.org/lists/literate-books

Episode 9: The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook is next on our list! This novel explores the life of Anna Wulf. Like Lessing, Anna is a writer, but the similarities between author and character don't end there. Although Anna lives in the UK, her memories take us to southern Africa and her imagination to the USSR. Across the book, she grapples with such diverse themes as colonialism, communism, the life of writing, and what it means to be a "free" woman in the 1940s and 50s. What holds these varied themes – and the related parts of Anna's life – together is The Golden Notebook's fascinating form.

Inspired by Lessing, we have attempted a small formal experiment and shaped this episode around contributions from three expert guests. First up is Alice Ridout, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Film at Algoma University. Alice, who has published widely on Lessing, highlights The Golden Notebook's enduring social and historical significance.

Then, at the heart of this episode, we hear from Roberta Rubenstein on certain crucial ways that this novel's form contributes to its literary value. She is Professor Emerita in Literature at American University, and among her numerous publications on Lessing is a full monograph on form.

To round things off, we interview Susan Watkins, who is a Professor in the School of Cultural Studies and Humanities at Leeds Beckett University. She draws on her expertise in Lessing's genre-crossing oeuvre, but also in feminist theory, to discuss whether The Golden Notebook truly is a feminist novel.

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com 

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com 

Buy the book from an independent bookstore through our Bookshop affiliate page: https://bookshop.org/lists/literate-books

Episode 8: Requiem by Anna Akhmatova

This episode takes us through the lamentation of Anna Akhmatova's Rekviem / Requiem. In this poem, or cycle of poems, Akhmatova speaks out against the Great Purge under Stalin. We are struck by its evocative power as the poem draws upon intensely personal grief to convey the suffering of thousands of Russians during the Soviet Great Terror. This is also a work that pronounces its political dissidence from its very form down to its use of religious imagery. Although it is an incredibly compelling read, we are left feeling that the power of its poetics – its rhyme scheme and use of meter, for instance – gets somewhat lost in translation. Nevertheless, if something has been lost in its journey out of Russia, we learn that international connections also play an important role in the poem's fascinating transmission history.

Two expert guests tell us more about Akhmatova's Requiem. The extended reflection comes from translator Alex Cigale, whose translation of Requiem was published by the Hopkins Review and can be found here. He also gives the reading in English at the start of the episode, following Akhmatova's own reading in Russian. Later, we interview Alexandra Harrington, who is a Professor in the Department of Russian at Durham University and has published widely on Akhmatova.

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com 

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com 

Buy the book from an independent bookstore through our Bookshop affiliate page: https://bookshop.org/lists/literate-books

Episode 7: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

We start Season 2 with a boom – the Latin American Boom, that is – by reading Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad / One Hundred Years of Solitude! This book gives a glimpse into an important moment for Latin American literature and world literature. And it does that by telling the story of a single family across several generations. We get to know the members of the Buendía family and follow their lives in the Colombian village of Macondo, until the village and the family both come to an end. Before they do, however, magic intersects with modernization, and community with solitude, for just over one hundred years.

This week it was our great pleasure to hear from two more guests. The extended reflection was provided by Professor Ilan Stavans, who is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. He is also the Publisher of Restless Books. Then, we interviewed Professor Philip Swanson, who is the Hughes Professor of Spanish at the University of Sheffield. He has published widely on Latin American literature, especially the New Narrative of the Latin American Boom and Post-Boom.

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For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com 

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com 

Buy the book from an independent bookstore through our Bookshop affiliate page: https://bookshop.org/lists/literate-books

Episode 6: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Let your imagination set sail in this discussion of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse in the final episode of our first season. It's a story about love, family, loss, and growing up. It's also a story about the fluidity of perspective, drawing readers into the perceptions and interior lives of its characters as they relate to one another and the world. Through a language at once impressionistic and precise, Woolf depicts currents of thought and feeling, while raising questions about patriarchy, tradition, and the woman as artist.

We could not be more delighted to introduce this week's expert guests. Dr. Urmila Seshagiri is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who has published on literary modernism and Woolf. Currently, she is preparing the first scholarly edition of Virginia Woolf's memoir A Sketch of the Past.

Professor Dame Hermione Lee was President of Wolfson College from 2008 to 2017 and is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University. She is one of the most highly acclaimed literary biographers in the English-speaking world. In 1996, she published a landmark biography of Virginia Woolf, and her most recent biography, Tom Stoppard: A Life, came out last month.

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Literate will be back in January with a new season!

For more on the show visit literatepodcast.com

Get in touch: @literatepodcast (Twitter) or literatepodcast@gmail.com