BiblioFiles: A CenterForLit Podcast about Great Books, Great Ideas, and the Great Conversation

Aaron Andrews is returning to the show today to talk about Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot with the rest of the crew. We debate whether or not there is any room for hope in this strange play, and wonder about the nature of its humor and sparse structure.

Do you see any continuity between absurdism and Greek drama? Has anything about the way we think about theatre today stayed the same? What’s changed? Let us know what you think ...

Today we're wading deep into the fog of Modernism with a discussion of Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night (1956). Ian and Megan sit down in this episode to talk about the difference between self-consciously textual plays and novels, the modernist view of the purpose of art, and the value of reading depressing entries in the Great Conversation.

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Today we're tackling the movement toward Realism in the theater with a discussion of Henrik Ibsen's 1891 stage play, Hedda Gabler. This one caused a stir among the CenterForLit crew members, which instigated a big, juicy conversation about Ibsen's purpose in portraying such an unlikable character in Hedda.

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This week Ian and Emily are talking about what happened to the theater after Shakespeare. They follow the trends of comedy and tragedy, Renaissance and Reformation, Enlightenment and Puritanism. Then, as an illustration of the period's offerings, they look at Joseph Addison's influential tragedy, Cato.

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In our last episode, we discussed the concerns about theatre raised by the Reformation. Today we're looking at The Tempest as Shakespeare's answer to the question about the good of performance art. We talk about why Shakespeare has had such a lasting influence, not only on theatre, but on the English language as a whole, and we examine the "metatheater" of The Tempest for clues about what the Bard hoped he was accomplishing with hi...

The CenterForLit crew attempts a huge historical leap in this episode as we try to bridge the gap between Greek drama and the Reformation. We talk about the sacred and ritual aspects of theatre before its secularization, and then use that context to make sense of why the Reformers had such a violet response to the art form.

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In a Jason-like heroic struggle, Ian wrestles his wife and his mother in a conversation about Euripides' Medea. We talk about the function of this play in its historical context, argue about how much sympathy the main characters deserve, and marvel at the playwright's avant-garde perspective on Athenian society.

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Welcome to a new season of BiblioFiles! In this first episode, the CenterForLit crew introduces our theatrical theme and discusses the similarities and differences between reading a work of prose and reading a play. We talk about the challenge of interpreting such a dialogue-heavy art form, as well as the competing interpretations involved in staging a play. We also reveal our own histories with the theater and lament missed opport...

In the final episode of our season on Juvenile and YA Fiction, the entire CenterForLit crew gathers to reminisce about how they got hooked on reading as children. We also discuss how to go about guiding young readers through the current environment of juvenile and YA literature.

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Emily joins Ian in this episode to talk about our first author who writes solely in the YA genre: John Green. They discuss what makes his work so different from others we’ve covered this season and what that means for parents and readers who want to benefit from his rich, literary voice.

In this episode, Megan joins Ian to talk about the magic of Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwicks series. They discuss what it is about this series that appeals so well to audiences of all ages and what that can teach us about good writing for young readers.

What can CenterForLit’s favorite children’s author teach us about the difference between juvenile and YA fiction? Adam and Missy sit down with Ian in this episode to talk about what makes the work of Gary D. Schmidt so special.

The next genre we're discussing this season has a special place in Andrews family lore. By tradition, each new generation is handed a mystery novel as they come of age to encourage a lifetime love of reading. Adam joins Ian in this episode to discuss his own affinity for the genre, and the two reminisce about their first encounters with detective fiction.

No other genre has been influenced by the emergence of YA fiction quite like dystopian literature. In this episode, Megan and Emily join Ian to compare recent dystopian contributions aimed at young adults like Divergent and The Hunger Games to 20th century classics like 1984 and Lord of the Flies.

Emily and Megan join Ian for a conversation about our culture's fascination with the monstrous. They discuss how we progressed from the beasts of Greek and Anglo-Saxon mythology all the way to love-struck vampires and werewolves, and they ask why it is that humans remain so intrigued with the mystery and danger of the Other.

In this episode, Ian and Megan sit down to talk about what is arguably the most popular genre among young readers today: fantasy literature. They discuss the history leading up to the state of fantasy today, the unique thematic features of world-building, and their own childhood obsession with these books.

The first corner of juvenile literature we are exploring this season is historical fiction! Adam (our resident historian) and Missy (the one who stuffed the Andrews shelves full of historical fiction titles) join Ian for a conversation about what makes a good contribution to this genre, how the art of literature relates to the study of history at this age level, and which titles stand out as family favorites.

BiblioFiles is back! To launch our season on Juvenile and YA Fiction, Adam and Missy join Ian for a conversation about the state of literature for young readers today. What is the difference between a “juvenile” and “YA” classification? Should such a differentiation between genres exist in the first place? The CenterForLit Directors talk about the history of the split, their concerns for such specialization in the publishing indust...

BiblioFiles is back at long last with a new season on juvenile and YA fiction! Look for our first episode to drop on Friday September 15th.