BiblioFiles: A CenterForLit Podcast about Great Books, Great Ideas, and the Great Conversation
In which the CenterForLit staff embarks on a quest to discover the Great Ideas of literature in books of every description: ancient classics to fresh bestsellers; epic poems to bedtime stories. This podcast is a production of The Center for Literary Education and is a reading companion for teachers, homeschoolers, and readers of all stripes. centerforlit.substack.com
Episodes
You’ve heard of Rodgers and Hammerstein. You’ve heard of Bernstein and Sondheim. But have you heard of Forrester and Andrews?!
In this episode the CenterForLit crew is joined by Adam’s good friend Scott Forrester to talk about Missy’s favorite stage play: Creator.
Creator is one of many musicals on which Adam and Scott have collaborated since their heyday in the theater department at Hillsdale College. It is an adaptation of Mary Sh...
CenterForLit Director Adam Andrews explains what you can expect from the CenterForLit Podcast Network going forward.
In summary:
* The BiblioFiles archives and previous How to Eat an Elephant seasons will be available to paid Substack subscribers.
* Our free podcast will feature a slight change of format, focusing on roundtable discussions with the CenterForLit crew on wide ranging topics of literary relevance.
* Paid subscribers will...
For our season finale we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come since Medea. We offer our final thoughts on the difference between written literature and dramatic performance, identify trends in theater history, and take a little time to be silly before we call it quits.
In this episode each member of the CenterForLit crew takes turns casting one of the plays we’ve discussed. Then we imagine hypothetical conversations between two char...
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.
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.
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.
Learn more about CenterForLit's Online Academy.
Buy the books we're discussing this season and support Bib...
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.
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.
Learn more about our membership program, the Pelican Society.
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...
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.
Referenced Works:
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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.
Referenced Works:
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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.
Referenced Works:
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Learn more about CenterForLit’s Online Academy.
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We love hearing your questions and comments! You can contact us by emailing i.andrews@centerforlit.com, or you can visit our website www.centerforli...
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