The Blurb for “The Englishman and the Butterfly” 31 Jul 2012 | 01:04 am

Oxford fellow and John Milton expert, PROFESSOR HENRY FELL suffers from panic attacks and a gnawing fear that what he doubtfully refers to as his existence is much more out of his control than he real...

Coming soon… 26 Jul 2012 | 06:57 am

Reviews Coming Soon… 16 Jul 2012 | 11:32 pm

Bradley Chats About Iago, Pt. 2 of 2 29 May 2012 | 05:00 am

If we ask ourselves how much of what Iago says is true, however, taking into consideration all available facts and suppositions based on those facts, Bradley argues we can come only to one conclusion:...

Bradley Chats About Iago, Pt. 1 of 2 27 May 2012 | 05:00 am

A few posts ago, I made mention of critic A.C. Bradley and his style of promoting a ‘psychological’ inquiry into Shakespearean narrative, i.e., his tendency to treat the Bard’s characters like real pe...

Teaching Hamlet: The Double-Edged Sword 25 May 2012 | 05:00 am

It was the best of texts, it was the worst of texts… More so than any other play by Shakespeare, Hamlet offers the most risk as well as reward in the AP English Literature & Composition classroom. I...

So Many Plays… What to Teach? 23 May 2012 | 05:00 am

One of the very nice things (and there are many) about teaching AP English Literature & Composition is that, sometimes, we may choose our own titles for the year. Those of us teaching preparatory and ...

Thoughts on the Exam… 20 May 2012 | 11:55 pm

Like yours, my students sat down last Thursday the 10th to take “the Exam.” Pencils in hand, brains full to bursting with literary elements, plots, character names, motifs, key quotes, and so on, they...

A.C. Bradley and “Dramatic Appreciation” 19 May 2012 | 05:00 am

A.C. Bradley (1851-1935) A work indispensable to the AP English Literature & Composition classroom is A.C. Bradley’s seminal Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth (19...

Shakespeare on Dreams (with a nod to Eliot) 18 May 2012 | 05:00 am

Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream. - Julius Caesar, II, i. Brutus to himself. Guide questions for general discuss...