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Recent Posts
- post #5, concluding the Preface to my book in progress, _Upcycling Ecopoetry_
- post #4 in the series, from the preface to my book in progress, Upcycling Ecopoetry
- post #3 in the series, from my book in progress Upcycling Ecopoetry
- Post #2 in the series, from the preface to Upcycling Ecopoetry
- Post #1 in a series, all from the preface of my book in progress, _Upcycling Ecopoetry_
Recent Comments
- cheapest cialis generic online on Reducing the Bull: the NYTimes Gets It Wrong Equating Apple Design and Picasso’s Art
- Peter Schmidt on Donald Rumsfeld Tries to Enter Into Heaven
- May on What Should I Do With the Dead Turk in the Bedroom? Class, Sex, and Otherness in Downton Abbey
- Elite Edge ME on Word Cloud of Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” section 1
- Dan bloom on On Contradictions in Nathaniel Rich’s “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change.”
Pages
- About Me
- Akwete Weave poetry chapbook
- Digital Humanities Projects
- Ecotone // poems by Peter Schmidt // wondering through the natural world …
- Engl 009H “Portraits of the Artist” — an introduction to literary and cultural studies for first-year students.
- English 116 American Literature Honors Seminar, Fall 2014: the Literature of the U.S. South
- English 52A (U.S. Fiction, 1900-1950)
- English 52B, U.S. Fiction 1945 to the Present. Swarthmore College, Fall 2017.
- English 53: Modern American Poetry
- English 53R: Advanced Research Topics in U.S. Literature
- English 71B: The Lyric Poem in English (Fall 2013)
- English 71D: The Short Story in the U.S. (Fall 2018)
- Online Essays
- Pocketa Pocketas (pulses & pips of poems)
- Publications
- “Truth so mazed”: Faulkner and U.S. Plantation Fiction
- A review-essay on William Carlos Williams’ _By Word of Mouth: Poems from the Spanish, 1916-1959_
- A selection of older print and digital scholarly work
- On Eros Crossing the Color-Line in William Faulkner and Margaret Mitchell
- On Optimists’ Sons and Daughters: Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter and Peter Taylor’s A Summons to Memphis
- Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus
- The “Raftsmen’s Passage,” Huck’s Crisis of Whiteness, and _Huckleberry Finn_ in U.S. Literary History
- Selected Courses
- SPLEEN poetry chapbook: pissed-off poems for a pissant age.
- Very Large Array // a poetry collage project by Peter Schmidt (1990-2000)
- Very Large Array project
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Author Archives: Peter Schmidt
On Canons and “Headcanons” in Cultural Studies
Yes, “headcanons” (one word) is a term. Has been for awhile. Interesting conundrum: while the idea of an agreed-upon “canon” has been treated with increasing skepticism in literary studies (though not by all parties), the concept thrives in popular culture, … Continue reading
Why Judith Butler is Overrated
One of many reasons why Judith Butler is grossly overrated: Here’s a passage from her new book Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, followed by 2 brief comments of mine, one a translation of Butler-ese into regular English. Overall, … Continue reading
On Colson Whitehead’s new novel, _The Underground Railroad_
Three chapters of Colson Whitehead’s new novel, The Underground Railroad, were published as a special print supplement to last Sunday’s New York Times (Aug. 7). What’s so extraordinary about the novel’s vision is not that he makes the “underground railroad” … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Uncategorized
Tagged Afrofuturism, fiction, slavery, underground railroad, whitehead
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Brief comments on Terry Eagleton’s latest book, Culture (2016)
See Culture by Terry Eagleton My rating: 4 of 5 stars Lucid and concise readings of Burke, Swift, Herder, Austen, Marx, Wilde, and T.S. Eliot, among others. The book is less focused and persuasive when Eagleton traces the long and … Continue reading
Freedom and Fate in Game of Thrones, “The Door”
For Game of Thrones fans, please don’t read this until you’ve seen Season 6, Episode 5 (“The Door”). Normally stories about time travel dramatize the power of human agency, our potential ability to know and intervene in past events and … Continue reading
On David Bowie’s Bluebird
Re David Bowie’s “Lazarus,” from his brilliant final album, Blackstar, the New York Times has this to say: “The song is a man in total distress, and then finding a way out, in his imagination, so he could still be … Continue reading
On Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, 1962 and 2015
My recent essay on Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel, comparing it with Amazon’s 2015 The Man in the High Castle‘s 10 episodes. Summary: Amazon’s adaptation of Dick’s novel is a brilliant transformation of it just right for America’s flirtation with … Continue reading
on Valeria Luiselli’s novel The Story of My Teeth
Christina MacSweeney, translator and collaborator. (Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2015). An insouciant blend of Gogol, Calvino, and the metaphysical conundrums of linguistic sign-theory, this novel is one of the funniest books I’ve read in ages—in part because it’s so deadpan … Continue reading
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“Open Carry” Dildo Protest over Concealed Carry Gun Law, UT Austin
In August 2015 UT Austin student Jessica Jin organized a satiric “open carry dildo” protest. It was open to male and female students, UT employees, alums and any others. The protest targeted a new law (Senate Bill 11, signed by … Continue reading
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Some quick thoughts on current debates about higher education
“Everyone Thinks the Current State of Higher Education is Awful. Who is to Blame?” Daniel W. Drezner, The Washington Post, 14 August 2015. This article summarizing some current debates about higher education is worth reading. In the U.S. we’re definitely … Continue reading