Category Archives: Literature

on Haruki Murakami’s The Strange Library

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Peter Schmidt

Haruki Murakami, The Strange Library. Published 2005 but written early in his career; translated into English 2014 by Ted Goosen. This brief tale reads like an allegory of reading itself, the Library as emblematic of the world. But it feels … Continue reading →

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on Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Peter Schmidt

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Flamethrowers is burning-hot good. It works on so many levels: a coming of age story; a feminist analysis/satire/tragedy re entrapping gender roles; an anatomy of “revolutionary” cultures of … Continue reading →

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Freedom of expression or the need to speak against oppression in a single voice? Coetzee and Gordimer debate

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Peter Schmidt

This 1988 debate between Coetzee and Gordimer (RIP) is eloquent and important, and VERY relevant for current debates in 2014. It’s given a fine overview here. The debate is notable for their focus on the _principles_ at stake; their disagreement … Continue reading →

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See my U.S. fiction class’s annotations to Gary Shteyngart’s satire _Super Sad True Love Story_ (2010)

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Peter Schmidt

Click on the Digital Humanities Projects link in the menu above, which will take you to the table of contents for the annotations and a link to the annotations themselves, in a pdf file. Enjoy! Based on work produced by … Continue reading →

Posted in English 52B (U.S. Fiction 1950 to present), Literature, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Two Mistakes Jonathan Franzen’s Haters and Fans Both Make

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Peter Schmidt

Introduction for Jonathan Franzen, Swarthmore College, Feb. 14, 2013. Good evening. Speaking for our community of readers, I’d like to welcome you, Jonathan, back to Swarthmore. As for you, the audience, I will do you credit and not list Jonathan’s … Continue reading →

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Philip Roth Says He’s Done Writing Books – NYTimes.com

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Peter Schmidt

Are we supposed to be crestfallen about this news, or just relieved?  (I’m very much a fan of Roth’s early and middle period work, but think his fiction precipitously drops in quality beginning with American Pastoral, which was over-written and … Continue reading →

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Introduction for Zadie Smith’s talk at Swarthmore, Nov. 7 2012: “Why I Write.”

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Peter Schmidt

It’s an honor to introduce Zadie Smith.  I shouldn’t be nervous, because introductions are easy, right?  Zadie Smith, meet Swarthmore College and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.  Swarthmore, Zadie Smith.  Yet introductions are really impossible, because more words need to be said but … Continue reading →

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Tagging the Glass Essay poem (Anne Carson)

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Peter Schmidt

Sometimes ‘tagging’ texts to aid computer searches is utterly fatuous. Here are the tags the Poetry Foundation website uses to catalog the ‘subjects’ of Anne Carson’s magnificent poem “The Glass Essay.” The list below could easily be in a Carson … Continue reading →

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Favorite epic novels published since WWII?

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Peter Schmidt

In response to Matt Schwartz’s question on his Facebook page, “What are some of your favorite sweeping historical brick-sized novels written since World War II, along the lines of Pynchon’s V. and Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke?”,  here’s my list: … Continue reading →

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The critic’s job

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Peter Schmidt

Except for all the male pronouns, Alfred Kazin’s credo remains good advice: “A critic must reveal why we read him [a writer].  Everything else—the historical associations, the comparison with other writers, the placing in a school, the social, moral, and … Continue reading →

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