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Writ Large

By: Zachary Davis
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  • Summary

  • There’s more to a book than what’s written on its pages: a book can change the world. In each episode of Writ Large, host Zachary Davis talks with one of the world’s leading scholars about one book that shaped the world we live in—whether you’ve heard of it or not. These conversations go beyond the plot summaries to unpack each book’s context and creation, and reveal its lasting influence on the ideas of today. Learn more at writlarge.fm
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Episodes
  • Being and Time

    Being and Time
    Apr 26 2022
    Martin Heidegger did not like small thoughts. He was fascinated by the most expansive questions humans can ask themselves. Questions like: Why are we here at all? Why do things exist as they do? What does it mean to be in the world? Heidegger came to believe that many of the modern answers to these questions were based on old, unexamined assumptions. Instead of accepting those assumptions, Heidegger wanted to return to the great philosophical texts of the past and see if he could recover and reveal deep truths that had been obscured or forgotten. The result of this intellectual treasure-hunting is his most well known work, Being and Time, published in 1927. Despite its dark context, Being and Time remains essential reading for engaging with the vexing challenges presented by modernity. Peter Gordon is the Amabel B. James Professor of History, Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. He is a critical theorist and an historian of modern European philosophy and social thought, specializing in Frankfurt School critical theory, phenomenology, existentialism, and Western Marxism.  See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.
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    52 mins
  • Waiting for Godot

    Waiting for Godot
    Nov 30 2021
    In Paris in 1953, one of the strangest and most popular plays of the 20th century premiered, Waiting for Godot, written by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. Since the premier, people have been trying to figure out what this play means. It’s been interpreted in countless ways, with no definitive confirmation from Beckett one way or another. Waiting for Godot is famous as a play about nothing, but it has endured because it is in fact a play about life. For what is life but a sequential collection of waitings? Waiting for school to end. Waiting to find someone to love. Waiting to know what to do. Waiting to feel better. Waiting for money or recognition. And ultimately, the last waiting, waiting for death. And yet, between all these waitings, we find meaning to continue on. Peter Connor is a professor of French and Comparative Literature at Barnard College. He is the author of Georges Bataille and the Mysticism of Sin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U.P., 2000). See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.
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    33 mins
  • Hamlet

    Hamlet
    Nov 23 2021
    William Shakespeare is the greatest writer in history, and Hamlet is his greatest work. In Hamlet, Shakespeare gave us one of the first modern characters in literature. We are invited into the mind of Hamlet, to see how he thinks and acts in the face of love, grief, and revenge. It is a work of deep psychological complexity, and has inspired many writers to explore and reveal the inner lives of their characters. Part of what keeps Hamlet alive is its delicate balance of textured specificity and capacious vagueness. It is specific enough for Hamlet to feel real while also inviting endless interpretations. Michael Dobson is the director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is the author of “Cutting, interruption, and the end of Hamlet” See more information on our website, WritLarge.fm. Follow us on Twitter @WritLargePod.
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    29 mins
Art World Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences
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