Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy

Titus & Paul Cantor discuss Frankenstein on its 200th an.--the novel, its history on the stage in the 19th c., & various movie adaptations in the 20th c. We talk about the genius of Mary Shelley & the rarity of a new myth being created by a single person under the historical spotlight! We talk about Enlightenment, Romantic poetry, & how new technologies of communication provoke nostalgic storytelling. Podcast

Milton’s Paradise Lost as an attempt to synthesize the Biblical and classical accounts of the Creation. Lecture

Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable) treated as a gnostic creation myth, in which what is created is the book itself, by a mysterious god or gods, who, like the Romantic demiurges, cannot create a decent world for their creatures. Accepting Nietzsche’s idea of the Death of God, Beckett creates a story in which the novelist dies midway, leaving his characters to fend for themselves in the absurd world he leaves behind him. Lecture

Paul Cantor analyzes and explains Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in this lecture series on 19th century Literature and Science. Lectures

Paul Cantor analyzes and explains Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives & Daughters in this lecture series from Science and Literature course. Lecture

Paul Cantor analyzes and explains H.G. Wells’s Island of Dr. Moreau in this lecture series on 19th century Literature and Science. Lecture

Paul Cantor analyzes and explains H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds in this lecture series on 19th century Literature and Science. Lecture

Paul Cantor analyzes and explains Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent in this lecture series from Science and Literature course. Lecture

The Invisible Man provides a vehicle for exploring a larger set of economic and political problems that preoccupied him throughout his career. Essay

Paul Cantor discusses works of literature that can teach us about liberty. Conversation

Huckleberry Finn is a dark and deeply unnerving work. It is filled with a seemingly endless parade of con artists, impostors, vigilantes, lynch mobs, and other practitioners of fraud and deception or cruelty and inhumanity. Essay

Frankenstein can teach us a valuable lesson about culture—the way that high art grows out of and can in turn influence commercial culture, even the mass media. Essay