Magic + Loss
What Rough Beast
Literature as Political Resistance
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Literature as Political Resistance

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You’re listening to What Rough Beast!

We are Virginia Heffernan and Stephen Metcalf, and today we’re talking with Nicholas Dames, a Columbia professor and editor-in-chief of Public Books. In this episode, we talk about:

  • The importance of political imagination in building community beyond our immediate circles of concern

  • How George Eliot's "Middlemarch" offers a model for empathetic action even during challenging times

  • The tension between stoicism and engagement as responses to political upheaval

  • How today's college students face unique anxieties about their futures and limited options

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photo of Nicholas Dames

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