<p>J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 11.  Jane Gallagher had been the sort of girl who kept her kings in the back row.  Is she still?  As sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield unravels over the course of a few days in Manhattan his thoughts often return to Jane, who haunts his memory and is connected to so many of his most pressing obsessions:  sex, vulnerability, change and authenticity.  <br/><br/>As always, thanks for listening. Please send us your questions, comments, or otherwise to ProfessingLiterature@protonmail.com. We love hearing from listeners!</p>

EP07 - The Archer with the Bow | Beowulf

Why do great novels, poems and plays move us and excite us? How can they change the way we look at ourselves and the world? What do these authors have to teach us? Why do they matter? There are no better answers to these questions than those provided by the authors themselves. We want to let them speak. Professing Literature is not a broad summary of major works. Instead, it will zero in on one or two key passages, looking at them closely in order to figure out what is at stake. The goal will be to appreciate an author’s brilliance by seeing him or her in action. We will unpack key phrases, images and metaphors and we will consider the techniques the writer uses to make ideas come alive.