The Back of the Book

Chris talks to Melanie McDonagh about her new book, Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century. Dr. McDonagh discusses some of the prominent (and less familiar) British artists, writers, and intellectuals who entered the Roman Catholic from the 1890s through the 1950s. What were the social and cultural origins of the century’s remarkable increase in Catholic conversions? What people and ideas brought figures like Wilde, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh to Catholicism? And why did the stream of conversions drop off so dramatically in the 1960s?

Show notes: 
Melanie’s book, Converts
Melanie’s column at The Standard
David Jones, “Vexilla Regis”
Chris on Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark
Time stamps:
 
3:00 – Why chronicle conversions?
7:32 – The influence of St. John Henry Newman
13:07 – Origins of the conversion trend
31:43 – Clerics courting converts
36:55 – Sacramentality and art
52:00 – Vatican II and the Church today

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

Sean Keilen, professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, talks with Chris about his new book, Shakespeare's Scholars: Three Lessons from the Liberal Arts. They discuss how Shakespeare depicts the role of scholars in Hamlet and The Tempest, what Shakespeare can teach us about the scholar’s proper relationship to the public, and the current state of literary studies in academia.

Show notes: 
Sean’s book, Shakespeare’s Scholars
UC Santa Cruz’s Shakespeare Workshop
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
 Time stamps:
 3:03 – Shakespeare's academy
18:12 – Hamlet
38:38 – The Tempest
52:50 – Scholarship inside (and outside) the academy

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

In this special episode, recorded as part of AEI’s American Dream Lecture Series, Dr. Zena Hitz addresses the role of liberal education in sustaining the democratic project. She also identifies the most significant threats to liberal learning and offers practical remedies that might address them. After her lecture, Zena sat down with Chris for a conversation and fielded questions from the audience at AEI.

Show notes: 
Zena’s books, A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life and Lost in Thought
Learn more about St. John's College and the Catherine Project
Watch previous editions of AEI’s American Dream Lecture Series
Time stamps:
 5:04 – Zena’s lecture
36:53 – Zena’s conversation with Chris
56:38 – Audience Q&A

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

Novelist Karan Mahajan joins the show to talk with Chris about his new work, The Complex. They discuss the novel’s memorable characters, settings, and themes, as well as Karan’s literary influences and the challenges of writing about Indian culture and politics for a non-Indian audience.

Show notes: Karan’s novel, The Complex
“The True Margaret,” a short story excerpted from The Complex in The New Yorker
Chris’s review of The Complex in the Washington Examiner
Karan’s previous novels, The Association of Small Bombs and Family Planning
Time stamps:
 
5:08 – The Complex’s cast: The Chopra clan
17:58 – Laxman Chopra & literary villainy
32:27 – Karan’s literary influences, Tolstoy and Naipaul
42:55 – Experimenting with narrative perspective
48:54 – Modern readers & writers

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.

Chris talks to Tess Chakkalakal about her new literary biography, A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt. Tess explains why Chesnutt is such an important figure in American literary history, how his short stories and novels made the case for a color-blind society, and why he should be more widely read today.

Show notes:
Tess’s book, A Matter of Complexion
Chesnutt’s short stories: The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales and “The Wife of His Youth”
Chesnutt’s novels: The House Behind the Cedars and The Marrow of Tradition
Chesnutt’s speech, “Race Prejudice; Its Causes and Its Cure”

Time stamps:
2:22 – Chesnutt’s early life and education
15:16 – The Conjure Woman
25:09 – The House Behind the Cedars
44:28 – The Marrow of Tradition
52:44 – Chesnutt’s views on race and their legacy

Opening and closing music: Brendan Benson, “Spit It Out,” used with permission from the artist.

Produced by Sean Doolan.