Category Archives: Spacks, Patricia Meyer
Scholarly Pursuits
767 – Scholarly Pursuits
Boredom and Behavior
Richard Bushman talks about his book, The Refinement of America, a study of American manners and social mores. A discussion of boredom as a cultural phenomenon. 632 – Boredom and Behavior
Scandal and Boredom
Sarah Maza discusses the diamond necklace affair, an episode that illuminates the role of gender and sexuality in French revolutionary culture. Patricia Meyer Spacks discusses boredom as a cultural phenomenon. 473 – Scandal and Boredom
Teachers on Teaching, Part 1 of 2
In summer 1987, Paul Rahe, Patricia Reifsnyder, Patricia Spacks, and Sarah Foelsche participated in two seminars for high school teachers sponsored by and held at the National Humanities Center, “Republics Ancient and Modern” and “Representations of Self in Literature.” In the … Continue reading
The Rise of the Novel
According to Paul Hunter and Patricia Meyer Spacks, English fiction rose to prominence in the eighteenth century at about the same time that autobiography became important in England’s cultural life, reflecting an interest on the part of the common reader … Continue reading
Concepts of Self
Charles Caramello speaks about his study Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and the Biographical Act. Caramello describes both as authors seeking to locate their personal and literary identities in the contexts of the history, geography, and society of their times. In the second segment … Continue reading
Women’s Literary Studies, Part 2 of 3
Leila Ahmed, Deborah Kaplan, Patricia Meyer Spacks, and Joan Hinde Stewart discuss feminism in the realm of cultural and literary criticism. In the mid-1980s, what were some of the implications of feminism for the production and study of literature, in both … Continue reading
(1) Feminism in America; (2) Review of “Woman and the Demon”
What is the status of feminism in America in 1984? Elizabeth Fox-Genovese discusses its origins, and its impact on women, social classes, and politics. She defines feminism, and compares and contrasts feminism to the women’s movement. The episode concludes with … Continue reading
Gossip as Cultural and Literary Discourse
Writing of Victorian manners, novelist George Eliot remarks that gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-paper of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker. But that characterization may … Continue reading