A friend asked me to suggest some of the best films from queer cinema for Pride Month. This list is not exhaustive, but it includes classic films that deal with LGBTQ themes, gender-bending, non-hetero sexualities, generally queer-related topics, or that have significant LGBTQ characters. The majority of these stem from the New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s.
Read moreAmerican Fiction Literature
After discussing with a friend what works one would include in a course on American history using fiction literature, I decided to make a list of significant literary works by American authors. This list only contains fiction literature, such as novels, short stories, poems, or plays. It does not contain non-fiction works, such as letters, diaries, essays, memoirs, or literary criticism. Some works from the New Journalism era that are technically factual but read like novels are included, however. The list also does not contain (with a few exceptions) children’s books or graphic novels. Books are listed chronologically so that it is easy to determine which works would fit into a history course that treats literature as cultural texts.
Read moreSocialist Fiction Literature
Here is a list of socialist fiction literature that includes works that were written by socialists or communists, or that have strong socialist themes. This list only includes novels, not poems or plays. Let me know what books are missing, and I will add them to the list.
Read moreNietzsche, Marx, and the Modern Left
In How to Philosophize with a Hammer and Sickle, Jonas Čeika rescues Nietzsche and Marx from their undeserved fates as caricatures and examines how their ideas are more compatible than have often been depicted. Čeika's new book unearths dormant values in each figure’s thought that are useful to a modern emancipatory politics.
Read moreWomen Directors Have Made Some of the Greatest Films Ever. Here Are 11 You Might Not Know.
March is Women’s History Month, and there is no better time to watch some outstanding films made by women directors. Directors like Agnès Varda, Julie Dash, or Chantal Ackerman might not be household names, but they have made an indelible imprint on hundreds of films and filmmakers that came after them. From the feminist psychedelia of Daises to the anti-colonialist, coming-of-age drama Chocolat, these are eleven films directed by women internationally you might not have heard of but would not want to miss.
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