Fiction

Don Quixote is the best book out there on political theory, followed by Hamlet and Macbeth. There is no better way to understand the tragedy and the comedy of the Mexican political system than Hamlet, Macbeth and Don Quixote. They're much better than any column of political analysis.

Subcomandante Marcos

Monday, 11 December 2017 09:52

Swift's satires of English colonialism

Written by Jenny Farrell

in Fiction

On his 350th anniversary, Jenny Farrell outlines how Jonathan Swift's books expressed and strengthened Ireland's cultural struggle against English colonialism. Jonathan Swift was born 350 years ago, on 30th November 1667. Swift belongs to both the literature of Ireland and to that of England. Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal…

Wednesday, 29 November 2017 13:46

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Peter Schlemihl

Written by Marc Nash

in Fiction

The Eighteenth Brumaire Of Peter Schlemihl an anti-capitalist short story by Marc Nash Once upon a time ad infinitum. Once upon a time ad nauseam. Since it is important to encrypt the key archetypes; echo sustain the reverberating symbols; taxiderm the tenacious tropes; and conserve the constant conjunctures. There is…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 23 September 2017 08:17

Witness to the Revolution

in Fiction

Written by John Ellison

John Ellison sketches out the life of Maxim Gorky, the righteous, relentless witness of the revolution who evoked the wretchedness and terror of living under Tsarist violence. The life of Maxim Gorky, author of three unforgettable volumes of autobiography covering his first two decades (‘Childhood’, ‘My Apprenticeship’, and ‘My Universities’),…

Russian Revolution Maxim Gorky

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 25 May 2017 16:11

Radical Children's Literature

in Fiction

Written by Julia Mickenberg

Julia Mickenberg discusses some recently published radical children's literature. As Philip Nel and I suggested in “Radical Children’s Literature Now!", the contemporary field of radical children’s literature is so large that it is impossible to encompass. Still, several recently published, self-consciously radical books that directly or indirectly aim to motivate…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 20 April 2017 10:23

Keep Your Head Down, Henry

in Fiction

Written by Jon Tait

Keep Your Head Down, Henry A Flash novella by Jon Tait A Red Fox Ah was sitting on the ootdoor netty smoking a Woodbine in me cloth cap when ah hord something scratching aboot among the bins. Whey, ah just gan oot to get away from the noise of…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 28 January 2017 18:41

Trouble In Store

in Fiction

Written by Dermot Foster

When we see rough sleepers on our city streets we feel instinctively that something urgently needs to be done. Yet how far can our compassion stretch? What motivates some individuals to take action? How does it feel to be on the receiving end of compassion? This short story by Dermot…

Homelessness

Monday, 12 December 2016 15:09

End of Thrones

Written by Tony McKenna

in Fiction

Tony McKenna argues that the historical necessity embedded in the story and characters of Game of Thrones means that there is only one way it can end. Winter is coming, for Game of Thrones is now approaching its denouement with the penultimate series scheduled for next year and the final one…

Game of Thrones George RR Martin

Saturday, 29 October 2016 15:24

The Handsworth Times

Written by Paul Simon

in Fiction

Paul Simon reviews a novel set in 1980s Handsworth, at the time of the riots. This novel by Sharon Duggal of life in early-1980s working-class Birmingham during the time of inner-city rioting is defined by the greater and lesser griefs of the Agarwal family.Through their voices, the wonderful cussedness of…

Tuesday, 11 October 2016 14:46

Animal Farm: a powerfully written allegory but an untruthful, gender-blind analysis

Written by Mary Vincent

in Fiction

Following her appearance on the In Our Time radio programme discussing Orwell's Animal Farm, Professor Mary Vincent reflects on its powerfully written but fundamentally untruthful and simplistic analysis of Soviet Russia, based on Orwell's mistaken interpretation of the Spanish Civil War and his blindness to gender issues. When I picked…

George Orwell Animal Farm In Our Time Spanish Civil War

Tuesday, 11 October 2016 14:43

Communism in the gunsights

Written by Graham Stevenson

in Fiction

Graham Stevenson reviews the recent In Our Time radio programme about George Orwell's Animal Farm. Melvyn Bragg's discursive radio series, In Our Time, recently considered Orwell's Animal Farm with comment from Steven Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge, Mary Vincent, Professor of Modern European History…

George Orwell Animal Farm In Our Time Spanish Civil War