Wes & Erin continue their discussion of Orson Welles’s "Citizen Kane." Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, HelloFresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/subtextfree and use code subtextfree for free breakfast for life.

Identity and Infamy in “Citizen Kane” (1941) (Part 1)

Jan 8th, 2024 46m 3s

It’s a film bursting with objects—the treasure troves of Xanadu, a snowglobe, jigsaw puzzles, a winner’s cup, the famous sled. Even the conceptual elements of the film’s plot are expressed tangibly. Kane’s mind-boggling wealth isn’t an abstract

Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 6)

Dec 25th, 2023 42m 31s

Part 6 of Wes & Erin's discussion of Shakespeare’s "The Winter’s Tale." Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, St. John's College. Learn more about undergraduate--and graduate--Great Books programs at St. John's in Santa Fe, New Mexico and A

Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 5)

Dec 18th, 2023 57m 21s

Part 5 of Wes & Erin's discussion of Shakespeare’s "The Winter’s Tale." Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, St. John's College. Learn more about undergraduate--and graduate--Great Books programs at St. John's in Santa Fe, New Mexico and A

Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 4)

Dec 11th, 2023 1h 14m

Part 4 of Wes & Erin's discussion of Shakespeare’s "The Winter’s Tale." Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, HelloFresh. Go to HelloFresh.com/subtextfree and use code subtextfree for free breakfast for life.

Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 3)

Dec 4th, 2023 54m 5s

Part 3 of Wes & Erin's discussion of Shakespeare’s "The Winter’s Tale." Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, St. John's College. Learn more about undergraduate--and graduate--Great Books programs at St. John's in Santa Fe, New Mexico and A

Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 2)

Nov 27th, 2023 58m 31s

Part 2 of Wes & Erin's discussion of Shakespeare’s "The Winter’s Tale." Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, St. John's College. Learn more about undergraduate--and graduate--Great Books programs at St. John's in Santa Fe, New Mexico and A

The Emptiness of Signification in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” (Part 1)

Nov 20th, 2023 56m 9s

When King Leontes accuses his pregnant wife of adultery, the nobleman Antigonus assumes that Leontes has been “abused and by some putter-on”—in other words, some Iago-like villain has been putting malevolent ideas into his head. In fact, Leonte

(post)script: Post-Tryst (Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters”)

Nov 13th, 2023 32m 24s

Wes & Erin continue their discussion of Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters." For bonus content, become a paid subscriber at Patreon or directly on the Apple Podcasts app. Patreon subscribers also get early access to ad-free regular episodes.

The Tyranny of the Good in Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters”

Nov 6th, 2023 1h 2m

Hannah supports her sisters. She’s a source of money, encouragement, and advice, and seems to ask for nothing in return. In fact, she’s so giving and self-reliant that her husband Eliott begins to believe that she has no needs. This seems to be

Odysseus and Penelope’s Comedy of Remarriage (“The Odyssey,” Postscript to Part 3)

Oct 30th, 2023 21m 38s

Wes & Erin conclude their discussion of "The Odyssey," with a focus on Odysseus and Penelope getting re-acquainted with each other in Books 19 and 23. We discuss Penelope asking Odysseus-in-disguise whether she should marry a suitor, but tells

Terminal Wooings in “The Odyssey” (Part 3 of 3)

Oct 23rd, 2023 58m 56s

Wes & Erin discuss the final 12 books of "The Odyssey." Having learned the lessons of the murder of Agamemnon, Odysseus does not rush straight home to his wife and children, once he arrives at Ithaca. Athena is impressed--but why, exactly? Why

Foolish Adventures in “The Odyssey” (Part 2 of 3)

Sep 25th, 2023 1h 9m

Wes & Erin continue their discussion of the Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. In this episode, part 2 of our 3-part series, they look closely at the heart of the poem, books 5-12, in which Odysseus arrives in Phaeacia and provides the tale-w

Home as Identity in “The Odyssey”

Aug 28th, 2023 1h 5m

He was famously a man of many ways, whether we interpret these as abilities or norms; designs or deceptions; reasons or identities. Yet despite such resources, he was also famously stuck, making a 10-year odyssey of his attempt to return home f

Competing Affections in “The Lion in Winter”

Jul 31st, 2023 51m 4s

Before Henry VIII changed history for lack of a son, Henry II had too many. His eldest, Richard, a fierce soldier who controls the wealthy Aquitaine, is the favorite of his mother, Eleanor. The youngest, John, is immature and dull, but his fath

Friendship and Honor in “Becket” (1964)

Jul 3rd, 2023 49m 6s

In Jean Anouilh’s 1959 play “Becket,” the titular character seems at first to be a Saxon collaborationist to the Norman rule of England, and a man who has sacrificed his personal honor to his friendship with King Henry II and, as he puts it, “g

(post)script: Post-Capitation (“Carried Away” by Alice Munro)

Jun 19th, 2023 37m 51s

Wes & Erin continue their discussion of Alice Munro's "Carried Away."

Losing Your Head in Alice Munro’s “Carried Away”

Jun 5th, 2023 56m 7s

Jack, a Canadian soldier recuperating in a European hospital during World War I, begins a correspondence with Louisa, the librarian in his hometown whom he has only seen and loved from afar. Their letters turn romantic. But when the war ends an

Time and Taboo in “Back to the Future” (1985)

May 16th, 2023 51m 59s

In the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, Doc Brown plans to use his Delorean time machine to head 25 years into the future and see, as he puts it, “the progress of mankind.” But like the license plate on the Delorean, Doc is out of time. Thro

The Violence of Redemption in John Donne’s “Batter My Heart” (Holy Sonnet 14)

Apr 10th, 2023 49m 13s

In “Holy Sonnet 14,” John Donne would like his “three person’d God” to break instead of knock, blow instead of breathe, and burn instead of shine. This vision of redemption is about remaking rather than reform. And it seems to be motivated by a

Mortal Pretensions in John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” (Holy Sonnet 10)

Mar 13th, 2023 57m 49s

A recusant Catholic turned Protestant, a rake turned priest, a scholar, lawyer, politician, soldier, secretary, sermonizer, and of course, a poet— John Donne’s biography contains so many scuttled identities and discrete lives, perhaps its no wo

Trauma and Repetition in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” (1974)

Feb 13th, 2023 48m 34s

Roman Polanksi’s 1974 film “Chinatown” seems to have little to do with its titular neighborhood, which is the setting for only one horrible and final scene. Chinatown functions instead to represent the traumatic moment that drives this story ju

Better and Bested in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Jan 16th, 2023 59m 6s

It’s a play full of contradictions, secrets, lies, and unspoken rules. It’s a play decidedly for adults, but about a child—an imaginary one, no less. It takes place on a college campus, but it is absent of students. And it’s about “fun and game

Pagan Poetics in “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens

Dec 19th, 2022 1h 14m

Wallace Stevens was an ungainly insurance executive, but his poetry is serene and secularly reverential. In particular, his poem “Sunday Morning” seems to suggest that the rhythm of the natural world—if we give it enough rapt attention—is as go

Production for Use in “His Girl Friday”

Nov 21st, 2022 54m 39s

Howard Hawks’s 1940 film His Girl Friday knits together two plots from two very different genres. One is a romantic comedy that intends to reunite its main couple in something like wedded bliss. The other is a dark drama of murder and corruptio