A series of literature lectures in a broad sweep, from Ireland to Poland and further into the world: epics and gospels, classics, modern novels, poems, plays. Close reading meets history and craft, tracing how sentences carry faith, desire, and power—book by book, voice by voice.
These lectures span the early 2000s to the present: I wrote and delivered them across that period, and I continue to add to the series today. Some are translations of earlier work written in Polish; others were composed in English, mainly from 2012 onward.
What freedom remains to a mortal when Zeus lifts the scale above battle, the spear carries a name heavier than […]
The Spear, the Oar, the Scale: Homer’s Measure of Human Greatness Read More »
A turf cutting tool resting beside a hearth projects a distinct theology of exertion. The ash shaft rises bearing the
Lecture on Liam O’Flaherty’s The Informer: The Turf Spade and the Economy of Betrayal Read More »
Imagine reaching sixty at the point where the body enters contention with the will, while memory, desire, and public dignity
A pencil lay on my desk while I read James¹, its yellow lacquer chipped near the ferrule, cedar showing through
Lecture on Beowulf under the oath’s weather What, in truth, passes from Beowulf into modern English when a translator bends
Hall-Glow and Doom-Song Read More »
Lecture on Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying Rain pressed against the seminar windows as though the sky had wanted a
A Headlamp in the Dark Read More »
Lecture on King Lear and Mercy Through Exposure A crown behaved, in every polity I had encountered with clean hands,
Wind, Mud and Naked Kings Read More »
Lecture on Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches and the Moral Machinery of Prose A riddle for the gentlemen nearest the door,
The Creditor’s Song Read More »
Lecture on Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov and the struggle between record and mercy Which sovereign clenched that square: warm breath passing
Ink Weighs the Soul Read More »
Lecture on Euripides’ Medea as a Civic Autopsy of Oath, Exile, and Maternal Sovereignty If a bond held by oath
The Sun’s Chariot Over the Courtroom Read More »
