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FictionApril 5, 2021
Gogol’s Bullshit Jobs
His biting satires of Russian bureaucracy examined the random cruelty and arbitrary hierarchy of an empire in crisis.
Jennifer Wilson
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FictionFebruary 22, 2021
Elena Ferrante’s Class Dramas
Her latest novel, The Lying Life of Adults, mines the contradictions of class identity.
Jennifer Wilson
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Non-fictionNovember 17, 2020
The Radical Origins of Self-Help Literature
How did the genre of self-help go from one focused on collective empowerment to one serving the class hierarchy as it stands?
Jennifer Wilson
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FictionJune 29, 2020
Maria Reva’s Mordant and Profound Fiction
In her short story collection, Good Citizens Need Not Fear, Reva documents the chaos, joy, and serendipity of life before and after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Jennifer Wilson
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Books and IdeasJune 11, 2020
Gimmicks Might Be the Key to Understanding Capitalism
Sianne Ngai’s Theory of the Gimmick continues her project of looking at how aesthetic categories shape labor, value, and everyday experience.
Jennifer Wilson
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Cultural Criticism and AnalysisMay 5, 2020
The Long Shadow of Cultural Anthropology
Franz Boas, Margaret Mead, and their circle sought to show the fallacy of biological and physical difference, but they also created new forms of categorization that reinforced their underlying biases.
Jennifer Wilson
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FictionJanuary 20, 2020
Lauren Wilkinson’s Novel of Race, Empire, and Espionage
American Spy examines the intersections between spycraft and living in America as a black person.
Jennifer Wilson
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Books and IdeasOctober 14, 2019
Next Year the Nobel Committee for Literature Needs to Look Beyond Europe’s Borders
Despite the differences between Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke, they both reflect a divided Europe as viewed only from within its borders.
Jennifer Wilson
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Non-fictionSeptember 10, 2019
What Inspired ‘Lolita’?
Sarah Weinman’s new book traces the true crime that influenced Nabokov and the writing of his novel.
Jennifer Wilson
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Social JusticeJuly 9, 2019
Black People Don’t Need Murals To Remember Injustice
Critics of a San Francisco school’s decision to paint over art forget that people of color have a bright future, not just a tragic past.
Jennifer Wilson