Season 5 of Novel Dialogue opens with an impassioned refresher course in literary theory brought to you by Ocean Vuong, poet and author of the bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019). Ocean talks with critic Amy E. Elkins and host Emily Hyde about browsing bookstore shelves and building his personal reading list of “life-giving weirdos.” They discuss genre and gender, antiquing and thrifting, fish sauce and photography, all the while integrating the insights of queer theory and the full range of literary history. What does looking at the world as a junkyard have to do with making art? What does it feel like to run smack dab into a memory? How can we be mindful of the fact that words (like “this”) are tiny objects with infinite possibilities? If autofiction annoys you, listen for how the form reinvents the self against dominant class and gender structures. And if your boots have ever touched down in Hot Springs, Arkansas, stay tuned for our signature question and don’t miss this episode!
Mentions:

Judith Butler

Anne Carson Autobiography of Red

Bhanu Kapil

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Djuna Barnes Nightwood

Freytag’s triangle

Tim Ingold, Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture

Walter Benjamin, “The Storyteller: Reflections on the Works of Nikolai Leskov”

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji

Amy E. Elkins, “The Weaver’s Handshake”

William Carlos Williams

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

Susan Sontag

Walt Whitman

Langston Hughes

Lucille Clifton

Hot Springs High School

The Sugarhill Gang, “Rappers Delight”


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