Books & the Arts

Peter Schjeldahl’s Pleasure Principle

Peter Schjeldahl’s Pleasure Principle Peter Schjeldahl’s Pleasure Principle

His art criticism fixated on the narcissism of the entire enterprise. But over six decades, his work proved that a critic could be an artist too.

Dec 9, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Zachary Fine

How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse

How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse How the Western Literary Canon Made the World Worse

A talk with Dionne Brand about her recent book, Salvage, which looks at how the classic texts of Anglo-American fiction helped abet the crimes of capitalism, colonialism, and more...

Dec 5, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Elias Rodriques

Along the Roads That Built Modern Brazil

Along the Roads That Built Modern Brazil Along the Roads That Built Modern Brazil

José Henrique Bortoluci's What Is Mine tells the story of his country’s laborers, like his father, who built its infrastructure, and in turn its fractious politics.

Dec 4, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Jimin Kang

Benin Bronzes at the British Museum.

The Long History of the "Elsewhere Museum" The Long History of the "Elsewhere Museum"

Can the ethnographic museum be reinvented?

Dec 2, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Farah Abdessamad

Rain and Mountains

Rain and Mountains Rain and Mountains

Pages from a novelist’s notebook.

Nov 27, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Orhan Pamuk

Storming the Winter Palace on October 25, 1917.

The Impossible Story of Communism The Impossible Story of Communism

How do you tell the history of a global movement in all its hope and contradiction?

Nov 26, 2024 / Books & the Arts / David A. Bell

Nation Poetry

Overseas Woo Overseas Woo

Nov 26, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Angel Nafis

Dubai Mall in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

In the Zone of the Rich In the Zone of the Rich

In The Hidden Globe, Atossa Araxia Abrahamian examines what globalization has come to look like for the wealthy.

Nov 26, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Vanessa Ogle

The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq

The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq The Discontents of Michel Houellebecq

What happened to the French novelist?

Nov 25, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Cole Stangler

An African American family seated in a convertible, 1972.

The Perils of a Post-Racial Utopia The Perils of a Post-Racial Utopia

In Nicola Yoon’s One of Our Kind, a dystopian novel of a Black upper-class suburb’s secrets, she examines the dangers of choosing exceptionalism over equality.

Nov 21, 2024 / Books & the Arts / Stephen Kearse

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