Essays
Words and Flesh: Observations on the American Soul
When you land in the United States, you can observe from a distance the world you are supposed to enter. For more than thirty years I lived in the opaque…
Something in My Pocket: Bakhtin, Freud, and South Park
South Park is obscenely violent, purposely grotesque, it holds nothing sacred, it is racist, sexist, homophobic as well as heterophobic, and abuses people of every political and demographic persuasion,…
It Sang Itself Utterly Away: the Presence of the Poet
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with memory. Maybe I shouldn’t say lately, because I’ve always been obsessed with memory—mostly my own memories. One second I am brushing my teeth and the…
Home: 9 LGBTQ Writers Reflect after Orlando
Contributors: Veronica Scott Esposito, Rooze Garcia, Gabriel Garcia Ochoa, Melissa Febos, Jill McDonough, H. Sharif “Herukhuti” Williams, Mary Meriam, Annie Won, and Hannah Baker-Siroty. Editor’s Note We at The Critical Flame…
I Had to Cut It Down: An Experiment in Destructive Criticism
There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. —Ralph Waldo Emerson The role of the critic is the topic de jour, in part because of the smart and…
A Paean to Summer Reading
Given how I struggled as a child with prescribed summer reading lists—all those obligations to read Hard Times or Lord Jim by the Tuesday after Labor Day—I surprise even myself…
Beyond Shakespeare: Thinking globally on the anniversary of the playwright’s death
Which authors do students entering college in the United States need to be familiar with? Homer? Dante? Austen? Dickinson? Ellison? All of the above? No. According to the Common Core…
Six Proposals for the Reform of Literature in the Age of Climate Change
A century ago, China was in chaos. The Qing Empire had been overthrown by a loosely coordinated confederation of elites. The regional militias and armies that held sway were each…
Call for Submissions: Translation Feature
BOSTON, MA – MAY 2, 2016 | The Critical Flame, a bimonthly online journal of book reviews, criticism, essays, interviews, and literary nonfiction, announces an invitation for submissions to a…