Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum.

In his new book A History of the End of the World: How the Most Controversial Book in the Bible Changed the Course of Western Civilization, Jonathan Kirsch explores the ways the Book of Revelation has been interpreted since its inception and how the final book of the New Testament has influenced literature, history and popular culture.

Maureen Corrigan looks at Hatchet Jobs, a collection of criticism by Dale Peck, book reviewer for The New Republic.

Her latest book, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, is about a little-known religious text that was rediscovered in Egypt in 1945. She will explain why the Gospel of Thomas was suppressed by the church and kept out of the canon. Elaine Pagels has been called one of the world's most important writers and thinkers on religion and history. She won the National Book Award for her book, The Gnostic Gospels. Pagels is a professor at Princeton University.Enter Me

Commentator Maureen Corrigan recently attended the annual conference of the Modern Language Association in Washington D.C. She reports on what the academics are discussing and it's relevance to the rest of us.

Shakespearean scholar Gary Taylor. Four years ago, Taylor made headlines when he claimed to have discovered a new Shakespeare poem. Now Taylor's written a cultural history of the Bard of Stratford, called Reinventing Shakespeare. In it, Taylor asks `is Shakespeare really as great as everyone says?' Taylor looks at how changing societies have reinterpreted Shakespeare, and to some extent all great literature, to correspond with changing social mores and opinions.

Language Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg, unhappy with his job description, tries on a few other possibilities while dissecting the very notion of a "language commentator."

Book critic John Leonard says a new collection of essays called Introducing the Great American Novel, which features work by notable critics and famous authors, lacks women's voices, geographical inclusivity, and an overall point.

Writer James Wolcott, who's now a regular columnist on culture for Vanity Fair.

Russell Jacoby, whose new book, The Last Intellectuals, American Culture in the Age of Academe, contends that American culture is not producing the intellectuals it did during the 40s and 50s.