Joseph Matthews

1 month ago | publicseminar.org | Gant Roberson |Federico Finchelstein |Joseph Matthews |Evangeline Riddiford Graham

11th Anniversary Celebration of El Maizal Commune (2020) | Katrina Kozarek / Venezuela AnalysisIn the central western region of Venezuela, a vast scenery of fertile land blends with the llanero(herdsman) culture of the people of Simón Planas township. Adults make use of children’s bicycles (received as Christmas gifts from the government) to meet the exigencies of day-to-day life, evoking “a forgotten episode in a magical realist novel,” in the words of author Chris Gilbert.

2 months ago | publicseminar.org | Madeleine Adams |Joseph Matthews |Evangeline Riddiford Graham |Helen Schulman

A bigger burro? | Jürgen Scheeff / Unsplash LicenseIt’s difficult to write about The Rest Is Silence (trans. from the Spanish by Aaron Kerner, New York Review Books 2024) without sounding like Eduardo Torres, the puffed-up literary critic and protagonist of Augusto Monterroso’s metatextual satire—but I will do my best.

Apr 24, 2024 | publicseminar.org | Julian Hofmann |Samuel Moyn |Joseph Matthews |Evangeline Riddiford Graham

$1 Rush Lamp and Candle Holder invert reproduction (1979) | National Postal Museum Collection / Smithsonian MuseumCan liberalism still be saved? In a climate of war, rampant militarization, and a politically prescribed defense of freedom, the once-thought-dead worldview of Cold War liberalism is making a comeback.

Apr 8, 2024 | publicseminar.org | Mitchell Abidor |Federico Finchelstein |Pamela Ballinger |Joseph Matthews

The “Red Poster” of the Vichy Regime (1944) | kitchener.lord / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED On February 21, 2024, the remains of Missak Manouchian and his widow, Melinée, herself a relatively marginal member of the Resistance and best known as the recipient of her husband’s moving final letter, were granted France’s highest honor: transfer to the Pantheon, the magnificent final resting place of Rousseau, Voltaire, Zola, and others to whom the “fatherland is grateful.” It was 80 years to the day since...

Dec 5, 2023 | publicseminar.org | Joseph Matthews |Evangeline Riddiford Graham

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Paloma VelascoThe adrift young American doesn’t find his idyll. It’s 1973: when Jonas Korda washes up on the Aegean islands, Greece has been under the heavy thumb of a military junta for six years. The protagonist of Joseph Matthews’s novel Shades of Resistance is instead swept up in the politics of a small place struggling to withstand a fascist regime. Two small Berkeley presses partnered to first publish Shades of Resistance in 1994.