Episodes
A brief discussion of what you can expect from Professor Kozlowski Lectures in the coming months and years. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 04/16/24
Professor Kozlowski concludes his discussion of Dostoevsky's Demons and his series on Russian Nihilism. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 04/16/24
Published 04/16/24
Time to party with the Demons. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 04/16/24
Finally we get to see Pyotr Stepanovich bustle about and put his dubious plans into motion. Today Professor Kozlowski contrasts the careers and adventures of Pyotr Stepanovich and Stavrogin, examines the literary origins of each, and considers the censored "At Tikhon's" chapter as it reflects on our understanding of these characters.
Published 04/08/24
Professor Kozlowski continues his discussion of Dostoevsky's Demons by deeply examining the newly-revealed characters of Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin and Pyotor Stepanovich through their interactions with many of the other radicals and townfolk. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 04/01/24
Professor Kozlowski continues his discussion of Dostoevsky's Demons with an examination of many of the minor characters introduced so far, and how their relationships are revealed, piecemeal, through careful details and subtle interactions. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 03/21/24
Today Professor Kozlowski discusses the first two chapters of Dostoevsky's Demons, introduces three of our primary characters, and connects them to their archetypes in 1860s Russian society. Also jokes. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 03/12/24
Professor Kozlowski attempts to recount the developments in the Russian literary world between 1864 and 1871 (when Demons is written), including a brief summary of Crime and Punishment and its relevance to the literary representation of Russian Nihilism at the time. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected].
Published 03/06/24
Professor Kozlowski tackles the second half of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, with special attention to exploring the references to 1840's Russian literature (and to Chernyshevsky's What is to Be Done?) found throughout this section. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at:...
Published 02/29/24
At long last, Professor Kozlowski confronts Dostoevsky's most widely discussed and controversial creation: Notes from Underground. Come for the tortured consciousness of the underground man, stay for the literary skullduggery and speculations about censorship. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at:...
Published 02/22/24
Professor Kozlowski muses on the Utopian hopes and missing realities of Chernyshevsky's promised revolution at the end of What is to Be Done? To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ProfessorKozlowski - where you'll also be able to vote for and suggest new topics for future...
Published 02/15/24
Now that we've gotten all the rage sweats cleaned up, it's time for Professor Kozlowski to take a deep dive into Chernyshevsky's convictions and ideology, both to appreciate the merit of those convictions, and to examine the similarities between radical idealism of the 1860s in Russia and in the years since. Hopefully this will be a bit more even-handed than last time, but we're never going to have *no* angry biased grumpiness. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his...
Published 02/07/24
Professor Kozlowski offers his first impressions of Chernyshevsky's What is to Be Done? Despite his efforts to be even-handed and charitable, there is still a great deal of hand-wringing, criticism, and outright swearing. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at:...
Published 01/24/24
To conclude his General Humanities class (again), Professor Kozlowski examines the broad-strokes legacy and theming of the James Bond franchise as an artifact of the Cold War and late Twentieth Century art and popular culture. UPDATE: A friend of the show, patron, and library archivist apparently took it upon herself to track down the text of Film Critic Hulk's James Bond essay on Wayback Machine: I include the links...
Published 01/22/24
Professor Kozlowski concludes his examination of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons with a deep-dive look at Bazarov's painful relationship with his parents, his ignominious final acts (and death), and Turgenev's complicated relationship with Russian ideology, both within the novel, and as Russia reacted to it. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider...
Published 01/21/24
Professor Kozlowski belatedly continues his General Humanities class with a brief-ish (and very insufficient) discussion of the Cold War and the Late Twentieth Century.
Published 01/20/24
Professor Kozlowski introduces his General Humanities students to the peculiar nature of his grading system and the expectations for this semester's course.
Published 01/13/24
Today Professor Kozlowski discusses the first eighteen chapters of Turgenev's landmark novel, Fathers and Sons - where Turgenev coined the term "nihilism". We'll discuss some of Turgenev's literary legacy, including his relationship to Dostoevsky, as well as examine the way that Turgenev's main character, Bazarov, walks the line between tragically human and ideologically monstrous. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or...
Published 01/11/24
Our new series for spring 2024 is on Dostoevsky's Demons and the tumultuous state of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1860s that brought about some of Dostoevsky's most insightful work. Today we set the stage: Professor Kozlowski walks us through the Russian reforms of Peter the Great, the wars of Napoleon and his socio-political legacy, up to the early career of Dostoevsky himself - including the rival factions of Russian intellectuals in the 1850s. Next time - Turgenev's Fathers and...
Published 01/04/24
Professor Kozlowski closes his discussion of the Pentateuch with an examination of Deuteronomy: its disputed authorship, its review of events past, its new laws, and the conclusion to the story of Moses and the Exodus. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ProfessorKozlowski -...
Published 11/28/23
Professor Kozlowski recounts and explores the latter half of the book of Numbers, including many new complications in the relationship between God and the Israelites as they wander the desert for forty years. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ProfessorKozlowski - where...
Published 11/22/23
Numbers is often maligned as a boring book about censuses and laws. But in this lecture, Professor Kozlowski explains the censuses and laws in terms of the story of God's maturing relationship with his people - the ups and downs and ugly practicalities of any relationship, and how Numbers is actually a compelling account of very human failings and maturation in faith. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him...
Published 11/07/23
Professor Kozlowski outlines the mixed bag of Levitical laws and prohibitions, taking time to discuss several of the major themes recurring throughout the book, including: the priority on conduct; the mysterious nature of holiness and its strange relationship to cleanliness and sin; and the divine requirements of faith implicit in the structure of holy festivals and sabbath years. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or...
Published 11/01/23
Professor Kozlowski examines the laws of Leviticus and how they reveal new insights into God's Nature - though perhaps not as much as we might like. To see what else Professor Kozlowski is up to, visit his webpage: https://professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at [email protected]. And please consider contributing to Professor Kozlowski's Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ProfessorKozlowski - where you'll also be able to vote for and suggest new topics for...
Published 10/28/23