Criticism in World Literature and Cinema: A Unified Perspective
At its core, criticism asks a fundamental question: how do artistic works produce meaning?
August Issue, 2026
A collection of all the articles we’ve published over the past month, for those who like to savor their Magpies’ tidings as an issue.
Do you like to dance for free? Letter From the Editor, August, 2026
Midsummer ramblings.
The musical conquests of Goopy and Bagha
“Warmth and empathy are qualities found in all of Ray’s movies, but this genre allows him to display them in their rawest, least guarded form.”
Angry Animals at the Muzeum Czartoryskich
A trip to the Muzeum Czartoryskich with Lauren Barnett.
Mistress of a New World
The Blazing World — via a dizzy mix of animal-human hybrids, Immaterial Spirits, and burning foes — tells of a woman’s absolute rule as Empress over a parallel planet. Emily Lord Fransee reflects on what the book and its author Margaret Cavendish can teach us about empire, gender, and imagination in the 17th century.
Fifty Years After Soweto: A Struggle Without Documentation Is Not a Struggle
“South Africa’s anti-apartheid photographers did not merely record brutality. They preserved evidence, built collective memory, and transformed the camera into a weapon of political education and international solidarity.”
The Lexicon of Facism
“Langston Hughes’ words sent chills down my spine. It gave me the wherewithal to truly understand that fascism is not at all a foreign term, nor is it strictly related to Europe or even novel in twenty-first century American life.”
Magpies’ MixTape: Folderol
Nonsense! Gobbledygook! Gibberish! Balderdash! Folderol!
Night of the Long Knives: One Night in Istanbul
‘It’s going to be a long night,’ I said.
And it was.
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