Episode 331: "Araby" by James Joyce – Short Story Summer Series Remix
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 99 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Literary Life we begin revisiting a series from our "Summer of the Short Story" that originally aired way back in Season 1 of the podcast! Today we return to Episode 11, in which Angelina and Cindy enjoyed a discussion of the short story "Araby" by James Joyce.
Delving into "Araby," Angelina talks about the history and development of the short story form. Cindy gives a little of her own background with reading James Joyce and why she loves his short stories. Angelina and Cindy also discuss the essential "Irishness" of this story and all the tales in The Dubliners. Angelina walks us through the story, highlighting the kinds of questions and things we should look for when reading closely. Themes discussed in this story include: blindness and sight, light and darkness, romanticism, religious devotion, the search for truth, money, courtly love, and the knight's quest.
If you want to find replays of the 2019 Back to School online conference referenced in this episode, you can purchase them in Cindy's shop at MorningTimeforMoms.com. You can also find out about all the current classes and summer events happening at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Check out the schedule for the podcast's summer episodes on our Upcoming Events page.
View the complete show notes for this episode at https://theliterary.life/331.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Literary Life Podcast. We've grown quite significantly since our debut in 2019, |
| 0:07.6 | and we've had many requests to highlight older episodes that new listeners may have missed, |
| 0:12.7 | as well as revisit listener favorites. To honor that request, I present to you this episode of |
| 0:18.7 | the best of the literary life podcast. |
| 0:22.1 | This is not just another book chat podcast. |
| 0:26.8 | Lifelong reader Cindy Rawlins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks |
| 0:31.3 | for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:37.0 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter end to the great works |
| 0:42.8 | of literature. Learn what books mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week, |
| 0:50.3 | we will rescue story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, |
| 0:56.1 | and your commute. |
| 0:57.6 | The literary life is for everyone because in the words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted |
| 1:02.8 | by story is to be granted a deeper insight into reality. |
| 1:07.9 | Join us for an ever unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world. |
| 1:13.6 | This is The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford and Cindy |
| 1:38.5 | Rollins. |
| 1:39.0 | We are so glad that you're joining us to launch off our short story essay series for the summer. |
| 1:46.0 | We're both really pumped about these short stories and especially about this first one |
| 1:50.9 | that we're going to be doing. |
| 1:51.8 | But before we get to that, Cindy, hi. |
| 1:54.4 | Welcome. |
| 1:54.8 | How's the summer going? |
... |
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