Hopkins Press Podcast 4.12: Paul Franz and John Pistelli on René Girard and "Romantic Truth"

On today's episode of the Hopkins Press Podcast, Literary Imagination editor Paul Franz introduces the new issue of Literary Imagination, and interviews author/scholar John Pistelli about his new article, "Romantic Truth: Imaginative Authority in the Literary Criticism of René Girard."

Engagement with Girard's work has expanded outside of academic and literary circles in recent years, and his ideas have found purchase in economic and political institutions within the U.S. and around the world. In this discussion, Pistellii and Franz look at ways Girard has become an "oracle of the social-media epoch."

Along with two other pieces in the new issue of Literary Imagination —  "The Mysteries of Love: On Alice Munro" by James Tussing and "Poems and Translations" by Victoria Moul  — "Romantic Truth: Imaginative Authority in the Literary Criticism of René Girard." will be free to read on Project MUSE through the end of December.

John Pistelli is the author of five novels: The Ecstasy of Michaela, Portraits and Ashes, The Quarantine of St. Sebastian House, The Class of 2000, and, most recently, Major Arcana (2025). His PhD is from the University of Minnesota. He is adjunct faculty of Liberal Arts at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and lives in Pittsburgh, PA. He is the author of the highly subscribed Substack newsletter Grand Hotel Abyss and maintains an award-winning literary site where he writes essays mostly on classic books in all genres, at johnpistelli.com. He has published short stories and poems in many journals. As a literary critic and cultural commentator, he has written for venues as diverse as Rain Taxi, The Millions, Tablet, and The Spectator. Contact him at [email protected]
 

Paul Franz is the editor of Literary Imagination and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada. He holds a PhD in Modern British Literature from Yale. His critical work includes essays on Rachel Cusk and D. H. Lawrence, on T. S. Eliot and lyric theory, and, in a forthcoming volume, on the influence of Jacques Ellul on the American-Canadian poet A. F. Moritz. His essays and reviews appear in The Hedgehog Review, The Metropolitan Review, The Nation, the LRB, and elsewhere. He has published poems in the NYRB, Hobart, and Prelude. Contact him at [email protected].