Star Wars English Class

Julia and Fern explore Star Wars through their experience as English teachers and lovers of all things literature.

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Top 10 Star Wars English Class Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Star Wars English Class episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Star Wars English Class for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Star Wars English Class episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Office Hours #1

Star Wars English Class

11/13/23 • 39 min

Welcome to the first in a series of rambling, casual episodes where Fern and Julia do not hold themselves to pesky things like "academic standards" and "research" and just kind of chat, like you would during your professor's office hours.
Points of Interest:
-Julia's Broken Brain
-Sometimes, Star Wars is Book
-SWCC London Live Episode THANK YOU!!
-Talking Back to Our Own Podcast
-This is a Pro Union Podcast
-You Can Podcast from the Woods

Social Media:
@swenglishclass on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram
Julia is on TikTok @juliachristine77
Fern is on TikTok @alwaysfern
Business inquiries: [email protected]
Logo by Jacob David Earl (@jacobdavidearl)
Music by ZapSplat.com

Intertextuality

Star Wars English Class

12/28/21 • 93 min

In the penultimate episode of season one of Star Wars English Class, Julia overcomes her fear of French literary theory to teach Fern about intertextuality. We explore the The Ferdinand de Saussure to Disney Star Wars Canon Pipeline, analyze some of George Lucas's cultural and historical "references," Fern goes on a Quick Adventure Zone TangentTM️, and we discover two ultimate truths: language is a prison and there is no Star Wars.
On the Syllabus

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, dir. J.J. Abrams
Star Wars: The High Republic, A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland
Ian Buchanan. "intertextuality." A Dictionary of Critical Theory: Oxford University Press, Oxford Reference.
Daniel Chandler. "Semiotics for Beginners: Intertextuality," http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem09.html
Gerard Genette. Palimpsests: Literature in the Second Degree, Channa Newman and Claude Doubinsky (trans.), University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE and London.
William Irwin. "Against Intertextuality." Philosophy and Literature, vol. 28 no. 2, 2004, p. 227-242.

From a Certain Point of View: Unreliable Narrators

Star Wars English Class

05/17/21 • 97 min

In this week’s episode of Star Wars English Class, Julia teaches Fern about unreliable narrators! But to learn about unreliable narrators, we must first learn about story, plot, and narration (spoiler alert: that’s not the only list of three things in this week’s episode). How can the same story be told in different ways by different narrators? What are the different kinds of unreliable narrators? How does the language of film convey unreliability? And how can we determine the “facts” of a story? This week, we’ll discuss Kanan Jarrus, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, and Kylo Ren as we endeavor to uncover the truth about unreliable narrators in Star Wars.On the Syllabus Today:

"Aftermath," The Bad Batch: S01EP01 (2021)
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
H. Porter Abbot, "Story, Plot, and Narration" (2007)
Abbott, H. Porter. “Story, Plot, and Narration.” The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, edited by David Herman, 1st ed., Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 39–51.
Anderson, Emily R. “Telling Stories: Unreliable Discourse, Fight Club, and the Cinematic Narrator.” Journal of Narrative Theory, vol. 40, no. 1, 2010, pp. 80–107.
Shen, Dan. “The Living Handbook of Narratology.” Unreliability | the Living Handbook of Narratology, University of Hamburg, 31 Dec. 2013, www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/node/66.html.
"Who Can You Trust? Unreliable Narrators (Feat. Lindsay Ellis)." YouTube, uploaded by PBS Voices, 17 December 2018. https://youtu.be/AM7pALSwH_I
Zerweck, Bruno. “Historicizing Unreliable Narration: Unreliability and Cultural Discourse in Narrative Fiction.” Style, vol. 35, no. 1, 2001, pp. 151–76.

The Hero's Journey LIVE from Star Wars Celebration 2023

Star Wars English Class

05/22/23 • 55 min

Recorded live from the HoloNet News Stage at Star Wars Celebration London, Fern and Julia explore Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces and the impact of "The Hero's Journey" on Star Wars and mass-media storytelling in general.
(Psst...the audio isn't great in this one because Julia forgot she saved the audio we recorded with the nice microphone to her external hard drive...which is currently 2000 miles away from her. We'll upload the improved audio as soon as we can).
Points of Interest: The KCU (Korkie Cinematic Universe), Joseph Campbell's Whole Deal, Audience Participation, Archetypal Set Points, and Ending Early to Get to the High Republic Panel.
Huge thanks to the incredible and multi-talented @jacobdavidearl for our new logo!

Star Wars Book Report: The Fallen Star

Star Wars English Class

01/05/22 • 126 min

It's a Star Wars Book Report! In this special bonus episode, Fern and Julia review and discuss the latest adult novel in The High Republic era, The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray.
Thank you to Del Rey for an early review copy.

Summer School: Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 2 (Episodes 4-6)

Star Wars English Class

08/01/22 • 96 min

Join Julia and Fern for a special Summer School session with in-depth exploration of the themes, story elements, character arcs, and more of the final three episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022).
Our Obi-Wan Kenobi Media Recommendations for Further Reading:
Brotherhood by Mike Chen
Padawan by Kiersten White
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) comic mini-series
Social Media:
@swenglishclass on Twitter and TikTok
Julia is on TikTok @juliachristine77
Fern is on TikTok @alwaysfern

Business inquiries: [email protected]
Music by ZapSplat.com

Once Upon a Time in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...Star Wars as Fairy Tale

Star Wars English Class

06/20/22 • 116 min

In this week’s episode, Fern teaches Julia about fairy tales! Join us as we explore the history of folktale, the rise of the literary fairy tale, the tropes and conventions of the genre, and J.R.R. “Jorts” Tolkien’s most famous essay, “On Fairy Stories.” How does our understanding of Star Wars shift and develop when we consider it in the context of this literary tradition? What do fairy tales and stories like Star Wars “offer” us in our adult lives? And will Hank Green finally admit that Star Wars is more fantasy than science fiction?
Points of Interest: There is Only One Step and it is Crab, Jorts Tolkien, Snow White’s Jazz Party, Ezra Pound’s Little Fascist Podcast, Special Babies, Julia and Hank Green’s TikTok Beef

Summer School: Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 1 (Episodes 1-3)

Star Wars English Class

06/06/22 • 89 min

Join Julia and Fern for a special Summer School session with in-depth exploration of the themes, story elements, character arcs, and more of the first three episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022).

Broken on Purpose: Star Wars and Serial Storytelling

Star Wars English Class

05/23/22 • 121 min

In this episode, Julia teaches Fern about serialization! We explore the differences between series and serials, discuss the effects of serialization on storytelling and audience engagement, and consider what it means to be agents of narrative continuation as members of the Star Wars fandom. How does serialization determine story structure? Is Star Wars broken (on purpose)? And was George Lucas right when he said that Star Wars is like poetry?
On the syllabus:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-2020)
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Kelleter, Frank. “Five Ways of Looking at Popular Seriality.” Media of Serial Narrative, edited by Frank Kelleter, Ohio State University Press, 2017, pp. 7–34.
O’Sullivan, Sean. “Broken on Purpose: Poetry, Serial Television, and the Season.” Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, vol. 2, 2010, pp. 59–77.
Hayward, Jennifer. Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial Fictions from Dickens to Soap Opera. 1st ed., University Press of Kentucky, 1997.

Anakin Skywalker and the Tragic Hero

Star Wars English Class

04/18/21 • 105 min

Welcome to Star Wars English Class! This week, Julia and Fern introduce themselves, discuss the Star Wars English Class curriculum, and tackle a question that’s been on their minds: is Anakin Skywalker a tragic hero? In this lesson, you will learn about the history of the tragic hero as Fern and Julia trace its roots from Greek and Renaissance tragedy to contemporary fiction. How do we define tragic heroism? To what extent does a tragic hero have agency over his fate? And how does Anakin Skywalker fit into this literary tradition?On the Syllabus:

Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE)
William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600)
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (1587)
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
“Antigone, Sophocles.” Youtube, uploaded by The Center for Hellenic Studies, 5 August
2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSnfzgN7QfA&list=PLq5ea-jR9u2ojLpe4x3suBCx1eGuXwnL2&index=21
Aristotle. “Poetics.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism: Second Edition, edited by Vincent B. Leitch, W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, pp. 88-115.
”Bacchae, Euripides - Reading Greek Tragedy Online.” Youtube, uploaded by The Center for Hellenic Studies, 20 April 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAt1FDCF2hQ&list=PLq5ea-jR9u2ojLpe4x3suBCx1eGuXwnL2&index=6
Boas, George. “The Evolution of the Tragic Hero.” The Carleton Drama Review, vol. 1, no. 1, 1955, pp. 5–21. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1124612.
Bradley, A.C. Shakespearean Tragedy. St. Martin's Press, 1985.
“CHS Dialogues with Gregory Nagy | Tragedy, Anger, and Agamemnon.” Youtube, uploaded by The Center for Hellenic Studies, 5 November 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Ez3HT_TJo&list=PLq5ea-jR9u2prF3fg9FCJPGEz6TJzDwH2&index=14&t=450s
Krieger, Murray. “Tragedy and the Tragic Vision.” The Kenyon Review, vol. 20, no. 2, 1958, pp. 281–299. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4333856.
McDonald, Russ. "Theater à la Mode: Shakespeare and the Kinds of Drama." The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents, 79-108.
Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. Twayne Publishers, 1993.
Segal, Charles. “Charles Segal on the Greatness of Oedipus the King.” Sophocles’ Oedipus Plays: A Contemporary Literary Views Book, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 1996, pp. 73-75.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Star Wars English Class have?

Star Wars English Class currently has 23 episodes available.

What topics does Star Wars English Class cover?

The podcast is about Literature, Star Wars, Film Analysis, Podcasts, Education and Tv & Film.

What is the most popular episode on Star Wars English Class?

The episode title 'The Hero's Journey LIVE from Star Wars Celebration 2023' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Star Wars English Class?

The average episode length on Star Wars English Class is 94 minutes.

How often are episodes of Star Wars English Class released?

Episodes of Star Wars English Class are typically released every 18 days, 22 hours.

When was the first episode of Star Wars English Class?

The first episode of Star Wars English Class was released on Apr 18, 2021.

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Star Wars English Class