Edgar Allan Poe, while one of America’s most popular authors, is also America’s most deeply misunderstood author. The French have long admired Poe for his mythopoeic powers, but Americans largely think of him as the Stephen King of his day, revelling in fright, horror, and nihilistic violence. Or, as one critic put it, “his tales are nothing more than complicated…
$350.00–$875.00Price range: $350.00 through $875.00
In the years 800-1066, the Vikings reshaped the history and politics of Europe, raiding, conquering, settling and trading in an area of influence that reached from Byzantium in the east to North America in the west and from Iceland in the north to as far south as Spain and Italy. 1000 years later, the rediscovery of their literature spread throughout…
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Great Britain, in the middle of the 17th century, became the site of a turbulent and destructive civil war, in which the rival armies were those of King and Parliament. Of the many historic personalities brought forth by those violent times, none has been so extravagantly praised or severely condemned as Oliver Cromwell, who rose from being a little-noticed Member…
Our culture is obsessed with “literacy.” We track literacy statistics and data; schools hire literacy coaches and specialists; literature class has been replaced by literacy class. But has this obsession resulted in greater understanding of the written word? Quite the opposite. All around us is the evidence that we are existing in an almost Post-Literate Age. The popularity of AI…
From 800 to 1066, the people we know as “The Vikings” reshaped the history, politics, and culture of Europe, raiding, conquering, settling, and trading from Byzantium in the east to North America in the west, and Iceland to the coasts of Spain and Italy. 800 years later the rediscovery of their literature and mythology took European culture by storm, inspiring…
Once upon a time, the world seemed to move within the patterns of a cosmic game. The heavens danced to a music which resonated throughout the firmament. All the created world opened like a book written by a divine hand, and nature was a language. This is a vision that is now very unfamiliar to us. Are we separated from…
Enlightenment broke the Chain of Being, “untenanting creation of its God.” The Medieval Reason snapped through the clouds into the heavens, and eighteenth-century England wallowed in materialistic and utilitarian philosophy, “scoffing ascent / Proud in their meanness: and themselves they cheat.” The veil between earthly and heavenly things became an iron curtain, and material things were stripped of symbolical understanding…
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With hundreds of thousands of copies on the shelf, the Alice books seem to occupy a central place among the undisputed classics of the 19th century- and indeed of all English literature. It quickly becomes clear that this is no accident, but rather that these works of Nonsense have been carrying on a rich conversation with all other stories and…
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This mini-course is a novel way of introducing literary readers to the most formidable type of literature, lyric poetry, by focusing on those poems that C.S. Lewis admired the most. In addition to providing the literary tools to overcome the obstacles to reading lyric poetry, we will ask why Lewis admired Wordsworth, Herbert, and the metaphysical poets so much. Lewis's thought will also guide us on questions like: why is the sonnet the…
The period of British history from 1837 to 1901 was one in which both Britain and the world were altered remarkably. Changes abounded, in social customs, technology, political and military affairs, and the relations between person and person, citizen and government. Join Thomas Banks on June 30th-July 8th in this six-lecture exploration of the lives of five Victorian men and women who, in diverse ways,…
$120.00–$295.00Price range: $120.00 through $295.00
Individual Price: $120 (Non-Refundable) ***Family Rate for 3 or more students*** Price: $295 (Non-Refundable) The Harry Potter series rivals both The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings as the most popular fantasy series of all time. Behind all the hype, film franchises, amusement parks, cos-play, and controversy are stories deeply steeped in the same Literary Tradition as…
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For centuries, writers have drawn inspiration from the literary tradition as well as the living page of nature to shape their literary lives. But what about the composer? How does attention to nature as well as a deep understanding of folktales and myth affect a person whose first language is music? Join Querida Thompson as she guides us through Bedrich…
