A Journey through Dante’s Purgatorio
August 2023
As a narrative of a journey through a place of natural beauty, friendship, and hope for moral change, Dante’s Purgatorio has the potential to look more like the world of his readers than do the spectacles of the fixed souls of hell and heaven. Reading the Purgatorio together during these four weeks, we will consider the distinctive poetic features of Dante’s Commedia and the role of art in the moral development of the souls he encounters in the middle of his three-part journey.
Robin Landrith is a doctoral candidate at Boston College, writing a dissertation on the theology of twelfth-century mystic Richard of St. Victor.
Recommended Textbook: Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Vol. 2: Purgatorio. Translated by Robert M. Durling. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Available on Amazon here.
Schedule: Wednesdays, August 9–30 at 5:30–6:30pm EST over Zoom
A Summer in Middlemarch
July - August 2023
Middlemarch is widely regarded as the greatest novel in English. What makes this novel so great? What does it have to tell us about society, morality, and free will? This reading group is geared towards those who have never encountered George Eliot's novel, but those familiar with the text are welcome to join as well. We will work our way through it over the course of two months, budgeting ample time to discuss characters, plot points, and major themes. Students will also receive reading aids and background information on George Eliot and the Victorian era to help them as they progress through the book.
Led by Andrew Koenig, PhD Candidate in English Literature at Harvard University.
Preferred edition: Oxford edition (ISBN: 0198815514), available on Amazon or at your local bookstore. This edition is has notes on background, incl. historical and political issues informing Eliot's novel.
NB: Middlemarch is in the public domain, so free editions are available online at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere. The novel is about 800pp in print, so we will be aiming to read around 100 pages per week.
Schedule: Wednesdays 5 PM EST, July 5 - August 24
Shakespeare’s Sonnets: May
May 2023
What is a sonnet, and how should you read one? How do Shakespeare’s sonnets work? What makes his sonnets different from those of his contemporaries?
What to expect? At the beginning of each meeting, I’ll briefly introduce some key concepts. The meetings will consist primarily of collaborative close reading and discussion, in which you will be free to introduce your own questions and observations to the class. Although I plan to teach and provide helpful contexts and information, my goal is not to give you an inflexible reading of the poems. I’m much more interested in learning with you as we think aloud, play, test ideas, and translate these poems into conversation, as we consider the poems as shapes of sound and meaning.
Led by Adam Walker, a PhD Candidate in English Literature at Harvard University.
Schedule: Tuesdays, 5-6:30 PM EST, May 9 - 30