Countries: US

Tartuffe perfectly represents the French neo-classical period, and this lesson places particular emphasis on the play’s plot, language style, characterizations and central theme. What is the play about? Why is Orgon so blind to Tartuffe’s true nature? Is the character of Tartuffe comic or macabre? Is Orgon “mad,” as Dorine claims? What does “madness” mean in the context of this play? What is the significance of the “deus ex machina” ending of the play? Featured interview: Dr. David Raybin (Eastern Illinois University)

The class investigates Milton’s purpose in singling out the myth of Adam and Eve for such extended attention. What is heroism and who is heroic by Milton’s standards? What is “innocence” according to Milton? Is it a desirable trait? What is the role of knowledge in the epic? What does it mean to be “lowly wise?” Of particular attention is the question of Eve as champion of Paradise Lost. Featured interview: Dr. Rachel Falconer (University of Sheffield)

The class investigates Milton’s purpose in singling out the myth of Adam and Eve for such extended attention. What is heroism and who is heroic by Milton’s standards? What is “innocence” according to Milton? Is it a desirable trait? What is the role of knowledge in the epic? What does it mean to be “lowly wise?” Of particular attention is the question of Eve as champion of Paradise Lost. Featured interview: Dr. Rachel Falconer (University of Sheffield)

Does Candide simply recreate “Job in modern dress,” as Frederick the Great asserted? What is the theme of Candide? What is Voltaire’s attitude toward metaphysical speculation? What is the role of “work” in Candide? The lesson focuses on the symbolic concept of “garden” in the work, and discussion touches on the three types of “gardens” (ways of life) that rapidly succeed one another toward the end of the work. The class contemplates Candide as a work that exemplifies humankind’s traditional existential dilemma: How does one find meaning in a mad, evil world and create a meaningful existence within it? Featured interview: Professor Robert Morrissey (University of Chicago)

Discussion focuses on Faust as a classic example of European Romanticism that stresses such concepts as individualism, limitless aspiration, and Gothicism, while it reveals Romantic attitudes toward knowledge. Particular attention is paid to the “two souls inhabit my breast” speech and the grasshopper image as emblematic of Faust’s personal and philosophical dilemma.

Discussion centers on Flaubert’s realism and his use of point-of-view in Madame Bovary. Students debate the notion that this book is evidence of Flaubert’s feminist leanings. Other questions asked in the lesson: Is the story really about Charles or Emma? Would Emma ever be satisfied with any man? Is the novel meant to be instructive? If the novel has a moral center, why does Charles suffer so? Are we meant to be sympathetic to Emma – to understand her rather than judge her? Is Emma subject to fate and circumstance or responsible for her own downfall? Featured interview: Dr. Alison Finch, Jesus College (Oxford)

Discussion in these two lessons focuses on the nature of epics, the tragedy of Achilles, the nature of the Homeric hero, the relation between humans and gods, and the nature of honor as a motivating principle. Discussion also explores the Iliad as both a celebration of and a protest against war.

The range of discussion topics in this lesson includes the nature of tragedy, the concept of “moira” (fate) vs. “tuche” (chance), the religious conservatism practiced by Sophocles, and some general speculations about human nature. What besides his own destruction does Oedipus gain? What does it mean to be human? How should one live? Does Oedipus suffer justly? Is the play a celebration of the tragic hero?

Antigone sparks a debate on the subject of duty: Is a citizen’s first duty is to the law of the state or to the law of religion? Who is the tragic protagonist of the play? Who “owns” the tragedy? Are Creon and Antigone equally right and equally wrong? Does Sophocles favor one over the other? The lesson turns to a discussion on how the play might have contemporary applications. Featured interview: Justice Seymour Simon, Former Justice of the Illinois State Supreme Court

Over the course of the three lessons, students focus on four questions: What makes Aeneas a distinctly Roman hero? What was Virgil’s purpose behind writing the epic? What debt does Virgil owe to Homer? How does Virgil betray his own ambivalence in this epic vision, which both celebrates Rome’s greatness and measures its staggering cost? The classes focus particularly on Books II (The Fall of Troy), IV (The Tragedy of Dido), and VI (The Symbolic Death and Resurrection of the Hero). Featured interviews: Professor Maynard Mack (Yale University), editor for the Norton Anthology of Classical Literature, and Professor A. D. Nuttall (New College-Oxford)