Producers: Governors State University

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 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 topics include Dostoyevsky’s unique contribution to the novel form, his interest in the obscure or confused motivations of human action, his interest in multiple personality, and his themes of suffering and spiritual regeneration. What is the “idea” behind the novel? Are the main characters of the novel embodied “ideas?” What are the challenges to accepting the “Epilogue”, both from an artistic and psychological perspective? Featured interview: Professor Ed Wasiolek (University of Chicago)

The lesson examines how this work validates the concept of “memento mori” – the forcing of a consciousness of death that compels us to examine the authenticity of our lives. According to Tolstoy, “Ivan Ilych’s life had been most simple and most ordinary and, therefore, most terrible.” What does this triad of adjectives mean? What is the tone of the story? Is Ivan’s fate a blessing or a curse? What is the role of “Friends?” Of “Family”? Discussion focuses on the imagery at the end of the story as it relates to the story’s theme. Featured interview: Professor Ed Wasiolek (University of Chicago)

These two lessons center on the nature of allegory, the law of symbolic retribution, and how the nature of the soul according to St. Thomas Aquinas influenced the structure of Dante’s Hell. How should one read Inferno for the first time? To what extent is Dante a new epic hero? To what extend does his journey constitute a new epic “action?” What is Inferno really about, and what was Dante’s purpose in writing it? The episode of Paolo and Francesca is singled out for particular attention. Featured interview: Professor Zyg Baranski (University of Reading)

These two lessons center on the nature of allegory, the law of symbolic retribution, and how the nature of the soul according to St. Thomas Aquinas influenced the structure of Dante’s Hell. How should one read Inferno for the first time? To what extent is Dante a new epic hero? To what extend does his journey constitute a new epic “action?” What is Inferno really about, and what was Dante’s purpose in writing it? The episode of Paolo and Francesca is singled out for particular attention. Featured interview: Professor Zyg Baranski (University of Reading)

Discussion centers on Hamlet’s unique prestige in Western culture as the Mt. Everest of plays, so much so that it is often referred to simply as “The Play”. What accounts for this unique prestige? How modern a play is Hamlet? What political issues does it raise? The class considers a feminist and an existential reading of the play, discussing Hamlet’s attitudes toward the sexualized maternal body and the universal fear and disgust it can evoke. “The Play” also poses the question of how to act in the world when one cannot know anything with certainty. Featured interview: Professor Mick Hattaway (University of Sheffield), author of a critical text on Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Discussion centers on Hamlet’s unique prestige in Western culture as the Mt. Everest of plays, so much so that it is often referred to simply as “The Play”. What accounts for this unique prestige? How modern a play is Hamlet? What political issues does it raise? The class considers a feminist and an existential reading of the play, discussing Hamlet’s attitudes toward the sexualized maternal body and the universal fear and disgust it can evoke. “The Play” also poses the question of how to act in the world when one cannot know anything with certainty. Featured interview: Professor Mick Hattaway (University of Sheffield), author of a critical text on Shakespeare’s Hamlet