Coming Online and Onsite Events
Become a subscriber in the Community of Lifelong Learners for $40 per month for unlimited attendance at on-site and online events, or $25 per month for only ONLINE events. Subscribers are responsible for ordering their own books. One-day ONSITE seminar tuition is $125 per person for non-subscribers. Special events have differing tuition. Scholarships are available for teachers and students. Please inquire via email here.
Online Weekly Intensives
Online Seminar Series - NOW ENROLLING
The Book of Numbers
Tuesday Evenings - May 7 - July 9, 2024
The Agora Foundation's online series on the books of the Old Testament / Torah will continue with The Book of Numbers. The overall initiative is expected to last three to four years, with attendees choosing which book offerings to participate in.
The Book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, Arithmoi, lit. 'numbers'; Biblical Hebrew: בְּמִדְבַּר, Bəmīḏbar, lit. 'In [the] desert'; Latin: Liber Numeri) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history. The name of the book comes from the two censuses taken of the Israelites. Numbers begins at Mount Sinai, where the Israelites have received their laws and covenant from God and God has taken up residence among them in the sanctuary. The task before them is to take possession of the Promised Land.
Online seminars in this series will take place on Tuesday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific Time. Attendees are encouraged to read their preferred translation of The Book of Numbers. Sessions will be facilitated by Dennis Gura. Groups will be limited to 14 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 2 CEU credits for participating. This nine-week series is $600. Community of Lifelong Learner subscribers receive a discount of $50 through a refund. Payment options are available.
Online Seminar Series - NOW ENROLLING
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
Thursday Evenings - May 9 - August 29, 2024
Why did the author of the matchless Middlemarch at last turn her pen to one of the most vexing questions of the late nineteenth century and of all European history? England had not only abolished slavery, but had emancipated, to one degree or another, its religious minorities over the preceding decades, and at the time of the novel’s publication, had a Jewish prime minister, albeit one who had converted to Anglicanism in boyhood. The sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been expelled from England en masse in 1290, almost six centuries before -- two centuries before their fellow Jews were expelled from Spain. As a kind of historical exemplar for the protagonist of Middlemarch, the immediate predecessor to Daniel Deronda, Eliot had chosen Teresa of Avila, who was seen in the prelude of that novel in early girlhood ready to march to martyrdom against the Moors. And yet religious fervor in great-souled Dorothea seemed only to fuel the moral ardor to stand on the side of justice for those who suffered under the stupidity of provincial prejudice. Enter Deronda, wherein that most ancient European grudge, writ not only large but general, rooted in the rootless fantasy of religious fallacy, underlies the unease of a growingly comfortable society made secure by the exploits of a maritime empire – as it comes into the ken of one of the most acute observers of human character and psyche ever to write English prose.
Online seminars in this series will take place on Thursday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific Time. Attendees will be mailed the text. Sessions will be facilitated by Eric Stull and Dennis Gura. Groups will be limited to 16 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 3 CEU credits for participating. This sixteen-week series is $950. Community of Lifelong Learner subscribers receive a discount of $100 through a refund. Payment options are available.
Online Seminar Series - NOW MEETING
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Thursday Evenings - February 8 - April 25, 2024
First published in 1667, John Milton wrote Paradise Lost at the age of nearly 60, composed entirely through dictation due to his blindness. The book is a masterpiece and considered one of the greatest English poems of all time. The text concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
The wide arc of the angelic war is contrasted with the domestic epic of first humanity. When Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden, the angel Michael says that Adam may find "a paradise within thee, happier far". Adam and Eve now have a more distant relationship with God, who is omnipresent but invisible, unlike the tangible Father in the Garden of Eden. The wisdom, efficacy, and mystery of God’s plan also provides an energetic backdrop to the action and character dialogue throughout.
Online seminars in this series will take place on Thursday evenings, 5:30-7:00PM Pacific Time. Books will be supplied and sessions will be facilitated by Barry Rabe and Eric Stull. Groups will be limited to 14 participants and no prior knowledge is required. Teachers will be offered 2 CEU credits for participating. This twelve-week series is $725. Community of Lifelong Learners subscribers receive a discount of $50 through a refund. Payment options are available.
Free Community Series
Free Onsite Community Seminar Series
Eastern Classics
The First and Third Tuesdays of each month
Next Session is May 7, 2024
Like the west, the east has its own tradition of influential texts that address the perennial questions of human kind. Centering around the bodies of work from China, Japan, and India, this series will focus on the texts of Taoism, Confucius, Buddhism, and Hinduism. We invite you to join us and attendees can feel free to join intermittently.
The May 7 reading is:
The Tao Te Ching - Chapter Five
Click icon to download, or click here
for all chapters.
Schedule:
12:00 - 1:00PM PDT
Location:
111 East Ojai Avenue
Ojai, California 93023
Free Online Community Seminar Series
The Foundations of Our Republic - The Federalist Papers Complete Series
Sunday, May 12, 2024
What are the fundamental principles of our Republic? Are these principles based on a view of objective reality/nature, or simply the "consent of the governed"? Depending on how one addresses the previous question: Are these principles changeable, and if so on what grounds? How should one read the founding documents? What authority does the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branches have? What are rights? Are they based on nature or consent? Are they inalienable? Please join us as we explore these political works through monthly weekend meetings.
The May 12 reading is:
Federalist Papers 21-24
Schedule:
12:00 - 2:00PM PDT
Readings in the series:
Complete Federalist Papers and selected Anti-Federalist Papers
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Free Onsite Community Seminar Series
The Glory of Art
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
What is Art? Why does it hold such a central position in humanity’s self-understanding? Art seems to have subjective, contingent, and relative aspects, while also evoking the eternal, essential, and radical. Art represents, communicates, explores, inspires, challenges, creates, and questions. This semi-monthly series, taking place the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at the Ojai Library, will explore the work of artists and thinkers through history.
Aristotle - “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance”.
O’Keeffe - “To create one’s world in any of the arts takes courage.”
da Vinci - “Art is the Queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all generations of the world.”
O’Connor - “Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those who are willing to undergo the effort needed to understand it.”
Picasso - “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.”
Klee - “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.”
Brecht - “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”
de Beauvoir - “Art, literature, and philosophy are attempts to found the world anew on a human freedom: that of the creator; to foster such an aim, one must first unequivocally posit oneself as a freedom.”
Dostoevsky - “Art is as much a need for humanity as eating and drinking. The need for beauty and for creations that embody it is inseparable from humanity and without it man perhaps might not want to live on earth.”
The May 14 reading is:
Leonardo da Vinci - Introduction to the
Book on Painting
Schedule:
12:00 - 1:00PM PDT
Location:
111 East Ojai Avenue
Ojai, California 93023
Upcoming Regular Events
Online Seminar Series
Epistemology of Spinoza
8 Thursday Afternoons, January 25 - June 13, 2024
What can we say we know with certainty? What does it mean to say that we know something? How does knowledge differ from belief? Can an exploration of basic philosophical questions, such as How do we know what we know? and What are the limits of our understanding? inform our thinking not just on intellectual issues, but on broader cultural challenges as well?
Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order, usually known as the Ethics, is a philosophical treatise written in Latin by Baruch Spinoza. It was written between 1661 and 1675 and was first published posthumously in 1677. The book is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. Spinoza puts forward a small number of definitions and axioms from which he attempts to derive hundreds of propositions and
corollaries, such as "When the Mind imagines its own lack of power, it is saddened by it", "A free man thinks of nothing less than of death", and "The human Mind cannot be absolutely destroyed with the Body, but something of it remains which is eternal." Over eight afternoon online seminars, the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month, the series will cover:
January 25: Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (pp. 233 to 262)
February 8: Ethics, Part I, Propositions 1-15 (pp. 31-43)
February 22: Ethics, Part I, Propositions 1-15 (pp. 31-43) continued
April 11: Ethics, Part I, Propositions 16-36 and Appendix (pp. 43-62)
April 25: Ethics, Part II (pp. 63-101)
May 9: Ethics, Part III (pp. 102-151)
May 23: Ethics, Part IV (pp. 152-200)
June 13: Ethics, Part V (pp. 201-223)
Join us as we discuss these foundational works from Spinoza. This series continues a broader series on epistemology. All are welcome. Please join us even if this will be your first seminar in the series.
Click here to visit the Epistemology Page.
April 25 Reading:
Ethics, Part II (pp. 63-101)
Ethics: with The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and Selected Letters
Hackett Publishing Company (November 1992)
ISBN 978-0872201309
(This is the text for all seven seminars in the series)
Schedule:
Thursdays, 12:00-1:30PM PDT
Tutor:
Carol Seferi
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Let us leave theories there and return to here's hear.
Having done the longest day in literature with Ulysses (1922), Joyce set himself an even greater challenge for his next book - the night. "A nocturnal state... That is what I want to convey: what goes on in a dream, during a dream." Published in 1939, the book would take Joyce two decades to complete.
A story with no real beginning or end, the work has come to assume a preeminent place in English literature. Anthony Burgess has lauded Finnegans Wake as "a great comic vision, one of the few books of the world that can make us laugh aloud on nearly every page". Harold Bloom has called it Joyce's masterpiece, and, in The Western Canon (1994), wrote that "if aesthetic merit were ever again to center the canon, Finnegans Wake would be as close as our chaos could come to the heights of Shakespeare and Dante".
Join us as we read this text a few pages at a time, every other Wednesday afternoon. Click here to visit the Finnegans Wake Online Seminar page, with links to media and the Discussion Forum.
May 1 Reading:
Book Two - Chapter One of Finnegans Wake by Joyce (page 236, Line 30), Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (December 1999). ISBN 9780141181264. Also, Chapter Nine of A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake by William Tindall. Syracuse University Press; Reprint edition (May 1996), ISBN 0815603851
Schedule:
12:30-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Barry Rabe
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
Saturday, May 4, 2024
The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, was Hannah Arendt's first major work. The book strives to understand the causes and the mechanics of Nazism and Stalinism as the major totalitarian political movements of the 20th century. Regarded as one of the most important books of the last 100 years, Arendt warns that, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” We invite you to join us as we explore this entire book, meeting about once per month.
May 4 Reading:
The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
Chapter Ten - A Classless Society (pages 305-340)
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; First edition (March 1973)
ISBN 978-0-156-70153-2
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Shakespearean Marriage, Italian-Style (Mostly) -
& One by Marlowe!
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Almost the last detail the reader hears of Socrates at the end of Plato’s Symposium, which is Apollodorus’ recollection of Aristodemus’ account of the dinner party, is that after a night of speechmaking and drinking, Socrates was still awake near dawn, pressing Agathon and Aristophanes (tragedian and comedian, respectively), the three of them still passing the jug around, to admit that the same poet could write both tragedy and comedy. As “dawn spread forth her fingertips of rose,”[1] the two poets, deep in their cups, nodded off to sleep, Aristophanes just before daybreak, Agathon just after. What would one do for the encore of a Socratic lullaby!
Fast forward two millennia: in a strange land, in a tongue that had not existed on the occasion of that Athenian sunrise, Shakespeare proved Socrates right in a very different city with a very different climate. One can only guess at Socrates’ argument, for Aristodemus seems not to have heard or remembered it, as he was only just waking up, presumably with a hangover, but one might try surmising the logic backwards from the evidence of Shakespeare’s drama, different as it is from that of ancient Athens, and say that comedy and tragedy in the hands of the same poet can show themselves as the inside-out, upside-down mirror images of each other. Whence comes the hypothesis that the same poet can write both if he understands the mirror and can give each dramatic form, in each of its many instances, “a local habitation and a name.”[2] This hypothesis serves as an invitation to consider Shakespearean comedy and tragedy together, loosely grouped, all but one of the plays set in Italy, all but one by the Bard, comedies followed by tragedy, each play always standing on its own, winking perhaps at the others.
Group 1:
The Taming of the Shrew (Signet Classic - ISBN 9780451526793)
Much Ado About Nothing (Pelican - ISBN 9780143130185)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (set in Athens) (Pelican - ISBN 9780143128588)
Romeo and Juliet (Pelican - ISBN 9780143128571)
Group 2:
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Pelican - ISBN 9780143132240)
The Jew of Malta (by Marlowe) (Penguin - ISBN 9780140436334)
The Merchant of Venice (Pelican - ISBN 9780143130222)
Othello (Pelican - ISBN 9780143128618)
[1] a translation of an expression from Homer
[2] A Midsummer Night’s Dream
May 5 Reading:
Othello
(Pelican - ISBN 9780143128618)
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Eric Stull
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
FREE EVENT - Online Seminar Series
US Supreme Court—Decisions and Interpretations
Sunday, May 5, 2024
In this seminar series we will explore Supreme Court decisions that have helped define what it means to live in a constitutional republic. Ranging from the powers of government as articulated by the Court in its early days to the impact of its decisions in the 21st century on civil and individual rights, we will examine the nature of the Court’s various—and sometimes competing--interpretations of the Constitution. The roles of the Declaration of Independence and the 14th Amendment will be a particular area of focus in seeing how the Court has drawn upon principles of “equal protection” and “human dignity” in its rulings. The goal will be to come away with a more informed citizen’s view of the Court’s contributions to our understanding of the “rule of law” in both its political and Constitutional meaning.
Special Free May 5 Event - TRUMP v. United States (Immunity)
The immunity case in Donald J. Trump v. United States will center on one simple sentence: “whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
May 5 Materials:
1) Congressional Research Service March 4 Legal Sidebar
2) April 25 SCOTUS Oral Arguments Audio and Transcript
Schedule:
2:30-4:30PM PDT
(please note later than usual weekend time)
Tutor:
Karl Haigler
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
Chapter Eight
Saturday, May 11, 2024
In 1871 Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection. The reception was mixed, with some concerned that “this book would unsettle our half educated classes and people will begin doing as they pleased, breaking laws and customs…” The text discusses many issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society. We invite you to join us as we discuss this entire text, with readings about one month apart.
May 11 Reading:
The Descent of Man by Darwin - Part II - Chapter Eight -
Principles of Sexual Selection - pages 241-300
Penguin Classics Reprint Edition
(June 2004) - ISBN 978-0140436310
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Contemporary Issues Seminar Series
The Gene - An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee (2017)
Saturday, May 18, 2024
This revived online series will inquire into contemporary issues of science, politics, culture, and economics, meeting once per month and covering 30-50 pages of a text per session. We kick off the series with a look into the history and current questions of genetics. The Gene: An Intimate History was written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, an Indian-born American physician and oncologist, published in 2017. The book chronicles the history of the gene and genetic research, all the way from Aristotle to Crick, Watson and Franklin and then the 21st century scientists who mapped the human genome. The book discusses the power of genetics in determining people's well-being and traits. It delves into the personal genetic history of Siddhartha Mukherjee's family, including mental illness. However, it is also a cautionary message toward not letting genetic predispositions define a person or their fate, a mentality that the author says led to the rise of eugenics in history. This series will span over ten monthly sessions on this book, and then turn to other contemporary subjects.
May 18 Reading:
The Gene - An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Part Two - That Damned, Elusive Pimpernel; Regulation, Replication, Recombination; From Genes to Genesis (pages 161-200)
Scribner; Reprint edition (May 2017)
ISBN 978-1476733524
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
Sunday, May 19, 2024
“We must judge the tree by its fruit. The best fruits of the religious experience are the best things history has to offer. The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, and bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have all been flown for religious ideals.”
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James. It comprises his edited Gifford Lectures (20 in total) on natural theology, which were delivered at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland between 1901 and 1902. The lectures concern the psychological study of individual private religious experiences and mysticism, and use a range of examples to identify commonalities in religious experiences across traditions. James concludes that religion is overall beneficial to humankind, although acknowledges that this does not establish its truth. He also considers the possibility of over-beliefs, beliefs which are not strictly justified by reason but which might understandably be held by educated people nonetheless, and had relatively little interest in the legitimacy or illegitimacy of religious experiences. Join us as we work through these lectures, with online seminars taking place about one month apart.
May 19 Reading:
Lecture Eighteen - Philosophy
(pages 430-457)
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Penguin Classics; Later Printing edition
(December 16, 1982) - ISBN 978-0140390346
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Golden Bough by James Frazer
Saturday, May 25, 2024
“For myth changes while custom remains constant; men continue to do what their ancestors did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have been long forgotten. The history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason, to find a sound theory for an absurd practice.”
The Golden Bough - A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging investigation of mythology, religion, and ritual. First published in 1890 and greatly expanded in later editions, the book attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat, and many other symbols and practices whose influences had extended into 20th-century culture. We invite you to join us as we discuss this entire abridged version, a few chapters at a time, with weekend seminars taking place about one month apart.
May 25 Reading:
The Golden Bough by James Frazer -
Chapters XIX - Tabooed Acts, XX - Tabooed Persons, XXI - Tabooed Things,
XXIII - Tabooed Words (pages 234-316)
Penguin Classics; Abridged edition (January 1998)
ISBN 978-0140189315
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Onsite Seminar and Play Performance
Nora (an adaptation of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen)
at Antaeus Theatre
Sunday, May 26, 2024
"I’ve got to find out which view is the right one, society’s or mine…”
The Agora Foundation is thrilled to continue its partnership with Antaeus Theatre in Glendale, California, with a stage version of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House by Ingmar Bergman. Translated and Adapted by Frederick J. Marker and Lise-Lone Marker, and directed by Cameron Watson (Top Girls, Picnic, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Little Foxes).
On Christmas Eve, Nora Helmer, whose world is built entirely around her domineering husband, must confront blackmail, financial ruin, the consequences of her past actions, and the unsettling truth about her life. The Antaeus play is influenced by Ingmar Bergman’s adaptation of Ibsen's masterpiece.
May 26 Reading:
A Doll's House (play in its entirety) by Henrik Ibsen -
Penguin Classics (September 2016)
ISBN 978-0141194561
Schedule:
Continental Breakfast - 10:00-10:45AM
Seminar - 10:45AM-12:45PM
Lunch Provided - 12:45-2:00PM
Play Performance - 2:00-3:30PM
Discussion - 3:45-4:30PM
Tutors:
Jordan Hoffman and Andy Gilman
Special Event Cost:
$125
Location:
Antaeus Theatre
110 East Broadway
Glendale, California 91205
Online Seminar Series
What is Life by Erwin Schrödinger
Saturday, June 1, 2024
"The great revelation of the quantum theory was that features of discreteness were discovered in the Book of Nature, in a context in which anything other than continuity seemed to be absurd according to the views held until then."
What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell is a 1944 book written for the lay science reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book is based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943, which focused on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?" We invite you to join this monthly online series as we read this short but difficult book, one chapter at a time.
June 1 Reading:
What is Life by Schrödinger - Chapter 1 -
The Classical Physicist's Approach to the Subject
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Laws by Plato
Sunday, June 2, 2024
“...there is simple ignorance, which is the source of lighter offenses, and double ignorance, which is accompanied by a conceit of wisdom; and he who is under the influence of the latter fancies that he knows all about matters of which he knows nothing.”
The Laws (Greek: Νόμοι, Nómoi; Latin: De Legibus) is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The conversation depicted in the work's twelve books begins with the question of who is given the credit for establishing a civilization's laws. Its musings on the ethics of government and law have established it as a classic of political philosophy alongside Plato's more widely read Republic. Scholars agree that Plato wrote this dialogue as an older person, having failed in his effort to guide the rule of the tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse, instead having been thrown in prison. These events are alluded to in the Seventh Letter. The text is noteworthy as Plato's only undisputed dialogue not to feature Socrates. We invite you to join us as we read this often overlooked text, one section at a time, in monthly online events.
June 2 Reading:
The Laws by Plato
Book 4 - Sections 6-7: Magnesia and Its People
and The Correct Way to Legislate
(pages 112-140, 704a-723d)
Penguin Classics (June 2005)
ASIN B01FIXK9JK
ISBN 9780140449846
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutor:
David Appleby
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
Transcendentalism
Monday, June 3, 2024
"Humankind is surprised to find that things near are not less beautiful and wondrous than things remote. The near explains the far. The drop is a small ocean. A man is related to all nature."
Transcendentalism was a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the early 19th century in the northeastern United States. Deep beliefs in the goodness of nature, and of humanity as a part of that nature, were central expressions of the movement’s thinkers and writers. Self reliance, individualism, and divine encounter with everyday experience also characterized the transcendental spirit. A strong feature of American societal development, the approach generally embraced intuition over empiricism, and was cautious of progress that insulated the individual from dynamic, authentic experience. We invite you to join us for monthly Monday evening sessions (generally taking place the first Monday evening of each month), exploring the early, middle, and late thinking of the approach. Attendees need not participate in all of the sessions to benefit, as each reading will stand on its own. Authors in the series will include:
Jonathan Edwards
William Ellery Channing
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
Margaret Fuller
Emily Dickinson
Frederick Douglas
Nathanial Hawthorne
June 3 Reading:
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards
Schedule:
5:30-7:00PM PDT
Tutors:
Roxana Zirakzadeh and Andy Gilman
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.
Online Seminar Series
The Romantic I/Eye
Saturday, June 8, 2024
A pan-European and American phenomenon, Romanticism influenced Western notions about the individual as well as humans' relationship to nature. This series of online seminars addresses both themes through a variety of genres and nationalities, most of which texts are written in the first person. How did the Romantic Era shape the notion of what a subject is? Does first-person writing, in seeming to explore the subject or the self, reveal it or make it more obscure? To what extent does the choice an author makes to portray an experience through the use of the first person affect that experience, and do these authors' texts coalesce into a coherent portrait of the Romantic period? Finally, how do these singular voices engage with nature, particularly under the looming shadow of the Industrial Revolution?
Readings in the Series (ISBNs and Posted PDFs will added soon):
Goethe — The Sorrows of Young Werther
Rousseau — Reveries of a Solitary Walker
Holderlin — Hyperion
Wordsworth — The Prelude (Two-Part 1799 version)
Chateaubriand — Rene, and Atala
Foscolo — The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis
Byron — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto One
Hazlitt — On the Love of the Country, On Living to One's Self, and On Thought and Action
Müller/Schubert — Die Winterreise
Pushkin — Eugene Onegin
Emerson — Nature, The Over-Soul, and Circles
Poe — The Landscape Garden, William Wilson, and The Fall of the House of Usher
Join us as we read explore these readings, with sessions about one month apart. Click here to visit The Romantic I/Eye Online Seminar page, with links to media and the Discussion Forum.
June 8 Reading:
Byron — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto One
Schedule:
12:00-2:00PM PDT
Tutors:
Jordan Hoffman and Eric Stull
Location:
Online. Register to receive the link.