Please Note: This course's second to fourth sessions have rescheduled dates (originally April 6, May 4, and June 8, 2020).
Since we live in a globalized world, what better way to learn about a variety of distinctive cultures and their histories than to delve into a good story? Read across time and place to consider how authors offer windows into fully imagined worlds different from our own.
Join Lisbeth Strimple Fuisz, a lecturer in the English department at Georgetown University, in spirited lectures and informal discussions about four compelling novels. Participants should read the first book prior to class. Sherry and cookies are available for refreshment.
Please Note: Individual sessions are available for separate purchase.
MARCH 9 The Alchemist (1993) by Paulo Coelho
An international bestseller, this book follows the mystical quest of a Spanish shepherd boy to find treasure.
SEPT 21 In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) by Julia Alvarez
Set in the Dominican Republic during the dictatorship of General Trujillo, this novel narrates the experiences of four sisters who worked in opposition to the regime.
OCT 19 The God of Small Things (1997) by Arundhati Roy
Winner of the Booker Prize, this novel depicts the childhood of fraternal twins Rahel and Esthappen, whose family is visited by personal and political tragedies.
NOV 16 The Penelopiad (2005) by Margaret Atwood
This book reimagines The Odyssey from the perspective of Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, and explores the hanging of the twelve maids, an episode in the epic that Atwood felt was underdeveloped in the original.
4 sessions
