Literature of the South: Defining a Genre What do novelists like William Faulkner and Eudora Welty have in common that defines them by the honorific “Southern writer”? Lisbeth Strimple Fuisz, a lecturer in the English Department at Georgetown University, leads a 4-session course about authors whose works uniquely define what it means to write about the South. This session discusses A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Monday, February 25, 2019 - 6:45 p.m.
The Books That Fought Slavery The long fight against American slavery produced some of the most powerful autobiographies and works of fiction in American history. Read and discuss four 19th-century classics by men and women, both black and white, who were central figures in the struggle to destroy the institution. This session features Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Thursday, February 28, 2019 – 6:45 p.m.
British Women Novelists: The Times of Their Lives The fictional heroines of Fanny Burney, Jane Austen, Anne Bronte, and Elisabeth Gaskell navigate a world in which their choices, status, and freedom are in the hands of the men who rule it. Join Lisbeth Strimple Fuisz of Georgetown University in spirited commentary and informal discussions about four novels in which women find new ways to define themselves in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. Thursday, March 7, April 11, May 9, June 6, 2019 - 12:00 p.m.
The Books That Fought Slavery The long fight against American slavery produced some of the most powerful autobiographies and works of fiction in American history. Read and discuss four 19th-century classics by men and women, both black and white, who were central figures in the struggle to destroy the institution. This session features William Wells Brown's Clotel. Thursday, March 28, 2019 – 6:45 p.m.
Bob Dylan: Maker of Songs Despite decades in the spotlight, Bob Dylan remains a beloved enigma. Drawing on his new book, Bob Dylan’s Poetics, Timothy Hampton, explores the interplay of music and lyrics as a key to understanding the heart of Dylan’s artistry—and perhaps, the man. Tuesday, April 9, 2019 - 6:45 p.m.
Writer Geraldine Brooks on Little Women at 150 Author Geraldine Brooks examines the enduring appeal of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel and its roots in the author’s life. Brooks, who drew on the Civil War-era experiences of the family’s head, Bronson Alcott, in her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel March, explores how Alcott’s radical parents and their progressive intellectual milieu shaped the woman, and the writer, she became. Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 6:45 p.m.
The Books That Fought Slavery The long fight against American slavery produced some of the most powerful autobiographies and works of fiction in American history. Read and discuss four 19th-century classics by men and women, both black and white, who were central figures in the struggle to destroy the institution. This session features Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave. Thursday, April 25, 2019 – 6:45 p.m.
From Tablet to Tablet: A History of Books We’ve held them in our hands forever, but books have radically shifted their forms over the millennia. Steven Galbraith, curator of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology, unfolds the pages of their history and previews their future. Saturday, May 4, 2019 - 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
