Basic Program of Liberal Education
Courses
Alumni Sequence: The American Tradition Year II Alumni Sequence: The American Tradition Year II
In the second year of this sequence, we follow out the trajectory of some of those fracturings considered in the spring quarter – especially the conflicts about race, slavery and regionalism that...
Alumni Sequence: The Romans Year I Alumni Sequence: The Romans Year I
The Romans first year courses will focus on the history and politics of Rome, delving into influences on our own history and institutions. The Autumn Quarter Seminar looks at Roman heroes and anti...
Basic Program Year Four: Autumn Basic Program Year Four: Autumn
The Year 4 Seminar texts cover a wide range time periods and genres, including philosophy, biography, satire, and romance, which connect through the themes of love, character, and humor as they...
Basic Program Year One: Autumn Basic Program Year One: Autumn
Since 1946, the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults has engaged lifelong learners in reading, discussing, and building community around the foundational texts of literature, philosophy, and...
Basic Program Year Two: Autumn Basic Program Year Two: Autumn
The Year 2 seminar is devoted to three great plays: Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Euripides' The Bacchae, and Shakespeare's Anthony & Cleopatra. A close reading of Aristotle's Poetics will enhance our...
Fernando Pessoa’s Multitude Fernando Pessoa’s Multitude
The stature of the national modernist writer of Portugal, Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), has been on the rise in the English-speaking world. At the time of his death, Pessoa left two trunks full of...
How to Read Classic Texts How to Read Classic Texts
This course is intended to address some of the more persistent and daunting difficulties we face when beginning to read classic texts of the Western cultural tradition.
We will begin from...
The Art and Ends of Reading: The Novel: Reading as Kenosis: Reduced to Zero—Beckett, Three Novels The Art and Ends of Reading: The Novel: Reading as Kenosis: Reduced to Zero—Beckett, Three Novels
With the Three Novels of Beckett, we reach a zero point in the development of the novel: here reading is no longer a matter a of self-enhancement but rather becomes a kind of kenosis (“self-emptying”)...