Literature

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY’S CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Paul Karpuk | Emeritus Professor, Central Connecticut State University Crime and Punishment is a tightly woven detective story about a student, Raskolnikov, who, wishing to believe himself an extraordinary man, commits murder for motives unclear to himself, but primarily to see if he can live with himself afterward, or verify that he cannot. The murder mystery provides the framework for a complex philosophical, theological, and moral argument about the social and personal necessity of living within moral limitations and the consequences of not doing so.

COURSE CODE: DOST Sec. 01: 8 Wednesdays, 7:45–9:15pm. Begins Jan. 13 | $240

JAMES JOYCE: DUBLINERS

Margery Sabin | Lorraine Chiu Wang Professor of English Emerita The publication in 1914 of the short story collection Dubliners launched James Joyce’s career as the most original, celebrated, and controversial modernist writer in the English language. Before the collection was published, Joyce struggled for years against demands that he omit language and content offensive to religious and political authorities. Joyce left Ireland for the continent in 1904. Though he never lived there again, Ireland remained the location and subject of all the writings that made him internationally famous.

COURSE CODE: DUBL Sec. 01: 8 Thursdays, 10:30am–12pm. Begins Jan. 14 | $230

GETTING TO KNOW MISS MARPLE:

AGATHA CHRISTIE’S FINEST DETECTIVE

Olga Turcotte | Jungian Consultant and Instructor Hercules Poirot may possess the highest number of gray cells, but it is to Miss Marple that we turn, whenever we need a fine connoisseur, or should we say connoisseurs, of human nature. In her, Christie has combined the gentleness of a well-bred lady, with the tenaciousness of a strong soul who possesses a keen insight into workings of the criminal heart. For Miss Marple, solving mysteries is as easy as knitting a sock! Please acquire Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories, ISBN 978-0-0620-7371-6.

COURSE CODE: MISS Sec. 01: 6 Thursdays, 1–2:30pm. Begins Jan. 14 | $170

DRAWING OUTSIDE THE LINES: ASIAN, MIDDLE EASTERN AND DIASPORA GRAPHIC NOVELS

Ravi Shankar | Professor

Once considered a pulp genre, the graphic novel achieved new respectability when cartoonist Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize. In this class, we will study the genre’s history, before delving into work including Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and more. We will also discuss identity, pictographs, and how this hybrid genre can enact powerful social commentary, and why it is fundamental in any understanding of 21st-century art and culture.

COURSE CODE: PULP Sec. 01: 8 Tuesdays, 5:30–7:30pm. Begins Jan. 12 | $225

A DICKENS SEMINAR: BLEAK HOUSE

Susan Glassman | Ph.D., English, University of Rhode Island

The aristocracy to the slums of London. It is the story of a notorious lawsuit in which love and inheritance are set against the classic urban background of 19th-century London, where fog on the river, seeping into the bones of the characters, symbolizes the corruption of the legal system and the society which supports it. Bleak House immerses the reader in Victorian society: law, social justice, political complacency, misdirected philanthropy, questions of feminism, the class system, and much more.

COURSE CODE: ROTT Sec. 01: 8 Tuesdays, 10:30am–11:45am. Begins Jan. 12 | $230 Sec. 02: 8 Tuesdays, 2–3:15pm. Begins Jan. 12 | $230

THE SHORT STORY AND AMERICAN DILEMMAS

Arto Vaun | Poet, Songwriter

This course explores the contemporary short story from major world literary figures. Students will engage in a close reading of the texts and consider form and content in relation to the social context and relevant literary and cultural movement(s), addressing issues such as race, modernity, conflict, love, injustice, and language. The course aims to deepen students’ skills in developing an appreciation of the fundamental ambiguities and complexities involved in all human attempts to answer questions about life.

COURSE CODE: SSAM Sec. 01: 8 Wednesdays, 6–7pm. Begins Jan. 13 | $160