January 23, 2017 at 11:50 am
It is October 1973, and men and women crowd the Argentine Embassy of Santiago. A coup has just dismantled the Chilean government headed by Salvador Allende, and novelist and activist Ariel Dorfman finds himself and 30 other refugees gathered around a copy of Don Quixote. As they read aloud, a certain kinship to Cervantes seems […]
December 22, 2016 at 9:55 pm
It is easy in the Core Curriculum to feel content with having acquainted oneself with the tradition that is of primary concern, namely, thewestern. It is also understandable, but we should at least be aware of other kinds of classics that usually earn only a cursory treatment in this corner within the western corner. And […]
December 10, 2016 at 5:59 pm
Nicholas Dames at The Nation reviews three books that attempt to vindicate the practice of literary criticism. One of the most salient ways in which all three have done so is by laboring howcriticism opens the sensibilities of its readers to more valuably appreciate works of art that wouldotherwise have been abstruse or mysterious. What, […]
December 6, 2016 at 5:06 pm
And in posing this question Professor Molly Worthen argues dyspeptically in her latest article for why more liberals should be attending ‘Great Books Camp.’ A careful study into the history of one’s own ideas, Dr. Worthen suggests, would allow us to put not only Donald Trump in perspective, but more generally to engage with conservatives […]
November 19, 2016 at 12:14 pm
Montaigne is perhaps the most widely celebrated essayist in the Western Canon. And it is his essays that have also elevated him to classic status not only in literature but also philosophy. The two are often thought to go together harmoniously, yet literature shows a tact which philosophy often brusques aside for concatenation. Montaigne is […]
November 13, 2016 at 4:05 pm
In his first hundred days as President, Donald Trumps plans to shutter the Department of Education. Top legal scholar, Laurence Tribe, has regrettably affirmed that there is no constitutional limitation against such an action. Assuming that Congress will give its consent, and that we make it past the first 100 days, this seems dangerously likely. […]
November 8, 2016 at 6:54 pm
The 2016 performance of scenes from Euripides’ Hecuba from today’s CC101 lecture has been uploaded to the Core Youtube channel for your viewing pleasure. Many thanks go out to Prof. Kyna Hamill and the 2016-17 Hecuba Players. The 2016-17 Players are: Giselle Boustani-Fontenele, co-director with Kyna Hamill Flannery Gallagher Priest Gooding Seyedeh Hosseini Hannah Jew […]
October 31, 2016 at 12:52 am
It is wrongly supposed that the Dark Ages were a period of stunted growth for the arts and sciences, until civilization received another growth spurt starting the Renaissance, and came fully within the limelight during the Enlightenment. That some of our candidates’ candidly brusque remarks are often derogated as medieval is evidence that we may […]
October 27, 2016 at 11:27 pm
It’s too easily supposed, after having heard their names used so often in sources not their own, that the enlightenment thinkers, and philosophers generally, have bequeathed to us all they have to say. That philosophy is a done deal, whose original enterprise is now more seriously undertaken by the natural sciences, or theology- kidding about […]
