Reading Groups
Mediaeval Latin Reading Group
The Harvard Classical Club has initiated a mediaeval Latin reading group, held in the Kirkland dining hall every Wednesday at 6:30pm. We are begining by reading selections from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), the source for Shakespeare's King Lear and Cymbeline, as well as some early Arthurian legends. Afterwards, the schedule is more open-ended: currently being considered are selections from the Carmina Burana, Andreas Capellanas' De amore, and, to fill out the Rennaissance, Erasmus' In Praise of Folly. If you would like to join the reading group, please email Paul Franz at pfranz@fas so we can make photocopies for you. See you there!
The Harvard Classical Club reads: Joyce's Ulysses
With the hundredth anniversary of Bloomsday approaching, the Harvard Classical Club is forming a group to tackle James Joyce's seminal novel en masse: a collective of sorts, with those skilled in the different subtleties and allusions of the novel combining to produce a broad understanding of not only the basic content, but also the literary and cultural underpinnings and symbolic schemes of what to the singular intellect, even if it is a vast intellect, often appears as nothing more than hodgepodge.
It is for this reason that the club and reading group are especially seeking those with training and knowledge in Irish history, Irish folksong, Aristotelian philosophy, Roman Catholic dogma, Shakespeare (especially Hamlet), and, of course, the Classics; centrally, however, the group is intended for anyone looking to give the novel serious but leisurely study. The pace will be much less brisk than one would find in a Joyce course, and to further distance this enterprise from more purely academic exercises, meetings will be provided with refreshments and snacks.
The aim of this all is to answer and correct the nagging question: If Ulysses is the greatest novel of the 20th century, why is it so underappreciated?
Please email either Chris (kukstis@fas) or Greg (atwan@fas) to be put on the email list, from which we will be organizing the first meeting sometime in mid- November. Anyone with even a casual interest in the novel is invited and encouraged to join our discussions.
The Harvard Classical Club was founded by teachers and students to enrich the study of the Classics at Harvard through the exchange of ideas among its members and through the sponsoring of lectures, theatrical productions, and by providing a center for fellowship among students and teachers of the Classics. |  |