Outreach

Annapolis, Continuing Education and Fine Arts - Community Preceptorials - Fall 2008

A preceptorial is composed of approximately 15 students and one tutor engaged in the study of a single book, work, problem, or theme. Each meeting begins with a question posed by the tutor based on the material read for the preceptorial; the question is meant to begin the conversation, not to elicit a correct answer. The conversation is characterized by openness, reason, clarity, and civility. Every preceptorial member is encouraged to take part, to candidly state his or her views, and to be attentive to others.

Genesis
Tutor: Alan Pichanick
Wednesday, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
September 24 – November 12
Mellon Hall, Room 103
Eight sessions. Tuition: $210

This preceptorial will explore the Book of Genesis, which provides an account of the creation of the world and human beings. This account invites readers to consider what the relationship is between man and world and God in this narrative, through stories about family, friendship, love, betrayal, and sin. Amidst all this, what is man’s place in the beginning? What is it to know oneself in Genesis?

Suggested text: Translation by Robert Alter. Nolton 1996.
First assignment: Chapters 1-3.

William James
Tutor: Jeff Franklin
Wednesday, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.
September 24 – November 19 (no class Oct. 1)
Mellon Hall, Room 101
Eight sessions. Tuition: $210.

William James was the first great American psychologist and the preeminent American philosopher of his day. His thought still has a profound influence on our understanding of individual experience. This class will read selections from William James' Psychology: The Briefer Course and essays in which James applied his psychology theories to philosophical questions. The essays will include "The Will to Believe," "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings" and "What Makes a Life Significant."

Suggested text: William James: Writings 1878-1899. The Library of America. (Includes Psychology: Briefer Course, "The Will to Believe," and other essays.)
First assignment: William James, Psychology: The Briefer Course, Chapter I – Introductory, Chapter X – Habit, Chapter XI – The Stream of Consciousness.

Plutarch: Roman Lives
Tutor: Irena Datchev
Saturday, 10 a.m. – 12 noon (no class on Oct. 11)
September 20 – November 15
Mellon Hall, Room 101
Eight sessions. Tuition: $210.

Philosopher, historian, vivid writer, Plutarch describes the lives and careers of the men who played a major role in the history of Rome, who shaped Rome's institutions, inspired civic virtues in its people, and made Rome the greatest republic, and then the greatest empire.

The class will begin with the lives of Fabius Maximus and Marcellus, the generals who defeated Hannibal, and end with Pompey, Caesar, Mark Antony, and the other players in the events that brought the republic to its fall and Rome to the pinnacle of its greatness.

Preferred editions: Makers of Rome: Nine lives by Plutarch (Penguin Classics) and The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin Classics)
First assignment: Fabius Maximus and Marcellus

Paul Scott: The Jewel in the Crown and The Day of the Scorpion
Tutor: Janice Macaulay
Tuesday, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
September 23 – November 11
Mellon Hall, Room 103
Eight sessions. Tuition: $210.

Set in the waning days of British rule over India, Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet, like Tolstoy's War and Peace, explores the inner lives of many complex characters as they struggle to cope with the turbulent crises of their times. The four novels in the series are connected by a rich tapestry of interwoven characters and events, whose experiences raise profound questions about the effects of large-scale political and social forces on those who experience them.

The class will read the first two novels of the cycle, The Jewel in the Crown and The Day of the Scorpion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Suggested texts: Paul Scott. The Jewel in the Crown and The Day of the Scorpion
First assignment: The Jewel in the Crown, Part One, "Miss Crane" and Part Two, "The MacGregor House."

Kurosawa: Seven Samurai (1954)
Tutor: William Braithwaite
Saturday, 10 a.m. – noon
September 20 – November 1(no class on Oct. 11)
Mellon Hall, Room 103
Six sessions. Tuition: $160

One of the Japanese director's best-known movies, this story set in the chaos of medieval Japan tells how seven warriors help a village of poor farmers learn how to defend themselves against bandits, and thus regain their self-respect. The class will study how Kurosawa uses moving and static images--lines and shapes in black & white--as a visual vocabulary of moral discourse, which depicts spatially what, is happening in the narrative's action.

Students should purchase the DVD of the 207-minute restored (USA) version, and for the first meeting should have seen the whole movie at least once. It is likely to be useful to have, besides the DVD, one of the several available English translations of the script (sub-titles).