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Annapolis, Executive Seminars 2008-2009 - Reading List
September
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Oedipus Rex was the second tragedy Sophocles wrote in his three Theban plays, which chronicle the tragic lives of Oedipus and his family. As the city of Thebes is struck with a plague, crops wither, and pestilence rages, the people turn to their king for help. The gods are angry that the murderer of King Laius walks free among the people of Thebes and demand the city be purified of its pollution. When confronted with the true reason for the gods' wrath, Oedipus turns from the knowledge with horror and disbelief. This searing tragedy explores the nature of fate and the inability of one man-no matter how great or exalted-to escape from it.
October
Aristotle, Poetics
What are the basic forms of literature and why are we so drawn to it? What distinguishes poetry from prose, tragedy from epic poetry, and comedy from history? What parts does a well-made tragedy have and what gives it the power to move us? These are among the many questions that Aristotle considers in this comprehensive reflection. Reading the Poetics together provides an opportunity to think about the works read later in the seminar-and perhaps also to rescue Aristotle from the clichés imposed on him by generations of scholars and teachers.
November
Plato, Phaedrus
Young Phaedrus is enthralled by the persuasive rhetoric of his prospective lover, until he shares it with Socrates, who points out its shortcomings-primarily, a lack of truth. In this dialogue, Socrates explores the nature of erotic love and friendship while instructing a naïve young man on how to be wary of pretty speeches that are empty of meaning and sincerity. His discussion of the power of words to deceive and distract offers much for modern readers to think about.
December
Aristophanes, The Clouds
The Clouds is one of the most profound of all comedies and is all but unique in Western literature, for here we have a great poet, Aristophanes, depicting a great philosopher, Socrates. In this work Socrates seems to pose a threat to the religious beliefs and social cohesion of Athens, and moreover to lead a ridiculously freakish and almost inhuman life. This depiction is extremely puzzling when compared with Plato's dialogues or with popular notions of philosophy, but this fact does not make The Clouds a less insightful or challenging analysis of the experience of actually being a philosopher.
January
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Marcus Aurelius was a second-century Roman emperor who spent much of his reign fighting border wars to keep the empire intact. He would have preferred to spend his time reading and writing Stoic philosophy. The Meditations is the fruit of his battlefront reflections, written for himself, about how best to live "according to nature," which embraces everything. His thoughts are full of thankfulness, tolerance, patience and perhaps at times even a bit of sadness. "What then can help us on our way? One thing only: philosophy." He speaks to us today as clearly and wisely as he did to his contemporaries.
February
Shakespeare: King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy on the powers of love and death, a work with such intensity and depth that many count it as among Shakespeare's best plays. It begins almost as a fairy tale, with an old king deciding to divide his kingdom among his three daughters according to their professions of love for him. The youngest, Cordelia, who alone speaks her love without flattery, angers Lear. He disinherits her and puts himself in the care of his elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, who inherit all. These two women shock the audience with how coldly and deliberately they seek to destroy their irascible father. Step by step, they drive him mad, then turn him out in a raging storm. There, in nature, Lear finds out the most terrible truths about the souls of men and women as love is tested and proved. Lear and Cordelia are reunited and experience profound forgiveness. Will love and life prove stronger than betrayal and death?
March
Molière, The Misanthrope
First performed in 1666 in Paris, Molière's The Misanthrope is often described as the writer's most sophisticated work, with witty dialogue, fast-paced scenes, and humorously flawed characters. As the play opens, Alceste is fed up with the hypocrisy of French society and determined to be frank in all his discourse. Meaningless flattery, pandering, treachery, and dishonesty have driven him to reject human society and live in rustic solitude. He asks his great love, the young widow Célimène, to join him in his retreat. Is Alceste right in believing that love should be ruled by reason, that brutal honesty serves men and women better than more diplomatic language? Should one retreat from society when confronted with the ugly side of human nature? Or, remain and seek virtue and justice where it can be found? Molière examines how men and women can be caught in a deceitful web of their own words, and how individuals can be blind to their own faults.
April
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
In an introduction he wrote fourteen years after publishing The Birth of Tragedy-his first book-in 1872,Nietzsche was brutal in assessing its faults, describing it as "an arrogant and rhapsodic book," for example. Yet in his self&criticism, Nietzsche defended the importance to modern society of the questions he asked: what is the origin of tragedy among the Greeks? What is Dionysian madness? Did their thirst for tragedy make the Greeks stronger as a society? Nietzsche considers the nature of art and music, the importance of tragic archetypes such as Odysseus and Oedipus, the appeal of comedy versus tragedy, and the clash between Appolinian and Dionysian art. He ultimately shows the power of tragic art to uplift humankind.
May
Dylan Thomas, "Fern Hill"
Dylan Thomas was a gifted poet, but he endured despair and tragedy in his own short life. He suffered from constant financial difficulties, legal and marital woes, and alcoholism, a disease that finally killed him at the age of 39. Thomas spent his childhood in southwestern Wales, and by accounts was a lazy student, leaving home early to work as a reporter on a local newspaper. He wrote more than 200 poems before the age of 21. "Fern Hill" reflects the emotional depth and power of his work.Published in 1946, the poem recounts Thomas' childhood days spent on the farm where his mother grew up. The poem's sensuous imagery evokes the joy found in nature, but also sadness for the loss of youthful innocence: "... In the sun that is young once only,/time let me play and be/Golden in the mercy of his means..."
June
Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems
Emily Dickinson is a mysterious figure in literature. She spent most of her reclusive adult life in her family's home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Few of her poems were published in her lifetime. She gave her poems no titles, and unlike her contemporaries, she wrote short, but powerful, lines. Her poems about death and dying show how a reader can be transported into an unconventional realm. Although Homer explores death by taking Odysseus into the underworld, Dickinson sought to express her preoccupation with death in a personal, natural way-such as imagining a person's thoughts as a fly buzzes around the death bed, or portraying death as the driver of a carriage inviting one to share a journey. What do these seven "death poems" say to us today?