Community Seminars are special opportunities for community members to read and discuss seminal works in the same unique manner as our students. Seminars are discussion-based and small in size in order to ensure spirited dialogue. There are topics to pique every interest, and for many participants the discussion-based learning model is an entirely new experience.

The Community Seminar Series will be offered as four- to six-week seminars meeting one day a week. Weekend seminars meet Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday afternoon, and will be accompanied by light refreshments.

Please call 505-984-6117 to register for any of the seminars. Teachers with proof of employment can enroll in a Community Seminar at a 50-percent discount. Community Seminars are free to 11th and 12th grade high school students (limited spaces available).

A Study of Three Gospels: Matthew, Luke, John.
Tutor: David Carl
Over the past 10 years I have led seminars on many of my favorite works of literature: Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the philosophical works of Nietzsche, the novels of Cormac McCarthy. At the root of all these works, in some major way, lie the Gospels of the New Testament. I would like to return to these roots and examine, from a literary, philosophical, and theological perspective, these short works which have been among the most influential writings in Western history.

Date: Friday, September 10 – Sunday, September 12th (Weekend Seminar)
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Friday, 1 – 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Cost: $180



Kafka's Metamorphosis
Tutor: Keri Ames
We will undertake a close reading of Kafka's short story in which Gregor Samsa awakens from "uneasy dreams" to find he has turned into a giant insect. Is there any human excellence or compassion in this story, and if so, where is it found? What are the joys and horrors of family life?

Date: Saturday, September 18th (1 Day Seminar)
Time: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Cost: $35



Count Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina
Tutor: David Starr
We shall discuss Tolstoy's "other" great novel. War and Peace, besides being about the Napoleonic invasion of Russia and the nature of history, is about a happy family, the Rostovs. Anna Karenina begins with the sentence, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." This promises a unique novel, for it is about adultery, scandal, abandonment and consequent domestic events. Perhaps we can learn about happiness, families or the art of writing from Tolstoy's powerfully told tale.

Date: September 28 – November 9, 2010 (7 Tuesdays)
Time: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $245


Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire
Tutor: Michael Wolfe

Do the angels
reclaim only what is theirs, their own outstreamed essence,
or sometimes, by accident, does a bit of us
get mixed in?
—Rainer Maria Rilke, The Duino Elegies (1923)

"Sometimes I'm fed up with my spiritual existence. Instead of forever hovering above, I'd like to feel a weight grow in me to end the infinity and to tie me to earth…To have a fever and blackened fingers from the newspaper. To be excited not only by the mind but, at last, by a meal, by the line of a neck…As I'm walking, to feel my bones moving along. At last to guess, instead of always knowing."
—the angel Damiel, Wings of Desire (1987)

According to director Wim Wenders, his cinematic depiction of an angel who falls in love and falls into embodiment was inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's meditations on human desire, the Duino Elegies. In this seminar we will "read" Wenders' film and Rilke's poetic cycle side-by-side to see what light they shed on one another.

Date: Friday, October 1 – Sunday, October 3 and Friday, October 8 – Sunday, October 10th (2 Weekends)
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Friday, 1 – 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Cost: $360


Jane Austen's Mansfield Park
Tutor: Judith Adam
Mansfield Park's Fanny Price has been called Jane Austen's least attractive heroine, at least upon first impression. Seemingly lacking Elizabeth Bennet's intelligence, Emma Woodhouse's spirit, and Anne Elliot's fortitude, she appears to some readers as passive and bland. By contrasting Fanny with not only her cousins but also Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park encourages readers to reconsider Fanny's virtues and character. Please join us for this seminar in which we will examine Fanny in light of the new, liberal manners of the Crawfords, the temptations which attract even Edmund, and the obstacles posed by her family background. The novel also presents the most extended reflections in Austen's corpus on art, religion and the relationship of wealth to virtue and education. During our conversations, we will consider these and other questions—all the while laughing with Austen through her beautiful prose.

Date: Friday, October 22, 2010 – Sunday October 24, 2010 (Weekend seminar)
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Friday, 1 – 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Cost: $180



The Mahabharata on Film
Tutor: David Carl
"From this supreme epic rise the inspirations of the poets, as the configurations of the three worlds rise from the five elements. Just as the four kingdoms of creatures range in the realm of space, so, ye twiceborn, all Lore ranges in the realm of this epic. Even as all the senses rest on the manifold workings of the mind, so all works and virtues rest upon this narrative. No story is found on earth that does not rest on this epic–nobody endures without living off its food." So says the Mahabharata–about itself. The Mahabharata is the world's longest epic, 10 times longer than the Iliad and The Odyssey combined. It is a part of the foundation of Indian mythology, literature, philosophy, religion, and poetry. Its sixth book contains the Bhagavadgita, one of the most-read, most-influential works of literature in the world. In the 1970's British theatre and film director Peter Brook collaborated with author Jean-Claude Carriere to create a 9-hour stage version of this work, which later became a 6-hour televised mini-series and finally became, in 1989, the 3-hour film version we will hold our seminars on.

Date: Friday, November 5 – Sunday, November 7 (Weekend Seminar)
Time: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Friday, 1 – 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Cost: $180

Please email questions on the Community Seminar Series and other adult education programs to Kea Wilson at kwilson@sjcsf.edu. If you would like to receive our Community Calendar, including information on future Community Seminars and other events at St. John’s College, either electronically or by mail, please email Nick Giacona your name, preferred delivery method and address.