Spring 2008 Workshops at Writers & Books

Reading Seminars

Plato’s Phaedo

SA8-R01
6 Tuesdays 7—9 pm
May 27 through July 1
$100 W&B members / $110 general public
Instructor: Alfred Geier

IN Phaedo, Plato argues to establish the existence of supra-sensible forms, but also to establish that  we have cognitive contact with them in a prenatal state. But we should  separate these two faces of the argument. The question is whether the soul has such a status or not. A major concern of the work is how Socrates acts in the face of death.

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From Shtetl to Tenement: A Century of Yiddish Poetry and Prose

SA8-R02
5 Tuesdays 7–9 p.m.
May 6 through June 3
$90 W&B members / $97 general public
Instructor: Deborah Rothman

Sample the rich Yiddish literary tradition in a class designed for students with little or no background in this literature. Virtually unknown to Americans, modern Yiddish literature made its appearance in the 1880s when the shtetl was already under fierce assault, and reached its climax of expressive power as the world it portrayed unraveled. Follow the brief flowering of this literature from its roots in the shtetl to the post-Holocaust immigrant experience. Read and discuss the poetry and prose in translation of the beloved Sholem Aleichem and I.L. Peretz, and delve into the work of the next generation including such noted writers as Sholem Asch, Lamed Shapiro, and I. B. Singer. This class does not include instruction in Yiddish, but will review the history and cultural context of the language.

Course Canceled

Dickinson Revealed

SA8-R03
1 Saturday, 10 a.m.—1p.m.
June 7
$35 W&B members / $39 general public
Instructor: Patricia Roth Schwartz

Who really was "The Belle of Amherst"? Learn from current research into the life and work of one of America's greatest poets: what is myth and what is fact. Dickinson was not a recluse. She was not unpublished in her lifetime but rather, self-published. Which versions of her poets are correct, as she wrote them?  What are the true subjects of much of her work? How did her biography become so obscured and distorted? Who really was her greatest love, and what influence did this have on her work? Informal presentation and discussion of her life and some of her poems. Bibliography and handouts. Bring a bag lunch if you wish.

Course Canceled

Poetry Reading for Poets

SA8-R04
5 Tuesdays 6:30-8:30 p.m.
May 6 through June 3
$89 W&B members / $95 general public
Instructor: Donna Marbach

Good poets are readers as well as writers of poetry. In this course, we will look at the work of both major and minor poets whose work was influential. Why does Emily Dickinson capitalize some of her words?  What is e.e. cummings point in playing with punctuation?  How does Robert Frost us rhyme so subtly and musically?  All students should purchase (or obtain from the library) a copy of Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems as the key text from which we will work.  We will also use poems from The Best Poems of the English Language by Harold Bloom, and Robert Pinsky’s An Introduction to Poetry.  However, copies of poems from these texts and others  will be made available through photocopies for class use.  Participants should be prepared for close readings of assigned poems and to discuss their thoughts with the group.

Course Canceled

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