Exploring Genre Literature with 10 Great Women Authors



We are in for a fast, furious and FUN year in the Rediscovering the Classics group this year! Last year the theme was "An Exploration of Genre", and when I realized that the syllabus I was putting together was 90% male authors I decided to go all-out with all-male authors in each genre. What this means is that this year we get a syllabus full of wonderful WOMEN authors in every genre!

Trust Me, "The Iliad" Is Not As Scary As You Think

Although the length, age, and revered "classic" status of The Iliad can sometimes make the thought of reading it for the first time intimidating, the story is well worth that initial leap of faith. Once a reader has taken that leap and read the first couple of chapters they will be hooked; so wrapped up in the story of Achilles, Hector, Patroklus and Paris that they will be unable to put it down.

The Robert Fagles translation is especially accessible, bringing these ancient heroes with their anger and honor right into our modern realm. Who could not be hooked when they read of Achilles' disgust with Agamemnon in Chapter 1: "Shameless--armored in shamelessness--always shrewd with greed! How could any Argive soldier obey your orders..." Or when they get a peek at how Hector, the great hero of troy, softens when he is with his wife and son in Chapter 6: "Loving father laughed, mother laughed as well, and glorious Hector, quickly lifting the helmet from his head, set it down on the ground, fiery in the sunlight, and raising his son he kissed him, tossed him in his arms, lifting a prayer to Zeus and the other deathless gods..."

Of course, interspersed with the chapters filled with drama and emotion are chapters filled with battle and death, the pettiness of the gods, and chapters which outline the history--not only of the Trojan war itself and what led to it, but the histories of individual warriors and their families. All of this means that while some chapters may be more difficult to read than others, there will be something for everybody in The Iliad, you just have to keep turning the pages.

Helpful Resources for Reading Homer's Iliad

Every summer my Rediscovering the Classics group chooses a reading project that is slightly different from our usual "school-year" syllabus. One year we read short stories, another year we decided to delve into poetry. This year we decided to tackle Homer's Iliad--one of those classics that everyone wants to read, but many people find intimidating. To our delight, the group is finding that when broken up into bite-size chunks, and read with a worthy group of friends, this daunting book can actually be a page-turner. We're only 8 chapters in as of this writing, but already our group is asking probing questions, participating in heated discussions, and having a hard time holding ourselves back from reading ahead!

Many of the questions that crop up regularly have to do with the context in which the story takes place--the culture of the ancient Greeks and Trojans, the lineage (both mortal and immortal) of the major characters, the many locations mentioned throughout the story, political structure, religious values and traditions, etc. At each of our meetings we take one of these contextual subjects to learn a little more about and discuss in relation to the book itself. As moderator I have found that the internet is littered with helpful facts and information, but wading through all that information to find the right pieces can be time consuming! Here are a few of the most helpful sites I've found. I link to these with a deep bow of gratitude to the original authors and owners.

Horror and Familiarity Go Hand-In-Hand: Review of Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go"

In A Nutshell

Simple, subtle, and insidious. The most horrifying parts are the ones that are the most familiar.

The Whole Enchilada

Never Let Me Go is a book I couldn’t stop reading, and one I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about for quite some time. On the surface it can almost come off as a simple love triangle, although the circumstances (revealed slowly over the course of the book) make the story so much more; and beyond the story itself, the moral and societal issues brought up in the book are hardly the kind of thing you can sweep under the rug after reading the last page. The story of Kathy, Ruth and Tommy is a centuries-old one: two girls, one boy, love, uncertainty and betrayal. On its own there is nothing particularly noteworthy about the triangle between these three young adults; it’s the dark secret that underlies their very existence which makes this story so compelling.

Rediscovering the Classics 2011-2012 List of Books

(For my Rediscovering the Classics reading group.)

I recently read something by Thomas Foster who wrote about literature as a conversation; how older classics influence all the writers who come after--whether they inspire other authors to write a story as a tribute, or write a contrasting novel as a response, or sometimes influence newer authors in ways they don't even realize.  So this year we are reading books in pairs (or in once case in a triumvirate) and part of what we will be discussing is how one novel influences another, and how together they can make a conversation, and make us see the topic differently.

And so, without further ado, here is the reading list:

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Sept. 9th and 23rd: The Odyssey, A Dramatic Retelling of Homer’s Epic by Simon Armitage
Oct. 7th and 21st: The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Nov. 4th and 18th: Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

                     ∆∆∆

Dec. 2nd and 16th: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Jan. 6th and 20th: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
    (“Orpheus & Eurydice”, a Greek Myth)

                     ∆∆∆
Feb. 10th and 24th: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
    (“Prometheus brings the gift of fire”, a Greek Myth)
March 9th and 23rd: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
                     ∆∆∆

April 13th and 27th: Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
    (“King Thrushbeard”, a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm)
May 11th and 25th: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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As mentioned at the top of this post, this is the reading list for my Rediscovering the Classics reading group. If any readers not in RtC happen upon this list and would like to read along with us you are more than welcome to join us. It may be a few months after the fact, but that is no matter; just jump on into whichever month we are in and start reading, and please join in the discussion of the books in the comment section here, or on our Rediscovering the Classics Facebook page.

Happy Reading!

Long Summer, Short Stories

(Picture courtesy of NY Times "Paper Cuts" blog)

Things move fast these days.  Someone recently mentioned to me "it's mid-April, which means it's almost May, which means it's almost summer."  Yikes!  Is that true?  I'm still in the midst of (extremely unusual for Southern California) April wind and rain storms, the heart of hay fever, and school plays and projects.  Summer seems awfully far away.  But I looked at my calendar for my Rediscovering the Classics class and was shocked to find that there are only two meetings left of our "school year."  My forward looking friend is correct, summer is almost upon us.

I have a love/hate relationship with summer.  I hate how dry my flower beds get. I hate sweating when I take the dog for a walk at 8am.  I hate that my oldest daughter stays up all night and sleeps all day, I hate using the air conditioner, and worrying about Southern California wildfires. And I hate, hate, hate putting on all that sunscreen before beach days and pool dates.  That said... I really think that when it comes to summer it's more good than bad.  I love that I don't have to wake up at a certain time to get the kids to school, I love not making school lunches, I love having my girls home with me, I love barbecuing and traveling and going to the beach and seeing Shakespeare in the park.  And I love, love, love having all that time to read.

Now, most people hear "summer reading" and they think "light reading": fluffy novels, chick lit, magazines.  Somehow people got the impression that reading in the summer heat (at the beach, by the pool, in the lounge chair with your Mai-Tai) was way too taxing, and that the general public needed a break from all that heavy classical reading they do during the year.  Really?  Well, I'm not sure I agree, but I can understand how a thick book like Anna Karenina might not be the one you want weighing down your beach bag or requiring you pay the extra carry-on fee at the airport. Somewhere between People Magazine and War and Peace there must be a summer reading alternative. 

9 Books in 9 Months--Unveiled!

I wrote a few weeks ago about my "Rediscovering the Classics" class, which is beginning its third year this September. In fact, this weekend we had our first meeting where we talked about what the year may bring and I unveiled the list of books we will be reading. The list is (I hope) a mix of well-known favorites and lost treasures ready to be unearthed again.

Anybody who knows me knows that I have strong opinions about how the classics are taught in school. One of my criticisms is that students are thrown into books whose vocabulary, terms and language--although it may still be English--are so antiquated that the students are intimidated and even feel that the story has no relevance to their lives anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth! These books are classics because the language is often hauntingly beautiful and because the stories themselves deal with timeless themes. But sometimes students need to ease gradually into these older works of literature, so that the language and vocabulary is not such a shock. So you may notice that (with one or two exceptions) we read the books in backwards chronological order based on the date of publication.

And now, without further ado, here is the list. I hope you will enjoy it, and maybe even read along with us. I would love to hear your comments!

• September: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 1986 (Canadian)
• October: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 1890 (Irish)
• November: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1969 (American)
• December: Passing by Nella Larsen, 1929 (African American)
• January: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 1958 (African)
• February: Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1925 (English)
• March: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, 1847 (English)
• April: Candide by Voltaire, 1759 (French)
• May: As You Like It by William Shakespeare, 1599-ish (English)

Happy Reading!

9 Books in 9 Months

It's that time of year again... August is halfway over. Summer is coming to an end. It's almost time to put away the bathing suits, pick out the first-day-of-school clothes, shine the shoes, and get new school supplies. And it's not just kids who get this feeling that something new is about to begin. After spending 12+ years in school, most adults still get a little thrill of excitement--and the nebulous feeling that a new adventure is approaching--every time September rolls around.

I, for one, hope that each September really does bring a new adventure. For the past 2 years September has brought me the new year of my Rediscovering the Classics class; complete with a new list of books, new members, new ideas and discussion.

The thought of reading the classics as a busy parent or adult can be daunting; but somehow it doesn't seem so bad if you're reading just one novel each month in the company of other engaged and interested adults. And that is exactly what we do in our class. We (re)discover 9 classic novels over the course of 9 months. It's a great opportunity to learn about active reading, discuss story, language, and timeless themes, and share questions and opinions with others. But beyond that (and most importantly), it's fun!

This is our third year of Rediscovering the Classics and the class consists of people from all walks of life--teachers, parents, life-long book lovers, and those who are picking up a classic for the first time ever. Many of our participants continue year after year.

We read one book a month, and meet twice a month to discuss each book. If you're in the Conejo Valley area of Southern California we'd love to have you join us. Just contact me (Jenni) via e-mail, or comment on this post for more information. If you aren't in the area I'd still love to have you join us from afar. I'll be posting the syllabus online after our first class on August 29th; I hope you'll read along with us and share your thoughts here.

In the meantime, enjoy the last days of summer and freedom, and happy reading!

9 Books to Read This Year

I'm always seeing blog or book titles that say something such as "100 Books to Read Before You Die" or "The Best 150 Books of The Western Canon", and I love reading those, they always make me feel good about the books I have read, and inevitably remind me of all the classic literature that I haven't gotten around to, even with my degree in English and my voracious hunger for reading. But I think that lists like this, for all that they can be inspiring, can also be quite daunting. And so I'm trying a different tactic.

Here, courtesy of the syllabus for my Rediscovering the Classics class, are nine books that I think are important, well-written, revealing... but mostly importantly, they are interesting--engrossing even! And best of all, they can easily be read during the course of the 2008-2009 school year. If you start with September, and read one a month, you've got nine more classics under your belt! That's no small matter!

I have listed them here in reverse order of publication, because one of the mistakes that I think school systems make is to start kids off on Shakespeare. Of course they're going to have trouble if you throw them right into a language and culture that is so many years removed from their own. I think readers will have much better reactions to classic literature if they start with the more recent books and work their way backwards, getting used to language and customs that get more and more antiquated as they go.

And so, without further ado...

Rediscovering the Classics—Syllabus
September 2008-May 2009

1. September : Kartography by Kamila Shamsie, published 2002 (not a classic yet, admittedly, but Kamila Shamsie is one of my very favorite contemporary authors. Her prose is pure poetry, and her characters and plot in this book are honest, moving, and sublime.)
2. October: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, published 1970
3. November: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, published 1945
4. December: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, published 1929
5. January: The Awakening by Kate Chopin, published 1899
6. February: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, published 1860
7. March: Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert, published 1856
8. April: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, published 1814
9. May: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, published 1602

Now obviously, this list is by no means complete, but it is full of books that I hope would inspire readers to look for other books by those authors. If you choose to read any of these--any month of the year--I hope you will drop in and comment, and let me know what you think.

Rediscovering the Classics

Rediscovering the Classics is a class initially started for parents of school-age or home-schooled children, who wanted to rediscover literature (or a love for literature) in order to better pass that love and knowledge onto their own kids. However, the class has become a wonderful group of any and all adults, with or without children (some have grandchildren) who are interested in rediscovering some of the wonderful classics they may have missed in school, or that they wish to read again with fresh eyes.

Rediscovering the Classics meets from September to May, two Friday nights a month (generally the 2nd and 4th Fridays, although that may not be strictly so every month.) We only read one book a month, and the syllabus is always available by the end of August, giving you plenty of time to gather your materials and get ready to read! I promise I (almost) never assign any War and Peace length novels, so slow readers please don't be intimidated!

There is a small materials fee for this class, usually around $25, and you are responsible for purchasing or borrowing your own books. Class size is limited to 8-16 people, so please let me know if you would like to participate. If you would like to pass this information on to others you think might be interested please feel free to do so! We welcome friends and newcomers alike!!

If you are interested please check out our Facebook page, or contact Jenni Buchanan at edana_bkwurm@yahoo.com.