Newberry Library Seminars

Register Now for Winter/Spring 2010 Seminars:


# Shakespeare: Problem Plays, Sonnets, and Romances
Tuesdays, 5:45 – 7:45 pm
February 16 – April 20 (class will not meet March 30)
9 sessions, $190
Register Online

Shakespeare’s problem plays or dark comedies—All’s Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Troilus and Cressida—raise challenging moral issues. The sonnets are among the greatest lyric poems in our language, and his dramatic romances—Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale, and The Tempest—are often interpreted as his most profound reflections on his life and art.

David Zesmer is Emeritus Professor of English at the Illinois Institute of Technology.


Vergil’s AeneidWednesdays, 5:45 – 7:45 pm
February 17 – April 7
8 sessions, $180
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We will examine Vergil’s Aeneid within the social, political, and literary context of first-century Rome. Class discussion will focus on Aeneas as an epic hero and the transformation he undergoes from Trojan refugee to King of Lavinium. We will pay special attention to how the poem raises questions about Aeneas’ heroic character and the glory of Rome.

Jill Connelly holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in classical languages and literature and has been teaching classics for over ten years.




* Emily Dickinson: Her Work and Her Self, Then and Now
Tuesdays, 2 – 4 pm
February 23 – May 4 (class will not meet March 23)
10 sessions, $200
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Though widely considered one of the greatest American poets, Emily Dickinson’s life and work continue to perplex as well as fascinate us. We will explore Dickinson’s poetry in form, content, and context, along with her contested biography, her sources and contemporaries, and her reappearance as a character in modern American drama and literature.

Jennifer Shook is an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar, Artistic Director of Caffeine Theatre (Chicago’s poetry theatre), and a faculty member at DePaul University.





# Pain, the Passage of Time, and Keats
Wednesdays, 5:45 – 7:45 pm
March 31 – April 28
5 sessions, $140
Register Online

In his poetry and for most of his short life, John Keats lamented the inevitable passage of time and the presence of human pain. Though he died at the age of twenty-five, he came to a reconciliation or acceptance of both in his later poetry. We will trace Keats’ presentation of those concerns in his poetry, including his sonnets and major odes, and in his letters.

William Dumbleton is Professor Emeritus of English, University at Albany, State University of New York. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.


To register and for a complete list of programming, visit:
http://www.newberry.org/programs/currentschedule.html