Adventures in Lifelong Learning

JOHN L. HEINEMAN INTERSESSION 2024 PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The Early Twentieth Century: The Birth of the Modern World                                                                    

This year’s John L. Heineman Intersession covers the first part of the twentieth century.  Now, the United States takes the stage, as the British Empire begins to lose its dominance in global affairs. Topics covered will be the United States’ entry into World War One, the League of Nations, and the emergence of a women’s movement, as prominent figures like Churchill and Wilson deal with the terrible consequences of the war. The old world is broken and becomes the subject of novelists and poets, especially T.S. Eliot, whose most famous work characterized this new world as “The Waste Land.” Virginia Woolf invents a new kind of novel, unlike the earlier Victorian models, and we will study her masterpiece, To the Lighthouse, as well as a selection of some modern poets. In the art world,  the long-held traditions of western culture are overthrown, especially the idea that visual art should reproduce things seen in nature. In their quest to envision this new world, artists create a new landscape. The art and life of Pablo Picasso provides an entry point into the changing and challenging nature of early modern art. Along with Picasso, the course will visit the Dada movement, especially the work of Marcel Duchamp and Surrealism.

9:00 am – 10:15 am

HISTORY COMPONENT – David Smailes, PhD

Week 1:    The Transformation of an Empire: 1900-1917

Week 2:    Over There:  The Yanks are Coming:  1917-1918

Week 3:    Building a New World: 1918-1920

Week 4:    A Return to “Normalcy”:  1920-1929

10:30 am – 11:45 am

ART HISTORY COMPONENT – Elizabeth Perry, PhD

Week 1:   Early Picasso: Symbolist & Expressionist Currents  

Week 2:   Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon: A Primitivist & Proto-Cubist Fusion

Week 3:   Dada & Marcel Duchamp  

Week 4:  Picasso: Mythmaker & Master 

1:00 pm – 2:15 pm

LITERATURE COMPONENT -  Helen Heineman, PhD

Meeting 1:   To the Lighthouse*, Part 1, “The Window”, up to section xvii

Meeting 2:   To the Lighthouse, End of Part 1 – Part 2, “Time Passes”

Meeting 3:   To the Lighthouse, Part 3, “The Lighthouse”

Meeting 4:   T.S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

*Dr. Heineman will be using the Penguin Deluxe Classics 2023 edition of the book and advises against reading the introduction until you have finished the book.