Events/Courses - Event View

Authors often respond to periods of upheaval, instability, and oppression by creating great works of literature. The Peloponnesian War occasioned Aristophanes’ early example of this phenomenon, Lysistrata. Centuries later, in 1984, Milan Kundera contributed The Unbearable Lightness of Being to this genre of literary resistance, exposing the brutal Soviet response to a short-lived period of political liberalization and reform known as the Prague Spring of 1968. While the novel chronicles the aftermath of tanks rolling down streets throughout Czechoslovakia, Kundera also grapples with Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence and post-structuralism, wrapping everything up in the love stories of Tomas and Tereza, Sabina and Franz. This class will investigate how Kundera weaves together the strands of politics, philosophy, and romance into a riveting narrative tapestry worthy of revisiting. Class Limit: 15

An undergraduate degree in Comparative Literature (French and Russian) and years of teaching in an International Baccalaureate program fueled instructor Michelle Miller’s interest in the literature of distant cultures. She returned to the Kinkaid School from Awty International as their world literature specialist and successfully paired several works for her AP Literature and Composition classes. Now living in Owls Head, Maine fulltime, Michelle still enjoys the challenge of works of literature that book clubs often shy away from tackling and approaches them through guiding questions sent out weekly, extensive research into literary criticism, and lively discussion with those who share her passion for ideas.