Taught by Michael Krasny
San Francisco State University
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
Imagine that, in one sitting, you could enter a world of imagination and witness the triumphs, tragedies, errors, and epiphanies that arise in the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people. Imagine that, in the time it takes to run an errand, you could gain remarkable insights about the true nature of humanity—its dark secrets and its saving graces. Imagine that, in the space of an hour, you could do this instead:
Visit a Harlem jazz club and hear the inspired improvisations of gifted bluesmen
Attend a glittering Parisian ball bedecked in borrowed jewels
Confront a dangerous criminal on a lonely backwoods road
Journey back to colonial America and encounter a coven of witches
This enlightening experience awaits you in Masterpieces of Short Fiction, a 24-lecture course that samples two centuries' worth of great short stories written by some of the acknowledged masters of the genre, including Anton Chekhov, D. H. Lawrence, Flannery O'Connor, Franz Kafka, and Ernest Hemingway.
It seems unthinkable that Charles Strickland, the dull, bourgeois city gent, would have the tortured soul of a genius. Yet Strickland is driven to abandon his home，wife，and children to devote himself slavishly to painting. In a tiny studio in Paris he fills canvas after canvas，refusing to sell or even exhibit his work. Beset by poverty，sickness，and his own intransigent nature，he drifts to Tahiti，where，even after being blinded by leprosy，he produces some of his most extraordinary works of art. First published in 1919 and inspired by the life of Paul Gauguin，The Moon and Sixpence is a study of a man possessed by the need to create - regardless of the cost to himself or others.
Il Principe (The Prince) is a political treatise by the Florentine public servant and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli. Originally called De Principatibus (About Principalities), it was written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. The treatise is not actually representative of the work published during his lifetime, but it is certainly the most remembered, and the one responsible for bringing "Machiavellian" into wide usage as a pejorative term.
Shakespeare is the leading playwright, and probably the leading writer, in Western civilization. His works are one of the greatest achievements of the human mind and spirit. And yet, for many of us they remain a closed book. Why?
Unready Minds? Missing Notes?
Long before interplanetary exploration and a certain rock group, Robert A. Heinlein wrote this science fiction classic (Random, 1977). Mischievous teen twins Castor and Pollux Stone set the story in motion with a plan to make their fortune as space traders. Soon they are waving goodbye to their home on the Earth's moon and they're headed for Mars with their parents, sister, younger brother, and grandmother. The Stones are an intelligent, strong-willed clan, so there are squabbles during their months of weightless flight...
24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture
Shakespeare: The Word and the Action
