415 – The Languor of Youth and the Uses of Memory: Reading Brideshead Revisited

Term: July 19-August 21
Time: Thursdays 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. EST
Credits: 1
Instructor: Tracy Lee Simmons

Charles Ryder, a young aspiring painter, attends Oxford and meets Sebastian Flyte, the second son of an aristocratic Catholic family, and becomes inextricably entwined in that family’s struggles with cross-currents of tradition, change, hope, and sin—that is, with the human condition common to all—and spies along the way paths to beauty and truth that can lead to redemption. Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is one of the most venerated novels of the 20th century yet one requiring deep-mining knowledge and sympathy to understand aright. Together we will read the story, discuss the background, delineate the characters, relish the scenes, taste the language, and piece out possible meanings for souls, both lost and found.

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