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UW-Green Bay

Category: Vescio

The Scarlet Letter

The fourth Great Books Discussion will be held Monday, December 15 at 6:30 p.m. on the lower level of the Brown County Library (Central Branch – 515 Pine St., Downtown Green Bay).

Professor Bryan Vescio will lead a discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

Hawthorne’s best known novel is set in Puritan New England in 1620. Hester Prynne, a  awaiting her husband’s arrival from England, has an affair with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. She gives birth to a daughter, but refuses to name the father.  Prynne is condemned as an adulterer and forced to wear the letter “A” on her clothing.  The novel’s  themes of adultery, guilt, and shame raise issues of importance in the contemporary world.

The discussions are free and open to the public.  Faculty, students, and community members are encouraged to attend.  Of course, we encourage you to read the “great book” before attending the discussion, but even if you cannot finish the work, you may find the session enlightening.

Literature, the Humanities, and the University

Humanistic Studies Faculty Forum:

“Literature, the Humanities, and the University:
Three Democratic Institutions”

Bryan Vescio
Professor of Humanistic Studies and English

Friday, 21 November 2008
2:30-3:330
1965 Room

Professor Vescio will present his “pragmatist” theory of literature and attempt to change the way we conceive of literature in such a way as to make it serve a modern, democratic society rather than older forms of social organization.  What is “literature”?  What makes literature distinctive within the humanities?  Where is literature situated in humanistic studies and the university?  For answers to these questions, be sure to attend the next Faculty Forum!

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