Fall 2019 Honors College Retro Readings to Focus on Dante, Harry Potter and Desert Mystics

This fall, the Honors College will add to their extensive list of stellar seminars, with Retro Readings courses on Harry Potter, Dante's The Divine Comedy, and the lives of desert hermits and mystics in global contexts.

The Honors College Retro Readings courses are 75-minute, discussion-based seminars that provide students with a "Great Books" experience, exploring classic texts from a contemporary point of view. The courses may focus on authors, composers, artists or revolutionary ideas.

"The Honors College wants to read renowned texts in unexpected ways," Honors College Dean Lynda Coon said. "These seminars are designed to allow all students, regardless of major, to reap the benefits of an education in the humanities."

Honors students must apply to participate in these courses, and seats are limited. The deadline to submit the Retro Readings application form is 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 29. To learn more about these courses, visit our Retro Readings webpage. 

The fall 2019 Retro Readings courses include:

Dante will explore the nuances of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, analyzing both the historical and current importance of the text. Students will discuss just what makes the Comedy Divine, a modifier that was added to the title as a "marketing strategy" following the invention of the printing press. Reflections on the poem will come from in-text allusions to other works as well as a robust exploration of contemporary criticism. Students will dig deep into the text as they consider tropes of Dante as poet and traveler; modes of translation; spirituality, including the Arabic influence in the text; gender; geography, etc. Simultaneously, students will critique the manners in which the poem has been interpreted visually throughout the centuries. This course will be led by Italian professor Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, whose current research interests include queer and feminist theory in modern Italian literature and cinema; Sicilian literature, cinema and culture; the Mafia and Anti-Mafia movement; and the evolution of Giallo in literature and cinema.

In Desert, students will mine ascetic texts and spaces to discover biblical and patristic portraits of religious hermits and their desert habitats. In the Christian imaginary, the deserts of late ancient Egypt, Syria and Palestine witnessed the transformation of human bodies into dazzling vessels of the divine, bridging the distance between the heavens and the earth. Female and male hermits mastered the wilderness, taking up residence in ancient tombs and cisterns, persisting in wooden coffins with dimensions smaller than their own bodies and theatrical spaces designed to perform how asceticism enlarges the soul so that the body can hardly contain it. 

Students will go beyond an investigation of these spirits to analyze the desert as a technique of conversion and an unexpected rival to Roman imperial power, as well as the desert's legacy in the realm of Christian architecture. The course will include an optional visit to a functioning monastery in the United States, a living testament to the enduring power of the desert in contemporary times. This course will be taught by Honors College Dean Lynda Coon, whose research focuses on the history of Christianity from circa 300-900.

Harry Potter will satisfy the intellectual hunger of even the most devoted fans, as it examines J.K. Rowling's popular book series not only as literature, but also as a cultural touchstone and as a multi-billion dollar industry. Students will be challenged to think of Harry Potter in new ways, touching on the fields of history, gender studies, international relations, political science and sociology. Students will analyze Rowling's textual treatment of race, class and gender, and place the books in the historical context of British literature and British colonialism. 

And of course, students will be able to discuss some of the more pressing questions for Potter fans: Is the Cursed Child canon? What if Voldemort had picked Neville? What did Dumbledore really see in the Mirror of Erised? And many more! Honors College Associate Director of Recruitment and Grants Management Chelsea Hodge will lead this course. Hodge single-handedly won a Harry Potter trivia tournament on a cruise last December, which she considers her most significant achievement to date.