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A Poet’s Life and Work:  Joel Oppenheimer

 

Leader:  Don Melander

Mondays, July 5 – 26                                                                                  10 AM – Noon

 

During the 1980s, Black Mountain poet Joel Oppenheimer taught at New England College and lived in Henniker (except for a year in Concord and another year in Rochester, NY, where he was a Fellow at RIT).  Fortunately, he didn’t drive, so I drove him to most of his New England readings, where I much enjoyed his interactions with his audiences.  All of Oppenheimer’s books are out of print, but I have edited an unpublished book of his poetry, and as I have rights to make his poems available, copies will be distributed at the first class.

 

Don Melander is a Senior Professor of Humanities, retired, at New England College where he has taught mostly literature and writing for 45 years.  For the last decade he has served as dramaturge for the Open Door Theater.  He holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Syracuse University; his dissertation is on the 20th-century American poet, Wallace Stevens.  This seminar on early 20th-century American poets is his twelfth for LINEC.

Charles Dickens: A Product of His Time and Place

Instructor:  Julie Machen

Wednesdays, April 7 – May 12                                                                       10 AM – Noon

”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” When Charles Dickens wrote these words, he was describing 18th century France, but he could just as well have been writing about 19th century England, a period from which he ultimately benefitted but one that his pen satirized and condemned.  The Victorian age was one of paradoxes and no one depicted that more brilliantly than Dickens.  He was, through his fiction, a chronicler of the time and place in which he lived, as well as a product of that period.  In this course, we look at the period, the man, what molded and motivated him and how specific writings reflect his own experiences.  Participants are asked to read Hard Times, Dickens shortest novel, and to refamiliarize themselves with Oliver Twist, one of his most famous.  There is a course limit of fifteen, with acceptance based on the postmark of registrtions.

 

Julie Machen has been an Anglophile since her student days at Durham University in Northern England.  She and her English-born husband visit the country regularly.  While teaching AP European History at Greenwich High School in CT, she conducted an independent study of Victorian England.  She was also the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study the Industrial Revolution in Britain at the University of Nottingham.  Charles Dickens was one focus of that seminar.

A Poet’s Life and Work:  Joel Oppenheimer

 

Leader:  Don Melander

Mondays, July 5 – 26                                                                                  10 AM – Noon

 

During the 1980s, Black Mountain poet Joel Oppenheimer taught at New England College and lived in Henniker (except for a year in Concord and another year in Rochester, NY, where he was a Fellow at RIT).  Fortunately, he didn’t drive, so I drove him to most of his New England readings, where I much enjoyed his interactions with his audiences.  All of Oppenheimer’s books are out of print, but I have edited an unpublished book of his poetry, and as I have rights to make his poems available, copies will be distributed at the first class.

 

Don Melander is a Senior Professor of Humanities, retired, at New England College where he has taught mostly literature and writing for 45 years.  For the last decade he has served as dramaturge for the Open Door Theater.  He holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Syracuse University; his dissertation is on the 20th-century American poet, Wallace Stevens.  This seminar on early 20th-century American poets is his twelfth for LINEC.

Charles Dickens: A Product of His Time and Place

Instructor:  Julie Machen

Wednesdays, April 7 – May 12                                                                       10 AM – Noon

”It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” When Charles Dickens wrote these words, he was describing 18th century France, but he could just as well have been writing about 19th century England, a period from which he ultimately benefitted but one that his pen satirized and condemned.  The Victorian age was one of paradoxes and no one depicted that more brilliantly than Dickens.  He was, through his fiction, a chronicler of the time and place in which he lived, as well as a product of that period.  In this course, we look at the period, the man, what molded and motivated him and how specific writings reflect his own experiences.  Participants are asked to read Hard Times, Dickens shortest novel, and to refamiliarize themselves with Oliver Twist, one of his most famous.  There is a course limit of fifteen, with acceptance based on the postmark of registrtions.

 

Julie Machen has been an Anglophile since her student days at Durham University in Northern England.  She and her English-born husband visit the country regularly.  While teaching AP European History at Greenwich High School in CT, she conducted an independent study of Victorian England.  She was also the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study the Industrial Revolution in Britain at the University of Nottingham.  Charles Dickens was one focus of that seminar.