Winter 2009 Courses

Introduction to the Great Works

With Arthur Feinsod, Professor of Theater and Department Chair, Indiana State University

This is an ISU University Honors course that OLLI members are invited to participate in to whatever extent an they wish.

The Introduction to the Great Works examines selected "great works" from prominent Western and Eastern cultures and investigates the historical and philosophical contexts from which they sprang. Drawn from the fields of art, theater, philosophy, religion, science, and psychology, the selected great works were highly influential in their own time and continue to demand our attention since they provide insight into matters that are of universal and immediate concern and application.

The works studied include the world’s oldest surviving literary work, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh; as well as  The Bhagavad-Gita from the Indian Hindu classic The Mahabharata; Antigone by the Greek playwright Sophocles; Plato’s parable of the cave from The Republic; three Last Supper paintings and three David sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.  More recent classic works by Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau, Sigmund Freud, Albert Camus, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. will also be explored.

The questions that will be the basis of most of our inquiries, written and oral, include:

· How do the Great Works from different times and cultures help expand our own understanding of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful?

· In what ways do the Great Works shed light on how the natural and social world should (and does) function, how our leaders should (and do) rule, and how we should (and do) conduct our lives?

Date/Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, January 13- May 7, 2009 from 12:30 - 1:45 PM

Place: ISU Science Building, Rm 0061

Cost: $10

Myth and Identity

                                                                                                                                With Don Jennermann, ISU Professor Emeritus

A look at some Greek mythic heroes and some stories attached to them--and the persistance of "thinking mythically" about ourselves as we shape our stories, and conversely, as our stories help shape us.

Date/Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, January 20, 22, 27  & 29, 2009 from

 10 AM-12 PM

Place: ISU College of Education, Room 305

Cost: $10

The Architecture of Europe

With Michael Kukral, Associate Professor of Geography, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

This course will examine various architectural wonders of continental Europe from farmhouses to cathedrals.  Examples will be shown from many countries including Italy, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, and Norway.  The role of cities, villages, the church, aristocracy, and the environment, in shaping the rich architecture of Europe will be explored.

Date/Time: Wednesdays, February 4, 11,18 & 25, 2009 from 10-11 AM

Place: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Moench Hall, Room A-202, on the 2nd floor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Cost: $10

Automotive Racing

With Guy Faulkner, ISU Director of Motorsports Initiative, Brian Dorsett, Managing Partner of Terre Haute Action Track & Fred Nation, Executive Vice President, Communications for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The first presenter, Guy Faulkner, will focus on International racing, the role of the United States in global motorsports industry, opportunities for the State of Indiana and the challenges facing the sport. The second  presenter, Brian Dorsett’s discuss of local racing, including a brief history of the Terre Haute Action Track. Finally, Fred Nation will discuss United States Racing (NASCAR & Indy Car) and the Centennial Era celebration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Date/Time: Fridays, February 6, 13 & 20, 2009 from  2-4 PM

Place: College of Education, Room 117

Cost: $10

The Birth of the Feature Film:  3 Masterpieces by D.W. Griffith

With Sam Schnitzer, ISU Professor Emeritus and Movie & Theater Maven

 It is generally agreed that the first great American moviemaker was David Wark Griffith.  To quote a film historian, “Griffith established the narrative cinema as we know it today and turned an aesthetically inconsequential medium of entertainment into a fully articulated art form.”  Yet this tremendously influential figure was controversial and remains so to this day.  We will examine the work of Griffith through consideration of three of his films beginning with The Birth of a Nation (1914).   This first great American epic, a film about the Civil War period, was a great commercial success but was also widely attacked.  The second film will be Intolerance (1916), a multi-story work that attempted to document intolerance through the ages.  This somewhat flawed work was not a commercial success, but it still had tremendous influence worldwide.  Finally, we will consider Broken Blossoms (1919), a much less cinematically ambitious film than the others, but  perhaps Griffith’s most poetic work.  Obviously, all are “silent” films.

Date/Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, March 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23 & 25, 2009  from  3-5 PM

Place: ISU Cunningham Memorial Library, Room 028

Cost: $10

To register for any of these courses, call the Osher Lifelong Learning registration office, 812-237-8707.